The coronavirus, COVID-19, has caused worldwide death and has had devastating effects on the economy of the USA and other nations. The Lord Jesus Christ, surveying the future, warned: “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Mt 24:7). Are the future plagues predicted by Christ far worse than COVID-19?
The Bible predicts a future seven-year period of horrible judgments before the return of Jesus Christ. The future will witness successive waves of warfare, bloodshed, and widespread famine (Rev 6:3-5), the death of a fourth of the world’s population (6:7-8), the death of a third of sea-life (8:8-9), the poisoning of a third of the fresh water (8:10-11), and the darkening of a third of the heavenly bodies (8:12-13). Then “the bottomless pit … [will be] opened … and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power … And to them it was given that they should … tormen[t] [men] five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them” (9:1-6). Following this plague, demonic beings will be loosed on the earth “to slay the third part of men” (9:13-21).
The Antichrist (1 Jn 2:18) will control a one-world government in which “he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor … to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast [Antichrist, compared to a bloodthirsty animal], or the number of his name.” He will seek to kill all who refuse to worship him and his image or take his mark (Rev 6:1-2; 13:11-18). Those who take the Antichrist’s mark will be able to get this world’s goods, but the Bible warns: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” (14:9-11).
The final plagues before Christ returns are described as: “a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. … The sea … became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea … the rivers and fountains of waters … became blood. … The sun … [will] scorch men with fire … [following which the sinful world will be] full of darkness; and [men] gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds” (16:1-9).
Then the kingdom of Antichrist will be destroyed (17-18) and Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord, will return: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (19:11-16). Christ will rule the world, and His enemies will have to stand before Him in judgment: “I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire … the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (20:11-15; 21:8). “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (6:14-17).
These judgments of God will be unutterably horrible—far worse than any plagues humanity has experienced in all its sinful history. In the worst plague of all—eternal torment in the lake of fire—“the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (19:15) will be manifest, as He shows to all what the infinite weight of His unrestrained wrath, fury, and fierceness is upon the damned (Rom 9:22) who get what they deserve for their sins.
Judgment is coming because you—and the rest of the human race—are sinners who have broken the holy law of the pure and righteous God. He commands: “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16), but “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God … there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10, 23). You have a sinful nature passed down from the first fallen man, Adam (Rom 5:12-19). God “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5). You are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1); controlled by Satan (2:2); and are “fulfilling the [sinful] desires of [your] flesh and … mind” as by “nature the chil[d] of wrath” (2:3). Because your “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9), unless your sin is taken away, you “cannot please God” but are “defiled and unbelieving” with “nothing pure” (Rom 8:8; Tit 1:15). At this very moment you are “condemned already” (Jn 3:18). “Kno[w] therefore the terror of the Lord” (2 Cor 5:11), and tremble before Christ’s warning: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell” (Mt 23:33)?
God has made a way for you to escape His judgment. In fact, before the coming seven-year period of plagues, He will take to Himself those He has redeemed, sparing them from the punishment He will bring on the world (1 Th 5:9; Rev 4:1ff.). Those of His people who die before these judgments begin are immediately in the bliss of heaven (Jn 14:1-3), while those who perish in their sin are immediately “turned into hell” (Ps 9:17). To escape judgment, consider that “the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:15).
Repent: “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin … turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die” (Eze 18:30; 33:11)? You will experience the coming “great tribulation” unless you “repent of [your] deeds” (Rev 2:22). Do not be like those who “were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols … neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts … [but] blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds … they repented not to give him glory” (9:20-21; 16:9, 11). Turn from your sins and submit to Christ as Lord!
Believe the gospel: The “gospel” is the good news “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day” (1 Cor 15:1-4). The Lord Jesus is “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim 3:16). He is the Son of God, who has existed from all eternity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, the three Persons of the one and only true God (1 Jn 5:7; Mt 28:19). Christ became a Man, lived a sinless life, and then died on the cross, where His Father “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). He died to pay in full what you owe for your sin, and then rose from the dead, conquering death and Satan and proving that His payment was enough to remove sin forever. You cannot take your own sins away, but Christ “loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev 1:5). You cannot be saved by your works, but you can be saved by Christ’s perfect and complete work on the cross.
