Complimentary Story
The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! The news is all abuzz and the market crashed because of the coronavirus in Wuhan City, China, that now has spread to 13 other countries. At least as of January 29, 2020. It will increase overnight.January 20, the Wuhan Coronavirus had caused 3 fatalities in China and 217 cases reported. January 29 there were 141 fatalities and 6,000 cases reported. In 9 days, the fatality rate increased nearly 5000%.
The coronavirus is not abnormal and is common in the nose and sinuses as well as the upper respiratory system of humans. Initially the symptoms mimic a cold or the flu, making an early diagnosis difficult. Most are not dangerous but watch out for the mutants.
There are exceptions, and this appears to be one of them. Other exceptions include Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS ), both of which are deadly. Like the Wuhan Coronavirus.
Is the sky falling?
About an hour ago, the World Health Organization declared the Wuhan Coronavirus a Global Health Emergency.
Is the virus biblical?
“When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:7-8 NIV).
Staying healthy is often not easy. We run, lift weights, kickbox, eat spinach and asparagus, avoid red meat and take whatever legal drugs are deemed necessary, and sometimes illegal. And we still get sick and sometimes die at 40 from a heart attack, probably from jogging.
There is a dreaded antibiotic-resistant superbug out there, described as “the bug that doctors were dreading,” and has been discovered in the United States. Even our strongest antibiotic, only used in worst-case scenarios, has no apparent effect. Of course, antibiotics are drugs, so here we are. Wouldn’t a supercure to fight this superbug be nice?
We once had a Supercure:
“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and He healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed Him.” (Matthew 4:23-25 NIV).
Jesus Christ could cure anything, and His mending of the blind man was the first time a blind person since birth had been miraculously cured. It was also a prediction that came true through Christ. About 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Isaiah was prophesying about the future Messiah of the Jews and describing what it would be like in those days when Jesus walked the earth.
“In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.” (Isaiah 29:18 NIV).
One of the many tragedies during the last days is plague, and plague is never a good thing.
The Black Death killed 50-million people (60% of Europe’s population) between1346-1353. It was a horrendous plague, as described below:
“All the citizens did little else except to carry dead bodies to be buried. At every church they dug deep pits down to the water-table; and thus those who were poor who died during the night were bundled up quickly and thrown into the pit. In the morning when a large number of bodies were found in the pit, they took some earth and shovelled it down on top of them; and later others were placed on top of them and then another layer of earth, just as one makes lasagne with layers of pasta and cheese.”
The Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, was a bacterial plague and was spread by fleas from rat colonies. Once an infected flea bit a human, 80% would be dead within 25 days. It was not a pleasant death. The Black Death also affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens. So many sheep died, Europe suffered a wool shortage. Wages increased because there were not enough healthy people to work.
Many Europeans began believing this plague was a Divine Judgment and the purging of the sinner began. Thousands of Jews were slaughtered in 1348-1349 at the same time thousands of Jews were also dying from the plague spread by fleas. Once someone came down with the plague, it could spread via airborne transmission: a sneeze or cough. Like the Wuhan Coronavirus.
It has been a long time since the world’s population has suffered a pandemic as deadly as the Black Death. The 1918-1919 Spanish Flu killed an estimated 40-million in a 2-year period.
During the 18th century, smallpox killed 400,000 Europeans per year and estimates indicate that the 20th century saw 300-million deaths. The last case was documented in 1977 in Somalia.
Polio is described by CDC as an “incurable, crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease caused by a virus that spreads from person-to-person invading the brain and spinal cord and causing paralysis.” There is no cure.
In 1955, the year the polio vaccine was approved, there were 29,000 deaths in the United States. By 1963, the death rate was near zero. Thank you, Jonas Salk.
According to the Book of Revelation, there will be plenty of plague during the seven years of tribulation. The story of the fourth horse of the apocalypse, the pale horse, is all about plague and death.
There have been plenty of disease fears the past decade. There is MERS, MRSA, SARS, Ebola, Marburg and now the Wuhan Coronavirus.
God’s plan, spelled out from Genesis to the end of Revelation, is happening right before our eyes and the tribulation has not even begun. It is like a Great Play and the final act has begun. And to the many Christians being beheaded in radical Muslim countries, the tribulation has begun.
“I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues — last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.” (Revelation 15:1 NIV).
If Jesus appeared today, think of all the sick folk who would follow Him from place to place, to touch His cloak or His skin and be instantly cured. Finally, a cure that doesn’t cause dementia or have multiple drastic side-effects. When Jesus healed the lame man, He did not tell him to go to rehab. He told him to get up and walk, and he did. When Jesus healed the blind and the deaf, there were no instructions that they avoid loud noises or bright lights while the auditory and visual systems healed properly. They were healed, then and there.
And the new coronavirus keeps on keepin’ on. Is the sky falling? I started this article two days ago when the Wuhan Coronavirus death toll was 141 and 6,000 cases reported. Today, January 31, the death toll is 258 and 9,000+ cases. The World Health Organization has now declared the Wuhan Coronavirus as a World Health Emergency. The Trump administration has now declared it a US Health Emergency.
There is a lot of derision and division over this possible pandemic, now in 30 countries. Overreaction. Panic. The sky is falling. Mocking.
Luke, in 17:26 NIV, spoke of these days, describing them: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.”
In the days of Noah, no one except for Noah and his family believed in the God of Adam and Eve anymore. The known world was decadent beyond imagination, like Sodom and Gomorrah. Murder was rampant, sex was rampant, sexual perversion was rampant, everyone just wanted to have fun. Kind of like the world today. They mocked Noah and his coming flood. Then it started raining.
“So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:8 KJV).
Tick… Tock
Books are great gifts for family and friends. I have written The End-The Book-The Series, a 7-book fictional account of what is going on in the world today and how current events are leading to the Final Conflict at Armageddon. It is happening right before our eyes, but many are not paying attention.
Please check out my web site:
www.the-end-the-book-the-series.com
for autographed copies and eBooks or search JL Robb at
Amazon.com.
