The Devil's Conspiracy Behind the Pandemic
All over the world, nations have declared a national emergency and gone into quarantine, closing their borders. Airlines have grounded their fleets and are running out of money. Stocks are plummeting, markets are dipping and there is serious talk of a worldwide economic recession. Gatherings of more than two people are forbidden, and people are self-isolating to avoid infecting each other. Restaurants, pubs and bars are closed in cities from New York to Paris. Businessmen and women have been forced to work from home, leaving entire office blocks empty. The elderly, those 70 and over, have been told to engage in social distancing for up to four months. Sporting fixtures have been cancelled and stadiums are empty and silent. Hundreds of people are lining up outside supermarkets to buy food and hygiene items, only to find the shelves are bare. Everywhere there is an odor of fear, from the streets of towns and cities, to the highways of the internet.
No, this is not the prologue to an undiscovered novel by H.G. Wells - a sequel, perhaps, to The War of the Worlds - nor is it the run-through for a dystopian, Zombie video game. This is the real world, in real time, right now, as I write. No hype. No fake news. No mythmaking. And a lot of experts are saying that it’s not going to be over quickly.
In case you’ve been living in an underground bunker, or you’ve taken a long holiday to the moon, the situation I’m describing is this: a virus called Covid-19, a strain of coronavirus, has spread from a region of China to much of the globe, causing the WHO (World Health Organization) to declare a global pandemic. Scientists have been warning that something like this would one day come to our planet. Ever since the devastating influenza pandemic after World War 1, they have been trying to tell governments to be prepared. “We are due another outbreak,” they have argued. It turns out they were right. The Corona Storm is a pandemic waiting to happen. It is the worst crisis that’s hit my country, the United Kingdom, since World War 2, and the severest test of our health service in a generation, perhaps even since its creation. These are indeed tumultuous times.
Keeping Your Focus
As the world has entered this storm, it’s no surprise to learn that some Christians have used this crisis to suggest that we are in the last phase of history before Jesus returns. I have read articles and posts by people who argue that these are signs of the end of days. There are variant strains of this particular theological virus so it’s not easy to generalize, but the gist of it is this: that the spread of Covid-19 is part of a conspiracy on the part of a secret group of globalist leaders who are working covertly to implement a demonic governmental system. This group, often referred to as the Illuminati (a word meaning “enlightened ones”), want to create a one world order, controlled by them.The storyline goes something like this: this Corona virus is not some accident deriving from human error; it has been created in a laboratory and essentially weaponized by this global elite to create widescale panic. In this, the World Health Organization is seen as the primary propagator of information about the virus, and therefore an evil instrument of the so-called Illuminati. Their plan is to use this pandemic to achieve several ends which some Christians claim are prophesied in the Bible, specifically in The Book of Revelation. The first is to get the world to work together as one in fighting the virus so that presidents, monarchs and prime ministers come to believe that a one-world order is the only way to ride out future storms. The second is to persuade every nation to become a cashless society in a one-world economic system. This will then lead to everyone having a microchip implanted so that money doesn’t have to change dirty hands, and this chip is seen as the demonic mark of the beast in Revelation 13:15-16.
Yes, it is correct that there is a conspiracy going on in the world today, but it’s the same conspiracy that’s been going on since time began. This conspiracy is the plan of the evil one to separate us all from the Father’s love and to cause us, in this orphaned state, to live in fear.
I want to be careful here because I have good friends who believe this. At the same time, I am compelled to be true to myself, true to what’s rational, and above all true to what I believe the Bible clearly teaches. Yes, it is correct that there is a conspiracy going on in the world today, but it’s the same conspiracy that’s been going on since time began. This conspiracy is the plan of the evil one to separate us all from the Father’s love and to cause us, in this orphaned state, to live in fear. He has been doing this since the Garden of Eden, and he will continue to do it until Jesus Christ appears again on the earth. The reason he does this is because he himself is the ultimate orphan who separated himself from the Father’s love in an act of unbridled and unparalleled rebellion. Since then, he has been busy in the world using every circumstance he can to make us like him – a rebellious orphan who lives from fear, rather than a humble child of God living from love.The problem with the conspiratorial response to this current storm is that even in the act of its champions saying, “don’t be afraid,” they are stirring up a new fear. While we are all doing our bit to fight one invisible enemy (the virus), these people claim that there is another invisible enemy behind it all (the Illuminati). This then leads to a damaging distortion of focus. Instead of focusing on Jesus, these people are fixated with what the devil is allegedly doing. But I’d rather not give the devil that kind of attention or credit. I’d rather fix my eyes on the Illuminator, not the Illuminati. I’d rather live in love, as a good adopted son of my heavenly Father, rather than live in fear, promoting fear, while all the while ironically accusing others of fearmongering! For me the “coronapocalypse” narrative is not a healthy response to the current storm. In any event, we have had many claims before that critical global crises signal the end of days, and all of them have been false. The proof? Well, we are still here! We should remember what Jesus said about the end of the world, that only his Heavenly Father (and ours) knows the dates and times of the dénouement of history.
