This week, jw.org asks, “What Does the Bible Say About Pandemics?” It is a recycled article that I have commented on before, but since they keep repeating themselves, I am compelled to respond…again.
As all of Jehovah’s Witnesses know, as well as many millions of others, for as long as it has existed, the Watchtower has proclaimed that we are living in the last days. The core belief of Jehovah’s Witnesses is that the last days began in 1914. That date was originally derived by a chronological calculation, and as the years passed, various events, such as the outbreak of World War and the horrific Spanish Flu pandemic, have seemed to verify that the horsemen of the Apocalypse have been unleashed.
As regular readers of e-watchman know, 1914 is a regularly visited topic. I am convinced that the Watchtower has been an instrument in the hands of Christ to preach the good news of the Kingdom in all the earth. However, my study of the prophets has also convinced me that Jehovah has allowed a deceptive influence to mislead the Kingdom preachers into believing that the Kingdom has come. Jehovah has allowed for an operation of Satan to perform lying signs aimed at anointed Christians. Do not Jehovah’s Witnesses point to events of more than a century ago as evidence of the appearance of the “sign” that Jesus foretold?
One aspect of the delusion Jehovah’s Witnesses are laboring under is the belief that the good news will be preached during the last days and that the last days extend over many decades and multiple generations. Jesus indicated otherwise. According to Mark’s account, Jesus said that the good news must be preached first. First before what? First before persecution. First before “people will hand you over to local courts, and you will be beaten in synagogues and be put on the stand before governors and kings for my sake, for a witness to them.”
HAS GOD EVER PUNISHED PEOPLE WITH SICKNESS?
The Bible reports a few occasions when God used sickness to punish people. For example, he caused some individuals to have leprosy. (Numbers 12:1-16; 2 Kings 5:20-27; 2 Chronicles 26:16-21) However, these isolated incidents were not indiscriminate pandemics that spread to innocent people. Rather, such events were specific judgments on individuals who had clearly rebelled against God.
The above statement is very misleading. It is true —God did strike some individuals with leprosy, and those were isolated incidents and not indiscriminate pandemics. But is that it? Is that all the Bible has to say about it? Far from it, and the writers of this tripe surely know it.
Consider the account where David ordered an ill-advised census, causing Jehovah to become incensed. God gave David three options: war, famine, or pestilence. David chose pestilence: “Then Jehovah gave a pestilence in Israel from the morning until the time appointed, so that out of the people from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand persons died. And the angel kept his hand thrust out toward Jerusalem to bring it to ruin; and Jehovah began to feel regret over the calamity, and so he said to the angel that was bringing ruin among the people: “It is enough! Now let your hand drop.” — 2 Samuel 24:15-16
Was this not an indiscriminate pandemic that spread to innocent people?
What is most instructive about this historical account of David’s disastrous folly is that David was one of the few kings of Israel that Jehovah regarded as righteous. And yet, his foolish error resulted in the deaths of 70,000 innocent Israelites. Was God unjust in punishing the innocent for the error of their king? I will let others accuse God.
