Chapter 6 One Spiritual View of COVID-19
Updates April 9, 2020
Reviewing the last few days of the Presidential news conferences, the US witnessed President Trump doing what he is best known for, training and encouraging people to be the best at their jobs. April 6, 2020 we saw President Trump basically attacked by news reporters. Those reporters were using the nationally televised conference to market their fake news stories. At times President Trump blasted those reporters for attempting to use such tactics. Other times the President simply refused to answer their questions.
On April 7th we saw President Trump initiate a new plan. The President and his entire staff were very careful to identify sources and provide information and locations to study additional information. I other words, the President and his staff were training reporters how to properly investigate and report on the news.
The press conference on April 8th was a completely different story. On April 8th reporters asked questions, identified their sources, and offered statistics and data uncovered during their research. President Trump displayed the same skills used during his TV show The Apprentice where he outlined a project, provided basic steps, set goals, and allowed the contestants to display their skills. The show was based on teams competing on a project to show organizational and creative skills.
It is rare to see anyone use everyday situations to educate people much less direct and encourage people to be the best at what they do for a living. President Trump displayed those skills and passions on national TV. On April 8th the President and his staff praised reporters for investigating the questions at hand and offering information they were able to verify. We’ve seen President Trump blast fake news in the past. Instead of condemning those reporters, the President proudly displayed his passion for bringing the best out of people and making them the professionals they long to be.
On a side note. If Hydroxychloroquine turns out to be a vaccine for COVID-19, it just may be a cure for the common cold, another variant of the coronavirus. Imagine a President putting a team of researches together to not only discover a vaccine for COVID-19, but cure the common cold. This may only be a personal opinion at this point, but it is something to consider.
One more thing happened. I called a very spiritual friend who sent me a video. In the video a young man claimed to hear God’s voice. He warned there was something strange going on, but could not place his finger upon what was happening. I can tell you for a fact, that is how the Holy Spirit works. He can only share what you are ready for. Based on where we are in our spiritual walk, how much we rely on doctrines, what those doctrines are, and hundreds of other factors, we can hear a message, but who we are and what we believe limit the information we receive and or understand.
I can tell you for a fact, there are a hundred ways to explain what is happening today from a spiritual aspect. How do I know this? I was an instructor in the army where we were required to explain the same detail in a number of ways because different people learned from different examples and explanations. On the spiritual sides all we need to do is look at the Gospels where Jesus taught the same lesson by telling three or four parables. There were two reasons for that. Some people caught onto the first explanation, some the second, and some the third. The serious student of the Bible caught onto the fact that a deeper spiritual interpretation could be seen when all the details from each of the parables was combined. Almost two hundred years ago a man named William Miller wrote a set of Bible Study Rules that were widely accepted throughout the world by most Christian denominations. One of those rules applies here.
To understand doctrine, bring all the Scriptures together on the subject you wish to know;then let every word have it’s proper influence, and if you can form your theory without acontradiction, you cannot be in an error (Isaiah 28:7-29; 35:8; Proverbs 19:27; Luke24:27, 44, 45; James 5:19; 2 Peter 1:19, 20).
Of course the other rules also apply, but this is one we need to concentrate on. What does it take to gather all the facts on a subject?
It was not by accident that President Trump took the time and put in the effort to teach reporters how to study a subject by collecting all the data. If that is important for a news story, how much more important is it to gather all the details on the spiritual subject at hand?
While watching that video with the young man with a burden to deliver a message he did not fully understand, I could see how he brought up some valid points to consider. The government displayed some rather insightful control over the population we have not witnessed in this generation. There are socialists and communists openly running for President. The young man exaggerated a few points like the possibility of people being herded into camps after contacting the virus. We all have to admit those lock down laws to curve the virus have been put into effect and for the most part obeyed by the majority of people. Is that a sign of things to come? According to that video those lock down and stay at home laws were a warning God wants us to pay attention to. The main purpose of that video was to warn the world something much bigger is coming.
