Dr. Tom McCall's Thoughts on the COVID-19 Virus

For many weeks a large percentage of us have been considered vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus and have been effectively quarantined in our homes, away from church buildings and restaurants where we meet to study the Word of God. I miss all of you very much, and look forward to the time we can gather together again, the Lord willing.

However, this situation has afforded us an opportunity to contemplate on the fragile nature of the world we live in.  Until February, we were in good shape, economically, politically, with our personal and religious freedoms intact. All of a sudden, an unknown and invisible organism attacked us more deadly than any attack any foreign army has unleashed on us before.  Over 50,000 people have died, and countless others have contracted debilitating illnesses.  The  medically unaffected have had their personal freedoms torn away to avoid coming in contact with the vicious organism.   Some of us have had a loved one die in the hospital without having a relative at hand to say farewell! In many ways our cultural and family world has been turned upside down.

Now that we have experienced first hand a pandemic that can bring disaster so suddenly here and world wide, we should think about what the Word of God has to say about future events.  The following is a proposed scenario of the Biblical prophecies of future events.

Church Age.  Since the Day of Pentecost, based upon the death and resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, we have been in the Church Age for 2,000 years.  During this age the Gospel has gone out to Jews and Gentiles throughout the world, and believers have been baptized into the Body of Christ with eternal life.  However, the Lord Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24-25 that between His first and second comings there would be wars and pestilences, so we should not be surprised about having world wars and plagues occur during this age. We are awaiting the imminent Rapture of the Church which ends the Church Age.

Rapture.  At any moment Christ will return in the air together with  the souls of the dead Church Age saints, who will be rejoined with their bodies and resurrected. Immediately afterward those who are still alive will be transformed into resurrection bodies and ascend with them to meet Christ in the air,  Then He will take all the resurrected Church Age saints with Him to heaven.  

I Thes 4:13-18

Gog & Magog War. The Rapture of the Church will throw the world into confusion, and Russia will  gather several select nations to attack Israel, but the Lord will totally destroy the invading armies with fire and earthquakes, so that the dead bodies lie all over and are consumed by a vast array of vultures.  Meanwhile, Israel escapes fatalities and realizes this victory is caused by God.  Ezek. 38-39.

The Tribulation. Out of the devastation of the Gog and Magog War, the Antichrist will rise to power. He will accomplish satanic signs and wonders and cause great delusion to fall upon the unbelieving mankind.  He might con Israel into believing that he was responsible for Israel having the victory in the Gog and Magog War.  He will propose a seven year treaty with Israel offering long desired peace and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The 144,000 Jewish witnesses are sealed and preach the Gospel of Christ, bringing many Jews and Gentiles to faith and refusing to take the Mark of the Beast.  In the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist will enter the rebuilt Temple, claiming to be God, thus committing the abomination of desolation. The believing Jews will flee from Judea into the wilderness, probably Petr, and await the Second Coming of Christ. The Antichrist will amass a gigantic army of all the nations to come against Israel.  

The Second Coming of Christ The Lord Jesus gathers in heaven all the saints of all ages, and mounts His white horse to lead them against the army of the Antichrist and the War of Armageddon. He defeats them and casts the Antichrist and his False Prophet into the Lake of Fire. When He returns all Israel will receive Him, will be saved and will enter into His Millennial Kingdom.  He will then judge the Gentiles to determine which ones will enter into the Kingdom with saved Israel.  The sheep are those Gentiles who demonstrated their righteousness by helping the least of Christ"s brethren (the 144,000?) during the Tribulation.  The goats are the Gentiles, those who did not, and are cast into the Lake of Fire. Christ sits upon His throne, rebuilds Jerusalem and the Temple and rules the world for 1,000 years.  The Old Testament saints will be resurrected and we will rule with them.  At the end of the Millennium, Satan will be released from his 1,000 year prison, amass another great army of unbelievers against the Lord and Jerusalem, and be totally destroyed.

The Great White Throne Judgment.  Christ will resurrect all the unbelieving dead, and judge them according to the works they have done, and recognize that their names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We who are saved of all ages will observe this, and we may be called on to testify against the unbelievers,  who are then cast into the Lake of Fire forever.

The New Heaven, New Earth and The New Jerusalem  The old earth is dissolved, and a new earth is created, probably much larger than the present one. It will be enveloped with a new heaven (atmosphere), and it will be adorned with a glorious capital, the New Jerusalem. The foundation stones will be inscribed with the names of the 12 apostles, and the gates will have the names of the 12 tribes of Israel.  It will be the dwelling place of the saints of all ages, and the Lamb of God will provide light for the city.

Thoughts on the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 1971 Herman Wouk published The Winds of War, a fictional novel surrounding the life of U.S. Navy Commander Victor "Pug" Henry and his family between March 1939 and the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In 1983, the book became a successful miniseries. The story picks up when Pug is assigned as the Berlin Naval Attaché while Hitler is planning to invade Poland. Watching the drama as events go by, I continued to find myself asking the same question, how can he not see what is happening! We all know the answer, hindsight is always 20/20. While Pug is a fictional character, there was an actual Naval Attaché assigned in Berlin, just as there were millions living at the time watching what would later become known as “significant” events.

How many Jewish fathers across Europe attempted to comfort their children as they packed a suitcase under the watchful eye of a German soldier? Can you hear them? “Relax my boy, it’s the history of our people to be pushed into special neighborhoods. You will make new friends. Maybe you will have your own room.” The heartfelt pleas from fathers who failed to grasp how significant the events surrounding them were. 