There is another account in the history of the Hebrews where God punished people with sickness, and not just a few isolated individuals as the Watchtower would have you believe. When Jehovah brought calamity upon the Jews in Jeremiah’s day, he did so by means of Nebuchadnezzar’s sword, famine, and pestilence. Now consider what the Bible says about war, famine, and the resulting pandemics, unfiltered by the Watchtower. Here are a few relevant passages from the prophets:
And Jehovah proceeded to say to me: “Do not pray in behalf of this people for any good. When they fast, I am not listening to their entreating cry; and when they offer up the whole burnt offering and the grain offering, I am taking no pleasure in them; for by the sword and by famine and by pestilence I am bringing them to their end.” — Jeremiah 14:11-12
“And I will send against them the sword, the famine and the pestilence, until they come to their finish off the ground that I gave to them and to their forefathers.” — Jeremiah 24:10
‘This is what Jehovah of armies has said: “Here I am sending against them the sword, the famine and the pestilence, and I will make them like the burst-open figs that cannot be eaten for badness.”’ — Jeremiah 29:17
“…I myself also am the One that will diminish you and my eye will not feel sorry and I myself also will not show compassion. A third of you—by the pestilence they will die, and by famine they will come to their end in the midst of you.” — Ezekiel 5:11-12
“This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘Clap your hands and stamp your foot and bemoan all the evil and detestable things done by the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. The one far away will die by pestilence, the one nearby will fall by the sword, and whoever escapes these and is left remaining will die by famine; and I will fully unleash my wrath against them. 13 And you will have to know that I am Jehovah…” — Ezekiel 6:11-13
“They have blown the trumpet, and everyone is ready, but no one is going to the battle, because my wrath is against the whole multitude. The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine are inside. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume those in the city.” — Ezekiel 7:14-15
“For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘So it will be when I send my four punishments—sword, famine, vicious wild animal, and pestilence—against Jerusalem to cut off man and animal from it.” — Ezekiel 14:21
“I will send pestilence into her and blood will flow in her streets. The slain will fall in her midst when the sword comes against her from all sides; and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.” — Ezekiel 14:23
Any honest Bible reader can discern that the sword, famine, and pestilence are precisely what Jesus foretold would constitute the beginning pangs of distress, culminating in a great tribulation that will rock this present civilization to its very foundation.
The fact that those who are regarded as the faithful and discreet mouthpiece of Jehovah’s earthly organization have diluted God’s word and judgments and have tickled the ears of the millions of persons laboring under their deceptive influence, deluding them into accepting that there were only a few isolated instances when God struck his people with sickness, it is apparent—at least to this watchman—that the Watchtower is, itself, fulfilling prophecy. How so? By declaring that there is peace with God. Here is what Jehovah has said: “For from the least to the greatest, each one is making dishonest gain; from the prophet to the priest, each one is practicing fraud. And they try to heal the breakdown of my people lightly, saying, ‘There is peace! There is peace!’ When there is no peace.” — Jeremiah 6:13-14
And what is this we are hearing about a couple of hedge funds being registered in Ireland? Is it true that the millions of dollars that you have stolen by dispossessing Jehovah’s Witnesses from a thousand Kingdom Halls have been pooled into your “asset management” fund? “Dishonest gain” indeed! And you say there is peace?
ARE TODAY’S PANDEMICS PUNISHMENT FROM GOD?
No. Some people claim that God is using pandemics and other sicknesses to punish people today. However, the Bible does not support that claim. Why not?
The statement above is true. Pandemics today are not punishment from God. That is because these are not the last days. Will the impending war, food shortages, and inevitable pandemics be a punishment from God? Absolutely!
Because the stupid prophets have fabricated their own prophecies, or to be more specific, their own interpretations of prophecy, God has determined to humiliate them. How so? By bringing upon them what they have prophesied is not possible. And what is that? World war, food shortages, and pestilence. Does that mean some Christians may die? Quite possibly. Did not King David’s tragic mistake result in the loss of life of God’s people?
The good news is that the billions who will be laid low in the coming holocaust will be resurrected. That is discernible by the fact that the horsemen of the Apocalypse, who are destined to bring death to a quarter of the world, will be closely followed by the Grave. And as the Bible book of Revelation also reveals, all those in the Grave will come out.
But if Jehovah brings a global catastrophe in the form of war and pestilence to bring punishment upon the wicked, especially the wicked slaves of his own household, then surely God will also provide a sanctuary for the innocent. That is what the 91st Psalm portrays.
“Anyone dwelling in the secret place of the Most High will lodge under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to Jehovah: “You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God in whom I trust.” For he will rescue you from the trap of the birdcatcher, from the destructive pestilence. With his pinions he will cover you, and under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness will be a large shield and a protective wall. You will not fear the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the gloom, nor the destruction that ravages at midday. A thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but to you it will not come near. You will only see it with your eyes as you witness the punishment of the wicked. Because you said: “Jehovah is my refuge,” you have made the Most High your dwelling; no disaster will befall you, and no plague will come near your tent.”
