We’ll finish here, I think; it is clear we have different ideas about the nature of God, and now you are becoming somewhat waspish, using words like “lying” and talking of lemmings etc. But I think we agree on many practical issues …

From the Revelation of Jesus Christ 6:7 “When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” – Jesus opens a seal and a full quarter of mankind is killed in result.

I am not going to argue with you when you just ignore what the scriptures say. God is not shy about claiming responsibility for what the insurance companies call “Acts of God.” Jesus is coming back in a violent political way and He says so Himself. But go ahead and just keep lying to yourself so that you never get the fear of God you need. There are many with you in a heard of lemmings going over the cliff.

If Trump were reelected, five more years of crisis would probably be a conservative estimate!

Perhaps the saddest thing is that, despite this most appalling of crises, the USA remains split down the middle politically (this is in stark contrast to the situation in late 2001). But then it is hardly surprising, given that fat orange liars are never going to unite a country.

Just 5 more years to go.

The ‘corporate aspect’ of ‘living as we should’ can only truly be achieved by relating to others in the right way; you are right to say that it cannot be ‘forced’.

I’m still very clear in my own mind that this pandemic is not an “act of God”: Christ never made anyone sick; he only ever healed. Furthermore, it is becoming horribly clear that the poorest and most marginalised, for whom there is special place in the heart of God, are being hardest hit. And this raises important questions about what fearing the Lord means in practice, doesn’t it?! And, as I’m sure you would agree, it means a great deal more than just ‘personal repentence’ …

Of one thing God has been crystal clear to me over the past year or so as far as what needs to happen next. God plainly states that He wants the nations to fear Him (Mal. 1:14) and His people too. (Exod. 20:20) I wrote what I wrote because this is what is written “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chron. 7:13

In your own words, we should recognize our “failure to live as we should” and to repent, which means to be convicted while admitting the shame and then get God’s help to stop living as hypocrites. I cannot control the corporate part of that. I cannot force you or anyone else reading this to actually allow the conviction to set in, or publicly embrace the shame or actually follow through with that and live better in the future. I can only make sure that I do those things in order to secure my own future. I hope others will too. You should if you want God’s forgiveness, which does not happen outside repentance, and if you want Him to heal your own small world. God’s protection is for the truly penitent, and in these days we already need that greatly and will need even more in the not too distant future.

Indeed – and Trump* was (electorally?) gasping for ‘business as usual’ by Easter, I seem to recall. Horrible though this current situation is for so many people, it is perhaps a very good thing that he was denied his delusion; there is time to reflect and rethink … and hear more of that sublime birdsong.

*It would, of course, be wrong to ‘demonize’ Trump over this: the responsibility is not by any means his alone. But he is vividly emblematic of so much that currently wrong, and is assuredly not the right person to lead in the aftermarth of this pandemic.

My wife directed me to an excellent post on Medium about the importance of what we do next. Do we give some thought to what we add back into our lives? Or do we return to the same overconsuming, over-busy chase after the idolatrous American dream that we were in before? There’s a whole marketing industry that will try to convince us to forget this ever happened.

https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0

“This is about us. Indeed, we all participate in narcissistic systems. Perhaps these systems are part and parcel of the “powers and principalities” Eph. 6:12 with which we contend. Perhaps they are all around us, not just in church systems but in our corporate and political institutions, even in our social media connections and our broader tribal identifications. Perhaps this is about us, an invitation to wake up to the many ways in which certainty trumps curiosity, uniformity trumps unity, hubris trumps humility, control trumps connection, loyalty trumps love.” – Page 115

I have no doubt we are in the middle of a judgment of our idolatry of celebrity status and our own happy support for narcissistic systems that please us and, in some case, personally enrich us monetarily in ways that are not good for anyone including ourselves. (see 1 Tim. 6:9) Choosing to focus on celebrity deaths while ignoring the deaths of ones Jesus called “the least of us” is just one example of something Christians should be actively repenting of…

“Perhaps this is about us, an invitation to wake up to the many ways in which certainty trumps curiosity, uniformity trumps unity, hubris trumps humility, control trumps connection, loyalty trumps love.”

I like that … I have no doubt that we are being confronted with our own failure to live (individually and corporately) as we should, and the really important thing is what happens next …