Then the man got into some comments based on doctrine. He started talking about the rapture. Basically the rapture belief is based on a single verse from the Bible. I can tell you, that goes against all Bible Study rules and for the most part, common sense. There is no way anyone can take a single sentence out of any book and explain the entire book. There is no way they could possibly explain the different scenes in the book, people, events, or timelines. But someone, actually a number of groups took the same sentence, actually a few sentences out of the Bible and constructed a number of stories and concepts.
There are dozens of views and doctrines on the rapture theory. None of them agree on all the points. All the concepts have different timelines and events. How can that be? God is only following one timeline and series of events.
To understand what events lead up to and occur in the last days, you have to understand the Book of Revelation. It is a rather simple book to understand. I’ve written a series of books on Revelation and the judgment process. I’ve looked at and studied a number of beliefs and doctrines on the judgment process from different religions in the world and a host of Christian denominations. There is one thing they all have in common. There is one mistake they have all made. Not one of them accepts Revelation as a book. A literary book recorded in the proper sequence. The sequence that was given by Jesus to John the apostle.
People like to brand Revelation as a book of mystery. A book that can only be understood with years of education. Education from where? An institution that teaches people to measure, judge, and interpret every verse in the Bible according to their standards we refer to as doctrines.
Let me make this perfectly clear. You cannot interpret the Bible, a spiritual book based on worldly doctrines. Those doctrines basically establish a barricade between the reader and the Holy Spirit. The man in the video testified to that fact. He did hear a spiritual message. He did try to deliver a spiritual message. A warning. But then he made the mistake by taking a message and attempted to interpret that message according to the doctrines he has been taught to believe. Those doctrines tell him to accept events and timelines based on interpretations not found or verified by scripture. Like the President asked those reporters, what is your proof? What are your references? If those basic questions cannot be answered, the question or stated facts are based on nothing more than a personal opinion backed up by nothing but imagination.
Jesus did not take John to Heaven to give him a book, take it back to earth, withdraw the Holy Spirit, then later send a few men to a college to learn how to interpret that book. The sequence in Revelation is simple to understand. Jesus dictated the book to John in a series of visions. One following the other. John recorded those visions in the order they were given. The beginning of the book of Revelation actually teaches us how to study the book and the Bible as a whole. The first chapter in Revelation contains a description of Jesus. That description is broken up into seven parts. Each part is given to each of the seven churches. Take every description of Jesus given to those seven churches, put them together, and you have all the information about Jesus given to the churches, the world. That agrees with William Miller’s Bible Study Rule.
That is one lesson in Revelation. The other is to accept Revelation as a book written by Jesus. A book any eight year old could read and understand. All you need to do is pay attention to the details in the stories. Look at how those stories are introduced. You will see an undeniable pattern throughout Revelation. John sees a vision. John of course does not understand that vision because portions of that vision deal with the future. A future John of course does not understand. After the vision is given, we see an angel standing next to John ready, willing, and able to explain that vision to John. Naturally the angel backs up in history, progressed into John’s time, then proceeded into the future. After the explanation of that vision was finished, another vision followed. Visions were explained to John one at a time. For some people that makes it difficult to follow the timeline Jesus gave this world. But if you take time to study Revelation the way it was written and pay attention to who and how John received information, Revelation can and will explain itself with no outside sources. That is when Revelation becomes its own reference book. The way it was written and meant to be understood. We will look at one example about the end of this world here.
Revelation 14:15-20 NLTse (15) Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, “Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe.” (16) So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested. (17) After that, another angel came from the Temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. (18) Then another angel, who had power to destroy with fire, came from the altar. He shouted to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sickle now to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines of the earth, for they are ripe for judgment.” (19) So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath. (20) The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse’s bridle.
We can see how the end of Revelation chapter 14 describes the end of one step in the judgment process. The swinging of the sickle is repeated four times. Jesus teaches using repetition to point out key points. In this case it is the harvest which is ripe for what? Judgment.
When we review a few of Jesus’ parables we get a better understanding of one phase of that judgment process we gather more information on the subject.
