CORONA VIRUS

A new virus outbreak reminds us how quickly disease can spread in a connected world.

Coming out of China is the news of a new strain of virus called the corona-virus. As I am writing, it has already caused over 3 000 deaths. It has caused the shutdown in mainland China of a city of over a million people, Wuhan, and it is now beginning to spread to other parts of the world.

A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, was first reported to the WHO Country Office in China on 31 December 2019. The outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020. On 11 February 2020, WHO announced a name for the new corona-virus disease: COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the media are frantic with the live updates on the Covid-19,as I am writing about this world issue, the news are frenetic of how Europe is preparing for Pandemic as illness spreads from Italy.

Six other European countries have reported cases, and an American soldier in South Korea became the first member of the U.S. armed forces to be infected.

Right Now

Brazil confirms a corona-virus case, the first in Latin America.

Corona-virus spreads in Middle East and beyond: Live updates

New infections and deaths reported around the world, with Brazil confirming its first case in Latin America.

The corona-virus is spreading in the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and other parts of the world, while parts of China begin to lower their emergency response level as the number of new cases reported there continues to slow.

More deaths have been reported in Iran and Italy, while South Korea on Wednesday said an 11th person had died of the disease there. Globally, at least 80,000 people have been diagnosed with the illness.

WHO is working closely with global experts, governments and partners to rapidly expand scientific knowledge on this new virus, to track the spread and virulence of the virus, and to provide advice to countries and individuals on measures to protect health and prevent the spread of this outbreak.

This is nothing that has not been prophesised. My book 'Apocalypse Unfolding Now' explains in a detailed manner of what Bible prophecy speaks of a coming worldwide plague. In Revelation 6 we see the well-known image of the four horsemen who ride across the earth during the time of tribulation. “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8, ESV).

The seals have a cumulative effect. False religion causes instability within relationships leading to war. Famine follows war, and when undernourishment occurs and social systems break down, human beings are more susceptible to disease. These seals depict the ferocity of problems unleashed on the world in the lead-up to “the Day of the Lord.”

There would be other calamities as well. Jesus also listed in the same context “earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7). “Plague” in Scripture denotes not only pestilence but also other calamities in nature that God uses to punish a disobedient humanity. Of course, any such calamities make populations that much riper for the spread of disease epidemics.

By the time the fourth horseman completes his ride, a fourth of earth’s inhabitants will experience incredible devastation. The death toll will be unlike any from plague and disease in human history.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says this about the colour of the fourth horse: “ ‘Pale’ ( chloros ) denotes a yellowish green, the light green of a plant, or the paleness of a sick person in contrast to a healthy appearance.” Put bluntly, this horse is the colour of death .

In Jesus’ parallel prophecy in Matthew 24, He explained that in the wake of religious deception, war and famine would come “pestilences” or disease epidemics (Matthew 24:7).

By the time the fourth horseman completes his ride, a fourth of earth’s inhabitants will experience incredible devastation. The death toll will be unlike any from plague and disease in human history. (to be continued)