A personal COVID-19 perspective (Part 2 of 2)

The first part of this article may be summed up in a statement published on the website of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which states, “There is a single species that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic – us.” It was not an act of nature, it was not because of other species, plants, or animals, and it was not due to the viruses itself – it's what man has been doing to wildlife and environment.

This is the sad reality if we take a human perspective but not in a world view where God exists and is active in human affairs. Many people profess to be religious but have more of a pantheistic or even atheistic view of world affairs, where God is everywhere but absent or uninterested or do not exist at all. To believe in God is to believe that he is eternal and sovereign and active. And God has a plan, and a purpose, and the will to do it, and it will be to our best interest to know it.

We need to ask some simple but direct questions. Did/does God know about the pandemic? Did it take him by surprise? Did he allow it, and if he did, why? Or, the very thought-provoking question: Did God cause it as part of his eternal, perfect will and, if so, why?” A lot of our answers will have a direct reflection on how we know God in his perfection and sovereignty. God is loving and merciful, but he is also righteous and just. God wants everyone to be saved but will never tolerate sin in his presence - the wages of sin is death, and eternal separation from God.

Thus, we must look at COVID-19 against the entire backdrop of God’s creation, of man’s fall and search for salvation, of God’s mercy in providing a way for man to be reconciled to him, only through the coming of Jesus Christ, his crucifixion and death, resurrection, and imminent Parousia. Spanning the entire history in scripture did we see God sending plagues, pestilence, wars, calamities with the sole intent of calling his people to himself and exact holiness from us. For him, there is no past, present, or future – he knows what tomorrow brings and even wills it, always in accordance with his divine sovereignty and pleasure. And this we know, for Jesus himself told us, that these will come – wars, calamities, plagues, epidemics…yes, even worse pandemics than the present COVID-19 (Matthew 24:6-14).

Shall I then wallow in sorrow and hopelessness? On the contrary, I rejoice and thank God for all the good that COVID-19 brings. The Bible often tells that, for what was meant for evil, God always meant for good, especially for those who love and obey him. My personal perspective of the pandemic rests entirely on who God is in this present world and in my personal life. We can cringe in fear and uncertainty, or we can trust in a God who wants all of us to himself. But it’s a choice all of us must make.