Coronavirus: 5 Things a Christian Should Know and Do

Coronavirus. Of course, that's what everyone's talking about right now. Five things a Christian should know and do.

That's a topical discuss right here today on the Christian worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Well, thank you for joining us today as we discuss this news story that's taken over everything. I was reading the Guardian UK newspaper the other day. The top 10 stories at that particular publication, I'm guessing this isn't unique to them, were about the coronavirus. So according to the Center for Disease Control, the CDC, a new coronavirus respiratory disease that was first detected in China called COVID 2019. COVID stands for coronavirus disease 2019, has quickly altered life worldwide. The World Health Organization has just upgraded the disease to a global pandemic. Now while the CDC, the Center for Disease Control in this country, reports that there have been 1629 total cases in the US with 41 deaths, at least that was the last reporting, it's changing daily, that's a relatively small number considering our overall population of 327 million people.

That's literally 0.0005% of our population has had reported cases of the coronavirus. But the threat of it has led to an enormous downturn of the stock market, cancellations of large gatherings, whether it's major sporting events, Disneyland conferences, churches, shortages of basic goods, toilet paper hand sanitizer, runs on food all over the country, suspensions of schools and workplaces, major disruptions as well to the travel industry among many other things. Which sort of leaves us to the obvious conclusion how quickly life can change and how little control we actually have in this life.

I mean no one really saw that this extreme of measures would be coming this quickly. I mean after all I was in Los Angeles last weekend, last week for the shepherds conference, went to church at Grace Community Church last Sunday. Well five, six days later they're announcing that church services have been cancelled, the travel industry has been shaken, everything has changed very significantly over the past week. And so today in the Christian worldview we're going to discuss this coronavirus, COVID-19, the focus of almost every news story in people's lives all around the world, everyone is talking about it of course. How should a Christian think about this? What should we know about it? What should we think about it?

And what should you do and not do? And what are some theological truths to keep in mind that we can rest in in the midst of a, I would say a pretty unprecedented situation at least in my lifetime where the country has been declared a national emergency and things are being shut down on a big wide scale all across the world in this country. Well the latest facts on the coronavirus and it's a little difficult to get factual information because there's so much reporting going on in social media and so forth but to go to some of the more governmental agencies to get some facts on this because the news media has a vested interest in hyping this because the more they hype it and the more kind of fear they create, the more people will click on their websites, the more people will watch their news reports.

So there's a vested interest there in getting more people to watch because you can charge more for advertising so there's a financial and viewer advantage to doing that. Of course social media is unreliable, it's very rumor-based, you get the extremes of oh this is just a hoax and well the flu is much worse, many more people die from the flu, we'll talk about that in a second. This is just a democratic attempt to sink Trump on one side and on the other side, the other extreme is well Trump hasn't done enough to stop this. 150 million people was reported in the Drudge Report are going to be infected with this disease, that's nearly half of our population. So you have extremes of reporting, you just have no idea what really to say well that's accurate or that's an exaggeration. China where the disease was first detected is actively propagandizing to blame the US for this. They're not going to take credit, they're trying to change the whole narrative so it's not their fault, it's the American's fault. The Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, these are major organizations, they already quoted them today but they're not immune to facts being manipulated for their agendas.

So remember worldview is always the bottom line, money isn't the bottom line in life, worldview, ideology is the bottom line in life and so they're going to report things, I'm not saying they're terribly biased but they're just made up of people and people have agendas and people have worldviews. And certainly as you listen to our program today, I'm not an expert on this, I'm reading and watching the same reports you are. I can tell you what the Bible says about things but as far as this coronavirus, you know I'm reading the same things you are and trying to extrapolate what's truth, what's likely, what's not.

