What is Going On

Covid19 has shaken up the world. Christians are wondering what is going on. Here are my thoughts.

We must be clear about one thing. The source of the virus is not God.

Spiritual Powers of Evil
The spiritual powers of evil are trying something that they have done before: generate something evil and leave it to see where it goes and how much damage it does. They are able to do this in places where humans have given them authority to work on earth.

The virus will eventually burn out; quicker if a vaccine can be developed. However, because their efforts have successfully disrupted human life, the spiritual powers of evil will have another go when they think the time is right.

The last 70 years have been a time of relative peace and quiet in the western world. This has given us a false sense of security. This comfort has been an effective tactic for the spiritual powers of evil, because it has resulted in a complete lack awareness of the spiritual realms, and particularly their evil activities. In many western nations, this lack of awareness has been made worse by the large number of people that have turned away from God.

The spiritual powers of evil are not content with distracting people from God. They love to steal, kill and destroy. They will have a go at achieving this whenever they get an opportunity.

The spiritual powers of evil have had a few fizzers with Sars and Ebola, but this one has been really successful, partly because of the human response, so they will try it again; but possibly not straight away. They will probably try again with something else that they have found successful first, but they will try an epidemic again, and it will probably be worse.

I suspect the third and four horsemen were taking their horses (Black Horse and Pale Horse) out for a brief trot to see if they are fit, but this was not the big one.

Many people hope that the situation will return to normal soon.

Things will not return to normal.
This is not a new normal.
It will not even be a new normal adjusted.
We are returning to an old normal
where life is uncertain,
as it is for most people in the third world
and was for most of human history.
We are returning to the old normal
where the world was wrecked by frequent epidemics
that get ahead of human efforts to control them.

God
God did not cause this disease. And he cannot stop it in places where he has been squeezed out and not been given authority to intervene.

God is using the virus to expose the flaw in the modern way of doing church, by demonstrating that it is not viable during a crisis. God wants his people to be prepared, so his people can continue to be effective in sharing the gospel and expanding his kingdom, regardless of what is happening in the world. God has promised to establish his kingdom on earth, but it will likely have its greatest advance during tough times. He needs his people to be prepared for crisis, and equipped for victory.