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and then asked them why they were afraid and where exactly was their faith in Him. Jesus clarified the central issue and exposed their sinful anxiety. Almost throughout the entire COVID-19 crisis, the percentage of people


tested for the virus who did not have it when tested has stayed fairly steady— about 90-94% depending on one’s geographic region. In addition, the number of people who have been identified as dying from the virus currently stands at about .05% of the whole U. S. population. But when you consider that the people compiling the statistics on COVID-19 have admitted that they do not discriminate between dying FROM the virus and dying WITH the virus in one’s system, that is, they are actually not trying to figure out if the virus was the ac- tual CAUSE of the person’s death, then you have to admit that the total death numbers are inflated. And yet, repeatedly, we have heard about the need to set policy based on “science.” It is a complete distortion of any reputable science to fail to discriminate between deaths BY the virus and death merely WITH the virus in one’s system. Any curious person would want to know why this failure in discriminating is taking place. At best, we know that people with pre-existing conditions or compromised immune systems, and the elderly are most suscep- tible to suffering the most from the virus. In other words, the science is not only bad but also corrupt, and even so the numbers still don’t add up to a serious threat to the vast, and I mean vast, majority of people. For the people who set societal-wide policy to drone on about following the


data and basing things on science, while failing to make the basic, and frankly very important, discrimination between deaths BY versus deaths WITH COVID leaves us with one of two conclusions regarding them. They are either incred- ibly ignorant regarding what constitutes science, or they are lying about what they are doing. In either case, such people have lost all credibility as reliable sources of truth and wisdom. Yet, it is these same people who continue to tell us to wear masks, even goggles, keep our distance from others, and have suc- ceeded in many cases in closing schools and countless businesses gravely alter- ing our whole way of life, not to mention destroying some, if not many, people’s livelihoods. Fear abounds and ongoing suffering in numerous ways continues to be imposed for no rationally justifiable reason. Furthermore, many of these politicians and so-called experts setting policy, as well as those in the media who have been their supporters, are the same people who have advocated for violent riots in our cities, have allowed big, well-populated stores to remain open, and regard abortion as an essential service, while affirming that church worship is not essential. In some cases, they have completely ignored the U. S. Constitution, state constitutions, and above all violated Scripture in presuming to hold authority over what churches do in their worship. On one hand it is quite understandable why non-Christians could get sucked


into the hysteria of fear and these foolish and fiendish policies. What is inexcus- able is for Christians to do so. And, no, there is no other way to interpret the data, and the events inseparable from it. What is required is to be willing to look at the events over at least the last six months, factor the data, do some simple math problems. What is required is facing-up to the point that the people setting policy in relation to COVID-19 are not people we should listen to for truth and wisdom. What we have on a societal-wide scale with COVID-19 is an irrational, unjustified, manufactured fear. The elderly and those with pre-existing condi- tions or compromised immune systems have a legitimate reason to fear CO- VID-19, they, and not the rest of us, are like Jesus’ disciples in the boat facing an actual storm. And, yet, what did Jesus say even to those disciples in their panic: “Why are you afraid, O, you of little faith?” As for the rest, who claim to be Christian and are living in fear, advocating for the same measures that the liars


8


and fools in government and media perpetuate, it is perhaps true of them that God has sent “faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf [has] put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword though none pur- sues. And [they] shall have no power to stand before [their] enemies” (Lev. 26:36-37). The text addresses what God said he would do to his covenant people when they stubbornly chose to violate his covenant. What Jesus is doing with his cove-


nant people throughout history is pu- rifying them from sin, making them holy, so that he will one day present them to the Father as holy and blame- less (Eph. 5:27). God is sovereign; he is in control of COVID-19. Among the many things COVID-19 is revealing is who is relying more on the false prophets of American culture—the politicians (including the medical ones) and media for their source of wisdom and truth—than they are the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- ments. When we listen to false proph- ets, we learn to live by and with the fears that grip those who do not live in fear of the Almighty, Merciful and Gracious Lord. Christians have the great privilege, duty and opportunity during this time is to demonstrate to others what it means to believe in the resurrection from the dead and what it means to possess that resurrection power. Such people live fearlessly in the midst of this earth’s fears because they know what it means to fear him who can kill both body and soul, not merely the body. They interpret earthly fears differently than those gripped by them, and it shows in the way they live.?


Dr. David P. Smith is the Pastor of Covenant Fellowship ARP Church in Greensboro, NC.


The Associate Reformed Presbyterian


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