So take that just in consideration as we do this program today. Well according to the CDC, just a few more facts on how this started in case there's been too much news reporting and you're trying to get back to the very basics. This is from the CDC, early on it says many of the patients at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan province or Wuhan city in Hubei province in China had a link, some link to a large seafood in live animal market, suggesting that there was an animal to person spread and you know whether it was like I've heard and again I don't know if this is true like you know there people were eating bats or something in some of these open animal markets where you know it's very the hygiene is very suspect at least to American standards so somehow you know maybe a human ate something of an animal and got this disease and then it spread to other persons like I said in the CDC here later a growing number of patients reportedly did not have exposure to these animal markets indicating that it started to spread from person to person so from animal like a bat to a person or something like that and then all of a sudden it the virus showed itself to be able to go not just from animal to person but from person to person that's what we're seeing around the world today. Who it most affects according to the CDC older people and people of all ages with severe underlying health conditions like heart disease lung disease and diabetes for example it says seem to be at higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 illness so it definitely affects all people especially of have underlying health conditions it's a respiratory flu-like disease but particularly older people are more susceptible to having really severe and even death as a result of this virus. I want to play a sound bite to start off here from Anthony Fauci you've probably seen him on TV he's a doctor he's an American immunologist and scientist the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health you've seen him on on the news channels he is part of the president's task force trying to stop this here's what he said about the coronavirus. SARS was also a coronavirus in 2002 it infected 8,000 people and it killed about 775 it had a mortality of about nine to ten percent so that's only 8,000 people in about a year in the two and a half months that we've had this coronavirus as you know we now have multiple multiples of that so it clearly is not as lethal I'll get to the lethality in a moment but it certainly spreads better probably for the practical understanding of the American people the seasonal flu that we deal with every year has a mortality of 0.1 percent the stated mortality overall of this when you look at all the data including China is about three percent it first started off as two and now three I think if you count all the cases of minimally symptomatic or asymptomatic infection that probably brings the mortality rate down to somewhere around one percent which means it is ten times more lethal than the seasonal flu I think that's something that people can get their arms around and understand. Okay that's Dr. Anthony Fauci and basically that's sort of putting the rest the idea of people saying well it's not as bad as the flu more people get the flu every year more people die of the flu well yes that's because more people have have caught the flu already this is a burgeoning of the flu virus this hasn't been able to take hold like the the seasonal flu yet but as you said it's it's more it's more devastating you know once more people got it more people will die of it than die of the flu and this is why everything's being cancelled I mean like I mentioned at the beginning what was it something like 0.0005 percent of the population has it just infinitesimal right but if it's just a spread like it has in certain parts of Italy and apparently Iran and and obviously in China and so forth you know they're trying to slow this so the healthcare system is not overwhelmed in this country I mean that would be just you know it wouldn't be enough beds and treatments and everything else if it it's allowed to spread so they're trying to cancel everything sporting events you name it so that not as many people get infected so there's not a rush on healthcare now along with this have come all of course all the conspiracy theories and I can't verify or or or put to rest any of them I don't have any inside information about any of these some will say it's a manufactured crisis that China started this at a virus lab in their country or or it's a biological weapon and they're trying to take down Trump and retaliation for the tariffs he put against the country and they're trying to take down this country I don't know maybe I don't have no evidence to say that of course the the leadership of China is certainly not beyond that it's a very very evil evil country from a communist leadership standpoint so I don't you know have no reason to think that they were there they're better than that but I also have no reason to think that that's actually the case too some people think it's it's a testing of the police state here in this country how far can we be pushed to be having to enter a police state you know you have to always watch out for government overreach now President Trump declared a national emergency yesterday and what it ostensibly does is open up a lot of freedoms and you know you drop regulations for how healthcare can be done because it's a crisis but you remember back in 9 11 the Patriot Act and so forth there there's there's easily loss losses of civil liberties in emergencies like this so you have to pay very close attention you know with this especially in health emergencies like this governments have almost almost you know unsurpassed power to do whatever they want in health emergencies like this because after all that you know they're going to put it in quotes here they're trying to is this for your health and your safety and so under that under that that under that reason almost anything can be done in this kind of situation so this is something very much to pay attention now and however started and whatever the conspiracies uh theories are there's no doubt this crisis will be used for political ends I mean this is an election year in the words of Rahm Emanuel the former mayor of Chicago and President Obama's advisor and you never let a crisis go to waste he said and and the Democrats are going to use this to try to undermine Trump if Trump doesn't do the right thing here like if he hadn't you know declared a national emergency and everything hadn't been shut down it's a little early here okay uh if he had to shut everything down this would he'd look really bad if this took off and all of a sudden infected so many many people in the world so he's sort of in a in a quandary you know if I don't do it it's going to get worse and it's going to work we'll come back and talk more after this.

