The virus and the pandemic

The virus, the pandemic, and the missing weapon

By Harlan Brown
March 31, 2020

For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. – Ephesians 6:12 HCSB

A war is underway against an invisible enemy known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). At the same time, a spiritual war is underway. I believe that the spiritual war may impact the antiviral war.

President Donald Trump's proclamation

On March 14, 2020, President Donald J. Trump issued a “Proclamation on the National Day of Prayer for all Americans Affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic and for our National Response Efforts.” The national day of prayer took place the following day.

I commend President Trump for making the proclamation. I believe that it was the right thing to do. However, the proclamation contained a glaring omission: a call for national repentence.

President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation

On March 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation titled “A National Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer.” Following is an excerpt from the proclamation:

And whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truths announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;
And, inasmuch as we know that, by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God, we have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

God's judgment

Anciently, God refused to hear the prayers of the nation of Judah because of their sins (see Isaiah 1:15):

When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

The LORD brought catastrophe on Judah and sent the people into captivity "because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind)" (see Jeremiah 19:4-5).

God hates the shedding of innocent blood. (See Proverbs 6:16-19.)

Each year in the United States, more than one million innocent human beings are intentionally killed. The number one organization doing the killing is Planned Parenthood. The history of Planned Parenthood is documented in “Maafa 21: Black Genocide in 21st Century America.”

President Trump signed spending bills in 2017, 2018, and 2019 that continued government funding of Planned Parenthood. After signing the 2018 bill he said he would never do it again, but he did. Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report showed record revenues from taxpayers along with an increase in abortions. (See “Trump Funds Planned Parenthood and Is Inconsistent on Life.”)

Repentance

The passage in Isaiah quoted above continues in verses 16-20:

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

God is real, and He notices what we are doing. He commands, "Do not murder!" God is willing to forgive our sins if we repent. We cannot expect Him to answer our prayers if we do not repent.