The Bible is packed with information, it gives a detailed account of history, the lives of the people, interaction with God and prophecies for the future. Within the word of God, there is mention of plagues and illness. Are there accounts of viruses in the Bible that can help us today and where was the virus mentioned in the Bible?
Virus, according to biology, is an extremely small genetic material that is coated with protein and can reproduce in the living cell. The effect of a virus is that it destroys the cells of humans by reproducing itself through the living cells.
Is there anywhere in the bible where the word “virus” is used? Well, the word virus can’t be found in the bible but we can find something similar to this and that is ‘diseases’. What did the bible say about diseases?
Diseases and Viruses and Punishment
Diseases are used as punishment for people in the bible. The disease that came on the Egyptians was because of their disobedience. GOD told Moses to speak to the king that He should let the people go but he refused.
Anywhere there is a disease in the bible, it could be as a result of disobedience or it was inborn. There are many cases of this in the bible. A virus can cause some deadly diseases such as Ebola, SARS, and the recent one, Coronavirus also called the COVID-19.
Viruses and the End Times
This virus might be called the signs of the end time, or might be said to be part of the plagues that God sent to the Egyptians. Whatever the belief of man may be, all of these happening have certainly been predicted in the bible. We cannot doubt it, perilous times will come, they are here now but is it the end of the world?
“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 NIV
Gerald Flurry and Wayne Turgeon explained the meaning of the pale horse that came out from the seal in one of their booklets titled The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. “We have continually stressed throughout that we should look to Christ the Revelator to explain these seals and symbols. He provides us with the most correct word to unlock the true identity of this pale green horse which man’s best translations cannot: “and there shall be … pestilences” (Matthew 24:7).
The man on the pale horse symbolizes climactic, globe-encircling plagues and pandemics occurring and soon to occur in this modern age!” The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Pale Horse
Where was the virus mentioned in the Bible?
We have attributed the recent pandemic virus to this verse of the bible. At the end of time, this would be the outcome of one of the seals that would be opened according to the scriptures.
It says, plagues will come down to men and there would be deaths. Could it be that this verse is happening now? No. It is not. The virus that we have now is nothing supernatural. It is something gotten from animals and then jumped on man, then it started spreading. What the bible says about the end time is that the angel of death would be released to make all these things happen.
It would be supernatural, something that no one can explain not something that will be gotten from animals. Other viruses have surfaced in the world and they are deadly. The Ebola virus, the SARS virus, they are deadly too, they caused a high record of deaths. That did not mean that they will cause the end of the world.
The same with this recent virus, it is not the end of the world, it might come as a reminder that the end of the world is coming and it’s near but it is not the end of the world. Many diseases of the world are caused by a human being, nothing supernatural about it.
As seen in the bible, God might have used diseases to punish people in the time past for their rebellious act but this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is directly from God as a punishment to the entire world.
When some people disobeyed God in Israel, God pronounced a judgment on them.
“But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah.
Numbers 16:49
God explained the nature of the disease that will kill the people that disobeyed. Deuteronomy 28:22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.”
Ebola Virus
If we look at this description very well, it is the same thing as that of the Ebola Virus. Some of the Ebola symptoms are Fever, skin rash, and malaria. This is exactly what happens to the people who disobeyed. All of these things will leave us wondering why will God who is merciful do this to the people he loved. God cannot be questioned, He knew about everything, he is the almighty.
Anything God wishes to do, He will do and if He wants His people who have disobeyed Him come back to Him, He knows how He will so that too. The has used this same method to draw His people closer to Himself
“When I shut up the heavens so that there are no rain or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NIV
The word Virus might not have been mentioned directly in the Bible but there are things similar to what is happening in this generation in the bible but at the same time, we should not attribute it to the end of the world.