Another Perspective on the Pandemic

What were you doing in March of 2020? I won't forget that month. My wife and I were taking a visa run from our mission station in Malaysia. We flew to Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 9. And in the week that followed, as I preached and taught, the world went crazy.

First, Malaysia shut its doors. So we couldn't go home. And then South Africa closed its out-going doors and locked Heidi and me in that incredible country. And things only got more interesting from there.

I suppose you also have a pandemic story worth sharing. It has been a period of financial stretching, grieving, illness, restrictions, cancellations, and recalibrations. During this period Heidi and I lost my stepfather, my mother, and then our unborn son. And you have lost treasures that were precious to you.

But what has the church lost or gained during this time? And how do these strange years fit in with the end-time scenario that we have been preaching? What lessons might we learn from the pandemic difficulties, past and present?

In this article I want to take you through some biblical thoughts related to such things. We will talk about propaganda. We will talk about anger and frustration. We will talk about conspiracies and about the church. And through it all, we will talk about God's relevant counsels during this time of maximum emotion.

Lessons from the Propaganda Machines

We live in an age of misinformation. Fake news abounds. The Chinese have a propaganda machine, and so do the Russians. In the United States, the Republicans have one, and so do the Democrats. The pro-vaccine camp has produced content for decades, and so has the anti-vax camp. These machines are so productive that you are likely inundated daily with material from one or more of them.

Paul foresaw this state of affairs. He saw even that the deceivers themselves would be victims of propaganda. "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13).

Paul prophesied this also, teaching that we would turn our ears from truth that differed from our favored propaganda. "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (2 Tim. 4:3, 4, NKJV).¹

"Fables" is old English for propaganda.

What makes our age particularly delusive is that big tech knows us so well. Those who favor Russian propaganda are rarely confronted with Ukrainian views. And those favoring Trump never see anything truly positive about Biden. Big Tech isn't taking sides so much as aiming content at those who will find it engaging. Our ears are being scratched pleasantly, but that makes them itch afterwards.

The trick is perfected when we are sent a range of ideas so that we feel like discerning persons as we choose between different flavors of our own preferred views.

We also live in an age of anger and frustration. As iniquity is abounding, the love of most persons is noticeably in retreat. And this loss of love is happening when our eternal well-being hinges on maintaining a deep love for each other.

Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (Matt. 24:12, 13).

At this time there may be many like Peter who fancy themselves ready to meet violent persecution. What the pandemic is teaching us again is that mockery is more difficult to resist than pain. Being called stupid will bend a man who would have braved a hail of bullets. (And it is only a few verses between "although all deny you, yet I will never deny you" and "I know not this man of whom you speak.")

Anger and frustration are the opposite of the fruits of love, joy, peace, and longsuffering that grow in the Christian life. And the pandemic may be teaching us to choose our friends more carefully. "Make no friendship with an angry man, . . . lest you learn his ways and your soul gets trapped" (Prov. 22:24, 25, adapted).

The Plandemic and Conspiracy Theories

Since the pandemic was announced, I have heard quite a few ideas. I have heard that there is a group of elites seeking to depopulate the planet. (Dear elites, if this is the best you could do, you need new advisors. There are far more people on planet earth now than when the pandemic began.) I have heard that birds are gone and what remains are reconnaissance drones that look like birds. I have heard that Putin is helping to overthrow the socialist persons destroying our country. I have heard that most heads of state have been executed and fully-compliant body doubles are filling their places. I have heard that the Catholic Church is bent on world domination and is uniting with other religious bodies to achieve this end. And I have heard that Satan hopes to exterminate all Sabbath keepers.

This is my way of saying that not all conspiracy theories are created equal. Some, like the last two sentences, are deeply troubling truths exposed by prophets. And others, like the rest of the paragraph above, are separated from reality by several steps.

But suppose you disagree with me and think one or more of those ideas is true. Here is my lesson for you during the pandemic: The ninth commandment forcibly forbids conspiratorial gossip. You and I are not at liberty to spread malicious information about elites unless we are witnesses of the truthfulness of the information. The fact that a ruler is evil is not excuse enough to spread a lie about him, if you hope to be a commandment keeper. "Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor" (Exod. 20:16).

The idea of a "plandemic" leads to a few other relevant Bible ideas. If, in fact, elite persons planned this pandemic, then we are dealing with high and mighty government forces. Such things are high above our feeble efforts.

But there are powers higher than the elites. Jesus is commander of the heavenly host. He rules over Gabriel. And in Daniel 10 we find Gabriel and Jesus (and presumably those under them) working on regime change. They were going to usher out the Persians and bring in the Greeks. And that is the kind of mighty accomplishment that all the offerings ever given to the Adventist church could not do. So if the elites are after us, the pandemic lesson is this:

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31, NKJV).

