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| Pastor David Jeremiah |
By Leah MarieAnn
Klett, Christian Post Reporter
“Is there a connection
between COVID-19 and the End Times?” Jeremiah, pastor of Shadow Mountain
Community Church in El Cajon, California, began in his Sunday sermon.
“Are we living in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ? Is all that
is happening to us at this moment a sign that the world is coming to an end?
How do we know if the coronavirus is a sign?”
The founder of Turning
Point Radio and Television Ministries defined a “biblical sign” as an “event or
a symbol or an object or a place, or a person whose existence indicates
something important on God's plan for the future.”
“Jesus said in the
future there are going to be signs,” he said, adding that Jesus also said no
one knows the “day or hour” of His return.
“If someone tells you
they know when Jesus is coming back, you can tell them absolutely that’s not
possible,” he said.
Jesus does identify
six signs that “let us know if we’re in that time,” Jeremiah said, including
deception by false Christs; disputes and warfare among nations; deliverance of
believers to tribulation; the defection of false believers; and the declaration
of the Gospel to the whole world.
“Is this a sign of the
Second Coming of Christ? I cannot say with any sense of certainty that it is.
But neither can I say with any certainty that it is not. It could be the early
evidence of number three on Jesus' sign list, the coming of pestilence,” he
said.
Jesus refers to what
will happen at the end of the age as a “pestilence” (Luke 21:11).
Merriam Webster
defines pestilence as a “contagion or infectious epidemic that is virulent and
devastating.”
“That's a pretty good description of what's going on right now,”
Jeremiah said.
“Jesus said this
pestilence would arrive like ‘birth pains,’” he continued. “This means that it
will increase in frequency and intensity in the time leading up to His return.
This means that as the end approaches, we should expect infectious disease
outbreaks to occur more frequently, impact more people, and be more deadly.
This is what the coronavirus threatens to do.”
There are more than
451,300 diagnosed cases globally of COVID-19, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems
Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Some 20,500 have died
worldwide and over 112,900 have recovered.
In the U.S., more than
60,100 people have been diagnosed with the virus and 827 people have died as of
Wednesday afternoon.
The coronavirus is
“probably” not the pestilence Jesus was referring to, Jeremiah clarified, as it
does not “perfectly qualify as a prophetic sign.”
“I could not stand
here and say to you and have any confidence in saying that this is the
fulfillment of number three on Jesus sign list of Matthew 24,” he said. “But it
surely is a picture of it, isn't it? It surely does remind us that such signs
exist, and such things will happen.”
However, the virus is
none-the-less a sign, he explained, adding, “Not so much perhaps as a sign of
the future but a sign for today. A reminder of things we too easily
forget.”
The coronavirus
teaches us the vulnerability of everyone; the credibility of the Bible; the
uncertainty of life; the scarcity of hope; and finally, the sufficiency of
Jesus, the bestselling author said.
“Jesus doesn't just
overcome the event. He overcomes the environment where the event happens,” he
explained. “In these challenging days, we cannot forget what Jesus told us in
2nd Corinthians 12:9, that His grace is sufficient for us. You will find that
out during these days, if you haven't found it out already. The sufficiency of
Jesus Christ for those who have put their trust in Him will be on display
everywhere.”
He concluded, “How
uncertain and how precious are our days? I hope we can all use some of this
required quiet time to reflect on our lives and give thanks for God’s grace.”
In an interview with
Megan West of My Faith Votes on Monday, Jeremiah told listeners that amid
anxiety and uncertainty, “God is a breath away,” adding, “There aren’t any
surprises for God. He didn’t get surprised by any of this.”
Jeremiah also stressed
the importance of controlling what goes into one’s mind. “If you want to be
depressed, if you want to be overwhelmed, you can do that by spending hours
watching the reports,” he said.
While it’s important
to be informed, Jeremiah recommended listening to one condensed report a day
instead of inundating oneself with negativity.
“This is not the end
of the world. Step back, take a deep breath, and get into the Word of God and
be reminded that God is in control,” he said.
When tempted to focus
on the negative, the pastor recommended focusing instead on blessings. “We can
take a moment and count our blessings and ask God to hear our gratitude for all
that He does for us,” he said.
“I want to encourage
everybody to not let fear become a greater problem than the coronavirus, but
trust God,” he concluded. “The coronavirus is not a big deal to God. He’s able
to control this and take in, and we’re going to come through this better than
we were when we came in. In the meantime, we have to be calm and ask Him to
give us peace.”
https://www.christianpost.com/news/is-the-coronavirus-in-bible-prophecy-david-jeremiah-answers.html
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