Matthew 13:27-30 NLTse “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ (28) “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. (29) “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. (30) Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.'”
Matthew 13:36-39 NLTse Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.” (37) Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. (38) The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. (39) The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.
When we see Jesus telling us the harvest is at the end of the world and the harvest symbolizes the judgment, no one can argue with the point, the judgment is at the end of time in this world. That establishes a timeline many disagree with. But here we gathered information on the subject and allowed the Bible to be its own interpreter. Now that we established one point on a timeline, we can see how that timeline progresses by turning the page in Revelation.
Revelation 15:1 NLTse Then I saw in heaven another marvelous event of great significance. Seven angels were holding the seven last plagues, which would bring God’s wrath to completion.
Immediately following the end of that phase in the judgment process, the last seven plagues begin. Before John sees the seven plagues released on this world, he is shown another vision in Heaven.
Revelation 15:2 NLTse I saw before me what seemed to be a glass sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name. They were all holding harps that God had given them.
Were the saints in Heaven at that point in time, or was that a vision using symbols? We have to follow the sequence given in this story to answer that question.
Revelation 16:1-2 NLTse (1) Then I heard a mighty voice from the Temple say to the seven angels, “Go your ways and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.” (2) So the first angel left the Temple and poured out his bowl on the earth, and horrible, malignant sores broke out on everyone who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue.
The first plague identifies the people who are lost. Those who have been judged and found guilty. You have to know something about the basic concept of God’s judgment to understand the sequence of events. God’s judgment process is much like court procedures here on earth. Someone is accused of a crime. A court date is set. Evidence is reviewed. A decision is made and the person is either pronounced guilty or innocent. When the verdict is guilty, the punishment or sentence is of course carried out at a later date.
Like Jesus explained in His parable. The angels will know the difference between the saved and condemned. The first plague in Revelation chapter 16 verifies that point. Malachi included a prophecy about that day, event, and sequence.
Malachi 3:17-18 NLTse “They will be my people,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. (18) Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
Not only Heaven, but people on earth will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked. And that is one of the spiritual lessons we have to see and understand about the coronavirus. What happened at the beginning of that virus? As soon as people heard about that virus, many people ran to the stores to hoard, of all things, toilet paper. Toilet paper became a symbol of that virus. Pictures of white toilet flashed all around the world. Toilet paper marked the wicked. People hoarding toilet paper showed their greed. They marked themselves. The world could tell who was looking out for themselves and days later could see those who placed the welfare of others before themselves.
Jesus always teaches in pairs. Jesus always uses repetition to teach. If the first plague will mark the difference between the righteous and the wicked, wouldn’t Jesus send a warning before He moves from judging the dead to judging the living? Of course He would. We have that assurance in the fact, Jesus taught about the end of this world in pairs and sets.
There is one other aspect about those seven churches we have to realize. Not one church received a full view of Jesus or all the details about the other subjects covered in the letters John wrote to those churches. The churches had no choice but to come together with their letters from Heaven and put them together to get the full story.
Of course some people are going to look at those seven plagues and try to explain them. Many denominations already have their personal interpretations on those plagues that of course aligns with their doctrines. Which of course does not fit into the timeline and sequence of events recorded in Revelation. Some people are going to point to one or more of those plagues and use world history to try and prove some of those plagues have already been fulfilled. Now who do we believe? Do we believe Jesus and trust that John recorded Revelation in the proper sequence? Or do we believe college educated theologians who need to convince people those events and timelines in the Bible are wrong? And why do those theologians believe the timeline and events in the Bible were recorded in the wrong order? Because the timeline and sequence of events in Revelation do not agree with their doctrines. Like the priests and Pharisees who killed Jesus, theologians today insist their interpretations had to be written and taught because God, the Author of the Bible omitted important details, and for some reason wanted to hide the timeline and sequence of events from mankind. But as we’ve seen, the timeline and sequence of events has been clearly recorded. It is up to the individual to accept the sequence recorded in Revelation, accept the sequence offered by theologians, or ignore the entire sequence and hope it never actually happens.