Is COVID-19 a God-sent Pandemic or is it Man-created? Does it signify the end of the world?

Based on a literal interpretation of prophecy (which has more credence) and based on direct evidence of the historical narratives in the Bible (which make the question even worthwhile), the following observations may be inferred:

1. COVID-19 pandemic is not a God-sent apocalyptic plague. All evidence shows that it is a man-made pandemic. It began at a wet market in Wuhan, now identified as 'ground-zero' of the virus' first impact. The Torah lists out some food restrictions for the Jewish community, which are today considered as being crucial for prevention of plague-inducing conditions for those times when scientific understanding was not highly advanced. If the Jewish community had violated the restrictions and contracted a disease that turned into an epidemic wiping off a large portion of its populace, that epidemic would be considered as a consequence of negligence and not a direct God-sent pestilence.

There were many human-created conditions that escalated the spread of the virus. The failure to understand the severity of the situation and attempts to quash information by Chinese authorities. Downplaying of the contagious and fatal nature of the virus by WHO. Countries that failed to take early preventive action and or to impose targeted lock-downs. Various groups that ignored preventive guidance to maintain distancing.... all these indicate human tactical failures that caused the pandemic.

2. The Bible does talk of God-sent judgement. One of the ways God judges nations is through pestilence (others being war and natural disasters, Jer.24:10). But, if God sends a judgement, humans can neither control it nor fight against it. Remember the Egyptian plagues, the Wilderness plagues, and the plague during David's census. In each of these cases, there was also a prophetic message strongly attached. We have the prophetic message now clearly revealed in Scripture. The book of Revelation tells us that when God's wrath really comes on the earth, "In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them." (Rev.9:6). They will try to flee and hide and will say to the mountains: "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!" (Rev.6:16).

3. A literal interpretation of prophecy puts Israel in global focus before the coming of the Great Wrath.

4. It also predicts that the anti-Christ, his false prophet, and his false religion would attempt at a totalitarian world domination prior to the Great Wrath.

5. However, it is certainly the case that COVID-19 presents the world with a novel situation of a situation post-Babel where linguistic, cultural, and economic barriers are eased through the process of globalization and rapid communication. It does create an emergency situation very conducive for events foretold regarding the end days. It also has shaken the church to wake up from its slumbering position and to look up. The church will also not be the same again.

The Image of the Beast that Will Come to Life (Revelation 13)

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. (Rev 13:15)

One advantage of prophecy is that it can be verified in history. While the Genesis account of creation is disputed by many in the scientific community (with some theologians attempting to demythologize it), prophecy resists such attempts. Thus, the strongest of evidences for the Messiahship of Jesus did not come from science [it could not] nor from the miracles He did, but from the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies regarding Him. However, the sheer irony of all this is that while prophecy helps to unfold the meaning of events to the believer, the prophecy itself includes a clause regarding disbelief in the same (which also needs to be fulfilled). Thus, while many disciples were able to see the Messianic prophecies as fulfilled in Jesus, there were many others who could not see this, thus fulfilling the prophecy (though volitionally rejecting it) that they would despise and reject the Messiah.

A similar situation is predicted in the book of Revelation. When the anti-Messiah (the beast) will appear, prophecies will become historically verifiable, which would actually mean that this verification can serve as an apologetic tool for faith. However, the prophecy tells us that instead of believing in God, people would increasingly turn away from God. In other words, the prophecy includes a clause that makes disbelief in it the verification of it. When people would increasingly turn away from God, this would prove that the prophecy was true. But, if it is so, then the prophecy cannot function as an apologetic aid for those who will to turn away from God.

The biggest problem of evolutionism is the issue of how life can originate from a mere collocation of atoms, even if those atoms were (by chance) placed in the right sequence. The either-DNA-or-protein-first problem continues to haunt evolutionists though there are hypotheses that this is resolved by the RNA world hypothesis. Yet, that hypothesis is also not problem-free. It seems that a phenomenon of some kind of genius giving "life unto the image" can be a staggering event for humanity. To the intellectuals, it could suggest a very advanced level of scientific achievement that an image (a rightly sequenced pattern) could not only come to life but also be able to communicate and make intelligent decisions. Probably, this would not be at a level of the much theorized battery powered AI robots (breath of life is not the same as battery-run).

Yet, this would only lead more to the worship of the beast, rather than worship of the living God. No wonder, elevation of the beast, as having originated from the beast, is characteristic of idolatrous worship.

Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Rom 1:25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 

The idea of "beast" being used for humans is a reduction that signifies a corruption of the divine image. Without God in the picture, man is not much different from the beasts

I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? (Ecc 3:18-21, emphatics mine)

The modern rebel that Chesterton referred to, at least, had some moral sense of not being a beast though scientifically affiliating with beasthood: "The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts."

But, the forthcoming beast-worshiper will be morally dissolute as well.

Rom 1:24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Rom 1:26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Rom 1:27  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Rom 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Rom 1:29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Rom 1:30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Rom 1:32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Rev 16:9  And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11  And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
Rev 16:12  And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
Rev 16:13  And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14  For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 

The Third Temple At Jerusalem, How Far Now?

The building of the Third Temple is one of the most anticipated events for Jews all over the world; for, the Temple is considered to be the heart of the identity of Jerusalem as the Holy City of God. For about 2000 years now, Jerusalem and the Jewish people have been Temple-less. However, the vision of a third Temple burns brightly in their hearts.

History tells us that the First Temple built by King Solomon was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 BC. In 538 BC, Cyrus the Great Emperor of Persia ascended the throne and decreed the construction of the Second Temple. This temple was completed in around 516 BC under the leadership of Joshua the High Priest, Prince Zerubabel, and prophets such as Haggai and Zechariah. The Book of Ezra gives an account of this construction and the hindrances the people had to overcome during the work. The Second Temple was renovated and remodeled during the reign of Herod the Great in the first century BC. This temple was destroyed by the army of General Titus of the Roman Empire in AD 70. This year also marked the wide diaspora of the Jewish people and alienation from their own Promised Land.

After the Holocaust of World War II, Zionist movements finally succeeded in convincing the UN General Assembly to recognize for the Jews their own independent Jewish State. Consequently, on 14 May 1948, the State of Israel came into existence. The event is considered to be the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet that the nation will be born in one day (Isa.66:8). Christian scholars recognize this day as the fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy of the fig tree budding (Matt.24:32), a sign of the end days.

Jewish scholars consider the Third Temple to be the temple revealed in the book of Ezekiel 40-42. Many believe this will be built during the reign of the Messiah (anticipated by the Jews). However, there are groups who believe that it is the Jewish people's responsibility to build the temple. At present, the Temple Institute and the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement make endeavors concentrating on the prospective construction of the Third Temple. Articles to be used in the temple are already being collected.



However, controversy prevails over both the site and the time of the Temple. We already have seen the disagreements regarding whether it would be built after the advent of the Messiah (still anticipated by the Jews who do not accept Jesus as the Messiah) or whether it has to be initiated by the Jewish community. The site is also a matter of dispute with some saying that the original site is now occupied by the Islamic Dome on the Rock and others saying that the original site is actually between the Dome and the Al Aqsa Temple.

Most Christian prophetic scholars believe that the Jewish attempt to construct the Third Temple will go along with their submission to the Antichrist, whose reign will be marked by a great mass deception and the fall of a great number of the elect. According to the book of Daniel, the Antichrist will violate his covenant with the Jews in the middle of his 7-year reign and establish the abomination of desolation in the temple (Dan.9:27; 11:31). This will be the time of Jacob's trouble for the Jews and Great Tribulation for the world (Jer.30:7; 2Thess.2:3-12; Matt.24:21,22).

But, then what about Ezekiel's Temple? Some Christian scholars consider it to be the Fourth Temple of the Millenial reign of Christ on earth (Rev.20:4). However, there is objection to this interpretation since Ezekiel talks of sacrifices, and the New Testament teaches that the New Covenant has made the Old Covenant obsolete (Eze.44:15; Heb.8:13). But, the answer given is that the Jews will offer sacrifices in retrospection (which interpretation still doesn't seem honest to the rule of the New Covenant). However, seeing that a possibility of deception is still possible during the Millenium (Rev.20:8,9), this interpretation may not also seem to be completely unlikely. It is apparent that not everyone during the Millenium is actually saved in the sense of having believed in the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Of course, again, not everyone also believes in a literal and prospective 1000 years reign of Jesus Christ. However, the Millenium view does answer a number of enigmas in prophecy that could not otherwise be understood. Another suggestion is to interpret Ezekiel's Temple figuratively. But, not all agree with an absolute figurative interpretation. The Temple Institute acknowledges the fact that many details of Ezekiel's Temple are difficult to understand and looks forward to the Messianic era for an understanding of those aspects. Till then, it states, "it is the Second Temple's attributes that must be upheld when rebuilding the Temple."