By David Ettinger
A Bunch of Bucks
The United States government has poured at least $6 trillion into stimulating our economy due to Covid-19.[1]
That’s a massive amount of dollars, and in terms of percentages, our largest economic-relief package since World War II.[2] Of even greater concern – whether or not you believe the spending has been necessary – is the very real possibility that the U.S. may never fully economically recover. We already have a national debt of more than $29 trillion, and no financial rising suns lie on the horizon.[3]
The Lord’s Warning
Those are numbers, but what about souls?
I believe every large-scale crisis offers a golden opportunity for unsaved individuals to look at their mortality, consider their eternal destinations, and turn to Jesus Christ to save them from their sins.
However – and I believe 1948, the year of Israel’s “rebirth,” was the starting point – we are drawing ever nearer to the Last Days, and every crisis from here on must be looked at as God advancing His end-times plan leading up to the return of Christ and the establishing of His Millennial (1,000-year) Kingdom.
As such, I see the Covid-19 pandemic as one of God’s many harbingers of those concluding days.
And this despite that the fact that Covid mortality rates pale in comparison to those of other plagues. For instance, Smallpox accounted for a mind-boggling 300 million lives,[4] and the Black Death took the lives of 25 million.[5] Presently, Covid’s death count is somewhat north of 5 million globally.[6]
And though Covid is hanging around much longer than first predicted, there is reason to believe it can be reined in and controlled before the mortality numbers get too much bigger. Therefore, perhaps, we could well be seeing the light at the end of the Coronavirus tunnel.
Even so, there is still the economic backwash, and it will live on well past the last victim has contracted the deadly scourge. As we are seeing – and have seen numerous times in financially challenging days – economic hardship can be just as deadly as disease as it leads to hunger, sickness, violence, and civil disobedience.
A Weakened Nation
It could well be that this gargantuan financial hit we have taken in the States will reap consequences that will greatly weaken us. Bible prophecy teaches that the world is heading toward a one-world government which will become a reality shortly before Christ’s return (Revelation 13).
The weakening of nations is the major stimulant in leading them to do things they would never have dreamed of just a short time previous (such as surrendering their independence to a lone world leader). Therefore, though Covid-19 may become but a memory a few years down the road, its economic aftermath could be an albatross that will cling to the U.S. and drag us down. And it is safe to say that if the U.S. hits the skids, numerous other nations will do the same.
And keep one more thing in mind. We’re only talking about Covid-19. Even if we manage to eradicate this thing tomorrow, something else will come along. It will come along because God is chastising a nation – the U.S. – and a world that is ever spurning His grace, mocking His sovereignty, and denying His existence.
So, regardless of the human origins of the Coronavirus, I believe God has allowed it to fester as a means of punishment. That the lives lost to it cannot measure up to past pestilences is a testimony of God’s grace. In other words, God is sending out warnings, but has not yet completely judged the human race. There is still time to repent.
However, no worldwide repentance is looming, and so God will continue to ramp up His discipline until it is too late. But until it is too late, the Coronavirus’ economic fallout is by all means one of God’s harbingers of His will and plan for the inevitable end of the age. And as bad as Covid and its economic and social offshoots are, what lies ahead will make it seem like a mere head cold.
In the meantime, let us be ever mindful that the time is late, the need is great, and that Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation for a lost and dying world!
David Ettinger is a writer/editor at Zion’s Hope, Inc., and has written for Zion’s Fire magazine since its inception in 1990.
[1] https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/us-spending-on-covid-relief-poised-to-hit-6t
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-11/stimulus-checks-biden-s-war-on-covid-demands-wartime-spending
[3] https://www.pgpf.org/national-debt-clock
[4] https://www.amnh.org/explore/science-topics/disease-eradication/countdown-to-zero/smallpox
[5] https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death
[6] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll/
Blue Collar Theologian
December 7, 2021
As you say, “I agree with this from top to bottom.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
dettinger47
December 7, 2021
Thanks, Mandy. Interestingly, here at work, we just received back all of our mailings to Australia. They are locked down so tightly, they are not accepting ANY overseas mail. More of this coming!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Blue Collar Theologian
December 7, 2021
Wow! Thank you for sharing this!
LikeLiked by 1 person
seekingdivineperspective
December 7, 2021
Poor Australia is a mess! 💔
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lisa Beth
December 7, 2021
Wow, 28 trillion? 😲
I’m with Mandy, I agree top to bottom! I was just now reading Martin Lloyd Jones chapter on ‘The Wrath of God’s. “God punished sin by ceasing to restrain it, by allowing it to take its own course…He gave them over to a reprobate mind” and adds, “Surely this is of tremendous significance at this present time”.
And you’re on target…
“The weakening of nations is the major stimulant in leading them to do things they would never have dreamed of…”
Fasten your seat belt, the road will get rough.
Thank you for another edifying post, looking forward to the next AND my Zions Fire!
LikeLiked by 2 people
dettinger47
December 7, 2021
Thank you for the great words, Lisa Beth. Mr. Jones was right out.
Hey, regarding our magazine, you’ll be getting a notice soon via email and letter. THE PAPER IS GONE!! In this new economy with all kinds of shortages, printers have no paper for magazines.
Therefore, we’re going to give it to you online as a PDF, and whenever the shortage ends, we’re going to mail all our subscribers the hard copy.
This means that the our constituents may not be receiving their Sept-Oct and Nov-Dec issues until the spring (depending when the shortage ends).
I think you’re now the first of our 65,000 subscribers to know this!!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Blue Collar Theologian
December 7, 2021
I am the second informed soul!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
dettinger47
December 7, 2021
True indeed, Mandy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lisa Beth
December 7, 2021
Really! I will miss the finely designed and attractive layout of articles. Ok, I’ll bypass aesthetics and focus on content.
Still looking forward! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
dettinger47
December 7, 2021
Actually, you can still have both. The PDF is the digital version of the exact magazine. You actually flip the pages and everything!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lisa Beth
December 7, 2021
I like that. Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
seekingdivineperspective
December 7, 2021
What is most frightening is the way people who otherwise would be thinking for themselves are being frightened into subjection even though this HAS been a relatively light punishment. (And face it, for most people who had Kovd, it WAS a mere head cold.) We’re primed for the prophesied totalitarian takeover, as we sit paralyzed with fear, waiting for the powers that be to tell us what to think and how to live.
LikeLiked by 1 person
dettinger47
December 8, 2021
Yes, this appears to be the way it’s shaping up. But for the record, in the past month, I lost 2 acquaintances to Covid, ages 53 and 56. So yes, to some it’s a minor affliction, but it’s still a deadly condition.
LikeLike
Tom
December 8, 2021
Thanks, David. I’m 65YO and, like you, I’ve witnessed many societal shifts and challenges over the decades, but this pandemic seems “different.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
dettinger47
December 8, 2021
I agree, Tom. And I’m right behind you; I turn 64 on Saturday. (I’ll see then if someone “still needs and feeds me”!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
heavensreef
December 10, 2021
In agreement David! Time is running out for repentance.
LikeLiked by 1 person