It is a pain to know that the president of the United States is not going to do it. It is a pain to know that there are people who do not know Jesus. It is a greater pain to know that oftentimes Jesus and Christianity is being distorted. Your destiny is calling out.

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Be sure to take advantage of two free resources that will keep you informed and sharpen your worldview the first is the Christian worldview weekly email which comes to your inbox each Friday it contains a preview of the upcoming radio program along with need to read articles featured resources special events and audio of the previous program the second is the Christian worldview annual print letter which is delivered to your mailbox in November it contains a year-end letter from host David Wheaton and a listing of our store items including DVDs books children's materials and more you can sign up for the weekly email and annual print letter by visiting thechristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233 your email and mailing address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org five things a Christian should know and do about the coronavirus that's taking place right now is really change things in our society very very quickly this is the Christian worldview radio program I'm David Wheaton radio is a safe way to uh to get through this particular coronavirus there's no uh person-to-person contact here so we're thankful for that today and as I was mentioning just in the setups give me some background on where this came from how it started and who it most affects and some of the conspiracy theories going on and never let a crisis go to waste and how the democrats are going to use this to their advantage and how Trump has to do the right thing here if he doesn't do enough you know if it doesn't appear to be doing enough and it spreads like a real mass contagion you know he's going to lose the election over it because it's such a big deal um I want to play one more sound bite and before we get into those five things a Christian should know and do about again back to Dr Anthony Fauci and what he thinks and he's on the task force the president's task force for this you see him on tv and so forth uh here's what his thoughts are on what's going to happen going forward and why everything is closing well it's certainly going to get worse before it gets better and the kinds of mitigation strategies containment and mitigations that you're talking about is to do that kind of physical separation of people which is one of the very effective ways that you can really mitigate the spread of the virus if you look at the pattern of viruses particularly these types of viruses and even look at what's gone on in China and in Italy and in South Korea you go along like this the way we were and then you have a big spike that goes way up and then after a while after much disease and suffering and death it comes back down again the purpose of the mitigation is to get that peak and to blunt it so that it's a bit of a hill as opposed to a mountain we're at a critical point now more in some regions of the country than in others but in general the kinds of things that are going on will hopefully make that blunting of that peak so that we could save a lot of lives and save a lot of illness but to be clear we have not peaked yet no there's no doubt that we have not peaked yet okay that's Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Health and I also wanted to read you what it's like going on in Europe I received a text message yesterday from Soren Kern remember Soren he was the one who came and spoke at one of our speaker series events a couple years ago he's a geopolitical analyst for the Gatestone Institute he texted me yesterday I think he'd be fine with me reading us on the air he said Spain is now a state of emergency as of tomorrow that's today we're going to be confined to our home for at least 15 days possibly more the entire country is shut down no one to be seen said it's eerie he said a study I read today says that Spain is seven days behind Italy Germany is 11 days behind and that USA is 16 days behind the full force of the virus is coming to Spain this weekend and he says probably to America in just under two weeks and so that was his analysis Soren Kern and you can see how just what that's that's basically what Anthony Fauci just said it's going to get worse before it gets better so just because everything's been shut down here doesn't mean that bell curve is not going to keep going up and what they're trying to do is trying to keep that bell curve from getting so high they're trying to keep it lower and keep everyone separate from each other for a couple weeks in in the hope that not as many people will get infected and so I actually think it's probably a pretty good idea even though it's really extreme to do this and with so few people you think well not that many people are sick not that many people are dying what's going on well I just thought I think they they don't want to take the chance of it sort of getting out of control and overwhelming overwhelming everything okay let's get on to more the the theological spiritual side of this five things I think a Christian should know and do we'll try to open the phone lines today as well if we have some times and get some of your thoughts as well I think the first thing a Christian should know and do and this is probably the most important point here is to know and to trust that God is sovereign over this now this word sovereignty gets thrown around a lot people misunderstand what it means or they don't believe in God's sovereignty but sovereign means basically to rule or to reign the word reign is in the word sovereign to have control to be an authority it's the truth of scripture is that God either causes or allows everything that happens to happen in other