“Coronavirus” operation: spiritual causes and possible implications
No matter how long the coronavirus pandemic lasts and no matter how many people die of this disease, it is safe to say that the world will no longer be the same. What changes await us, what the true causes of the events are, and what we really need to fear and what to fight with.
Following the news about the spread of coronavirus, one cannot help but think about some surrealism of the developments around us. The EU states, so proud of the absence of borders between themselves, tightly close these borders. Cafes and restaurants cease to work; concerts, sport events and even divine services are canceled. Public transport is paralyzed. Trains do not go, planes do not fly. Entire cities and regions are quarantined. Streets are empty, people are afraid to extend their hands to greet each other.
States adopt laws on criminal liability for violation of the quarantine regime. All the media are narrowly focused on the coronavirus reports. Moreover, in an abundant coverage on those who are sick or dead, there is hardly a single mention of at least one recovered person. The planet’s population is trapped by fear.
In His speech to the apostles about the last times, the Lord said, “People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken ...” (Luke 21: 26).
In addition, fear is the most effective tool for manipulating people's minds.
The powers of heaven have not yet been shaken, but this fear is slowly but steadily taking a grip on human souls. Note that very often it is not the disasters themselves that kill people, but the fear that they may come. In addition, fear is the most effective tool for manipulating people's minds. And this tool is now being tested on all of humanity. And not only tested. Under its influence, there are irreversible changes, whose scale has yet to be evaluated.
Coronavirus is not a unique disease in terms of the incidence, nor is it unique in the pace of its spread or mortality rate. But no other illness has ever entailed the measures and restrictions being taken now.
A little bit statistics. Comparing coronavirus with the flu is most popular now. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said the coronavirus mortality is three times as high as influenza. According to the same official, mortality rate due to the coronavirus is 3.4%. In fact, the percentage of sick to dead is much lower, because mild forms of the coronavirus disease are simply not detected and are not fixed. According to various estimates, there can be up to ten times more such undetected cases than those identified, which means that the mortality rate will be by an order less.
A more or less plausible mortality rate is recorded in countries where the percentage of coronavirus testing coverage is greatest. For example, South Korea, where the mortality rate is about 0.7%.
In absolute terms, up to 700 thousand people die from influenza every year! The coronavirus has caused deaths of a little more than 7 thousand people so far. According to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine, only from March 2 to 8, i.e. in 6 days, 9 deaths from ordinary flu were recorded. But no one raised any alarm, stopped the metro or prohibited the concurrence of more than 10 people.
A few more numbers about infectious diseases that are killing human lives right now:
- malaria – 750 thousand deaths per year;
- hepatitis B – about 1 million;
- tuberculosis – 1.1 million;
- diarrhea of various origins – 2.2 million;
- various infectious lung diseases – 3.2 million.
In total, more than 13 million people a year die from infectious diseases in the world. Many of these diseases are transmitted in the same way as coronavirus. Again, more than 13 million people! Where are closed borders, emergency, overall quarantine and other measures which are taken today? We’ve been living with all this for a long time without being scared. However, at the moment we are petrified with the coronavirus, which claimed the lives of 7 thousand people, whose average age is (attention!) 79.4 years.
For reference: the average life expectancy in the world according to the UN is 67.2 years.
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10: 28).
In the Holy Scriptures there are words: “They fear what they should not be fearful of” (Psalm 13: 5). Human nature is so that it is easy to manipulate it, and people often fear what they should not fear at all. After all, we need to be afraid of something completely different: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10: 28).
We are not afraid of God, not afraid to violate His Commandments. But the coronavirus and all diseases in general, and death itself are the consequences of this violation. It means we are struggling with the consequences in every possible way, but we don’t even want to lift a finger in order to uproot the cause. It seems to us that medicine will finally succeed in fighting with this terrible coronavirus, and everything will be fine. Yes, why not, but let's think about the following.
Billions of different viruses and infections live in each of us. The total weight of microbes, viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc. in the body of an adult is approximately 2.5 kg. By the way, it is equal to our brain’s weight. At any time, these viruses and bacteria can “turn on” for reasons being unknown to us and kill a person. Each of us is exposed to that risk. At any moment in the world, another outbreak of an incurable disease can occur: Ebola, SARS, bird flu, coronavirus and so on.
When will death take our life? Who does it depend on?
Upon that we haven’t mentioned oncology: in the human body there are trillions of cells, and cancer develops as a result of a change in only one of them. When will death take our life? Who does it depend on?
“Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble. They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure. Do you fix your eye on them? Will you bring them before you for judgment? Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one! A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed... ” (Job 14, 1-5).
