Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, many people are asking faith-based questions: Is this a judgment of God on the human race? Is this a sign of the end? Does Bible prophecy speak about it? Even if people don’t believe in God or the Bible, some are wondering what their Christian neighbors are thinking about the subject. So I will address what the Bible has to say about contagious diseases and the role they may play as “signs of the end” in Bible prophecy. Is the current pandemic the big event that many have feared
For starters, let’s all take a deep breath and get some perspective. Covid-19 has sadly led to thousands of premature deaths, but it still pales in significance to the Spanish Flu of a hundred years ago. That resulted in 50–100 million deaths all around the world, at a time when world population was less than two billion (it is close to eight billion today). And further back in history is the Black Plague (AD 1347–1351), which is estimated to have killed 75 to 200 million people at a time when world population was less than 500 million. That ratio is more or less one-in-three people in the world. So while the current situation is very serious, in human terms it is not yet at the level of what one might call “apocalyptic proportions”.
For starters, let’s all take a deep breath and get some perspective. Covid-19 has sadly led to thousands of premature deaths, but it still pales in significance to the Spanish Flu of a hundred years ago. That resulted in 50–100 million deaths all around the world, at a time when world population was less than two billion (it is close to eight billion today). And further back in history is the Black Plague (AD 1347–1351), which is estimated to have killed 75 to 200 million people at a time when world population was less than 500 million. That ratio is more or less one-in-three people in the world. So while the current situation is very serious, in human terms it is not yet at the level of what one might call “apocalyptic proportions”.
Having said all this, prophecy clearly indicates that panic is one characteristic of the final events (Luke 21:25,26). Could Covid-19 lead to eschatological levels of panic? I am not a prophet, an economist or a scientist, so take the following with a grain of salt. Covid-19, as we experience it, could get a whole lot worse, killing (in the worst case scenario publicly stated) more than 130,000 Australians and tens of millions worldwide. That would put it in Spanish flu territory, but not Black Plague numbers. The greatest concern would not be the current virus, but a mutation of the virus into something even more dangerous. This possibility is something to watch closely, but it does not seem likely to me (I am open to correction on this from scientific sources, not internet speculation). Viruses tend to decrease in potency over time rather than increase. And, due to lack of widespread testing, the death rate is probably much lower than three per cent right now, as many people who have COVID-19 don’t even know it. In Germany, a nation where testing has been much more widespread than most places, the death rate is currently about 0.08 per cent, around a quarter of the world rate. In the USA it is currently less than two per cent.
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