words as R.C. Sproul once said if there is a one single molecule in this universe running around loose totally free of God's sovereignty then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled that's by R.C. Sproul in his book by God chosen by God and so the idea of God's sovereignty is that God controls everything that happens causes it or he allows it to happen I went to got questions they have usually good one-page summaries and some of these theological questions and doctrines and they say God's sovereignty is one of the most important principles in Christian theology as well as one of its most hotly debated topics whether or not God is actually sovereign is usually not a topic of debate all mainstream Christians sex they call it agree that God is preeminent in power and authority God's sovereignty is a natural consequence of his omniscience that means he knows all his omnipotence means he's all powerful and his omnipresence I mean he's all present okay so God's all-knowing all powerful and all present therefore he's sovereign right but that's not what's subject to disagreement they say is to what extent God applies his sovereignty specifically how much control he exerts over the will of man how much he exerts over our lives when we speak of the sovereignty of God we mean that he rules the universe but then the debate begins over when and where his control is direct and where it is indirect the article goes on to say that the reality of human volition or human will and human accountability to God sets the maximum boundary for God's sovereign control over the universe which is to say that there is a point at which at which God chooses to allow things that he does not directly cause that's just saying the same thing I said just earlier God either can causes something to happen or he allows it to happen so look at passages like Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 28 he when God's speaking to the nation of Israel if you talk for the Christian for the person out there thinks well God would never cause a disease a pestilence like this this is all over scripture God's doing this I mean this is not just in one place I'll give you one example in Deuteronomy 28 when he's speaking to the nation of Israel he says but it shall come about if you do not obey the Lord your God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes with which I charge you today that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you the Lord will make the pestilence that's a that's a wasting disease cling to you until he has consumed you excuse me from the the land where you are entering to possess this is Moses speaking on behalf of God the Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew and they will pursue you until you perish again that's just one example of the many examples in in scripture where God directly causes a pestilence like this for his purposes for punishment or consequences of something now I'm not saying that's exactly the purpose here I do not know God's purposes in this what I'm saying though is God is sovereign he either caused this or he allowed this so we should never think that we should never think that the common evangelical notion that God is only loving and he only does good things to us and nothing ever but that is not that is not found in scripture at all there are definitely consequences and punishments and pestilences that come directly from God think of the plagues in Egypt when the nation of Israel was leaving Egypt many other places throughout scripture read the book of revelation and what God is going to do in the end times these are directly caused by God now the other reality is that God allows these things to happen we see in the book of Job that that an amazing account something that should just really open our eyes to the way God operates in Job we have Job was a righteous man wealthy had everything large family and everything and all of a sudden we find out in Job this is a historical reality this isn't a a myth or a legend here this is a metaphor now there were the day when the sons of God these are these are Satan's angels demons came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them so apparently Satan has access to God I mean this is something whoa we didn't know this huh the Lord said to Satan from where do you come then Satan answered the Lord and said from roaming about on the earth and walking around on it the Lord said to Satan have you considered my servant Job for there is no one like uh like him on the earth a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil then Satan answered the Lord does Job fear you or fear God for nothing have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has and every side you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land but put forth your hand now and touch all that he has he will surely curse you to your face then the Lord said to him here it is behold all that he has is in your power only do not put forth your hand on him so Satan departed from the presence of the Lord then you probably know the rest of the story that Satan afflicted Job and he lost his family and all his possessions and he got terribly sick and boils and everything so there's the example of God's sovereignty again God allowing Satan to do evil painful insidious nefarious work on the earth this is all part of God's sovereignty so if your view of God is well God only does good things he only brings us you know bunnies and puppies um you're not you're not reading the God of the Bible God either actively causes something like this to happen or he allows it to happen we don't understand why we can't just make a conclusion because we know that now we know the reason why he did this we just know that God is sovereign over it and it's not out of his control that's the first thing we can rest in is that this is not out of his control God will use this either