Back on April fifth (remember April?), we attempted to answer the question “Is COVID-19 God’s Judgment?” Here is part of that entry:
“The Bible is just as clear that when God does judge the world, it will be so apparent and so immediately widespread that everyone will know it is His direct intervention.
See Revelation 1:4-8; 6:15-17; 16:7-11.
“On the other hand, COVID-19, SARS, EBOLA, MERS, The Black Plague, Scarlet Fever, cancer and the common cold all are symptoms of ‘death’ as a result of Sin. We live in the fallen world of Genesis 3, and one of the many implications is that everything in our world is subject to death and decay, as God warned Adam in Genesis 2, before he and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.”
Someone had responded, “What about the Four Horsemen?” referring to the first four of seven seals in John’s vision (Revelation 6:8).
These seals and their plagues and the death they bring are much more than your garden variety virus. Perhaps the reader was thinking of the initial projections of the death toll at the time that was written.
If you recall, one headline read, “COVID-19 predicted to infect 81% of U.S. population, cause 2.2 million deaths in U.S.” Needless to say, that prediction, thankfully, never materialized. None of the early models did. But it was typical of the rhetoric which stoked the worldwide fear and hysteria which still show little sign of abating.
Instead, as of this date, there have been 157,000 COVID related deaths in the USA, 683,000 worldwide, and that is a very generous number, given that the standards for counting have been quite lax, and the comorbidity factors high.
The CDC web site reports that “For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned,” while “on average there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes of death.” In other words, in only 6 percent of the deaths was the Coronavirus the exclusive cause.
To compare, around 600,000 in our nation will die this year from cancer, over 600,000 from heart disease, nearly 170,000 from various accidents, and 76,000 more will overdose. It’s quite possible that you, personally, know no one who has died directly and exclusively from this virus. I know I don’t.
What does all of that mean? Was the lock down worth the economic devastation? Was quarantining everyone the best path? And what about Sweden, which took a very different tack and has fewer than 6,000 deaths in a population of 10 million? You can draw your own conclusions, but it is certain that the Coronavirus has not caused death on the scale envisioned in Revelation 6 (or the rest of the book).
Does that mean we should not be cautious? Of course not. But perhaps hindsight may help us realize that this is what we should expect from a virus rather than an apocalyptic judgment of God.
Father, we thank you that the dire predictions of this virus have not come to fruition, and we ask you to help us respond to facts, not fears. We know that we are in your care, and do not take that for granted. in Jesus’ name. Amen.