On June 21, 2022, US President Joe Biden made a comment during a press conference that furrowed many brows. The FDA had just authorized COVID vaccines for children under age 5, and Biden was encouraging parents to make sure their kids got the jab. In his remarks, Biden said, “We need more money. We don’t just need more money for vaccines for children, we need more money to plan for the second pandemic. There’s gonna be another pandemic.”[1]
Humm…what exactly did he mean by that? What does he know that we don’t? Is he saying the quiet part out loud (that another “plan-demic” is in store) OR was he simply being prudent, the way a beach dweller might prepare for the inevitability of hurricane season? Reading between the lines is a tricky business. You make your own conclusion, but I will say this: he was right from a biblical standpoint. There will be another pandemic.
In His prophetic sermon called “The Olivet Discourse,” Jesus predicted that just prior to His return there would be, “great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences” (Luke 21:11). Note, the word “pestilence” is the biblical word we would use today to describe a deadly infectious disease. In that verse, Jesus was foretelling the various natural disasters that will ravage the earth during the dreaded 7-year period of judgment known as “The Tribulation.”
The signs of earth’s last days that Jesus predicted are expanded upon in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 6, we read about the “seven seals” of God’s judgment that lead-up to the return of Christ. The fourth seal judgment unleashes the last of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Revelation 6:8 says, “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.”
Not only does the pale rider picture the color of a decomposing corpse, but “Death” will be able to swing his sickle across one-fourth of the earth’s population. The current world population is about 7.6 billion, so if this happened today that would be 1.9 billion people dead! We are not told what this disease will be, but it will be unparalleled in its lethality.
Historically, the greatest killer of all time has not been bullets and bombs, but bacteria and viruses. Each year, approximately 1 million people die of an AIDS related illness and in 2016 an estimated 36.7 million people were living with HIV (1.8 million children).[2] 30 million people died during the great influenza outbreak of 1918-1919, more than 3x as many as the estimated 8.5 million soldiers who died in WWI.[3]
Notice that the fourth rider is armed with a curious combo: “pestilence” and “the beasts of the earth.” When you read, “beasts of the earth” you might first think of a fierce animal, but David Jeremiah has an interesting interpretation on this. He wrote, “The most destructive creature on earth is the rat. He is a menace to human health and food supplies. The nasty creature comes in more than 100 species. Rats are extremely prolific, producing five or more litters of eight to ten babies each year. It has been estimated that rats are responsible for the loss of more than one billion dollars with of food each year in the US alone. Their fleas carry all manner of disease, and in the 14th century the fleas from rats killed one-third of Europe’s population with bubonic plague.”[4]
It's interesting that in recent years, zoonotic diseases – that is, animal borne plagues that cross over from animals to humans – have mushroomed. AIDS (chimpanzees to humans), Ebola (bats to humans), Avian flu (birds to humans), Swine flu (pigs to humans) and COVID-19 (bats to humans) all fit into this category. In fact, virologists are reporting that 3 out of every 4 new diseases that emerge cross from animals to humans and that on average, a new infectious disease has emerged every year for the past 30 years.[5] It could be that the pestilence of the end times will mutate and pass from animals to humans.
Jesus also said that the “pestilence” would arrive like “birth pains” (Matt. 24:8). This means it will increase with frequency, intensity and visibility leading up to His return. In other words, as the end approaches, we should expect infectious disease outbreaks and other natural calamities to occur with greater regularity, impact more people and be more deadly.” Bible scholar and preacher, John MacArthur suggested that “the present afflictions may merely be like Braxton-Hicks contractions – premature labor pains – but they nonetheless signify that the time for hard labor, and then delivery, is inevitable and quickly drawing near.”[6]
Before we get carried away, it’s important to note that the above Scripture passages describe the Tribulation period. Since, we are not living in that terrible time, then we can say confidently that those Scriptures have yet to be fulfilled. However, we can see how the sign of pestilence and many signs indicative of the Tribulation are casting their shadows back on the present.
In fact, I think that the pestilence that Revelation and Jesus spoke about will be much worse in global impact than anything we’ve ever seen. Just think of the way COVID was politicized and used by governments to overreach into people lives shutting down business, schools and industries. The plagues of the end-times will not only take life but also fuel tyranny.
Prophecy buff, Mark Hitchcock, adds, “The pandemics plagues of the end times will have repercussions beyond the plagues themselves. These plagues will further the argument of the Antichrist for a one-world leader who has the reach and power to respond to such plagues to bring them under control. The pale rider will give greater power to the rider on the white horse (or Antichrist) to consolidate his global kingdom.”[7]
What does all this mean? For those who don’t know Christ as Lord and Savior, it means they ought to investigate the Bible and the Gospel ASAP. The only way for the unredeemed to escape the Tribulation or to have assurance of their salvation in the event that there’s another plague in the near future, is to repent of sin and turn to Jesus for forgiveness. For those who are believers, its time to witness to our unsaved friends and family. With the acceleration of chaos in our world people are searching for truth as the foundations of stable society are cracking. Yes these are dark days, but they are also golden opportunities to speak into people’s fears with the hope of the Gospel by helping them connect current events with the prophetic Word. -DM
[1]
Christina Laila, “Joe Biden Says the Quiet Part Out Loud: We Need More Money…
There’s Gonna be Another Pandemic,” Gateway Pundit, 21 June 2022 <https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/joe-biden-says-quiet-part-loud-need-money-gonna-another-pandemic-video/>
[2]
<https://www.avert.org/global-hiv-and-aids-statistics>
[3]
John MacArthur, The MacArthur New
Testament Commentary: Revelation 1-11 (Chicago: Moody, 1999), 184.
[4]
David Jeremiah, Escape the Coming Night
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2018), 118.
[5] Mark
Hitchcock, Corona Crisis (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2020), 99-100.
[6]
David Jeremiah, Where Do We Go From Here? (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson,
2021), 59.
[7]
Hitchcock, 101.
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