Further, we are told to pray "for kings, and for all that are in authority," so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life (1 Tim. 2:2). But think about that. How would prayer for kings affect the peacefulness of our lives unless God's agents were higher in power and effectiveness than the elites of earth? So whether the theories you have heard are true or not, we need not fear what man can do to us.

And finally, beware of murmuring against the leaders you are praying for. We find in Daniel 4:17 that God has placed even "the basest of men" on the thrones of this world. And that is why those who resist prevailing authorities are resisting "the ordinance of God" (Rom. 13:2). We have our part—to pray.

But if there is any lesson from the pandemic for me, it is that politics is not for us. Beyond the basic civil act of voting, it is not for us to help God place men in positions of trust. It is rather ours to pray for peace and to believe that Jesus and Gabriel and their forces can still accomplish regime change when they choose to do so.

Lessons from Churches' Reactions to the Issues

Maybe you know someone who lost a job over a vaccine mandate. I myself was contacted by several doctors who were thinking of moving to the mission field to escape mandatory inoculations.

And as we expect America to speak like a dragon, we were not shocked when the mandates sounded over-the-top authoritarian.

But some of us were caught off guard when the church took the state's position on the mandates. We thought that the church legal team that protects the job security of Sabbath keepers would be enlisted to protect those refusing the vaccines.

And we were wrong.

I think I know why. (And here I am speculating a bit.) The church has large assets in the medical field. If those assets are not operated within federal policies, the legal exposure for litigation against our health institutions is large. Perhaps this is what tipped the scale in the direction it took. While we might disagree with the final decision, we can all recognize that responsible leadership has to consider the possible outcomes of its actions.

But while various church entities enforced mandates that many of us disliked, the real church trouble was at the local congregation.

My own pandemic congregation in Dunlap, Tennessee, faced strong emotional views on these things. (We lost several members and attendees to COVID-19). We had strong mask promoters and strong mask despisers. We had persons who were injected as soon as they were able and others who believed that our health message forbids being injected with mRNA vaccines.

And that is why I penned an article a year ago on Romans 14 and religious liberty.

There I showed that Romans 14 was written for periods like this. It speaks of what the church is to do with competing views that are both held by conscientious members. (And I can assure you that the line one might draw between maskers and anti-maskers is not in the same place as the line an angel would draw between the sheep and the goats.)

What does Romans 14 say about such things? Namely, that persons with varying views should accept each other in the church if neither makes their view a test, if neither insists on arguing the point. We are to let issues that separate faithful persons alone unless we can discuss them with warm and calm words.

"Receive those that are weak in the faith, but not to the point of arguing about questionable issues" (Rom. 14:1, adapted).

Another lesson related to the pandemic, and derived soundly from Scripture, is that mission must trump safety. This is hard for Laodiceans to see. They invest so much in long-term plans for financial success and blissful retirement that dangerous work seems perilously foolhardy. "How could Stephen," you can hear someone asking, "risk forty years of service to give one lousy sermon to the angry Jews that stoned him to death? Couldn't he have found a different way to reach them?"

And when the apostles, with badly beaten bodies, uttered prayers for God to grant them boldness to preach again in the same place where they had just been beaten, Laodicea objects that this is frankly not prudent. "If you get busted for doing that, do not call it persecution!" I can hear someone saying.

But mission must trump safety, or the devil will wall in the work with danger.

That is why Heidi and I were vaccinated. We didn't need it and didn't want it. But our work was dearer to us than all besides, and we submitted to the vaccine to open doors in the mission field. This is similar to the reason that Paul boarded a ship on the Mediterranean Sea. Traveling by ship carried significant risk. But the risk couldn't be compared to the greater risk for persons who otherwise would likely die unwarned.

Now if Heidi and I had viewed the vaccine as a moral evil, then we would not have accepted it, even to travel. We wouldn't eat pork to travel or drink alcohol to travel. We set a clear line of distinction between what God has forbidden and what we have inferred.

When it comes to what God has forbidden, faithfulness must trump expediency. We must do what is right at whatever cost to ourselves. And that is why I understand some people who lost their jobs over refusing the virus. Their understanding of the science was different from mine, and that is no reason for me to hold them at arm's length.

Lessons from My Experiences with the Pandemic

One thing I observed repeatedly is that the seeds of fanaticism are well-scattered all over otherwise good ground. An enemy has done this, I am sure.

I define fanaticism as zeal not based on accurate knowledge. This was the fanaticism of the Jews. "I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and making efforts to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to God's righteousness" (Rom. 10:2, 3, adapted).

And I have observed plenty of evidence that various persons' opinions were much more intense than their level of knowledge warranted. Such excitement for a weak idea is, itself, fanatical. And I have seen fanatical persons on both sides of the pandemic arguments.