And the most important question: what awaits us next? Without exception, all religions on earth in one form or another contain the doctrine that a person will be judged for his deeds committed in this life and inherit either bliss or torment. And even the most inveterate atheists feel deep down that there must be some kind of retribution for everything.
But we are not afraid of either God or the Last Judgment. We are afraid of coronavirus. And even if this thing could really destroy millions of people, do we really hear calls for repentance, which alone can ward off “all anger driven upon us”?
But we are not afraid of either God or the Last Judgment. We are afraid of coronavirus.
In the Holy Scriptures there is some evidence of how repentance can stop future disasters: "Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’ When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jon. 3, 4-10).
A modern civilized man today just laughs at it. But he laughs in vain. As already mentioned, if medicine defeats the current coronavirus, a dozen of the same "coronaviruses" will emerge in its place. By the way, epidemiologists all over the world are paying attention to the fact that over the past decades, the time that elapses between outbreaks of deadly epidemics has been getting shorter. And if such rigid measures are now being taken against the coronavirus worldwide, then what will happen tomorrow, when the next virus arrives? For this is inevitable.
This wrong fear, planted by the media’s skilled hand, offers great opportunities for manipulating people.
Apparently, the main reason for what is happening is that people are not at all afraid of what they really need to be afraid of. And this wrong fear, planted by the skilled hand of the media in connection with the coronavirus, offers great opportunities for manipulating all people on the planet, all states, the entire economic and social sphere.
In this pan-planetary “coronavirus” panic and fuss, we did not notice how the fundamental human rights and freedoms began to cease or to be substantially limited:
- freedom of movement;
- freedom of assembly;
- freedom to profess one's faith;
- freedom of business;
- the right to affordable care, etc.
The last item needs clarification. The fact is that for the sake of receiving patients affected by the coronavirus, the chances to receive timely medical care for patients with other, sometimes much more dangerous diseases, are minimal in many countries.
The time of the coronavirus emergence is also precisely chosen.
Over the past few years, almost all the world's leading experts have been talking about the imminent economic and financial crisis, comparable not even with the crisis of 2008 but with the Great Depression of the 30s of the 20th century. And it is precisely at this moment that the outbreak of the coronavirus occurs and almost all states take measures that threaten to ruin the world economy being already crippled. As they say, if the coronavirus didn’t exist, it would have to be invented.
The world expects a conceptual change. It is namely conceptual, not some trifle, such as the airlines bankruptcy and the collapse of the tourist services market.
Firstly, it is an increase in the manageability of human societies.
Testing tools with which states and people can be forced to do what they don’t want to do and what harm their rights and interests. These fundamental rights are limited in the name of widely publicized salvation from the coronavirus.
Now you can often hear from the lips of politicians that all measures and restrictions are being taken to save the lives of people. In these words lurks hypocrisy: the same politicians take practically no measures to save people who are dying of other diseases in millions.
Now the mechanism itself, the algorithm of actions, how to force states to destroy their own economies, squeeze hefty bills from budgets, infringe on the rights and freedoms of people, moreover, with the consent of these same people, and make other “necessary” decisions, is clear. And even those leaders of states, who understand the inconsistency of such developments, cannot resist the general trend and have to do what others do.
Secondly, this is another lap in the redistribution of world property and its concentration in the same hands.
Against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and the collapse of stock markets across the world, the US Federal Reserve – recall that it is not a state but a private organization – claims that it immediately issues additional, unsecured $ 700 billion, which in the coming months can increase up to 3 trillion dollars. It means not even pieces of paper are issued but electronic numbers to buy in cheap shares. This is all called euphemistically a quantitative easing policy.
Thirdly, a tangible blow is inflicted on the Church and generally on religious organizations.
From now on, a way has been found to stop its activities: quarantine. Moreover, this ban on worship and the Sacraments is accepted with the understanding and even approval of not only non-church or non-practicing people but sometimes even church hierarchs. Again, coronavirus has a real mortality rate of about 0.7%. So what will happen to the Church if a virus appears with a mortality rate of 50% like Ebola, which is transmitted through saliva and against which, by the way, there is still no effective vaccine? Should we forget about the Holy Communion altogether?
The Church can live without temples, without state registration and so on, but She cannot live without the Divine Liturgy, without the union of believers with God. She can be pulled namely this plug. Today, this no longer sounds like an implausible fantasy.
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Of course, we cannot halt all those events that are happening now and will happen in the future. But we can understand their essence and find in this understanding the strongest reason for our personal repentance and strengthened devotion to God and His Church.
“God lets the apostasy happen: do not dare stop it with your weak hand. Get away, guard yourself from it: and that’s enough for you. Get familiar with the spirit of the times, study it in order to avoid its influence as much as possible,” wrote St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, and these words will be relevant forever.
But the Lord said to us the most encouraging words: “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing” (Luke 21: 28).
