Coronavirus COVID-19: Edited 22 March 2020

This post may seem to be off subject but it is not. If Jesus is Lord of everything then He is the Lord of public health and our personal health. The current world-wide spread of the COViD-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) virus in its original form and in a possible second mutated form are surely cause for vigilance and concern but not for panic and misinformation. Updates are in BOLD type.

The CoVid-19 virus is essentially an influenza virus so the following comments make good sense regardless of whether the disease to be avoided is SARS, MERS, CoViD-19, "the flu", or the common cold.

1.  The "corona" in the name is Latin meaning "crown" or "halo" and is descriptive. Under two dimesional electron microscopy, the viral particles appear to be covered with club-shaped spikes.

2.  The current virus is not "Coronavirus." It is one of a group of viruses known as coronaviruses. Corona in Latin means "crown." The group includes the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus (MERS-CoV) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus (SARS-Cov). The viruses in this group are RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses with a viral envelope as their outer layer. Many of these viruses produce flu-like symptoms and in severe cases do have the capacity to be fatal.

3.  The presence of a second mutated form of the virus is to be expected. Viruses commonly mutate into new varieties.

4.  The United States Centers for Disease Control says that there is no need for healthy individuals to wear face masks.

5.  Cover your face, mouth, and nose if you sneeze. The primary infection route is on respiratory moisture droplets from sneezes or coughs. The second most likely infection route is fingers: touching a contaminated surface and then touching your own mouth, nose, or eyes.

6.   If possible, stay about six to 10 feet away from people with obvious flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, and shortness of breath). It is silly and racist to avoid any particular ethnic group. Viruses do not care about your ethnic background.

6.  Wash your hands frequently with soap and water and use any hand sanitizers which are provided by stores, churches, physicians, etc. Grocery stores often provide sanitizing wipes for use on grocery cart handles; always use them because the grocery cart handles are touched by hundreds of people a day. All of the items listed here are touched by many random people each day: door knobs and handles, elevator buttons, public telephones, shared computer keyboards, coins and paper money, and any number of other public things. You probably use your cell phone all day long; anything you have touched with with your bare hands will be on your phone. Don't forget about your automobile;s steering wheel, radio buttons, light switches, and door handles. Wash, wash, wash; wipe, wipe, wipe. The main route of transmission of viruses such as CoVid-19 is your hands. Keep your fingers away from your mouth, your nose, and your eyes. Do not chew on rubber pencil erasers!

7.   Most healthy individuals are at slightly less risk. Those with the greatest risk are probably the elderly, those with compromised immune systems, and those with other serious preexisting conditions. The main causes of death from the virus are secondary pneumonia and multiple organ failure.

8.    A vaccine for the virus will eventually be available but the process for developing the vaccine is not magic. It will take time.

9.   Follow the instructions of your local health authorities. Cooperate with what they instruct you to do. It is their job to protect you as much as possible. Do not assume that you are immune to any disease. It is not disloyal to the Lord to temporarily avoid large gatherings of people like church services.  We are instructed in scripture to be good citizens and to cooperate with our rulers in any matters which do not interfere with with our Christian faith, always putting our obedience to the Lord first.

10. Think of the "social distancing" which is being implemented as you would about the crews who fight forest fires. To fight the enormous fires, the firefighters take bulldozers and cut wide trenches into the dirt, clearing away trees, brush, and debris, When the fire reaches the trench there is nothing there for it to burn. The idea for us is we cannot infect one another if we are separated.

"...the Devil will get you!"

Just north of Prattville, Alabama (USA) on Interstate Highway 65 is a roadside billboard on which there is painted a gleefully leering red-skinned devil with a pitchfork.  There he stands, with a long pointed tail and little horns on his head.  Just like the little devil who stood on Little Audrey’s left shoulder in the classic cartoons. (A little white-robed angel with a halo stood on her right shoulder.)

On the billboard, is the inscription in bright red, “Go to Church or the Devil will get you!” 

I used to pass by this sign without any serious thought, but, this last weekend, it really bothered me.  I know that the people who put up the sign were well-meaning and devoted Christians and I share their concern.  The primary and overriding task of the Church is evangelism. (Matthew 28:19)

There are several things I see as troubling about the billboard.

1.                     The devil on the sign is cartoonish and stereotypical.  Non-believers will laugh at the supposedly “stupid” Christians rather than be frightened by the Devil whose existence they deny. 

2.                     If we are serious about challenging the world’s evil system and wish to draw others to Christ, we must present arguments which are intellectually unchallengeable, not trite and stereotypical ones which will be dismissed as silly by unbelievers.

3.                     As presented, the message seems to state that        

church attendance will save someone.  Then why does every honest pastor know that, among the people in their churches, some, perhaps many, are totally lost? “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:23 (The full passage is Matthew 7:15-28)

4.                     The billboard's message implies that an action, church attendance, is important in our salvation.  We are told not to forsake assembling ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25) but we are also told that observance of the law and assembling on a particular day will not save us; we are saved by our relationship with Jesus Christ.  (Galatians 2:16, Romans 14:4-8.)  There is nothing which we can do to save ourselves, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9

The person(s) who placed the devil billboard on the side of the highway had only the best intentions and, if only one person was moved by the billboard to accept Jesus as Lord, there was rejoicing in Heaven (Luke 15:10).  We must, however, be careful about the unintentional messages we are sending by our statements and actions to be sure that the received message is the biblical one we intended to send.