Corona Virus Covid-19 with its higher-than-flu death rate, has raised serious questions of faith, from Iranian Islamic rejectionism to South Korean ‘faith-healing’ super spreaders, to the fundamental questions why does God allow evil?
This virus was called 'Corona' from the form of the virus type, which means 'a crown', which has stuck more than the more specfic Covid-19 name. Christians who watch for Christ coming as king, as Christ asked, may note Christ means 'Anointed' on the head as a king is crowned and that this virus comes in a set in the increasing troubles of the last days before the redemption (Luke 21:25-28). BUT there is strong suspicion that the Covid-19 virus escaped from human investigation from a virus lab (an early Chinese scientific paper noted the proximity, which is a fact). This opens an area of investigation as to how much evil is actually caused by humans; from murder to carelessness with a virus, to the accidents of pure stupidity. We may consider issues as diverse as chemical exposure in food to death due to a building’s infected air conditioning, or structural collapse. We may then more rightly see the issues. All, in fact, need nearly constant protection from deadly human inventions!
Faith and Covid-19
Some think faith is some sort of ignorant acceptance. Some tend to see all that happens, even if it be human mischance, as fate, which explains Iran’s lack of reaction to Covid-19 and the licking of shrines, the high rate of infections, overwhelming of medical facilities, ignorant torching of clinics and the high death toll. Saudi Arabia’s banning of foreign pilgrims to Mecca shows a shift to the enlightened Judeo-Christian world thinking. So what has the Korean sect missed? A central core tenant of Christ is that we have wisdom in action and do not tempt God!
And he brought him (Christ) to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
Jesus answering said unto him, “It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” (Luke 4:9-12)
If the Son of God, the Christ of Christianity, will not expect God’s help from wilful actions, neither should his followers. We do not deliberately go into a dangerous situation, to then ask God to protect us. No serious Christian would jump off a cliff as a dare-devil and then expect God to look after them! We should not walk into virus central without even reasonable protection or habits and expect God to keep us safe!
As wisdom is required of the Christian to not tempt God, we also seek knowledge of all risks. Christ said ‘Watch!’ in the context of seeing hazards and avoiding them in the lead up to his return (Luke 21:36). We research and we find out. We observe and learn. We watch.
Wisdom of God's Covenant Law
One thing that Covid-19 is revealing is the wisdom of the Torah. One of the most powerful tools of reducing the spread of any virus is isolation, especially if there is an issue. Leviticus 15 establishes that any with a ‘running issue’, a flowing or flux such as mucus, semen or blood of any sort, are unclean for a week- with everything they touch needing to be washed, and any who touch anything they touch being similarly unclean for a week, needing washing. There is nothing more modern than this. It is still best practice to wash things, despite a few new anti-virus and baterial solutions, which are not advised to be overused as they can lead to super-bugs. Dead bodies, which are now known to be a source of infection, were washed and those who touched those bodies were not allowed to be with others for a week, and had to wash everything, more than once.
Abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day. And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood. (Numbers 31:19-20)
The woman with an issue of blood 12 years healed by touching Christ's hem was unclean all that time, having to wash everything (Matt 9, Mark 5, Luke 8).
Christianity did not dispense with the principles, but made it more meaningful
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (Hebrews 13:13-14)
Unless we physically go out without the camp, and isolate ourselves when sick, or our society practices this we don’t know what Paul really means.
The Wikipedia entry on Quarantine begins in Leviticus and continues with Islamic practices for leprosy based on Leviticus. Then to Venice a trading city, that in 1448 made ships wait 40 days before entry (a quarantine).
In the WHO document on habits of handwashing and religion, they write, “it is well known that in some cases, such as with Judaism, religion underlies the very culture of the population in such a way that the two concepts become almost indistinguishable.” (ncbi)
Apostate Christianity, however was afflicted by being cut from its Jewish roots, and misunderstanding their Lord. As to Christians to eating without washing hands, the Disciples were eating in the field without ritual washing, and what is said by Christ in no way dismisses the Law (Torah), which Christ in every point upheld, it merely establishes the principle that the defilement of sin is from the heart not the dirty grot on the hands.
That the early Christians practiced the washing of the Torah as Jews is likely, as it is known they washed feet (1 Tim 5:10). And the Apostle James speaks of washing hands, in a context that makes no sense unless they did wash their hands day to day.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (James 4:8)
Those without faith may only wash for practical reasons, but the true Christian in every menial hand wash should also see in addition a meaningful spiritual component.
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:26-27)
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)
Our Lord and his Disciples, being Jews, would have followed the rituals of washing hands, bodies, implements and clothes.
For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. (Mark 7:3-4)
Before that Abraham and even the angels washed before eating. Not just hands but the feet.