You must “believe the gospel” (Mr 1:15). “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). Commit or entrust your soul to Jesus Christ alone. Forsake all confidence in any good works or religious rituals you have done, are doing, or plan to do in the future: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9). If you think you will be saved by being a good person, you reject Christ’s work on the cross: “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal 2:21). You must be “justified [declared righteous based on Christ’s death] by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:28) or you will certainly perish eternally. After justifying you, God will change you so that you love Him and His commands, and hate sin, not in order to be saved, but because you are already saved: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17).
Because of the plague of sin, God will soon send plagues that are worse than anything the world has ever experienced, culminating in the worst plague of all—eternity in the lake of fire. Christ promises: “Surely I come quickly” (Rev 22:20). Are you ready for the coming plagues—have you been saved from your sin?’ https://faithsaves.net/coming-plagues/
Without doubt it was the totalitarian Communist Party that is responsible for this pandemic of Coronavirus around the world! The China Communist Party knew what the West just might do to conquer this virus and that the freedom and liberties we once knew and loved would be eroded. That is exactly what the ‘Former Supreme Court Justice, Jonathan Sumption, QC, warned this week that we are in danger of becoming a police state. He was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 World at One on Monday, and it is worth reflecting on some of his comments.
Lord Sumption explained that the lesson of history is that freedoms are lost in exchange for protection from a threat.
“The real problem is that when human societies lose their freedom, it’s not usually because tyrants have taken it away. It’s usually because people willingly surrender their freedom in return for protection against some external threat. And the threat is usually a real threat but usually exaggerated. That’s what I fear we are seeing now. The pressure on politicians has come from the public. They want action. They don’t pause to ask whether the action will work. They don’t ask themselves whether the cost will be worth paying. They want action anyway. And anyone who has studied history will recognise here the classic symptoms of collective hysteria. Hysteria is infectious. We are working ourselves up into a lather in which we exaggerate the threat and stop asking ourselves whether the cure may be worse than the disease.”
Lord Sumption does not deny that the threat from Covid-19 is serious, but questions whether the measures are appropriate:
“So yes this is serious and yes it’s understandable that people cry out to the government. But the real question is: is this serious enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment, wrecking our economy for an indefinite period, destroying businesses that honest and hardworking people have taken years to build up, saddling future generations with debt, depression, stress, heart attacks, suicides and unbelievable distress inflicted on millions of people who are not especially vulnerable and will suffer only mild symptoms or none at all, like the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister.”
Police in Derbyshire were criticised for releasing drone footage of people out walking in the Peak District. Lord Sumption was scathing about this, describing it as “disgraceful”, and pointing out that going for a walk in the countryside is not illegal – it is just something that government ministers have said they prefer that people not do. When the police start enforcing guidance, we are in the realms of a police state:
“This is what a police state is like. It’s a state in which the government can issue orders or express preferences with no legal authority and the police will enforce ministers’ wishes.”
Derbyshire police subsequently admitted that Lord Sumption was right and they did not have authority to stop people from walking in the Peak District.
The government has been given legal permission to use mobile phone data to track whether people are complying with coronavirus regulations. The government can then watch where you go and how often to travel to see whether you are in compliance. This extreme invasion of privacy is deemed worthwhile because of the health risks at the present time.
Several police forces have set up websites encouraging people to inform on their neighbours if they see them breaching the coronavirus regulations. This means that we now face the prospect of law-abiding citizens worrying whether a neighbour might report them for leaving the house more than once a day! In fact, the BBC has reported that a police force has had a surge in calls from people reporting their neighbours for “going out for a second run”.
What is more, with parliament now disbanded, the government is now acting with no scrutiny or accountability. After explicitly telling parliament that there would be no changes to abortion rules, the government then went ahead and made changes shortly after parliament was closed. Changes that would most likely not have been possible if parliament was sitting. The government is therefore now not acting democratically. Is there really no possible way with modern technology for parliament to meet and scrutinise these things?
