I do not believe it can, and here is why. God has already sent Divine retribution
(reckoning) for mankind's wickedness. It
is our fallen nature, and the fallen world in which we live. God does not need to allow a pandemic to
teach mankind a lesson. He has given us
a whole Book of lessons - 66 of them packed from cover to cover with lessons
covering every aspect of human life. God
does not need to get our attention, He already has it - it's built into the DNA
of our very being.
Well, if God did not bring us the COVID-19
pandemic who did? That's a
no-brainer. We did. We (human beings), brought it upon ourselves. Probably not you personally (I sincerely hope
not), but us - we the people - we did it.
We brought it upon ourselves through the heedlessness
by which we do life, our customs, habits, personal hygiene, our social interactions,
our lack of consideration for what we are doing and where we are going, our travel
around the world, our entertainments, and just the fact that we are fallen creatures
living in a fallen world pushing our fallibleness before us everywhere we go.
Let's be honest, we brought it upon
ourselves. Leaders in government,
business, industry, and especially Biblically-based spiritual leaders who
accept mankind's responsibility can lead us to solutions for mitigating the impact
and consequences of not only this pandemic, but so many other ills for which
mankind is responsible.
However, what will not help is to promote the
idea that God has no part in the pandemic.
He has, and honestly, that is where are best hope is to be found. God has mitigated the consequences of fallen human
beings living in a fallen world by placing within us and the whole of creation an
almost infinite number of solutions to problems both great and small.
He has engineered into the natural world the tools
for building everything from microwave telecommunications to disease fighting vaccines,
and given to mankind the capacity to unlock the treasures of technology. In fact, around the world just now, these
tools and treasures are being used by fallen human beings to bring an end to
the COVID-19 crisis. Tools and treasures
given to us by Almighty God!
And yet, as powerful as they are, such tools and
treasures are absolutely ineffective in dealing with humankind's most deadly
pandemic - our sinful fallen nature and its temporal and eternal consequences.
For that, God alone has provided more than
mitigating tools and treasures, He has provided a total and complete answer to
the cause along with a cure. The Bible
is full of lessons pointing out the cause, and cure. Here is just one:
"For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world
to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes
in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because
he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the
judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness
rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil
hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be
exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds
may be manifested as having been wrought in God"
(John 3:16-21 NASV).
Enigmatically, the apex of the 2020 world-wide
COVID-19 crisis came at exactly the same time as the world recognizes the
life, death, burial and resurrection of the Person whose words are quoted above.
That is not to suggest that God directed the
crisis or its timing, but it is to suggest (actually more than suggest - to emphatically
declare), that God is speaking in the midst of the crisis the very words of
eternal life. Honestly!
