An individual illness is a trial, but a worldwide pandemic is of a different order and could be God’s judgment, especially as reasons abound why He would test or judge the world, particularly America, writes a theologian.
“It’s difficult to read biblical descriptions of cities and nations under judgment without being struck by the resemblance to the world, April 2020,” writes Peter Leithart, president of Theopolis Institute for Biblical, Liturgical, & Cultural Studies in Birmingham, Alabama.
“Our city streets are silent; there is no longer the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, not even the wailing of a funeral dirge,” Leithart, author, minister and theologian, explains, referring to Jeremiah 7:34.
Our churches are also “empty and still,” he adds. “We should ponder the possibility that the Lord has had enough of our trampling of His courts, and so has put an end to our new moons and feast days (Isaiah 1:10-15).”
There are now more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 165,939 deaths around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University. In the United States, the number of confirmed cases stands at nearly 760,000 with 40,683 deaths.
Leithart explains that judgment includes punishment for sin, but also involves “unmasking, exposure, testing, and clarification.”
“God judges to uncover what’s hidden at the bottom of things,” he writes.
Are there reasons for God to test or to punish? It depends, he says, what part of the world we are looking at. “I can speak only to my home country. In the U.S., I can think of several reasons,” he writes.
Leithart then shares 10 reasons.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar
BCNN1 WP 