Just a few weeks ago, such restrictions on freedom in the UK were unimaginable. I would never have believed that within a few weeks we would have people reporting their neighbours for leaving the house more than once in a day. If someone had told me this would happen, I would have dismissed them as an irrational crackpot. Yet here we are!
I understand the fears. I understand how dangerous this virus is. I know that the nation needs to take action to try to stop its spread. But stopping people from going for a run more than once a day? Just how many lives will that save?
It is incredible how quickly this has happened. Freedoms not fought for are freedoms forfeited. Our freedoms are being forfeited before our eyes in real time. Freedoms are hard to obtain, and easy to lose. I hope and pray that we will recover them and recover them soon. I pray that the Lord would have mercy on us. Our nation is spiritually sick and needs the healing that only God can provide.’ https://christianconcern.com/comment/are-we-becoming-a-police-state/
Even the Left leaning New Daily here in Australia has a sense of humor.
‘As most of the country enters stage three lockdowns, many people have been living the home-life for for what is now coming up to a month. That’s prompting some pretty interesting outfits for when we do have to go out in public.’ https://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/people-entertainment/2020/04/01/coronavirus-outfits-funny-shopping/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=COVID-19%20-%2020200403
When will the Western Communist Islamic loving Leftists wake up?!
This coronavirus is is today’s Communist way of war. Here in Australia the Federal Government will be strapped with financial debt for years to come and if the Climate scamming Left gain power it can only get worse. We MUST wake up to this enemy that seems to have the Left in the palm of their hands.
The Coronavirus Bill (which is being passed into law this week at breakneck speed) will, among other things, (1) authorise a forcible detention of people on mental health grounds (‘sectioning’) on the opinion of any one doctor (rather than two, as previously required) and (2) abolish the six-month time limit on ‘sectioning’. Any one doctor will have the power to lock you up in a lunatic asylum indefinitely – all in the interests of your own and others’ safety.
It is well-known, and self-evident, that forcible psychiatric detention is an area which is open to abuse in the absence of effective safeguards. In the Soviet Union, it was used simply as a tool to suppress political dissent. This may be an extreme example, but where is the guarantee that one rogue doctor or another will not, once in a while, abuse his newly found unlimited power? For very good reasons, we have had safeguards against that in our law. Now they are being urgently abolished – supposedly as an obstacle to our survival of the epidemic. How exactly are they such an obstacle?
It should be stressed that this has nothing to do with increasing doctors’ capacity to deal with coronavirus patients. A psychiatrist is not much help in treating a respiratory disease. In fact, he would be as useful as a gynaecologist. Just like gynaecologists can safely continue to supervise (and hopefully, sometimes refuse to authorise) abortions, there is no reason why psychiatrists cannot carry on doing their usual job – which includes, most importantly, protecting people from arbitrary detention on unsound psychiatric grounds. Those duties are expendable luxuries, but are vital safeguards of liberty.
Another frightening power-grab in the Coronavirus Bill is the expansion of the power to appoint temporary judicial commissioners, with the powers to issue warrants for surveillance, under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The threat to civil liberty is obvious; and this has nothing to do with coronavirus.
Given those examples, one inevitably looks more sceptically at the idea that the government knows best about its other measures which ostensibly have something to do with coronavirus. Things like prolonging local councillors’ term in office for a whole year without a democratic mandate; police power to detain anyone for up to 48 hours on suspicion of a threat to public health; Ministers’ authority to ban mass gatherings; or court trials by skype. Are all those things really necessary? Or have some civil servants simply been waiting (heaven knows for how long) for a convenient moment to introduce them without provoking mass protests on the streets?
For example, skype trials in court sound sensible at the time of an epidemic, but the very first reported trial is a rather frightening one. That is a Court of Protection trial last week to decide the fate of an anonymous man in his ‘70s, whose GP wants to switch off his life support to let him die ‘in dignity’, and whose family objects. Remember all the debates and protests over the cases of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans in this country, and Vincent Lambert in France? Under the new regime, decisions on life and death cases of this kind are being made on a skype call. No proper trial, no ‘army’ of protesters, no real media coverage. It was only reported as a technological curiosity – the first major trial taking place by skype.
