Terry James | Prophecy Line
The entire world is on high alert because of the coronavirus that is spreading quickly. More than six hundred have died from the disease as of this writing. China, the country from which it emanates, has millions of people under quarantine.
There is no known cure, and experts report that it will possibly take years to develop a vaccine to cure or prevent its spread. Agencies responsible for controlling the virus fear a pandemic—a worldwide spread of the deadly disease.
Air travel makes the spread of the virus almost impossible to curtail. American Airlines is reportedly being sued by its employees in order to prevent the company from sending crews around the world, placing them at risk for exposure.
The fear generated by the spread of coronavirus affected not only the worldwide medical industry, but also the global economy.
Friday, January 31, the Dow Jones Industrial Averages closed down around 600 points. This generated anxiety among some who are already predicting any-moment global financial collapse. It caused one observer to weigh in with increased forewarnings. The day before the 600-point decline, he wrote:
In the light of the Coronavirus, which is spreading with no end in sight, more people are feeling compelled to ask the question, will the global economy fail? Some are predicting that the global economy, including the US economy will fail due to the introduction of new factors such as the Coronavirus…
Before the introduction of the Coronavirus, the global economy was already in deep trouble. What people should know is that back in December of 2019, before the Coronavirus went active, the global economy was on the verge of collapse…
Many economists that I have spoken to are concerned that the global economy will continue to decline as a result of the Coronavirus. Do these fears have merit? It does not matter. Perception drives reality. If the people on this planet believe that their health is threatened by this virus, the global economy, already on thin ice, will collapse. (Dave Hodges, “Will the Coronavirus Cause a Global Economic Collapse? The BDI Says Yes!” January 30, 2020)
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The economy snapped back in an almost flabbergasting way this week. It seems even this world-wide threat can’t hold back the tremendous perception that a profound economic boom is still on the upswing.
It is my belief more intensely than ever that the Rapture will occur in the midst of just such an economic boom as is presently perceived.
To some prophecy watchers, this newest of the threats to millions around the world is yet another of the converging signs that the end of the age is at hand. It ranks up there with earthquakes taking place daily, like the one a couple of weeks ago so powerful that it was felt strongly in Miami.
Bible prophecy, of course, tells that such virulent diseases will be prevalent during the Tribulation, the last seven years preceding Christ’s Second Advent. Jesus briefed His disciples about this coming assault as He sat on the Mount of Olives just before His crucifixion:
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7, 8)
My friend Chuck Missler, one of the great prophecy teachers, spoke about this passage. I remember listening with fascination while he waxed eloquent on what he thought the word “pestilence” in Jesus’ foretelling might mean. He equated the term to one found in another prophetic Scripture:
I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.(Revelation 6: 8)
Chuck, as I recall, postulated that the word “pestilence” in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse might be the same as the words “wild beasts” in the Revelation 6: 8 passage about the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
He put forth the thought that “wild beasts” could well mean what he termed “micro-beasts”—i.e., not necessarily only literal, four-footed animals like lions and bears, but perhaps voracious, flesh-eating and destroying entities that can be seen only under powerful microscopes. He suggested the term might indicate microbes—germs—of such virulence that they could not be detected or destroyed before they have done their deadly work.
Missler wrote:
There was a time not long ago when the medical profession felt they had most of the major diseases licked, and for the rest it was just a matter of time.
Now that former optimism appears tragically premature. Many of the previously “defeated” diseases are making a comeback, in hardier strains which are resisting our former treatments.…
The rapidity with which diseases, emergent or deliberate, can pass through our “global village” is terrifyingly real.
With modern air travel and global commerce, as well as our present understanding of modern biotechnology, the Biblical predictions now seem frighteningly imminent. (“Emergent and Deliberate Diseases,” Koinonia House, February 1, 1998)
The world’s top biological scientists and medical professionals have done much to defeat new and mutating bacteria and viruses since Missler wrote about these matters years ago. However, rather than stopping the progress of these “micro-beasts,” all efforts have been ineffective. for the most part. The ”beasts” are proliferating and are becoming more virulent.
Daniel’s prophecy about exponential travel (Daniel 12: 4) is now on an ever-increasing pathway to fulfillment, greatly escalating the ability of the micro-beasts to invade new human hosts around the globe. Yet, we haven’t reached that time of Tribulation forewarned by Jesus while He answered the disciple’s questions about what the future holds.
Nonetheless, the coronavirus is certainly an indicator to add to all the other signals of that time just ahead, about which Jesus declared:
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)