But my greatest take-away from the pandemic is related to evangelism in the closed countries of the world.

So let me tell you a true story with pseudonyms:

While locked down in my home in Tennessee under quarantine for coronavirus, I began reaching out to persons in closed countries through social media (often a first contact by messenger, then quickly transitioning to Whatsapp or Signal or anything else). I initiated contact with Joe in Somalia, Roger in Iraq, and Shelly in Afghanistan. Well, now 24 months later, all three have become Seventh-day Adventists. And all three are assisting the work of the church in communities that were zero percent Christian before I contacted them. And Shelly started a ball rolling that has converted Ruth, Kelly, Alyssa, Sheryl, Betty, Jill, Sandra, Kamy, Alice (80%), Wanda (70%) and Terry (50%), as well as Rick, Bill, Glenn, Sam, and four other men in the works.

Now how I contacted the first three is not so significant as the fact that persons in these closed countries are on Facebook and Instagram. You can find them. You can reach out to them. (When I contacted Shelly, she didn't know English. We communicated through Google Translate.) I'm thankful for a coworker in Germany who is female and could help me with Shelly.

My exciting message to you is that, if you are ever home again against your will for sickness or whatever, please become a missionary to the 10-40 window! If you are a retiree, please lift your fingers out of retirement. If you have been adding your power to the forwarding-army of one of the propaganda machines, please defect to God's forces! (And if you want ideas on how to do it, here are a few leads: you can find businesses and schools and universities in a particular closed country by searching the internet by Google or Bing or Yahoo or whatever. Now most of these institutions have a Facebook page and a web page. And through these means you can locate persons to contact. Also, popular influencers that have a million or so followers frequently have FB Live posts with hundreds of comments. Scan these comments for Muslim names. If the person making the comment also speaks English, there's a grade A contact for you. And if you would like materials in Arabic, Farsi, Fulai, Turkish, Urdu, Bangla, Malay, Indonesian, German, Russian, Chinese, Pashto, or Dari, you can reach me by WhatsApp at +1 423 637 8408. But your own ideas might be just as effective.)

My last personal lesson from the pandemic is that healthy people have an edge. They can minister to the sick when others are endangered by doing so. I don't know what the next pandemic will be like, but its coming won't be a century from now. And when it does come, healthy people will still have an edge. So, get on your exercise routine. Lower your caloric content. Drop those habits of sugary indulgence that weaken your immune system.

In short, practice the counsel that God has given us. No pandemic takes God by surprise. His counsel has anticipated everything, His Word answers the very questions that perplex us. And if we follow His counsel in developing our bodies as robust exhibits of His power, we will be able to exert an influence in a time of prevailing sickness.

These were my lessons. And I would be pleased to learn yours.

Conclusion

Getting along is a means to the end of getting things done. We want to be united so that God can pour out His Spirit on us. We want to be united so that we can make plans together and get things done together.

We do not want to be united so that we can socialize together, blissfully ignorant of the suffering going on in the world. (Such blissful enjoyment won't be long lasting. Things will most certainly be getting worse and worse in the near future.)

But we do want to be united so that we can engage with the suffering and help people find peace and rest and joy.

Yes, we can do some of that by social media, as I did when on lock-down. But I want you to know that I have had better success when working in-person on the ground. And when we work in dangerous places, our work says, "These people believe in what they are doing." When we avoid dangerous work, in Muslim nations for example, our neglect says, "These people don't really believe in what they teach."

So mission must trump safety. And faithfulness must trump expediency. These are the lessons of Acts and Daniel.

Also, reason must trump emotion. During the pandemic or after it, we can't afford to be wagged like a tail on the propaganda beast. We can't let someone else make us angry or bitter or violent, based on their agenda.

But reason invites us to have emotions regarding things we can't see and needs we can't touch. Reason says, "Persons in darkness face greater peril than you will face reaching out to them." Reason must trump emotion. Parents and grandparents, please encourage your young ones when you hear them verbalize a desire to work in the 10-40 window. I think of Melissa (a pseudonym), whose eyes pled with me last week as she said, "Will you please help me talk to my parents? They don't want me to go to the mission field."

Finally, whether we have learned our pandemic lessons well or not, the next test is coming. It will be harder than this test. And it will be followed by harder tests yet.

If we can learn anything from this test, it is to expect that Satan will try to divide us. It is to expect that Satan will try to excite us fanatically. It is to expect that the health message will become more and more front-and-center in a way that will sideline Adventist workers who do not practice it. (In some cases, they will be sidelined by death.)

So while we anticipate the storm, let's review these lessons and do what we can, while we can.

Endnotes

¹ Unless indicated otherwise, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version.