cause it or allow it allowed it and he will use it for his purposes to advance his plan forward and ultimately you will bring glory back to him by contrast even in our advanced world as opposed to God having complete control over all the affairs of life this should teach us that we have very little control over life life as we know it as we found out this past week can be changed and shut down very quickly supply chains disruption no food income lost work travel hospital rooms meds everything has changed in a week so as opposed to God being sovereign we are definitely not coming back more after this in the Christian real view the critical race theory and intersectionality are simply analytical tools they're meant to be used as tools not as a world view not a transcended world view above the authority of scripture and we stand by the strength of this resolution is the southern baptist convention diverging from biblical orthodoxy over issues of women teaching men homosexuality and critical race theory is this a bellwether of what's coming to your church by what standard is 110 minute dvd documentary about the battle taking place in the sbc 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things a christian should know and do regarding this coronavirus taking place right now and the first point we had talked about welcome back to the christian real view by the way i'm david wheaton the host and our website is thechristianrealview.org talking about these five things with regard to this national emergency that was just declared yesterday by the president the first one was that no one trusts that god is sovereign over over this so he is in control he's either caused it or allowed it and whatever whatever it was he is in complete control of this we can trust that his plan is moving forward he's not up in heaven kind of ringing his hand saying i hope this turns out a certain way or i hope the president doesn't do this or no no he knows the future he knows what's going on he's causing or allowing things he's working through this his plan is moving forward okay so trust rest in that but the sub point of this is that by contrast even in our very advanced world we you and me have very little control we're not sovereign at all over life you know is human nature to make life easier and more controllable and more convenient and and that's a good thing uh you know do you like to have you know stores right down the street where you can go and buy food of course you do do you like indoor plumbing and hot showers and toilet paper and driving your own car and and all your needs and wants at your little stores all around you can just go you don't need to store stuff too much in advance you can just go and get of course you do and this is the result of being made in the image of god that god gave us intellect and he also blessed this country with a free market system where there's so much abundance here where we can really think we're controlling lives to a very high degree the supply chain in our country is so is so tightly wound in other words they can you know something disappears from the market the supply chain replenishes it right away well that's not the that's not the case right now you go to stores and things are being stole uh sold out they can't replace it fast enough and we all of a sudden find out that toilet paper is hard to get and things are hard to do we can't go out of our homes and things are being cancelled and everything's being shut down you know in a moment we think we have things under control the stock market just a week or two ago was up at record highs and there's a high flying time in this country well boom that is over and i don't know if it's over for a long time a short time i have no idea and you might just think this is overblown and panic well maybe but the reality of what is occurring is the reality in other words you can say well there's not that many people with it we don't need to panic well the problem is certain people think this in power think this is a very serious threat and so therefore the new reality is that is the new reality no matter whether it's overblown or not we are in this new reality now life has contracted at this point and we don't know how long this is going to take it might be you know just a couple weeks uh you know my my guess just to guess is it's probably going to be a couple months i would say before they they believe that that bell curve of more people getting the virus is going to start to to to drop we're going to be in the downside of it so it's not going to be probably a couple days i think it's going to be longer than that this is really a very very very small taste of what it's going to be like during the tribulation period read revelation with the pestilences and difficulty in buying or selling a worldwide impact i've been reading revelation recently and those are just very very strong and deadly pestilences and and judgments of god that you see in revelation this is just a little snapshot of that so the conclusion here is on this first point of no one trusts that god is sovereign and we are not is you may be prepped for this what's going on right now you may have bought extra food you may have some money stashed away some cash down stashed away may have some meds and so forth to get you through a few months but all that does is buy you more time which is important it just buys you a little more time than the next person but the reality is we should get under the authority of what james said in james 14 he says come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away instead you ought to say if the lord wills we will live and also do this or that and this passage isn't just talking about getting involved in business it's about the attitude of hey things are going well things are always going to go like this as it has been in america you know we have all the things the needs