Is Coronavirus a Sign of Christ’s Return?

New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

So, is the pandemic a sign that Christ is coming back soon? What follows is obviously just my opinion. You may disagree with me on this, but here’s what I think. Do I believe Jesus is coming back? Yes. Do I believe that all that’s going on with coronavirus is an indication that he’s about to come back? No. According to 1 John 2:18, we’ve been in the “last days” for about 2,000+ years now. Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension inaugurated the end times. And there have been plenty of worldwide crises over the last two millennia: the black plague, WW1, and WW2, to name a few. I imagine there were people during those times who thought those horrific events were harbingers of the end.  But they weren’t. When I was going to LeTourneau College, I found a book in the library written in the 1930s that made a very convincing case that Adolph Hitler was the antichrist. He wasn’t. I lived through the Arab-Israeli wars when everyone (including me) thought the rapture was about to happen. It didn’t. And even if COVID-19 is a sign of Jesus coming back, how would that change things? Should we panic? Go sit on a mountain and wait? Sell all our possessions? Look to the skies?  

So, if the coronavirus pandemic is not a sign of Christ’s soon return, then is it a divine judgment?

Again, just my opinion, but I don’t think so. At least not in the sense that God directly sent it. I don’t believe he created the coronavirus and hurled it down on an unrepentant world like a plague out of the Book of Revelation. So how should people of faith respond to the pandemic? The New Testament book of Hebrews (12:7) tells us that we should regard (and endure) hardship as if it were God’s discipline.  It is right and proper to turn our eyes and hearts to God and cry out to him during this crisis. It is right and proper to search our hearts and souls.  I believe what is going on right now is a wake-up call for us to get serious about our faith in a way that, perhaps, we never have before. This pandemic is a chance to order our priorities, to reach out to others, to remember what’s really important. It is time to remember and put into practice the words of Micah:  He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8, NIV). But, no, I don’t think the pandemic is a sign of Christ’s return.

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