The Preliminary Stages of ‘Great Tribulation’

Coronavirus is only the beginning—and a very small beginning at that! Last Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared that it recognizes the coronavirus disease (covid-19) as a pandemic, stating, “Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly.” The last pandemic was swine flu in 2009, which killed about 200,000 people worldwide, including some 15,000 Americans.

United States President Donald Trump on Friday said he was authorizing actions to “unleash the full power of the federal government,” and said, “I am officially declaring a national emergency, two very big words.”

As of this writing, there are about 200,000 confirmed cases of the Wuhan flu, causing about 8,000 deaths. The U.S. has suffered about 100 coronavirus deaths so far.

For perspective, this article gives daily totals of how many people die every day from all causes, including 4,383 people dying from diabetes worldwide, 3,287 from car crashes, and more than 1,100 from homicides.

So on one hand, the media hype over this pandemic is overblown, especially when you compare it to previous pandemics and other, more serious, dangers we face on a daily basis. That said, it is refreshing to see government officials, public health experts and ordinary citizens take some positive action when it comes to stopping the spread of a dangerous disease. To see the world suddenly concerned about certain laws of quarantine and hygiene after blatantly disregarding these principles for so long is truly a sight to behold!

But without God and His inspired Word as our sure foundation, mankind never seems to find the right balance. Last week, for example, the media scolded President Trump for shaking hands with world leaders and for not being tested for covid-19, even though he had absolutely no symptoms. This is what distresses the left-wing media!

Over the weekend, the governor of Illinois said, “No matter how healthy you feel, if you can, stay home” (emphasis added throughout). Quarantining healthy people to arrest the spread of disease goes well beyond the principle of God’s law of quarantine. But that is what many health-care officials are now calling for. America’s go-to expert on infectious disease, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Sunday, “If it looks like you’re overreacting, you’re probably doing the right thing.”

This is now how we fight the spread of infectious disease—by overreacting?

If public health officials encourage you to remain calm and not panic, that is rotten advice, says columnist Peggy Noonan. We need overreaction and mass hysteria—so say the experts.

President Trump, the man who enacted travel bans on China and Europe, has actually been criticized for not being apocalyptic enough when discussing covid-19!

Consider this doomsday report from Saturday’s New York Times: “Between 160 million and 214 million people in the United States could be infected over the course of the epidemic. … That could last months or even over a year, with infections concentrated in shorter periods, staggered across time in different communities, experts said. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die.”

So far, about 8,000 people have died. But experts say it could be 1.7 million! The Times went on to say that as many as 21 million Americans might require hospitalization—and America has less than a million hospital beds available! And they wonder why Americans are fighting with each other at supermarkets for food, medicine, bottled water and toilet paper.

These scaremongers are advocating total surrender to panic, fear and mass hysteria. Fear of disease is adding more problems to the disease itself!

If only we would fear God and consider our ways!

President Trump called for a National Day of Prayer to be held Sunday, March 15, for all those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. He encouraged Americans to “pray for God’s healing hand.” He even quoted one of my favorite verses: “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Sadly, though, there was nothing in the proclamation about repentance from sin or obedience to God’s laws, whether spiritual or physical.

God’s Word says, “And whatsoever we ask [in prayer], we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 John 3:22). God answers the prayers of those who turn to Him in repentance and faithful obedience. His ears are open to the prayers of the righteous, “but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (1 Peter 3:12).

“Here is one of the major reasons why so many prayers are not answered. God will not listen to a person who rebels and persistently disobeys His Word” (Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course, Lesson 14).

God is trying to get the attention of our disobedient nations before it is too late. As my father noted in his most recent Trumpet article, “Coronavirus and Other Modern Plagues in Prophecy,” we are, even now, in the very preliminary stages of what the Bible calls “great tribulation”! In other words, what we are seeing happen in the world today is just a tiny preview of the curses that will soon overwhelm this planet! (Read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.)

My father wrote, “God is in close control over exactly how much devastation these beings [the four spirits of Zechariah 6] are allowed to unleash. He is not destroying indiscriminately: He is punishing the world in love and in measure—to help mankind turn from the paths of destruction to the way of truth and peace!”

Here is the lesson God wants us to learn during these trying times: Consider your ways, repent toward God, and then you can truly cast all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.