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Is Covid-19 a Judgment from God?

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  • Is Covid-19 a Judgment from God?

    My local Christian radio network put the question asked "Is Covid-19 a Judgment from God?" as their question of the week.

    I answered: No, but it is a reminder from God that we are not as in control of our lives as we think.

    What do you think?

    (Please, don't make this an OMBT. Thanks.)
    "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6

    "Theology can be an intellectual entertainment." Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

  • #2
    What is an "OMBT" ? :-)

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Esther View Post
      What is an "OMBT" ? :-)
      It's from the Civics forum and stands for Orange-Man-Bad-Thread. In other words, don't let the thread become a debate on Trump.
      "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6

      "Theology can be an intellectual entertainment." Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Thoughtful Monk View Post
        My local Christian radio network put the question asked "Is Covid-19 a Judgment from God?" as their question of the week.

        I answered: No, but it is a reminder from God that we are not as in control of our lives as we think.

        What do you think?

        (Please, don't make this an OMBT. Thanks.)
        I don't see it any more than the consequences of the fall of man. I believe, however, it is being greatly politicized.
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #5
          It's just another pop quiz at the school of hard knocks. We aren't in detention.
          If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

          Comment


          • #6
            We seem to be at the end of the Rev 20:7-10 where the nations have been deceived and start encircling the camp of the saints. We see this anti-Christian effort through the governors' willingness to shutdown church gatherings. We see this in missionary work where vultures, in the form of Mormonites and JWs, sneak in to take away the grace that had been ministered to those locations. (I didn't realize the potential for mass deception until this virus thing happened. I didn't know about the attacks on these newly Christian-taught communities until I checked out TheCenters.org

            The apparent purpose of this is that Satan (against his self interest) has attracted and exposed the evildoers while deceiving the people.

            However, we could just be in stage 1 of this and may have to go through additional stages before this event comes to completion.
            Last edited by mikewhitney; 07-26-2020, 03:30 PM.

            Comment


            • #7
              I am convinced that this MAY be a part of the birth pangs Jesus talks about in Matthew regarding His return. Which will ultimately result in His judgment on all the unbelief, including that which is so prevalent today.

              Of course, we have had plagues and wars and so on for millennia, so this may not be as far along in the birth process as we might think some days.


              Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

              Comment


              • #8
                Or it's just another contraction. We can only tell in hindsight.
                If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by mossrose View Post
                  I am convinced that this MAY be a part of the birth pangs Jesus talks about in Matthew regarding His return. Which will ultimately result in His judgment on all the unbelief, including that which is so prevalent today.

                  Of course, we have had plagues and wars and so on for millennia, so this may not be as far along in the birth process as we might think some days.
                  Agree. I do think all the wars and natural disasters and plagues and famines and 2 Timothy 3:1-5 especially, everything happening together at once not isolated incidences as has been the pattern of the past, means we are in the closing chapters of the end of this world. Certainly could be one of the many judgements in the book of Revelation. I believe believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air at the last trumpet judgement.

                  Matthew 33-34:

                  33 So also when you see these signs, [m]all taken together, coming to pass, you may know [n]of a surety that He is near, at the very doors.

                  34 Truly I tell you, this generation ([o]the whole multitude of people living at the same time, [p]in a definite, [q]given period) will not pass away till all these things [r]taken together take place.

                  2 Timothy 3:1-5

                  3 But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].

                  2 For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.

                  3 [They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good.

                  4 [They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God.

                  5 For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].

                  The last trumpet: Revelation 11:15

                  15 The seventh angel then blew [his] trumpet, and there were mighty voices in heaven, shouting, The dominion (kingdom, sovereignty, rule) of the world has now come into the possession and become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (the Messiah), and He shall reign forever and ever (for the eternities of the eternities)!
                  Last edited by Esther; 07-27-2020, 09:28 AM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
                    It's just another pop quiz at the school of hard knocks. We aren't in detention.
                    At a minimum, it's a quiz since God is more or less continuously testing us.

                    While I don't have a good answer, when does something cross the line between a testing and a sign? The global scale of Covid-19 to me indicates it's more than a routine testing we face. I don't think it's a judgment but God is saying something to us.
                    "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6

                    "Theology can be an intellectual entertainment." Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Esther View Post
                      Agree. I do think all the wars and natural disasters and plagues and famines and 2 Timothy 3:1-5 especially, everything happening together at once not isolated incidences as has been the pattern of the past, means we are in the closing chapters of the end of this world. Certainly could be one of the many judgements in the book of Revelation. I believe believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air at the last trumpet judgement.

                      Matthew 33-34:

                      33 So also when you see these signs, [m]all taken together, coming to pass, you may know [n]of a surety that He is near, at the very doors.

                      34 Truly I tell you, this generation ([o]the whole multitude of people living at the same time, [p]in a definite, [q]given period) will not pass away till all these things [r]taken together take place.

