One of the questions that came up during the COVID-19 pandemic was whether or not the pandemic was an act of judgement from God. Some people suggested that God was judging particular countries such as the US and UK, others argued that we could at least see God using the pandemic to speak to, challenge and rebuke his church.
The question has come up again recently as different inquiries and reviews have been taking place. Dave Brennan in his article about the Affinity Symposium in December quotes a correspondent to him as saying:
“We are firm in our belief that the recent pandemic was (amongst other things) a compassionate attempt by a merciful God to wake up His church, both by closing our church doors to get our attention, and by highlighting our sinful attitudes (such as our fear, our love of this world, and our lack of discernment). We don’t believe the church was ready before the pandemic, responded rightly when going through it, or has learned its lessons from it since. The church had an opportunity to recognise the pandemic as a message from the Lord and to repent, but instead was determined to carry on and ‘build back better’; the Lord may therefore have to bring a mightier shaking upon us, and we are concerned that the church isn’t prepared for this.”
During the symposium, one panel member argued that plagues are always identified with God visiting judgement.
It is perhaps helpful to make a distinction here because yes, I agree that plagues and pandemics are aspects of judgement and I also believe that God acts and speaks through them, including to challenge, rebuke and refine his church. However, there are two ways of viewing this.
On the one hand, we can believe that a specific epidemic, or any given natural disaster is a specific visitation from God so that we can say that he is speaking to and judging this specific group of people (community, church, city, denomination, nation or even the entire church or entire world) for this specific sin.
On the other hand, we can see all of our circumstances, all aspects of suffering and hardship as first a consequence of the Fall and therefore an aspect of judgement and second a means by which God speaks to us and works in our lives, individually and corporate for sanctification. I hold to this position and believe it is well evidenced in Scripture. See for example how Paul describes the pains and groanings of this fallen world in Romans 8 whilst also pointing to how God uses our suffering in Romans 5 as does James chapter 1.
However, I would argue great caution about taking the first approach. Why? Well, the reality is that plagues and natural disasters are common, part and parcel of history. Even though Scripture eyhighlights specific tragedies, this does not mean that it documents every plague, earthquake, drought or tragedy that would have occurred at the time. Rather, we are pointed to those specific events that God chooses, through his prophets to explicitly interpret for us. God tells us when he is doing something specific, why he is doing it and what it means. We are not left to second guess.
In fact, in Luke 13, Jesus warns us not to rush to interpret particularly tragedies on judgement on others but rather to be challenged ourselves by such events about the state of our own hearts. This brings me to my main point.
Mike Ovey used to challenge his students “Will you let God disagree with you?” He argued that it was only if we had a God who disagreed with us that we could know that God was real and speaking to us. A God who just affirmed our pre-existing prejudices is no God at all, no more than an imaginary friend. Jesus warned us about being careful to judge and urged his followers to pay attention to the log in their own eye before attempting to remove the speck in their brother’s.
This is the challenge for us. It is right to ask the question “How was God acting and speaking through the pandemic?” We need to be careful to see this as General Revelation and so to interpret it through the lens of scripture and we need to be careful not to go beyond what Scripture says. Scripture does not identify COVID as a specific judgement but we can see how the pandemic affected and challenged us.
For some of us, COVID highlighted where we risked fear of a virus and our attitudes to death. Admittedly, this was not so much of an issue for me. Perhaps though that’s because I was under 50 in reasonably good health and perhaps it related to the fact that I contracted the virus very early on in the pandemic. However, I do remember being anxious about how the church would be affected by different measures. Some of us feared disease and death but others among us feared lockdown and secular authorities. Others still feared the vaccine. I think that we can safely conclude that the pandemic exposed our fears. I think we can also see ways in which the pandemic highlighted other weaknesses and failings in the church and for us individually. Perhaps though we might also take time to consider ways in which God blessed us. Were there encouragements during COVID?
What I believe is crucial is this. If all we see from COVID is judgement and rebuke on others and encouragement for our own position then we may be making the very mistake that Mike Ovey warned about. We may be showing a reluctance to let God disagree with us.
So my encouragement would be that when seeking to discern what God might have been saying and doing, start by asking “What was God doing in my life and in our church? What was God saying to me?” In what ways did COVID highlight things that God needed to deal with for you? From there, it is possible to have a wider conversation with others.
Faithroots 