American stock-market gurus are astonished and baffled. The Dow and other financial/economic averages have plunged in unprecedented fashion. It is not a crash, as in the 1929 stock-market crash. But it has never gone from an unprecedented high to a 10 percent loss in such short order.
The stock market has since somewhat rallied, but still is tremendously down.
It is all, of course, because of a panicked selloff by those whose whole reason for being revolves around making money, the love of which, God’s Word says, is “the root of all kinds of evil.”
At the core of the panic is the coronavirus. The spreading disease—of which little is known as far as its cause and ultimate effects—is feared to eventually bring to a standfill the consumption of products around the world.
It is thought that factories will be unable to produce goods and parts to sell to other manufacturing entities, because workers either won’t, due to illness, be able to attend work, or because workers are afraid to be around other people. This, it is feared, will ultimately bring on a major depression—or something even worse.
The hyperbole is rampant. At the heart of it all are the Democrat Party leaders, the mainstream news media, and the Trump haters, all of whom see in the hyperbole political advantage as the US presidential election date comes into view.
Leaders of that party weighed in almost immediately, accusing President Donald Trump of being inadequate to handle the crisis. They charged that he is doing too little, and compared the coronavirus to Hurricane Katrina of the George W. Bush era. A number of mainstream broadcast networks and cable channels saw their program hosts join in with their Democrat guests. The tenor and tone of their analyses seemed to be that this disease will be Trump’s Katrina.
This refers to the charge made against President Bush that he was inadequate to handle that crisis, so many people died and great dangers existed that wouldn’t have if a Democrat had been in office.
One host urged her guests to just start calling it the “Trump Virus.”
It remains to be seen, of course, just where this outbreak will end. The stock market has fallen, as stated above, and, indeed, unless things turn around and there is a bounce-back of the bottom of the fall, things could severely damage an economy that has been perceived as booming.
My own take has been, as most who read these commentaries know, that the Rapture will occur at a time of economic uptick, not during a global fiscal disaster.
My belief hasn’t changed. I still contend that the Lord Jesus prophesied it will be business as usual, or even better than usual, when He next catastrophically breaks in on the affairs of mankind.
It will be catastrophic for those left behind. But it will be glorious beyond imagination for those who go to be with their Lord in that electrifying instant of Rapture.
All the experts I’ve heard lately say that America isn’t in real danger of the outbreak at the moment, but things could change. They expect measures taken by this administration to keep the coronavirus from becoming pandemic within the borders of the United States.
The experts also say almost as one that it will take many months, perhaps even years, to develop a vaccine that is highly effective against the disease. This is quite troubling to consider.
God has His mighty hand on it all, and that is the spiritual prompting upon which I base my optimism that the resolution to the problem will be forthcoming sooner rather than later.
The following news item speaks to that internal, spiritual prompting I sense.
Israeli scientists are on the cusp of developing the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis. If all goes as planned, the vaccine could be ready within a few weeks and available in 90 days, according to a release.
“Congratulations to MIGAL [the Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough,” Akunis said. “I am confident there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat,” Akunis said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
For the past four years, a team of MIGAL scientists has been developing a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which causes a bronchial disease affecting poultry. The effectiveness of the vaccine has been proven in preclinical trials carried out at the Veterinary Institute. (Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, “Israeli Scientists: ‘In a few weeks, we will have coronavirus vaccine.’” Jerusalem Post, February 20, 2020, https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-scientists-In-three-weeks-we-will-have-coronavirus-vaccine-619101)
It is within prophetic purview to conjecture whether the Lord might be about to bring forth evidence of why Israel is His chosen people. It will be fascinating to watch developments.
The Lord has said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1–3)