These and other measures are meant to be introduced only on a temporary basis. There is a subset clause in the Bill, whereby these new laws will automatically lose force after two years unless Parliament votes to extend them beyond that period. Amendments are being debated to shorten that period. However, this does not answer the concern that some of the most drastic innovations in the Act are clearly not necessary to contain coronavirus at all. If in those two years, someone is wrongly ‘sectioned’ in a lunatic asylum, it is small comfort to them that this practice will cease in 2022. Further, as a general rule of constitutional history, temporary limitations on liberty tend to become permanent whenever they are convenient for the state. We still live today with all sorts of draconian laws introduced as a matter of emergency after 11 September 2001. Come 2022, the Coronavirus Bill powers may also be extended on whatever pretext. Indeed, section 90 of the Bill even permits the extension of those powers without a vote in Parliament.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Many dictatorships originate in people’s panicked enthusiasm for drastic measures to deal with a genuine crisis. Putin’s regime in Russia, for example, took hold because people trusted their democratically elected president to do whatever it takes to defeat the threat of terrorism. Eventually, when Putin responded to another terrorist attack by replacing regional elections with appointed governors, that trust was largely lost – but it was too late. It is no surprise that when we see fairly similar moves attempted in this country, our trust in the government hangs in the balance.
At least in terms of public trust, the next few days will be crucial for the government’s efforts to control the epidemic. If the government is serious about it, its legislation must be cleansed of all disingenuous attempts to take advantage. And if they are not serious about it, nobody else will be.’ https://christianconcern.com/comment/coronavirus-exploited-by-enemies-of-democracy/?utm_source=Christian+Concern&utm_campaign=a5725850b3-WN-20200228_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9e164371ca-a5725850b3-127681039
Why is the truth so hard to tell? The media here and the USA seem to have a real problem saying this latest virus originated in CHINA! Are these outlets run by the Communist Party?
Well, the Taiwan News isn’t afraid to say ‘The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is working overtime to remove the term “Wuhan pneumonia” from early government media reports about the Wuhan coronavirus. From Taiwan News, where reporting on the disease has been extremely reliable:
A Twitter user with the account name “LIFETIME” on Wednesday (March 25) posted screenshots of a Global Times article to prove the Chinese newspaper agency has been removing the term “Wuhan virus” from previous reports.
The Twitter user claimed the English news site under the state-run People’s Daily has been tampering with the content of several articles published in January. As evidenced by screenshots, the Global Times has altered “Wuhan pneumonia” to “novel coronavirus-related pneumonia” in the title of a report on China’s coronavirus infections.
Another Twitter user, with the account name @iambadbears, responded to the post saying that Xinhua News Agency, which is also run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has been engaging in similar acts. He proceeded to add screenshots that show that the government mouthpiece changed an article titled “Wuhan virus sees Olympic football qualifiers moved” to “Olympic football qualifiers moved from Wuhan to Nanjing.”
This effort is being undertaken as the CCP’s propaganda machine continues to sling charges of racism toward Americans who call the disease a “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan coronavirus.” The problem? They did it first in their own propaganda outlets…in China. They’re also trying to absolve themselves of any responsibility after spreading the fatal disease to the rest of the world.
Before a phone call with CCP Chairman Xi Jinping Thursday night, President Trump again explained to the White House Press Corps why he accurately says, “Chinese virus.”‘ https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2020/03/27/chinese-communist-party-works-to-scrub-wuhan-pneumonia-from-state-media-reports-n2565796?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=08b5a1e2f2263b83e918fb56d7a12a3e&recip=26169367
One would have to be a blind Freddy not to see that the coronavirus is not an avenue for China to exercise more power over other nations! This power is both political and economic.
