Beware the Raging River of Rebellion

By now it should be clear to everyone with critical thinking skills that the COVID-19 crisis has been used skillfully to advance increased control over humanity – whether or not the virus is as dangerous as claimed. However, even before information that undercut the official narrative began to accumulate, countless voices began calling for civil disobedience against the lockdown. Many of these voices belong to believers who reject mask-wearing and social distancing rules while claiming that such regulations are a dry run leading up to totalitarianism. 

Let me be clear that they might be right in their overall analysis. After all, many of those same leaders who insisted on the lockdown also openly encouraged the recent wave of unrest as if there was no pandemic. However, since the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns something has troubled me in the attitude of many Christians – including some whom I count as friends. Their responses even made me wonder if they could be trusted to take precautions that infringed on their “rights” if ever there was truly extreme pandemic. 

Could it be that a spirit of rebellion has swept many believers away in these perilous times? I can almost hear the question of countless readers: “How can you call it a ‘spirit of rebellion’ if we are rejecting the unjust dictates of evil men?” Many would also remind me of the words of Peter and the apostles: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). We will return to that particular verse towards the end.   

I have heard more than one person say that we need to reject the regulations now in order to push back already against the even stricter regime yet to come. This idea may sound logical, but I submit that it is based more on human wisdom than on the Word of God. Two examples are the relationships between David and Saul, and between Jesus and the Roman authorities. We see that both of them not only refused to rebel against obviously unjust rulers, but also encouraged others to submit wherever possible (1 Samuel 24:1-7; Matthew 22:15-22). 

A spirit of lawlessness is flooding the world today, and the enemy is doing his best to sweep believers away in the same roaring waters. Identifying his plot may be more difficult when it is tailored to your own bank of the river – that is, when it is disguised by language that appeals your own side of the societal divide. He wants to draw us out to a place where we fight the raging current alone and by our own authority.  

The day may be near when a vaccination that includes fetal tissue and a computer chip passport will be imposed upon humanity – forcing all to decide whether to obey God rather than man. We know that this will be connected to the coming “lawless one” and the “mystery of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-9), but a preemptive response of rebellion on our part is not the solution even when it is directed towards a world that itself is rebelling against God. Indeed, it simply lures us out to an unprotected position like a small group of soldiers independently declaring war on an entire army. God wants to protect us from the spirit of rebellion in order to spare us being taken down by a world in rebellion. 

Our primary calling in this battle is to obey God and to submit to his authority. When human authority asks us to disobey God, we must refuse. However, this is not done in a spirit of rebellion towards man but rather in a spirit of obedience towards God. The distinction may seem trivial if the practical decisions made appear to be the same externally, but the difference is profound on the spiritual level. We must not join in the spirit of lawlessness and rebellion, but rather must prepare ourselves for future potential conflict with human authority by practicing obedience towards God. His authority will be our refuge in times when obeying God and man cannot possibly both be done.

The Coming Worldwide Hunger

Mark Twain once wrote that foretelling wars and famines “was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine somewhere.” For Westerners who have grown up in an age of unrivalled abundance, that “somewhere” has always been “somewhere else” – never “here” and never closer than the television screen which could be switched off conveniently. The very idea of worldwide famines of “biblical proportions” has seemed to be more appropriate for a fictional drama series than the reality of everyday life in Europe and North America, but those days may be over. 

The experts have been wrong on many aspects of the Corona Virus and its fallout, but the warning from the UN’s World Food Programme that the economic upheaval from the health pandemic could result in a hunger pandemic is not necessarily an exaggeration. Countless masses in many nations already lack the resources to feed themselves properly, and the situation continues to deteriorate. If society continues to unravel in America and other nations, the previously wealthy could soon be preoccupied with basic survival as well. Hunger is coming, and it will not be a game. 

The worldwide wave of hunger will not be a pleasant sight, but we were forewarned and given instructions on how to respond. Jesus predicted that famines would be part of the events leading to the Last Days. In the same Olivet Discourse, the final parable promises that whoever feeds the least of these would be rewarded as though he had done it for Jesus himself (Matthew 24:7; 25:31-40). This care is not limited to those considered friends: “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink” (Proverbs 25:21). 

There is a passage in Ecclesiastes that speaks about times like these: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth… He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap… In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand…” (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6). Now is not the time to recoil in hesitation. A hungry world will soon be at the gates, and the fact that we do not know how much evil will be on the earth is an even greater reason to serve as much as possible now. 

The empty stomachs of the masses may lead millions to their first taste ever of the Bread of Life. “Behold, the days are coming… that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). Physical hunger for a season can even be part of the God’s plan to satisfy the hungry soul for all eternity: “So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3). 

Evening shadows are falling all across the world, and it can be tempting to “withhold” our hands in fear, despair or apathy as the humanitarian and spiritual disaster approaches. However, it is written: “If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday” (Isaiah 58:10). If you are a true believer who has tasted of the Bread of Life, this is your job description for as long as you are still on this earth. The hungry will soon be knocking, but the bread is already in our hands. 

Contact Tracing and the God of Contact

The phrase “contact tracing” was practically unknown before the COVID-19 crisis. The concept is not new, but human history is about to be changed irreversibly by the combination of (1) groundbreaking technology for tracking human activity and (2) the political will to make contact tracing universal and preemptive. Worldwide trends of the past two decades pointed clearly in this direction, and so it should be no surprise that many proposed measures in response to the crisis would all but end privacy.

No society can remain truly free while abolishing privacy. Reasons of security and public health cannot change that fact – even if they often appear logical and justifiable. This is not the time for the legitimate discussion on finding the balance between these conflicting principles in the modern age. However, it is fascinating to compare the character of God with the conventional wisdom of world elites when it comes to “contact tracing” and privacy.

At first glance, it would seem that God was the inventor of contact tracing: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; you understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:1-4).

God sees and counts our steps (Job 31:4; 34:21). He searches our heart and knows its intents (1 Chronicles 28:9; Hebrews 4:12-13). There is no place out of his reach: “‘Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?’ says the LORD… (Jeremiah 23:24). What, then, is the difference between God’s omniscience and contact tracing by governments or social media giants?

Before addressing that question, let us consider an aspect of human character that reflects the image of God. If the era of social media has taught us anything, it is that human beings have a deep inner longing to know and be known. Establishing these deeper relationships cannot happen without relinquishing at least some privacy, but the individual must have the freedom to do so voluntarily in order for the connection to be meaningful. There can never be a true sense of security if others control to what extent and under what conditions this knowing and being known takes place.

In the new world being created before our eyes, there is no room for individual choice regarding personal information. Human beings are under constant monitoring – with no accountability for those managing the data collection, and certainly with no intent on their part to be open about their own lives. This is the way of the world, and we should not be surprised. After all, Jesus said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them” (Matthew 20:25).

It is precisely here that we see the contrast with the character of God. He indeed knows everything about us – more than all surveillance technologies put together – but his motivation is strikingly different. God uses that information for our own good, while building a relationship of trust with us. Amazingly, his ultimate goal is to bring us into a place where the knowing is mutual! “Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12; also 1 John 3:2).

I find it simply astounding that the God who knows every detail of my life wants me to come to know him in the same way in eternity. In a world that is rapidly approaching the abolition of relationships in favor of the dark abyss of data collection, the thought of that friendship complete with reciprocity is an incredible comfort. He is not like the rulers of this world, my friends, and it is with him that we will spend all eternity.