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. (Genesis 18:4-5)
That when the feet are washed so are the hands is shown in Exodus 30, where Aaron and his sons wash both their hands and their feet. The washing of the feet of the disciples, who would have worn sandals on filthy streets, was their common practice. That there is a spiritual lesson of servanthood does not negate the practical. If people do not do this as Abraham and Jews of that era did, then they may miss the point, as they have never experienced it.
If washing and hand washing has worked for Jews to deliver better health outcomes, it stands to reason it benefits Christians. When Christianity again sought it roots and revived to positively influence, it emerges aligning Godliness with cleanliness - and soap.
The phrase “cleanliness is next to Godliness” can be found in a 1778 sermon by John Wesley. But that concept would be taken literally by Christian activists who made bathing one of their socially-progressive causes and who allied themselves with the new soap companies. “Callahan, Lofton, and Seales explain how the push to sell soap depended on, and contributed to, a larger ideology,” she writes. “It brought together ideas of progress, the fight against prostitution and alcohol, and an optimistic, self-improving Protestant theology under the rubric of cleanliness.” So we can credit our current penchant for cleanliness and personal hygiene as another example of the cultural influence of Christianity. origins of cleanliness next to godliness
Wesley likely got the phrase from a cultural summary from Francis Bacon, who may have had the idea from Jews who knew their Talmud ‘purity leads to devotion’.
“Francis Bacon wrote: “Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God” (Advancement of Learning, Book II [1605])ancienthebrewpoetry
Then too consider, that water that Jesus made wine at the weddingin Cana. It was there in 6 pots of stone by the door to wash the hands and feet, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews (John 2:6). It wasn’t there to drink, but to wash! The servants knew this. This became the finest wine.
Covid -19 is teaching the world again to wash its hands, as the God of the Bible teaches its people to do.
Why the Evil?
The Bible encourages questions, and it encourages a search for truth.
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. (Proverbs 23:23)
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. (2Timothy 2:15-16)
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
Bible wisdom literature includes the book of Job where they debate and question the source of evil, as Job suffers painfully on every level emotionally and physically. Ecclesiastes is all about a practical investigation and observation of the results ‘under the sun’. No person should ever blindly accept anything. Investigate. The whole Bible is the answer to the question of evil, so it cannot be addressed fully here. Logically as evil exists and can’t be wished away, either there is the Bible’s answer to evil or there is no answer.
As to the question of the existence of the evil of deadly virus and bacteria, let us consider an eye witness account that was a founding event in the national history of Israel, and which shaped its very Law.
And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again. And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. (Numbers 12:10-15)
While leprosy was evident in that era (and has not been eradicated), not only is it inflicted on Miriam, but she recovers from it after seven days. This argues a level of control over bacteria that fits with the statement that God controls all life:
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. (Psa 104:29)
If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust. (Job 34:14-15)
In the Bible viewpoint, as God controls our life, it would seem odd if the remarkably complex bacteria and virus that are part of that life are not known. The Bible does show strongly, that God has control over bacteria. Naaman the Syrian is healed by Elisha of leprosy, and Elisha’s greedy servant Gehazi afflicted for life (2 Kings 5).
Famously, after a long era of very few being healed, Jesus heals a man of leprosy
And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. (Luke 5:12-14)
This indicates that in ancient times Israel had known God’s healing as the recorded ritual survived, but that by Jesus' time healing had not been known for a long time. The Judeans of Jesus' day were keeping the law of separation, but if the leprous were being healed this man would not have sought Christ to heal him. There is some evidence that the remarkable miracles of healing of Christ and the Apostles were against a backdrop of a time of no healing. People sought Greek-style Physicians.
A woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, (Luke 8:43)
Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? (Jeremiah 8:22)
For a long time now the age of the Apostles has passed and there is no miraculous sudden healing by the touching of the hem of a garment. There may be some confidence-healing, as a positive human spirit can affect outcomes. We are in the Greek age of Doctors, in an era of great advances in antibiotics, yet those that trust and rely on this, as the woman ill 12 years of the Apostle’s day, will find that it often fails them. If there is healing, it is by prayer and grace from Above. Yet there is no healing that matters, unless it be from mortality, from death, itself. Can any retain their life-spirit? (Ecclesiastes 8:8). But let us consider, to be sustained in life now, we need daily protection from all deleterious forms of viruses and bacteria.
The Wisdom and Protection
There is the wisdom in understanding the two halves of the same whole: the understanding of the truth of the underlying reasons for the pragmatics of the Torah Covenant which included isolation, washing of items and hand washing before eating and then the deliverance that comes from being in this very same Covenant refuge. We can’t ignore the rules and ways of Yahweh Elohim, then expect to be upheld by God in our ways. As Christ says, we do not tempt our God.
We first seek the right way of life, then enter its protection. We wash the feet of angels.
We do not walk into the pestilence...
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Psalm 91:2-12)