Write What you See
I am writing as a person who believes in the Light of the World. I am not a member of an organized religion. I have, over the years, been too damaged by that to want to champion it. But I have never been damaged by Jesus. He is the one whom Isaiah the prophet says will never snuff out a smoldering wick or bruise a broken reed. In other words, this Jesus – the true, non-religious Jesus – will never hurt the weak and the desperate. He defends the vulnerable. As Christ the Victim at Calvary, he sides with the oppressed not the oppressors, the abused not the abuser. He is heaven’s love made manifest, God’s kindness in human skin. There is no one in human history quite as perfect. No one.What, then, would Jesus have us do? Each of us must seek him for an answer. In my own search, the guidance came as a surprise. Last night, I put a post on Facebook about this pandemic. I wrote about Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientists in history. In the year 1665, he was studying at Cambridge University when the bubonic plague broke out. Like many students in this current crisis, he was sent home to study, only the difference was that he had no internet to hear and watch his lecturers engage in video-driven, distance learning. He just had his own thoughts and theories.Newton decided to use his time of self-isolation and social distancing by developing and writing down his theories. By the time the plague ended a year later, he had come up with some astonishing theories that we still rely on today, gravity being one of them. Later, he was to call this season his annus mirabilis, which is Latin for “year of wonders.” Far from letting this crisis defeat him, he used the time to be creative, and wrote down his revolutionary theories.In my Facebook post, I encouraged people to use their enforced time away from society to do something creative. It is said that everyone has a book in them, so I encouraged people to start, continue or complete that book of poems, that memoir, that novel, that teaching manual, those songs, that they’ve always wanted to write. After a few hours there were over 100 likes and over 30 shares. Then I went to bed.This morning, I woke up at 6:00 am and clearly sensed that I was to use this time to write a book as well. This book. It was so clearly impressed upon my heart that I couldn’t wait to sit at my desk and start writing. Isn’t that just typical? I write something intended to challenge others and, in the end, it turns out to be for me too!As the Son of Man said to the apostle John in Revelation 1:11, “Write what you see in a book.”
On Rock, Not Sand
That, however, is more than a little self-oriented. What about you? What about others? What about the world? What’s the best way to conduct ourselves in this present storm? The answer? Focus on Jesus. How, then, do we do that in practice?Everyone who ever went to Sunday school knows the parable of the house that was built upon rock. Jesus makes a telling contrast between two kinds of carpenter. Both are building houses, but both choose different types of foundation. The first builder is wise in his choice (Matthew 7:25):
If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
The second builder is foolish.
If you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
What is Jesus saying here? He is telling us to study his words in the Bible and to make his teaching the source of wisdom and enlightenment in every situation in our lives. If we read and apply his teaching with an honest and humble heart, then the storms that will inevitably lash our lives will never destroy us. The wind may batter the shutters and the rain may whip our tiles, but the storm will never defeat us. Why? Because we have put our trust in the one who is greater than any flood or tornado, the Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. When thick darkness covers the earth, he is the Light of the World, and we who are his followers, are little lights to those around us.This is not a time to be looking to this prophet or that preacher to guide us through the Corona Storm. It is a time to be looking up at Jesus rather than around at each other. This is not a time for us to be building our response to the storm on the foundation of someone’s sermon or someone’s latest prophecy. It’s time to make sure that our foundations are in the teachings of Jesus, that our thoughts are dictated by what he teaches rather than what human beings teach.
In Love, Not Fear
John Lennon, the former Beatle, once said that there are two centers from which a human can live, two engines that can drive us. One is fear, and that’s clearly negative, unproductive and self-absorbed. The other is love, and that’s clearly far more positive, creative and altruistic. What John Lennon said was wise and insightful. He wasn’t always quite this enlightened, however. He also claimed that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ. That was epically mistaken, an act of terrible hubris, a gesture of unfounded, irrational egotism.The truth is, Jesus Christ is still the most famous and honored human being in history, the most admired man who has ever walked the world’s stage. No one is esteemed more than him. More people worship Jesus than any other religious figure. My atheist friends respect him, even if they don’t like organized religion. They are appreciative of Christ even if they are suspicious of Christianity. Muslim friends revere him as a prophet. People I know who never go to a local church are fascinated by him still. And millions who do go to church, not only give him the highest honor, the greatest shout out, they walk like him, talk like him, look like him and live like him. Jesus Christ remains the most luminous figure in history. He truly is the Light of the World.And here’s the thing…Jesus Christ lived from a center of love not a center of fear. Fear-centered people strive for what they are looking for, whether that’s salvation, safety, fortune or food. Love-based people rest in the knowledge that they’ve already found the pearl of great price. That pearl is the Father’s affectionate, embracing, forgiving and generous love, revealed in Jesus, and released to us through the Holy Spirit. Fear-based people are like orphans, who hoard possessions out of fear. Love-based people are like sons and daughters, who live in an atmosphere of security and serenity because they trust their Dad!We are all of us going to have to decide how we are going to conduct ourselves in this global pandemic. In this present Corona Storm, we can either react in fear, or we can respond in love. That’s the choice before each one of us, every day. If we react in fear like insecure orphans, our choices will almost certainly be selfish and lead to panic. If we respond in love like faithful sons and daughters, our choices will almost certainly be selfless and lead to peace.The choice is ours.Yours.Mine.I’m praying for a 1 Cor 13 vaccine to combat the Covid-19 virus. As the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first, ”Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything,Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
I’m praying for love to conquer fear, because perfect love drives out all fear (1 John 4:18).This little book is my plea for the virus of the Father’s love to spread until it becomes an epidemic and then a pandemic – a pandemic of love that triumphs over fear.The whole earth is waiting for such people to appear!