Who, standing along the parade route in Sarajevo, Bosnia in June 1914, would have imagined as they watched Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria drive past them that a 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip would assassinate the Archduke and his wife, the Duchess Sophia, as their chauffeur stopped the car because he made a wrong turn. That assassination became a “significant” event as it was used as the ignition to start World War I which eventually led to the downfall of four monarchies: Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and Russia. The fall of the monarchies opened the door for communism and fascism.

Following WWII, the former European empires would abandon their colonies throughout the world and the world would be defined by two superpowers: The United States and the Soviet Union. On November 9, 1989, based upon his misinterpretation of a speech made by an East German government official, anchorman Hanns Joachim Friedrichs reported, “This 9 November is a historic day. The GDR (German Democratic Republic) has announced that, starting immediately, its borders are open to everyone. The gates in the Wall stand open wide.” Citizens flocked to gates at the Berlin Wall and in the confusion of the night, the border guard opened the gate and the wall came down. One of the most significant events of the 20th Century was purely accidental. On December 31, 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into 15 independent countries.

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, President Bush signed into legislation the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (USA PATRIOT ACT) and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Deemed “the largest reorganization of the federal government since the start of the Cold War.” The most significant part of the Homeland Security Act is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security currently consisting of a 2020 budget of $1,698,598,000 and over 240,000 employees. 

A much more important fact in the aftermath of 9/11 are the “operations” that have taken place; Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Inherent Resolve, and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. As of 10:00 a.m. EDT April, 20, 2020, the total military and DOD civilian lives that have been lost in these operations total 7,046 with 53,235 wounded in action. A number we will never be able to calculate are the lives that have been lost and wasted due to the psychological damage of combat. Since 9/11 Congress has appropriated more than $1.55 trillion in discretionary amounts to the Department of Defense (DOD) for war funding.

For those of you that remember, think back on 9/11 and where you were. Do you remember prior to 9/11? Do you remember watching the 51-day siege initiated by the FBI upon the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco, Texas thinking the government was out of control? In stark contrast from today, the 73 people that perished April 19, 1993 lived in a country free from the worries of constant government surveillance. In fact, Vernon Howell (AKA: David Koresh) freely built up his cult following from 1984 until June 1992 when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms opened up a case based on a tip from a UPS driver who noticed questionable firearms in an accidentally opened box. Would you even think about using UPS to send a box full of firearms, inert grenade casings, and black powder today?

Those of us that watched the live feed of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center, knew that it was a significant event. However, I don’t believe many could have forecasted the amount of liberties that would be lost, and the surveillance state the U.S. would become in the aftermath of the attack. It was the ignition that enabled non-elected bureaucratic overlords the ability to monitor every citizen and to find a legal justification to so. Just as the curtain of the “deep state” is being pulled back, the entire world is hit with a pandemic. 

While the origin and ability of the COVID-19 virus to spread outside Wuhan, China is still being investigated, I do think it is clear nobody could have forecasted a complete worldwide shutdown. There are hundreds of travel vloggers on YouTube reporting their journeys as they were unexpectedly stuck throughout the world. This event is significant and historic. After realizing the extent of how many countries are locked down with empty streets, my first thought was: 

The possibility of shutting down the world is no longer theoretical. Anarchists and terrorists are taking note. 

Environmentalists have seen the world shut down as positive; turtles returned to beaches, animals not seen for decades have returned to empty streets, and visibility in major cities has been restored. Elected officials have become drunk with power and citizens have been willing to sacrifice liberty for safety. Throughout the world most countries aren’t shocked at dictatorial stay-at-home orders however, the United States cannot remain a world power in the absence of liberty. As Sam Fuller rightly stated, “wherever there is capitalism, there is freedom.” Capitalism cannot function in a nation-wide lockdown. 

While I believe the United States is fully capable of recovering from this very significant event, it is not likely to occur. Significant events are followed by great change. The absolute bewildering circumstances and speed of America’s downfall has not been overlooked by our enemies. Congress has authorized more than $2.2 trillion in new spending and there is more to come. The national debt to GDP ratio is approaching WWII levels. The new spending was not to spur enterprise, it was a handout. As a nation we are wounded and divided, and our enemies are at the door.

As I examine recorded history, the last time the entire world was shutdown is found in the Bible. 

“Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:1–9, NASB95)

The current COVID-19 pandemic has empowered those pushing for a global solution to the current situation and have strengthen their resolve to gain power, promising protection for the next pandemic. The globalists see an opportunity to crush the growing trend of nationalism. To the enemies of liberty and the American First policies, this significant event, whether intentional or accidental, has proven to be too successful not to plan to recreate it. The precedent has been set.

The trajectory towards a one world government will continue to be imposed upon the world. With each crisis, a step is taken. With the COVID-19 pandemic, a giant leap has been achieved. As the world population came together in arrogance at the Tower of Babel and faced God’s judgement, likewise, the next time the world population will come together, having chosen the Antichrist to lead them, God’s wrath will be poured out. 

For those that have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we should expect significant events to occur. God, through the revelation He gave in the Bible, has graciously provided a peek into future events. Tribulation and pain will continue to be compounded on Earth however, our hope is not found on Earth but it is found in Jesus Christ who promised to return and receive His church “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,” (Titus 2:13, NASB95)

Our command is clear: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6–7, NASB95)

For those that have never heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and have never trusted in Him for salvation from death, I would encourage you to visit https://job42ministry.org/the-gospel and learn about the great gift that God has provided for you. 

This article was authored by the webmaster at Job 42 Ministry, a longtime friend of Dr. Couch. Due to his current position in the government, he chooses to remain anonymous.