Questions about LIFE and Belief - why are we here?    THINK!
Was it all an accident of nature?                        THINK!
Or is there someone behind it all?    THINK!

Thoughts from Tony Chamberlain, preacher

Coronavirus: How could God let something like this happen?

Billy Graham’s daughter Anne was interviewed on the Early Show, and Jane Clayton asked her, “How could God let something like this happen (regarding Hurricane Katrina).  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and get out of our lives.  And being the perfect gentleman that He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

In the light of recent events…terrorist attacks, school shootings etc.  I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbour as yourself.  And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he’s talking about, and we said OK.  Now we’re asking why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates and themselves.  Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God then wonder why the world is dying.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through email and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Funny how, when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.  Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us, than what God thinks of us.

In the book of Amos, chapters 4 and 5, God says how He allowed many bad things to happen:

1) Food shortage 4:6.   2) Drought 4:7-8.   3) Blight and mildew and locust swarms 4:9.   4) Plague 4:10.   5) War 4:10.   6) Death 4:11, 5:3.   7) Fire 5:6.  There is a repeated phrase, “Yet you have not returned to Me, says the Lord.” … Each calamity was a call from the Lord for people to turn back to Him, but they refused to comply!

Amos is addressing the nation of Israel, which is a world in miniature, reflecting the ways of God with the whole world.  In our ignorance, we attribute such tragedies to natural disasters and, rather than humbly seek the Lord for forgiveness, protection and blessing, we attempt to solve it with pathetic human means, remembering how the empty adage, ‘You can achieve and be whatever you want,’ has been drilled into us.

We are experiencing the same things that happened in Amos’ day, and our need is the same: to seek the Lord and live (Amos 5:4).  The plague of Coronavirus is not only killing people, but ruining the world economy; but many would rather try to save the whales and save the planet, than allow God to save their lives.

Pass this on if you think it has merit.  If not, then just ignore it … no one will know you did.   But if you ignore this, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

Tony Chamberlain, April 2020.

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How could God let Coronavirus happen?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

- from the Bible, book of John, chapter 3, verse 16.


"Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
- Colossians 3:17 (NIV).

May God bless your reading of these pages. Philip Tory