I recently published an article, entitled “There is STILL Hope For 2020”. You can find it here:
http://www.scottduck.com/there-is-still-hope-for-2020/
In that article, I looked at several verses of Scripture that pertain to our current situation with the Coronavirus and I offered some commentary on all that Scripture as a whole. However, I did not go into much detail on any of those individual passages. In the next articles, I began to take a deeper look at the Scripture which I had shared in that initial article.
First, I focused on learning and living The Word. You can find that article here:
http://www.scottduck.com/learning-and-living-the-word/
Second, I looked at a Christian’s duty to government. You can find that article here:
http://www.scottduck.com/god-and-government-a-christians-duty-to-respect-authority/
Third, I discussed that fear is not of God. You can find that article here:
http://www.scottduck.com/fear-is-not-of-god/
Fourth, I encouraged Christians not to hide God’s light. You can find that article here:
http://www.scottduck.com/dont-hide-gods-light/
So, what’s the bottom line of all this? Why are we where we are and how do we move forward?
First, why are we where we are? I must confess that I don’t have a specific answer to that question.
Some have suggested that the Coronavirus is God’s way of getting our attention. This possibility has certainly occurred to me, especially in light of the fact that it appears to have a very minimal impact on children, the most innocent among us. However, I am not certain that this is what is going on.
If God is, in fact, trying to get our attention, I think He has a way to go yet. We see people who are openly contemptuous of the government and the way that the situation is being handled. We see people who, driven by fear, are hoarding toilet paper and food, heedless of the needs of others. We see people who are openly criticizing their neighbors, to the point of being belligerent and hostile, simply because they disagree about how big of a threat is posed. In short, we see people not at all acting in the way that Christ taught us to act, the way that He commands us to live in His Word. There certainly are some people who are taking this opportunity to let Christ’s light shine through them. However, over all, as a society, I mostly see our worst magnified, not Christ exemplified.
Some have suggested that we are living in the last days. I do believe that is possible but I think it is far from a certainty.
Many terrible and life altering things have happened over the years, things that could easily have been thought to signal Christ’s eminent return and some people probably did think that. I suppose that the closest thing in relatively recent history to what we are currently going through would have been the flu pandemic of 1918. That pandemic lasted for about three years and killed, conservatively, about 50 million people, about 675,000 just in the United States. That pandemic started just as World War 1 was ending, a war in which almost 20 million people died and more than that were wounded. Some probably thought that Christ was about to return, as we had wars and pestilences and death on an enormous scale, and yet, here we still are, 100 years later.
Am I saying that the end is not near? No, not at all, but I don’t think we can just assume that it is near and therefore proclaim it. Even Jesus said that He Himself did not know the day or the hour of the end (Matthew 24:36). Paul said that the Day of The Lord would come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2), in other words, when no one is expecting it. At times like this, a lot of people are expecting that the end is near and so I tend to think that His return will not be at or soon after a time like this. I could be wrong about that.
One thing is certain. Whether He comes tomorrow or whether He waits another two thousand years, at some point, He is coming. Whether we meet Him when he raptures us out of this world or whether we meet Him after our physical death, we will meet Him. We had better be ready. No matter when that encounter happens, we want it to be an occasion for rejoicing, not an occasion for lamenting. And whether that comes in the middle of a pandemic or in the middle of the most trouble free and prosperous time the world has seen in a while, the way we prepare for it is the same, by forming a relationship with Him, truly living for Him, and doing our best to see that others do the same.
So, How do we do that?
First, we have to make it a real priority to study God’s Word and pray to Him and listen to His answers. God isn’t just who we want Him to be. He is who He is. If we really want to come to know Him, the real Him, we have to make it a real priority to slow down in the rat race of life and spend time studying His Word. As we come to know Him, we will begin to see how He would have us live our lives and what He would have us do in His service. It isn’t enough just to have this knowledge. We must take the knowledge and act on it. We must live it. A big part of doing that is repentance. We must truly be remorseful to God for our sin and always strive to turn from sin. We must realize that the only way that we can be reconciled with God is through the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. As we come to know Him better, as we implant His Word in our heart and allow Him to change our heart, we will find sin easier to resist. We will come to realize that it is He who sets the standard for what is right, in all things, and that He communicates that standard through His Word. Spending time in His Word is foundational to knowing Him and understanding that standard, so that we can conform to it, so that we can truly know Him and live for Him.
Second, we must respect those who God has placed in authority over us. We live in a time when there seems to be an extraordinary amount of contempt for government and, really, for authority in general. I know that some of our elected officials don’t do what they should. Regardless of how well we think they are doing and regardless of whether we voted for them, they are in office. Scripture is clear that God put them there and He expects us to respectfully submit to them. If we disagree with them, rather than constantly criticizing them, we should pray for them. Regardless of who holds any government office, we owe them a certain amount of respect and allegiance, just because they do hold the office. The same is true for those who work for all government agencies. We should treat these people with respect and, unless what they are telling us to do directly contradicts God’s Word, we must support and obey them, if we are to truly follow Christ and live as a disciple of His.
Third, we must truly learn to trust Him to take care of us and to meet our needs. There is a lot of fear in the world right now about many different things and I do understand that. I’ve been there. However, there is an inverse relationship between level of fear and level of true trust in God. It’s time like these, when things look bad and when we have very little control, when it becomes apparent, to us and to others, just how much we do or do not trust the one Who is in control. He has promised us that He will take care of us. We must rest in that promise. We must let others see the peace that brings to our lives so that they will want to know how they, too, can get that same peace.
Fourth, we must live in such a way as to let His light shine into the darkness of this world, so that it might serve as a beacon to help others to find the salvation that we have found in Him and that He alone offers. In order to do that, we have to let others see His love flowing through us. In order to do that, we have to get our pride out of the way, so that it won’t eclipse His love. We do still need to be willing to take a stand on important things, especially on His Word, but we need to stop feeling the need to always express our opinion and to be right about everything. If we aren’t careful, we will trade in the profound joy of making a real difference for the cheap satisfaction of being right or feeling that we have proven ourselves right. Trust me, it isn’t worth the trade.
If you haven’t already read the articles on each of these four topics, I would encourage you to explore the links to them at the top. I go into a great deal of detail on each topic.
I don’t know exactly why we are where we are. I don’t know if God is trying to get the world’s attention. I don’t know if Christ’s return is imminent. I do know that, for Christians, He should always have our attention and we should always live as though his return is eminent. For the most part, I don’t see that happening right now.
We are in the midst of challenging times, the likes of which have not been seen in decades. We are all human and so we are all at least a little stressed about that. However, as Christ’s Church, we have an opportunity here, the likes of which also has not been seen in decades. Right now, many people are desperately searching for answers and they may be more open to receiving the answers that God alone provides. We can show the world who Christ really is and what following Him really means. I truly believe that it is not too late for another great revival. God just might use the current crisis as the catalyst to start that revival. He can do anything He wants, with us or without us, but Scripture clearly demonstrates that human action and prayer do impact what happens in this world. God has given us free will and that necessarily means that our actions and inactions do have consequences, positive and negative. So, we, as the body of Christ, can take advantage of this opportunity or we can squander it. The body of Christ is made up of the individual members of the body. If you are a Christian, that means you. What Christ’s church does right now is comprised of what we collectively all do. What it does not do is comprised of what we collectively do not do. Your action or inaction does matter. What will you or will you not do now, as you represent Him to this world?
