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The Call to Quarantine!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
This essay and newsletter were delayed by a week because of the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown in the U.S. and many other countries. Our entire lives were thrown into an upheaval: What do we do now? How can we handle this? Will my family and I survive, and will we be able to cope with all the changes: no meetings, keep your "social distance" when going to the grocery store or pharmacy -- most other stores, restaurants, and businesses are shut down. Who and what will be left standing when it's all over?
Why is this happening, anyway? This Scripture text from the prophet Isaiah tells us the likely reason why: the Lord has finally had enough of those who practice iniquity and shed innocent blood. For several decades, I've been publishing the true stories of Christians being persecuted and killed behind the Iron Curtain and now in the former Soviet bloc countries. I've also publicized the horrific worldwide genocide called abortion: over sixty million unborn babies killed -- that's ten times more human beings slaughtered in the U.S. than the six million Jews killed in Hitler's concentration camps.
But what is the response from most people who call themselves Christians? - Little to none. When people are comfortable and content in their little corner, they don't want anyone or anything to disturb them, to "rock their boat." They want to believe that life will just keep on going on "like normal" for them... until crash! - it doesn't keep on going on anymore. Psychologists call this "the normalcy bias." But when society grinds to a halt because of this pandemic... when the healthcare system is overwhelmed by the flood of millions who are dying... when the economy comes to a standstill and the government can't get it cranked up again... then we're finally brought to our senses that life "like normal" is gone forever.
In a meeting with our architect to develop plans for building "The ARC" - our Agape Restoration Community - we told him about the collapse of the Russian economy in 1991-99: grocery store shelves being completely empty, people standing outside the store in long lines waiting for it to open in the morning because word had gotten out that fresh milk would be delivered, and when the clerk began to unlock the doors, the crush of people literally broke the doors down! We've witnessed lines of people around the block waiting to get into the bank to exchange their old paper currency because the Russian government had to devalue the ruble by 1,000 percent and issue new currency; so elderly people standing in line were dying of heart attacks out of panic that their entire life's savings were being wiped out. What savings that could buy a summer house in the country... could now only buy a cheap car... and in a few weeks would only buy a bicycle - this is no exaggeration! There were three such devaluations and reissuing of the currency during our time in Russia.
Altogether, during those years 1991-99 we witnessed one million percent hyperinflation due to the Russian government issuing so much worthless currency with nothing behind it because the Russian economy wasn't working. Finally, toward the end of that decade, the economy began to come together. But there were still times when the electric power would suddenly go out for hours in large parts of Moscow, the capital city. Or else, in the high-rise apartment building we were moving into, the elevators were broken and we had to carry all of our furniture and possessions up seven flights of stairs. Or an elevator would get stuck when we took two disabled young men to a meeting several floors up, and we had to carry one of them down the stairs in his wheelchair. After telling our architect those stories, he still wouldn't believe that it could ever happen here in America.
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But now it's happening, right here before our eyes. And still, some young and foolish university students won't believe that a pandemic is happening, so they flock to Daytona Beach by the thousands for spring break to play "beach blanket bingo" - engaging in drunken sex orgies for days on end. Homosexuals continue to engage in anal sex, claiming it's their "right" to lead that lifestyle... all the while, knowing that the new Coronavirus can be spread through feces, that is, by anal sex. And Planned "Barrenhood" strove to get special exemptions to continue providing non-essential surgeries for abortions and get special handouts in the Two Trillion Dollar economic stimulus: how disgusting!
I've not heard any news commentator or read any analysis about the effect of adding Two Trillion Dollars to an economy that formerly was producing about twenty trillion dollars of output annually and now is grinding down to a halt. Let's see: if there's very little production of goods and services and twenty trillion dollars in circulation to buy what little is available, what happens when we add two trillion? Now there are twenty-two trillion dollars in circulation for those limited goods and services... so sellers raise their prices to gather up all those new dollars: hyperinflation! The Old Testament Scriptures condemned using unequal weights and measures, the old equivalent of currency manipulation. Won't we ever learn?
Some Christians will say that God would not bring judgment on a nation because of the people's sins: God is supposed to always be merciful, kind, loving, and generous... like a big, warm-fuzzy teddy bear in the sky. But that's not what Isaiah wrote! The Lord deeply regrets, grieves, and mourns when calamity is about to strike:
"When Jesus drew near, He saw the city [Jerusalem] and wept over it, saying, 'If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave one stone on another in you, because you didn't know the time of your visitation.' He entered into the temple, and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, 'It is written, "My house is a house of prayer," but you have made it a "den of robbers"!'" (Luke 19:41-46).
Why were the things that would bring peace "hidden from their eyes"? It was because they refused to believe that there would be any consequences for their evil actions, that they could keep on doing what they had always been doing and life would go on "like normal." But eventually, the social capital of shared morality grows thinner and thinner, until finally, it falls apart. "Be sure your sins will find you out!" (Numbers 32:23). When King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah the Hittite murdered to cover up the fact that she was pregnant, he was sure that nobody knew. But word got around and the prophet Nathan confronted the king about his dual dastardly deeds. Then David deeply grieved and repented of his evil acts:
"Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving-kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities" (Psalm 51:1-9 [Ps. 50 in the Septuagint]).
We must pray -- we absolutely must! -- that the American people, from the politicians in Washington to the barbers and shopkeepers and white-collar workers and doctors and nurses and paramedics, all of us, you and I, will deeply repent and turn away from our sins!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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This cartoon might seem to some a put-down of the pro-life position, about right to middle-of-the-roaders, and humorous to the many who just don't care. But the real question is about personhood: when does human life begin and end? Theoretically, a new human may begin at conception, but practically speaking, we don't know exactly when that takes place in real-life conditions. In a lab petri dish, it can be observed under a microscope that there seems to be a flash of energy at the moment of fertilization. But in day-to-day life, a woman can only find out she's pregnant after implantation occurs and her hormonal system responds to a pregnancy test. Many fertilized eggs never make it to implantation.