New Warhorn Media post by Tim Bayly:
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In a wider context - AIDS in the Third World - you could also argue that it was (and is) God’s judgement against promiscuity as a whole.
Thanks. I am extremely discouraged by the inane protestations in the Church that God has not sent Covid19 as a judgment. Apparently, to say so is legalistic and unloving.
Look around! I can’t give a one-to-covid19 correspondence for this illness, but we’re spoilt for choice when we look for sin for which God can righteously send judgment. Ughh. The more I look, the older I get, the verse that accuses prophets of saying, “Peace, peace” when there is no peace finds greater fulfillment.
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This comment exchange from the leading statistical theory blog might be of interest. The post itself was on the defects of experimental studies of whether prayers cure illnesses:
MCDOWELL:
… In the UK, attendance at church study sessions will bring you into contact with people who really do believe in the literal power of prayer to heal, even in perfectly ordinary Church of England churches where the Priest does not hold such literal beliefs.
I do note that although the most traditional versions of the Book Of Common Prayer include prayers for intervention both against plague and against bad weather, I have not heard either used seriously.
Eric B Rasmusen says:
You don’t get out of the house enough, Mr. McDowell. A google search quickly reveals “Prayers for use during the Coronavirus outreach” from an Anglican Birmingham, Alabama cathedral (https://adventbirmingham.org/about/) which includes this prayer:
A Prayer for a time of any common Plague or Sickness (modernized for diocesan use). O ALMIGHTY God, who in your wrath sent a plague upon your own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron; and in the time of king David, sent a plague of pestilence that killed seventy thousand, but remembering your mercy spared the rest: Have pity upon us miserable sinners who now are visited with great sickness and mortality; and in the same way that you then accepted an atonement and commanded the destroying Angel to cease from punishing, so may it now please you to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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That prayer from Advent Birmingham is based on one in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and any Anglican who uses that BCP or the online Morning or Evening Prayer service found at http://parishprayer.org will be using it. It is not a forgotten prayer!
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Yeah … and we also need to remember in prayer the pastors and churches who are on the frontline of the epidemic. This story in the Washington Post about an evangelical church in the Bronx gave me much pause for thought.
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