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Pandemics, Depressions
And Disasters
How
Pandemics, Depressions And Disasters Are Used By God
.
by
JACK WELLMAN
How can any good come from global pandemics,
economic depressions, and natural disasters?
God has a history of using evil for good.
The Black Plague
Perhaps the worst disaster to ever occur in
human history, besides the Flood, was the Black Plague, which was also known as
the Pestilence and the Great Mortality
But it was mostly called The Plague, and it
was the deadliest pandemic ever recorded in human history.
That’s why it was sometimes referred to as
the Black Death.
The plague resulted in the deaths of up to
200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking around the 1350’s.
Tragically, it took almost 1 in 3 lives in
the known world
However, recent historical evidence suggests
that 50-60% of the population of Europe died during the Black Death.
This is a much higher proportion than the
often-cited “one-third.”
We might think the recent pandemic is a sign
of the end times, but what must they have thought in the 14th century?
Many thought it was a judgment from God and
that the world was about to end, but they were obviously wrong
So many today who believe the pandemic is a
sign of the end times could also be wrong.
We just don’t know the day or hour of
Christ’s return (Mark
13:32).
The Church’s Response
What did the Christian church do during the
Black Plague when so much death was around them?
How did they respond?
The answer might surprise you.
However, they suffered severe persecution for
it.
So how did Christians respond to all the
plague victims surrounding them?
Did they distance themselves so that they
wouldn’t get it too?
No! To the contrary, they cared for the sick
rather than desert them as the unsaved were doing.
By interceding, the Christians saved
thousands, if not millions of lives!
In most cases, it was simply a matter of
giving them adequate food and water.
Some believe that this Christian caregiving
reduced the mortality by as much as two-thirds!
The Unsaved Response
Clearly, the unsaved noticed the care these
believers were giving. They saw these examples with their own eyes, and often,
seeing their own family members was saved from death.
These great acts of kindness produced
thousands of converts, particularly by those who were nursed back to good
health.
They felt they owed their lives to these
Christians.
And curious as it was to the unsaved, the
Christians cared not only for their own (which were fewer in number), but they
cared for others, even if they didn’t know them.
It didn’t matter whether they were Christian
or not.
Here is a case where God used great evil for
great good using believers as a means to His end (Genesis 50:20).
Even though millions died, many more millions
had their lives saved, but even more so, many trusted in Christ.
If not for The Plague, and the Christian care
so tenderly given, many would have perished, but more importantly, millions
would have perished without Christ.
God can use pandemics, depressions, and
disasters for His own and our own good. He is God!
The Storms of Life
Every person has either gone through a trial,
is going through one now, or is headed for one.
It’s just the way life is. No one is exempt.
Innocent children get cancer.
Drug addicts go free.
However, the child of
God knows that “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but
with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be
able to endure it” (1
Corinthians 10:13).
If you’re going through a trial or a test,
God will make a way for you to endure it, but also to escape it.
He doesn’t say when that will happen, but it
will happen.
God uses things that afflict us to humble us
and make us seek Him and be more dependent upon Him.
But there are many storms in life and with
many purposes. There are:
o Storms of Affliction
(to humble us)
o Storms of Direction
(to direct us)
o Storms of Reflection
(to examine ourselves)
o Storms of Correction
(to correct us)
o Storms of Perfection
(to make us more like Christ)
God’s Sovereignty
Think of these storms as the rudder in a ship
whose sails are directed by the breath of God.
These are intended for our good and not harm.
The Apostle Paul had
experienced enough bad things in his missionary work that he knew “that for
those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called
according to his purpose” (Romams 8:28).
He understood that suffering was God’s
purpose and was often used as a means to reach others with the gospel.
If not for Paul’s imprisonment, the jailer
and his whole family wouldn’t have heard the gospel and been saved, so the bad
of Paul’s being in prison ended up doing much good for the jail and his
household (Acts
16:31-34).
Conclusion
I hope this has helped you see that even the
bad things that happen to us will end up helping us.
I don’t know how that works, but it does. God
has this under His control.
I know that nothing happens in life without a
purpose behind it, and the God with a purpose, but if you’ve never come to
trust in Christ, everything in life can work for your bad.
It’s a good day to trust in Christ (2 Corinthians 6:2), because tomorrow
may be too late (Hebrews
9:27).
If Jesus comes, and you are not saved, I
suggest you read this as a serious warning:
“12 And I saw the
dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead
were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had
done. 13 And the sea gave
up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in
them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had
done. 14 Then Death
and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second
death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's
name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the
lake of fire.” - Revelation 20:12-15 English
Standard Version
Jack
Wellman
is a father and grandfather and a Christian author, freelance writer, and
pastor of Central Christian Church in Lincoln, KS & also a Prison Minister.
He did his graduate work at Moody Theological Seminary. His books are
inexpensive paperbacks that are theological in nature: “Teaching Children The
Gospel/How to Raise Godly Children,“ “Do Babies Go To Heaven?/Why Does God
Allow Suffering?,“ "The Great Omission; Reaching the Lost for
Christ," and “Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?, Empirical Methodologies
& the Bible."
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