                      2 Timothy 3:1-5

                      3 But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].

                      2 For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.

                      3 [They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good.

                      4 [They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God.

                      5 For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].

                      The last trumpet: Revelation 11:15

                      15 The seventh angel then blew [his] trumpet, and there were mighty voices in heaven, shouting, The dominion (kingdom, sovereignty, rule) of the world has now come into the possession and become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (the Messiah), and He shall reign forever and ever (for the eternities of the eternities)!
                      In addition to the above, I think we may be at the start of the great falling away. This article discusses how fewer people are reading the Bible during the pandemic. https://religionnews.com/2020/07/22/...irus-pandemic/
                      "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6

                      "Theology can be an intellectual entertainment." Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Thoughtful Monk View Post
                        My local Christian radio network put the question asked "Is Covid-19 a Judgment from God?" as their question of the week.

                        I answered: No, but it is a reminder from God that we are not as in control of our lives as we think.

                        What do you think?

                        (Please, don't make this an OMBT. Thanks.)
                        Acts 17:26and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

                        The verses seem to say that every person is approached by God through a crisis, that makes him or her reflect.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Thoughtful Monk View Post
                          My local Christian radio network put the question asked "Is Covid-19 a Judgment from God?" as their question of the week.

                          I answered: No, but it is a reminder from God that we are not as in control of our lives as we think.

                          What do you think?

                          (Please, don't make this an OMBT. Thanks.)
                          IMHO, no. I don’t think that what the Gospels reveal about Christ encourage the idea that sickness, or any other physical evil, is a “judgement from God”.
                          And the idea strikes me as callous, foolish and impertinent: because it implies that thalidomide babies were disabled because of some unknown personal sin of theirs.
                          Conversely, a lot of people do a lot of harm - and get away with it, as far as one can see. Many Nazis escaped to safety - are we seriously to suppose that a baby poisoned by thalidomide is a greater sinner than a Nazi camp commandant ?

                          I find that idea grossly offensive. It reminds one of the notion that if AIDS was sent by God as a punitive plague - the objection to that was. that if God caused AIDS, His aim left something to be desired, as homosexuals were not the only people to contract AIDS.

                          The idea that physical suffering is a punishment from God can appeal to parts of the OT & NT, but only to parts. If it is applied in the way common to many Christians who agree with it, then it must be inferred from the Sufferings of Christ that He was a very great sinner, and an extraordinarily wicked man, seeing as how He died a singularly painful, lingering, shameful, indecent, accursed, ritually unclean, and disgraceful death, one which was reserved for the absolute trash of mankind.

                          The doctrine that physical suffering is a sure sign of having done wrong, is ISTM obliterated by the Death of Christ, because of those accumulated frightfulnesses of the Death of Christ - and also, because that doctrine fails to take account of the theological character of His Death. It is not merely another crucifixion of a failed and defeated Jew - this is God in the flesh Who is being Crucified. As such, the Crucifixion of Jesus the God-man shows:

                          1. the extent to which God has gone in order to be “God-with-us” - this is a God Whose Love for His enemies leads Him, not to avoid them, but, to be identified with them to the uttermost.
                          2. God becoming “a curse for us”
                          3. God being “made sin for us”
                          4. the perfect reconciliation of God’s Righteous Wrath upon sin, with God’s Mercy to sinners through the perfect Satisfaction for sin made by Christ.
                          5. the Cross therefore resolves the tension, expressed in the Prophets of the Exile, between God’s unreserved and total, “jealous” Self-commitment to His Covenant-People, &, His utter abhorrence of their unrighteous, idolatrous and unholy behaviour.
                          6. that physical suffering is not a barrier between God and man; still less is it proof of separation from God.

                          The notion that physical evil is a punishment for sin does not do justice to what Christ Crucified has done, nor to the meaning of what He has done, nor to What & Who He is. This notion risks letting us wash our hands of the sufferings of others, when what the Cross of Christ should be doing to us is, to make us more ready to “have compassion on”, that is, to “suffer-with”, others. What Christ suffered in His own Body, is supposed to be perpetuated and realised in the lives of His members in His Body which is the Church through the action of His Spirit.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Thoughtful Monk View Post
                            My local Christian radio network put the question asked "Is Covid-19 a Judgment from God?" as their question of the week.

                            I answered: No, but it is a reminder from God that we are not as in control of our lives as we think.

                            What do you think?

                            (Please, don't make this an OMBT. Thanks.)
                            I look at it more like God removing a restraint on mankind. The pandemic is judgement in the sense that the world has been in perpetual judgement since the fall of man. However, I do believe God will start removing restraints he has on mankind, and thus their reactions to these events will be much worse, which is why the reaction to this pandemic (regardless of the severity of it and how accurate that is) has been worse than previous pandemics. Paul talked about removing a type of restraint so the Man of Sin is revealed, and I think that's related.

                            Comment

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