“God Didn’t Do This”

“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?