that we want and all our wants met this is not the case our life is a vapor and this should be a reminder that god is sovereign and we are not he is the one who determines this life and your life and so our only response to that should be to bow the knee to repent and believe in his gospel how we can get right with him which is putting your trust in christ's work for you on the cross confessing your sin knowing that christ is the only substitutionary sacrifice for your sin becoming born again christian and then trusting him and his sovereignty in a situation like that that's the first point i think the christians need to know and do with regards to this coronavirus the second point is a little more mundane but i think it's an important point nonetheless is to prepare yourself and prepare your family prepare your loved ones you know planning ahead for this or any other emergency is just the wise thing to do because again we don't know like that passage said we don't know what a day is going to bring like i mentioned i was in los angeles last week there was i was at this conference with 3,500 4,000 men from all over the world uh and flying in airplanes and you know we of course the coronavirus was was we were aware of it it was in the news but we made a decision i wasn't going to go and we thought well it doesn't seem like it's really been a huge impact yet we decided to go it was a great conference we'll do a show on it coming up some of the recap of it but you know when you get out there there was there was very little you could tell that there was any change of life you know people weren't wearing masks everywhere people at the conference were shaking hands and there's people everywhere it was just normal i mean you could maybe tell 0.0001 percent things that changed about this virus but not much but now a week later not even a week later everything has changed and so living in the moment assuming life will always be the same going forward is not a wise thing to do so we need to be prepared i think somewhat to mitigate the blow of changes which we don't see coming in life this idea that nothing's ever going to change this is the way the world thinks it says in second peter chapter three um know this first of all that in the last days and we're living in the last days it's an it's an era of time not necessarily the last 10 days but we're living in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their loss here's what they say where is the promise of of his coming forever since the fathers the old testament fathers fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation for when they maintain the promise of ungodly men they maintain this it escapes or notice that by the word of god the heavens were created or existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water through which the world at that time was destroyed being flooded with water but by his present word god's word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire kept for the day of judgment and the ungodly men in other words christians believe in catastrophism not uniformitarianism and what what is the difference of those big words unbelievers believe in uniformitarianism that everything has always been the same there's been no major catastrophes that change anything and so that's why they believe in billions and billions of years there was a little amoeba that appeared somehow out of nowhere and just over time uniform time things uh you know grew and evolved and micro macro evolution and and everything's been the same that's not what the bible teaches the bible teaches there was a catastrophe at the very beginning of time just the the flood way back at the you know that's not the very beginning but just shortly after the beginning there's a flood that god destroyed the earth that completely made remade this world that changed our geology it changed everything there's a future catastrophe coming as well when during the tribulation period and the return of christ so in light of that we should know that as believers and we should prepare ourselves just as joseph did when he knew the famine in egypt was coming he was leader and ruler over all of egypt he did some things to prepare the country for this famine seven-year famine he stored grain he did all these things and it really saved the people of egypt and we should do the same now i'm not saying we should hoard don't take more than you need or or that you'll ever be able to use but you should consider having a couple months of food and supplies on hand not just for this particular coronavirus but for any time a disruption occurs let's say another 9 11 type thing happened let's say there was some sort of weapon launched at this country i mean our life can be disrupted this should tell us that very quickly it can be disrupted so i think christians who know that we live in a catastrophic world where things like this can happen that we have a duty to care for our families and our loved ones and other people other believers or other people who are in need and and that's how god designed us ultimately to not have to be just totally dependent on government you mean don't be sitting around not preparing at all for the future or anything bad that can happen and being in a line you know relying on the government to take care of you i mean if you don't end up needing what you prep with you can always share it with others so that's the second point is is prepare yourself and your family and loved ones in some ways i'm not saying you need to go live in a bunker or get you know 10 years worth of food and so forth but you might just want to have a couple months worth of supplies so you're not waiting in lines or you're not you're able to get some of your basic needs that uh you know we've seen in some of the social media videos of people you know lines wrapping around corners at costco and so forth with people trying