Peter Leithart, president of Theopolis Institute for Biblical, Liturgical, & Cultural Studies in Birmingham, Alabama, argues that people are facing God's judgment and gives 10 reasons why he believes accordingly.
He states, "It's hard to read it any other way. An individual illness is a trial; a worldwide pandemic is of a different order. A burglary is a test; invasion and plunder are judgments."
"It's difficult to read biblical descriptions of cities and nations under judgment without being struck by the resemblance to the world, April 2020."
"Our city streets are silent; there is no longer the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, not even the wailing of a funeral dirge," Leithart, author, minister and theologian, explains, referring to Jeremiah 7:34.
Our churches are also "empty and still," he continues. "We should ponder the possibility that the Lord has had enough of our trampling of His courts, and so has put an end to our new moons and feast days (Isaiah 1:10-15)."
He adds, "Some will say the virus didn't do all this. The response to the virus did. There's truth to that, but it doesn't alter the point. The pestilence-and-shutdown have produced a situation that's looks an awful lot like a judgment of biblical proportions."
As of April 22, there are 2,629,378 COVID-19 confirmed cases, 183,520 deaths around the world. In the United States alone, have a total of 844,440 confirmed cases and 47,227 deaths. Today alone, confirmed cases increased by 25,696.
He brings out a question that why is judging humanity, "But why? we ask. If this is the Lord's judgment, why is He doing it? What have we done to deserve this? The people of Judah asked the same question (Jeremiah 16:10). We know from Jeremiah's prophecy that Yahweh had plenty of reasons to judge Judah. If we ask the "Why us?" question, are we showing ourselves to be as dull of heart as they?"
He answers that not only the judgment includes punishment for sin, but it also involves unmasking, exposure, testing, and clarification. "God judges to uncover what's hidden at the bottom of things."
"Judgment is always apocalyptic in the original sense. As God punishes, He unveils."
He then points out that punishment is not the ultimate end. "We should remember too that punishment is never the end. As N.T. Wright likes to say, God sets the world to rights. He sorts and sifts, casts down and raises up. On the other side of judgment, we hope and pray, is a world that more clearly mirrors the justice of the kingdom."
Leithart then presents 10 reasons why he believes God is testing people. "Clarifications notwithstanding, we still wonder, what could move the Lord to test, or to punish? The answer will differ from place to place across the globe. I can speak only to my home country. In the U.S., I can think of several reasons, ten of them in fact."
1. Instead of God, people have turned to the idol to worship. He states, "We have turned from the living God to love, fear, and trust in idols of our own making. We (I) really do love comfort more than faithfulness, and we have organized our world to serve our insatiable desire for cushiness. We have become complacent with myriads of idols and quasi-idols, to which we are so devoted that we sometimes even call them (celebrity, movie, sports) idols. We have broken the First Word."
2. People don't have care for their neighbors "We don't honor the image of God in one another. We leave the homeless unhoused, the naked unclothed, the hungry. We hide ourselves from our own flesh (Isaiah 58:7)."
3. People don't live like how they should be, he mentions "Millions upon millions of Christians in the U.S. wear the Triune name, conferred in baptism. Do we bear it with the weight it deserves? We live as if God didn't exist. We're practical idolaters."
4. People don't follow God's rule. "We know no Sabbath in our 24/7 economy. We give no Sabbath. We break Sabbath by withholding relief from the burdened.
5. People don't care for their elders. "One of the heartening things about the pandemic is the constant reminder to protect the elderly from infection. Every news organ in the country gives daily lessons in keeping the Fifth Word. But in many other ways, our social habits and institutions erode the authority of parents, the respect of the young, and the institution of the family."
6. People are accepting abortion. "46 million abortions since 1973 and counting. In many places, killing unborn children is deemed an essential service during the pandemic. How many thousands of strangers have we killed, without warrant of just war, on the other side of the world? "Your hands are covered with innocent blood" (Isaiah 1:15)."
7. People fall into homosexuality. "We defy God's sexual norms and insist on our Constitutional right to do so. Many mock the very notion of sexual purity."
8. People rely on other worldly things rather than God. "In the midst of a pandemic, we take hope from a rise in stock market. Domestic and foreign policy have long been directed toward the final end of a rising GDP. Labor is good; wealth is good; increasing wealth is good. But we have fashioned God's good gifts into the idol Mammon."
9. People don't speak truthfully. "Is our public discourse characterized by truthfulness? Do we, as Luther said, put the best construction on the words of ideological opponents? To ask is to answer. We habitually break the Ninth Word."
10. People's hungers and thirsts are not directed toward the righteousness of God's kingdom. "Entire industries are devoted to fostering covetousness. Envy infects our politics."
He finally mentions that God is merciful but if people do not repent, this will come back again and again. "Besides, if this judgment hasn't pierced all of us to the heart, it's only because of the Lord's mercy. If things bounce back, it's again because the Lord is merciful. But we shouldn't misconstrue relief as God's approval. Our repentance needs to be radical, or soon enough we'll face something else, something worse."
"God judges to bring our sin into the light, so we can repent. Failing that, He will judge again, and yet again, perhaps going so far as to demolish our world. Eventually, though, He begins to build something new from the rubble. Judgment is wrenching, truly a death, but God won't leave His world to perish. He is the God of resurrection."
