“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk” (Revelation 9:20, KJV).
At a recent news conference, the
governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, declared with great bravado and confidence
that “the number’s down because we brought the number down; God did not do
that, faith did not do that, destiny did not do that; a lot of pain and suffering
did that.” He made these remarks while telling the press that the number of
cases and deaths attributed to the COVID19 virus had declined. Unfortunately
for the governor and the rest of his state, although the “curve” of cases and
deaths seemed to decline at one point, they quickly shot up again. New York
alone accounts for nearly 15,000 of the deaths that have been recorded in the
United States attributed to the virus. The cases in that state, are thankfully
once again declining.
The point here is not that the cases
are declining or ascending. Neither is it that the actions that have been put
into place (social distancing, masks, etc.) are not partly responsible for the
decline. Rather, it is that the people of the world, regardless of the evidence
to the contrary, refuse to acknowledge their dependence on God and their utter inability
to control their futures. In the face of this uncontrollable epidemic and the
fact that science has so far been unable to do much about it, they continue to
put their trust in themselves. A big pharmaceutical company even put out an
advertisement claiming that “science will find a way” to beat the disease.
Great! We all hope so. But it will not be science that ultimately brings the
disease to an end, or at least under control. But God will do so when and how
He decides it is time.
The moral in all this is that we Christians
need to be discerning and not allow ourselves to be led astray by the dictums
of the unbeliever. Well intentioned as they may be, the reality is that they
are depraved human beings who look not to God, but to themselves for the answers
to all of life’s problems. Not long ago, before all this virus issue came to
the fore, the people of New York celebrated the fact that their leaders had
approved the killing of children up to and including their birth. Anyone who
can relish the murder of children, has to have sunk to about the lowest rung in
the depravity scale. There have been many efforts to dehumanize the unborn so
as to murder them without that pesky conscience getting in the way. But our
society has sunk so low, that they no longer need to assuage their consciences.
They now murder the unborn without so much as a whimper from their consciences
which have, in the words of the apostle, become “seared as with a hot iron” (1
Timothy 4:2).
Man by nature is depraved; that much
is true. But there are times when some among the depraved will be so brazen
that their actions and words take up completely by surprise. But they should
not. People like Mr. Cuomo and the governor of California, Gavin Newsome, are
avowed, self-declared socialists. As such, their philosophy of government, and
indeed their very worldview, leads them to place all of their hopes in the
present life. When one’s hope is simply in this life, then he will do whatever
is necessary to prolong it, by hook or by crook. After all, there is nothing
after this life and if there is nothing past death, then we better ensure we
are here as long as possible! Truly, hope of the hopeless.
The irony in all this is that many Christians
have begun to harbor the same thoughts as the unbeliever. They have gotten
caught up in the agitation for our rights, in the complaining attitude of the world,
and have lost sight of the fact that our true “citizenship is in heaven”
(Philippians 3:20). I am not suggesting that we should not petition our leaders
if we have rightful grievances. After all, we have been given that right. But that
should not be an excuse for the constant barrage of complaints and whining that
one often reads about in social and other media. Do we place our trust in the
living God, or in the dead idols of science, politics, and the world? It is at
times such as these that the true metal of the true faith is tested. When things
are going well, everyone can be faithful. It is when things go haywire that
faith is demonstrated as true…or false. Which one is yours?
Yes! Amen! Wise words indeed!
ReplyDeleteI would say that it reminds me of the Jesus' words when he told the disciples in Mathew 8:26 "You of little faith, why are you so afarid?"
ReplyDeleteIt is when all is going down hill and situations like the one we live in today, that people tend to reach out to God. The problem is if we don't let God do his awesome work in us so we can reflect on how we are living. We don't want to let God do the work. The worst is when things get better and all goes back to normal the forget about God. The disciples were afraid of the storm. They had Jesus with the why would they be afraid. Human nature got the best of them.
You're right. All too often, we are like little scared children who don't know what to do when things go sour. I'd like to be optimistic and believe that this whole ordeal will teach us something with lasting value; namely, to put our trust in God and not in riches, man, science, etc., etc. But I'm afraid that, thinking about it realistically, if and when this whole thing passes, we'll just go back to our comfy lives and forget all about it. Just like it happened with 9/11, we get spiritually aroused for a while and then, with the passing of time, we fall asleep again. Human nature, unfortunately is quite overwhelming. That's why we need to place our confidence in God all the time, in the good times and in the bad. If we do that, then when things like these afflict us, we won't have to wonder what to do! Blessings.
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