to get something at the last second in other words our lives are not totally predictable we don't live in a uniform world point three i'm going to do this one very quickly i believe this country needs to disassociate itself from china this is something that many people have said and i've said this before in this program the idea with trading with this country who has the probably the most wicked leadership maybe apart from uh you know iran or north korea or maybe you know russia and so forth and that by trading with them capitalism will change them to become more like that us well how has that worked out that hasn't worked out at all worldview is the bottom line these are brutal communists who will lie and kill and rewrite history to advance their cause and we'll talk more about this particular point after this last break of the day here on the christian real view there's an abundance of resources available in christian bookstores and online but the sad reality is that many of them even some of the most popular do not lead to a sound and strong faith a key aim of the christian worldview is to identify and offer resources that are biblically faithful and deepen your walk with god in our online store we have a wide range of resources for all ages adult and children's books and dvds bibles and devotionals unique gifts and more so browse our store at thechristianworldview.org and find enriching resources for yourself family friends small group or church you can also order by calling our office toll free at 1-888-646-2233 that's 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org it is a pain to know that there are people who do not know jesus it is a greater pain to know that oftentimes jesus and christianity is being distorted your destiny is calling out it's time to start living large i don't think god killed jesus that's a sick god and a sick story this is the doctrine of christianity this is the doctrine that separates christianity from every other religion in the world the american gospel films contrast the false teachings so prevalent today to true biblical christianity for a limited time we are offering both films for a donation of thirty dollars or more to the christian worldview regular retail is 17.99 each to order go to the christian worldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to box 401 excelsior minnesota 55331 five things christians should know and do regarding the coronavirus pandemic that's taking place right now just declared a national emergency yesterday by the president first thing is no one trusts that god is sovereign over this we spent a lot of time on that early earlier in the program prepare yourself your family your loved ones for crisis like this we don't live in a unified society we don't live in a unified society we don't live in a unified society we don't live in your loved ones for crisis like this we don't live in a uniform world things can change very quickly the third point is to disassociate from china and um you know the reason that we are so integrated with china is because of cheaper labor okay so so we can get our products cheaper in this country they're invested there so much u.s companies because labor is just more inexpensive and i never understand why the democrats are so outraged about the minimum wage price here and working conditions they're not don't seem to be very outraged at all about the fact that u.s companies are basically producing everything it's an exaggeration but many things over in china because that's the only difference you're just paying them less people less money over there and they're under this communist dictatorship over there we're enriching their country we're allowing them to hold our debt we're giving them opportunity to steal our military secrets we're giving them leverage to inflict pain on us because we're so tight we need them right i saw a report this week that there was some official over there it says that they're they're not going to send us medications that they're producing that we need in this country this needs to end and i i it should but i don't think it will we need the manufacturing jobs here and this is the biblical principle of nationalism by the way that god divided the nations the tower of babel he wants a nationalized world rather than a global world and this is the problem we are facing right now is we're so tied into china who's an enemy of ours and yet we're so tied with them from excuse me tied in with them from a economic standpoint point four what we need to know and do regarding coronavirus be this is a practical one just be wise in your health and your contact with others you know for the foreseeable future here teach yourself if you don't know or teach your kids wash your hands don't touch your face don't shake hands you don't need to shake hands you don't need to be the bro i don't care i'm not you know don't don't be like that why that's how this virus is passed just give someone a fist bump or just say hello take your shoes off outside your house and here's one thing i personally have been doing i've been trying to get a lot more rest because i get sick susceptible to getting sick when i get run down when my immune system's down so i've been trying to go to bed earlier i try to take a nap once in a while just to make sure that i'm not getting run down and get more susceptible to getting sick you may want to take some immune booster supplements like zinc or vitamin c or things like that people have home remedies and so forth but it's anything to keep your immune system up in your your environment clean and of course if you feel sick at all or under the weather uh stay home respect other people uh you know don't don't try to slough it off you don't want that that's that's not treating your neighbor as you'd want to be treated it's biblical principle so be sure you do that i think you should make your own decision