Sadly, in Australia the national broadcaster, the ABC, is a loud mouthpiece for the dispensing of Chinese propaganda as is CNN in the USA. However, also ‘The Economist is running Chinese propaganda from an outlet that is violating U.S. law to spread the message that Chinese president Xi Jinping has done a masterful job handling the coronavirus pandemic.
The propaganda advertorials, which are ads designed to look like news stories, come from the Beijing Review, an entity backed by the Chinese Communist Party. The outlet has never registered with the Department of Justice as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and does not include a legally required disclaimer that the ad is being pushed by a foreign nation.
“President Xi [Jinping] leads the battle against COVID-19 outbreak toward victory,” an advertorial published in the March 21 edition of the Economist reads. “China has rolled out ‘probably the most ambitious, agile, and aggressive disease containment effort in history.'”‘ https://freebeacon.com/media/economist-runs-chinese-coronavirus-propaganda-disguised-as-news/?utm_source=actengage&utm_campaign=FreedomMail&utm_medium=email
Liar, liar pants on fire! This leads us to ‘The opacity of the Chinese Communist government obliges responsible outside observers to look for clues to the truth of the coronavirus 
epidemic, instead of merely repeating official information without question.
The official count from China is 3,277 fatalities from 81,171 infections as of Tuesday, but the Epoch Times noted the troubling disappearance of some 21 million cell phone accounts in China over the past three months – an unprecedented decline that hints at more fatalities than Beijing is prepared to admit.
It should be stated at the outset that we should not be forced to read tea leaves to figure out what really happened in China, especially in the virus epicenter of Hubei province and the city of Wuhan, where Chinese officials are currently making claims of zero new infections that no one seriously believes. While more responsible governments issue troubling warnings of a second wave of infections, severe enough to prompt the re-imposition of quarantine procedures that were only recently lifted, China claims it has no second wave and all of its new coronavirus cases are imported.
With that in mind, the Epoch Times thought it was a bit odd for 21 million Chinese cell phones to abruptly disappear, given that cell phone usage has been increasing constantly in China for years, and phones have been touted as an important tool for containing the coronavirus epidemic: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced on March 19 the number of phone users in each province in February. Compared with the previous announcement, which was released on Dec. 18, 2019, for November 2019 data, both cellphone and landline users dropped dramatically. In the same period the year before, the number of users increased. The number of cellphone users decreased from 1.600957 billion to 1.579927 billion, a drop of 21.03 million. The number of landline users decreased from 190.83 million to 189.99 million, a drop of 840,000.
In the previous February, the number increased. According to MIIT, the number of cellphone users increased in February 2019 from 1.5591 billion to 1.5835 billion, which is 24.37 million more. The number of landline users increased from 183.477 million to 190.118 million, which is 6.641 million more. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s population at the end of 2019 was 4.67 million larger than in 2018, reaching 1.40005 billion.’ https://outragedpatriot.com/21-million-chinese-cellphone-users-disappear-the-truth-about-covid-19-deaths-is-startling/
I do not trust China but thankfully we know the final end of that totalitarian regime along with all those who oppose God. It is found in Ezekiel 39.
As some of you may know Tom Hanks is here in Australia in quarantine for Coronavirus. Well, he put too much Vegemite on his toast and took a picture of it for Twitter. NOW THAT’S NEWS! If you are really interested here is a portion of the article.
‘The photo was met with shock and disgust from Hanks’ Aussie fans who felt obliged to educate the actor about the correct Vegemite to toast ratio.
This is how much Vegemite Hanks used.
“Gee, that’s a lot of Vegemite,” tweeted ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland in response.
Some of the other replies Hanks received included:
• “Oh my, Mr Hanks, not even the bravest Aussie would put THAT much vegemite on a piece of toast!”
This is what someone else sent saying how much you really should put on. https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/celebrity-selfies/tom-hanks-mocked-for-excessive-vegemite-in-coronavirus-photo-update/news-story/3dd5005a34e4584ac8b09d7873756549
Now that we have the Vegemite Tom Hanks situation solved we can get down to real business. Hmmm, what’s that?
whatyareckon 