Don’t Blame God for the Coronavirus Outbreak. Blame the Chinese Communist Party for Disobeying God

By Gary F. Zeolla

Trib Live is the website for my local newspaper. On April 17, 2020 was an article about churches reopening in “phase one” of the Coronavirus task force’s three phase reopening plan. I commented, “This is so good to hear.” Someone responded to my comment by saying “Tell your god to come down here and stop this virus.” My response to that comment would be too long to post there, so let me do so here.

Wet Markets:

There are two theories as to how this Coronavirus (CV) pandemic began. The first is that it came from “wet markets” in Wuhan province in China via people eating bats. Biblically, bats are an unclean animal that should not be eaten (Leviticus 11:19).

At these wet markets, animal carcasses are piled up to be sold, and they are handled like any other kind of merchandise, with no regard for sanitary practices. The Bible teaches that extreme care must be taken when handling animal carcasses (and human bodies) and that a person is “unclean” after touching just one such carcass or body. The person is then unclean until he or she is purified (Leviticus 11:24-28. Numbers 19:11f).

As a result of these unsanitary conditions, these wet markets have been the source for contagions previously. The Chinese Communist Party (CPP) promised to shut them down, but it never did.

Viral Lab:

The other theory is the CV came from a viral research lab in Wuhan. A worker was infected, left the lab and infected people in those wet markets. Then when the disease spread in that province, the CPP did not lock it down. But instead, those infected people were allowed to travel outside of that province into the rest of China and ultimately into the rest of the world.

The Bible teaches that if there is a possible contagion, it needs to be carefully investigated. If people are found who are infected with an infectious disease, they should be quarantined (Leviticus 13-14).

Watchmen and Lies:

When the CCP realized they had a problem on their hands that could potentially affect millions, they did not warn anyone about it. They instead tried to hide it as long as possible. Then even told lies about it, saying there was no human to human transmission long after they knew there was such transmission. And the CCP is continuing to lie to this day. The numbers coming out of China as to the number of CV cases and deaths are very obviously way off by orders of magnitude.

The Bible teaches that a nation should have a “watchman” who warms the people about impending dangers. But if that watchman does not do so, the blood of those who die will be on his hands (Ezekiel 33:1-6). But the CCP shut up its watchmen, imprisoned them, and ultimately killed them, keeping them from doing their Biblical job of warning the rest of us about the impending danger. The Bible also teaches that lying is a sin (1Timothy 1:10-12; Revelation 21:8,27, 22:15), but the CCP has been doing that in droves.

Counselors:

The United States offered to send out health experts to China to help them investigate and control the virus. But the CCP refused, saying they could figure it out on their own. They couldn’t, and much harm resulted. The Bible teaches, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14 NKJV; also Proverbs 15:22; 24:6).

Learning from This Pandemic:

Putting this all together, the reason we are dealing with this pandemic is due to us the CCP disobeying God’s explicit commands in multiple ways. As such, if God come down here and miraculously delivered us from the results of such disobedience, we would never learn from it. The CCP would be left to continue with its dangerous ways. But now, there will be (or at least there better be) repercussions for the CCP, so that future such dangers from their disobedience can be avoided.

Moreover, maybe now people will think twice about eating Biblically unclean foods, and maybe they will realize the need for sanitary conditions when handling animal carcasses. In addition, hopefully researchers will take better precautions to keep dangerous viruses from leaking from their labs and will quarantine anyone who is infected by them.

In addition, the Bible teaches God blesses nations that obey His commanded, while those that disobey Him are under a curse (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28). Among those curses are plagues, just like the one we are experiencing. Again, it came upon us due to the CCP not obeying God’s commands.

The point is, we will grow and learn from this experience. The biggest thing we will learn is that God knows what He is talking about, so we should take the Bible and its commands seriously.

Mad Cow Disease:

An objection has been raised to the reasoning in the first part of this article, that being my insinuation that eating Biblically unclean animals can lead to disease. The corollary to this is that eating clean animals do not cause disease. But what about mad cow disease? It is caused by eating cows, which are a clean animal. For that matter, heart disease and cancer can be caused by eating red meat.

To respond, yes cows are clean animals. But God created cows to live in a pasture feeding on grasses. This is seen in that the Bible always associates cattle and sheep with pastures and hills (Gen 47:4; 1Chr 4:39-41; Psalm 50:10; Isaiah 5:17; Jeremiah 6:3; Ezekiel 34:12-18; Joel 1:18).

However, in factory farms today, cows are kept inside in pens and are fed grains and other foodstuff, an unnatural diet for them. That is why their meat is unhealthy to eat, as the cows are not being raised in God’s prescribed manner. But if they are raised in the Biblical manner, their meat is perfectly healthy to eat.

As for mad cow disease, it is caused by feeding cow parts, especially cow brains, to other cows. That is about as unnatural of a diet as you can get, as God did not create cows as carnivores, let alone as cannibals.

For much more in this regard, see my book Creationist Diet: Second Edition. It discusses the incredible difference between factory farm animal foods and what I call “old-fashioned animal foods.” By the latter I mean animal foods derived from animals raised in the old-fashioned and God-prescribed manner.

Sin Always Affects Others:

Another possible objection to this article is that since it was the CCP that sinned, God should only punish them with this plague, not the rest of us. The answer to that is sin always affects far more people than just the person who sinned.

Take adultery, for instance. The Bible clearly teaches it is a sin (Exodus 20:14). But when someone disobeys that clear command, it hurts not just that person but many others. If a man cheats on his wife with another woman, he hurts not just himself, but his wife, his children, and very possibly his relationship with his own parents, his wife’s parents, and others in the extended family. If the woman he sinned with was married, then the same would apply with her family, starting with her husband.

The point is; sin always reverberates far beyond just the person or in this case group of people that sins. This is not to say God “punishes” those other people. It is just that certain behaviors are detrimental by their very nature to not just the person who engages in them but also to others. God warns us what those behaviors are and calls them sin. That is why the Bible speaks so strongly against such behaviors and warns us that much harm will come if we do sin. Again, see Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28.

Caveats:

In this short article, I have been careful to single out the CCP as opposed the Chinese people at large. The latter are just as much victims as the rest of us are due to the disobedience of the CCP, even more so, as they still have to live under that totalitarian regime.

Also, the World Health Organization (WHO) helped to promulgate the lies of the CCP. As such, they are just as culpable as the CCP for this pandemic. As such, there should also be repercussions for them. Spreading a lie is also forbidden in the Bible (Col 3:9).

Conclusion:

Bottom line is, don’t blame God for the CV pandemic. Blame the CCP for disobeying God. And if God were to miraculously deliver us, we would learn nothing from this experience, except to expect Him to do so again. And we would all continue in our sinful ways.

But as it is, many will turn to the LORD and learn to trust Him and his Word for direction in life. And those of us who already have such trust can go through not just this but all tragedies in life with the knowledge that The LORD Has It Under Control, as the title of one of my books puts it.

Reference:

Trib Live. Trump consults faith leaders on phased-in reopening.

Tearing the USA Apart
From Kavanaugh, to Incivility, to Caravans, to Violence, to the 2018 Midterm Elections, and Beyond

The United States of American is being torn about by political differences more than any time since the 1960s and maybe since the Civil War of the 1860s. This division was amplified by political events in the summer to fall of 2018. This time period could prove to be seminal in the history of the United States. This tearing apart came to the forefront and was amplified during the confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. This book overviews the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation proceedings in detail. It then overviews these additional major events that occurred up to the end of November 2018.

The above article was posted on this website April, 23, 2020.
It was updated April 26, 2020.

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