From
time to time, I connect with someone who is upset with Christianity’s position
on evil, hell, and judgment. Of course, these are not easy subjects to discuss, but I
do have a simple response that I use over and over again, “So, you dislike
justice?”
It is
interesting to me to understand how justice and injustice are ingrained into
our minds at a very early age. It does not take long before we hear young
children scream out, “That’s not fair!” In fact, as we mature, anytime a wrong
has been done to us, our first instinct is to demand justice. A world where
wrongs are left uncorrected is abhorrent to us.
So,
why don’t we expect the same from God? After all, if anybody is going to get
justice right, He is. Yet, if the outcome is something we don’t want, we express
our distrust, our rebellion, or even our disbelief. Ironically, I have heard people say, "I can't believe in a God like that" as if the existence of God is dependent on their belief.
This
brings me to the question for today. Is it possible that the pandemic of the
covid-19 virus is a judgment on humanity? I’ve already come across “prophetic”
voices that have declared with absolute certainty that it is God’s judgment and
that things will certainly get worse before it gets better (or perhaps it will
not ever get better).
Some of these voices are the same that preached doom and gloom about the AIDS
crisis, the 9-11 attacks, and Hurricane Katrina. Over and over again,
outlandish predictions are made that don’t come true. I get the feeling that
God gets blamed for a lot of things that are not His fault.
Yet,
I do recognize that there have been prophets through the ages that have been
ignored, unwanted, punished, and even executed. Just read the account of
Jeremiah in the Hebrew Scriptures and you will get a first-hand account of what
it is like to deliver messages that no one wants to hear.
We live in a time that the church is increasingly uncomfortable about
talking about God’s wrath. It seems to be so opposite of the church’s emphasis
(perhaps an over-emphasis) on God’s love and grace. Indeed, I do not think we
can ever fully appreciate the depth of God’s grace and mercy unless we
understand the severity of God’s anger and wrath against sin and injustice. That being
said, it has caused me to pause and ask these questions: Could God really be
that angry with us? Could He be so disgusted that He causes or allows a virus
like this to exist? The more I thought about it, the firmer my conclusion
became a resounding “Yes!”
Consider
the following:
- We have increasingly
become a nation that is spiritually cold and does not fear God.
- We “Christians” go to
church to get a “pick-me-up” and feel good, instead of being challenged by the
Scriptures to be true followers of Jesus.
- We lack the discernment
in understanding that just because something is legal per our government does
not mean it is ethical according to God’s standards.
- We remove dependent
living beings from the womb and treat them as property, instead of unique
creations.
- We increasingly reject
God’s good design of gender and marriage and think that we have better ideas.
- We break sacred
promises of commitment, loyalty, and love and choose divorce because we deserve
to be “happy.”
- We continue to excuse racial and ethnic injustice instead of seeing the essential equality we all possess as beings made in the image of God.
This
all being said, how long do we think the sovereign God will stand by and do
nothing? The Scriptures reveal that God is rather consistent in His response to
our rejection of Him. For example:
Why do the nations
conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth
take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.
"Let us break their
chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters."
The One enthroned in
heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
Psalm
2.1-4
The Lord is a jealous and
avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes
vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger
and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is
in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nahum
1.2-3
The Lord, the God of their
fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he
had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God's
messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of
the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.
II
Chronicles 36.15-16
I
confess, the last four words in II Chronicles 36.16 struck at my heart. There
came a time in the life of the Kingdom of Judah that God‘s wrath was
aroused and He was done. The author informs us “there was no remedy.”
Opportunity after opportunity was given to get it right. Opportunity was given
to live the very best life that could be lived and it was rejected. Judgment
came. There was no remedy.
Could
it be that the covid-19 virus is God’s final judgment? Yes, I fear so. We have
done much to arouse His anger. Nevertheless,
I hope there is a remedy. Unfortunately, while our scientists look for testing
kits and vaccines (and I pray that they are successful), there is only one
remedy that will truly work. We ignore Him at our peril.