about whether to go to church this has been a big issue that's come up and that uh like i mentioned earlier uh was out in los angeles grace community church uh california they've they've disallowed in california now all gatherings over 250 people so churches are are shutting or having to shut down and so i think there are there's you know some christians are going to say this is the government and you know they're trying to stop the spread of the gospel and so forth i i don't think that is what this is about at least at this point the pacific justice institute and brad brad dacus they they represent christians in situations of civil liberties wrote a note yesterday i don't have time to read the whole time today basically he was just saying that you know um if you choose to disobey this order from the government now there probably is not a lot of legal standing for you to be held up in court sort of unprecedented they just don't know they're not recommending that they're recommending if i could just summarize his note here that better probably just these services are not by the way shutting down they're doing their services online you can still watch church i just don't want people to gather together so i don't take this as a directive from the government to not preach the gospel that's a directive that must be disobeyed according to scripture but this is a health directive from the government that i think at least for the short term should be obeyed until it's clear that it's being used for other purposes to stop the spread of the gospel and believers from getting together there's more we could say about that but we don't have enough time here at the end of the program today the fifth thing is unfortunately we got to all five is we need to use this time i think as believers to sober up to to get our priorities in line with god's priorities to to grow yourself to help others to take opportunities to impact others with the truth and with the gospel there's so many verses in scripture on this this idea of soberness and i think that gets a bad rap in the evangelical church today oh you're just you know you're not having fun and you know the christian life is about happiness and joy and so forth well the idea of sober is not sad it just it just means that it means focused on prioritizing the main things as the main things it means we we live our lives sober in other words centered around who god is and what he wants for us centered around sanctification growing in christlikeness doing our duties as christians our responsibilities of discipleship and evangelism with our families and with others we come in contact with that's what it means to be sober and it says it all over scripture therefore in first peter preparing your minds for action being sober minded set your hope fully on the grace that we brought to you at the revelation of jesus christ first the last one is five six so then let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober older men titus two are to be sober minded dignified and self-controlled sound in faith and love and in steadfastness this is not about being sad but rather focused on the main things it's very easy in our society to get so focused on our little lives our personal our personal peace and affluence our needs and our wants our entertainment our amusements our recreations our eatings our drinkings the temporal over the eternal let this crisis of coronavirus be a realization that life is not uniform we are not here just to fulfill our own needs we're here to to know god closer to be related to be in relationship closely with him to be ambassadors to this world and that's going to mean different things for different people during this crisis if you're a younger person and maybe you don't have family you're not taking care of older people maybe you want to be on the front lines of helping people who who have this virus now if you're an older person or if you have family and so forth that may not be what your responsibility is now maybe more to care for your family and those in your church or something like that it's going to look different but ultimately a deeper sobriety focusing on the priorities of being a believer that is really what i think believers should do in the midst of this crisis so there's some positive outcomes here by the way from this there there can be the result of this coronavirus can be the church and christians can sober up to our duties and in our great commission calling rather than being distracted by so much of the shallowness and emotion that can so easily distract us and take over our life this can help us to be better prepared for far more serious crises in the future maybe unbelievers out there if you're listening today you can realize that life isn't in you're in control you need to get right with god and trust him because he is in control that really i think is the key things to keep in mind and if you missed any of the program today you can always go to our website thechristianworldview.org to hear any parts you missed you can sign up for our weekly newsletter there because we do live in a changing and challenging world never more true than right now but there is one we can trust in and count on jesus christ and his word they're the same yesterday today and forever we hope today's broadcast turned your heart toward god his word and his son to order a cd copy of today's program or sign up for our free weekly email or to find out how you can be reconciled to god through jesus christ go to our website thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 the christian worldview is a weekly one-hour radio program that is furnished by the overcomer foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at box 401 excelsior minnesota 55331 that's box 401 excelsior minnesota 55331 thanks for listening to the christian worldview until next time think biblically and live accordingly