Today (15 March 2020), the number of deaths from Covid-19 Coronavirus in the UK jumped from 21 to 35, and the number of confirmed cases, from 1100 to 1400. In Italy yesterday the number of deaths had risen to over 1000. We infect each other with Covid-19 before we show symptoms, so it is spreading and has officially been declared a pandemic.
A tiny organism sends all humanity into fear. Humanity finds it is not, after all, in charge of its destiny. Should we not repent?
Many see it as a disaster to fear, but I wonder whether God is warning us.
For some decades, Africa especially suffered the impact of climate change that has resulted from the actions that our affluent greed has dictated, and we deemed our economy, our comfort, convenience and competition more important that that. Is God giving us, the world policy makers, a chance to change our strategic direction before it is too late? And especially to change the aspirations, expectations, fundamental beliefs and presuppositions that determine our direction?
Let us look at the picture more closely - and readers can look more closely still. The problems affect both the environment and the economy.
Environment first. First, scientists warned us of the effects of greenhouse gases from our industrial processes and travel, leading to climate change. Was God then warning us via the reasoning ability with which humanity has been created? - Yet many in the affluent world ignored the warnings, because it did not suit us to heed them.
Then environmental and climate problems have been hitting Africa hard with droughts and storms. Similarly, other parts of the world have been hit. We have known of them and yet have we largely ignored the warnings? Have we turned a blind eye to these problems, because they don't affect us? Have we told ourselves they don't matter much, because we have to keep the global economy going? (And our own leading positions in it?) Even though we can find some logic in this stance, will it stand up before God's judgment and rightness?
Or have we hardened our hearts, like Pharaoh did before Moses?
So did God step up the warnings? Then climate change began to affect one affluent part of the world: the Australian bush fires of early 2020. They were far worse than in previous years, with "once a century" temperatures occurring more often and turning all to tinder ready for the fires. This affected an affluent part of the world. It began to make Australians think, yet not enough.
So has God stepped up the warnings yet further, allowing Covid-19 Coronavirus to tip all Europe and America into fear? Though it began in China, it is Europe that is the Covid-19 hotspot of the world. So far, Africa has been spared - except that today (17 March 2020) we hear of a few cases occurring there because people have come from Europe.
I don't believe God 'caused' this, nor that God is 'punishing' us, but rather perhaps God is allowing Creation to operate as it was designed to - there are repercussions of what humans do. And humans were mandated with leadership in Creation, so humans have extra responsibility and what humans do has greater effect, for both good and ill.
What humans do has repercussions. We cannot escape our responsibility. If people are selfish and arrogant, then it will eventually come back on them even though others might be hurt in the process.
We have the selfishness of each one of us, and the arrogance and unconcern of the leaders in (affluent) society - which reflects the attitude that most of us take. See Ezekiel 16:49.
Our commitment to this is what Dutch economist, Prof. Bob Goudzwaard called an idol. An idol is something we commit to, sacrifice other aspects to life to, and expect it to bring us blessing - and yet it often delivers the opposite of what we expect.
God has always warned us against idols. Not just because God is the true God, but because idolatry wrecks both humanity and the rest of Creation in the long term. So, in the Jewish Scriptures, we find a major trope against idolatry by God's people who should represent God.
Today's affluent world has several idols, according to Goudzwaard: technology, security, revolution and economic growth. These work together to wreck the world.
I can see signs of Covid-19 as judgment on at least one of these idols: economic growth. To the idol of economic growth we, the affluent, have sacrificed not only the poor but also the planet.
Briefly, we have stimulated economic growth from almost any source, whether harmful or not. This includes: the transport sector, the manufacturing sector, the travel sector, the construction sector, the technology sector and the financial sector. All these harm the planet by their activities. Yet have we not turned a blind eye to the harm they do? And is it not our absolute commitment to economic growth that has 'justified' us in doing so? We protect flying and give it special privileges - it is after all the transport mode of the affluent, and we tell ourselves that without flying 'the economy' will falter.
These are ways in which economic growth is our idol. God is against idolatry, because of the harm it does. So God, after warning us, must act. It is not that God zaps the economy with a Zeus-like lightning bolt, but rather that the global economy collapses under its own rotten foundations. This is the second time it has happened in recent years.
The travel industry looks like it will be decimated, so does the airline industry, and supply of goods from China (the birthplace of Covid19) are blocked. Many of our politicians and policy-makers and opinion-formers are terrified that the economy will collapse, maybe worse than in 2008. Robert Peston today pointed out that in 2008 it collapsed because of the evil of debt, but now it might be worse because both supply and finance are shaky [BBC Radio 4, News at 1.0 pm, 15 March 2020]. Am I wrong in thinking that affluent over-consumption is also an evil? (see Ezekiel 16:49)
Why has this occurred?
In Scripture I find a pattern, that God's people turn away from God, God warns, people ignore, God sends louder warnings, people harden their hearts, God sends yet louder warnings, people harden their hearts further, then God scatters or exitles the people. Might that pattern be happening today?
I don't believe God 'caused' this, nor that God is 'punishing' us, but rather perhaps God is allowing Creation to operate as it was designed to. What humans do has repercussions. We cannot escape our responsibility. If people are selfish (e.g. flying too much), then it will eventually come back on them even though others might be hurt in the process.
Why has this landed on affluent Europe?
Is it because our affluence has resulted in many flying around the globe unnecessarily, and thus spreading Covid19?
Flying is perhaps the most damaging form of transport there is, most of which is completely unnecessary, but which the affluent use, and those in power protect.
Will we not all have to stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ? Should we not at least take stock, think, listen, repent? Just in case God is indeed warning us?
See Also:
Climate Change and Global Economy
Disasters Wrought by God - Jeremiah 45
Some Verses Calling For Repentance Among Western Christians
My Approach to Climate Change - Trying to Build Heaven on Earth? - written years ago, 2004.
America - was this a 'word' from God in 2001, a few months before 9/11?
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Created: 15 March 2020 Last updated: 22 March 2020 23 Nov 2025 canon, bgc.