PROPHECY
Is Coronavirus an End-Time Plague?
W
ithin months, a tiny pathogen has brought our world to its knees. We’ve experienced overwhelmed health-care systems, grounded airlines, volatile and unpredictable financial markets, a global system on the brink. Schools and businesses closed their doors, with students, parents, employees and employers struggling with schooling and working from home or, worse, the loss of instruction and hourly pay. Not to mention a constantly rising death toll of the vulnerable and the elderly. Previous epidemics and pandemics didn’t prepare us for this, though in many ways they should have. This crisis is unprecedented, leading many to wonder if this plague is mentioned in end-time Bible prophecy.
Plagues of Revelation The Bible does describe terrible plagues in the end times leading up to Jesus Christ’s return. Where does the novel coronavirus fit into the plagues of Revelation? Early in the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ opens the first four seals of a prophetic scroll that reveals events and trends leading to the end times. In the rich symbolism of Revelation, these four seals unveil four horses and riders,
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DISCERN
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted our world and sown fear and panic. Is it one of the end-time plagues? When will humanity finally be rid of disease?
often called the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. The rider of the fourth horse “was Death, and Hades [the grave] followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8). The horse was pale, translated from the Greek chloros, which can mean green or yellowish and pale. This seems to imply a sickly color. As our article “What Are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?” shows, the prophecies of Revelation parallel and expand on Jesus Christ’s Olivet Discourse. He gave that prophecy to answer the disciples’ question, “What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). At the end of verse 7 Jesus gave “pestilences” as a sign, and this parallels the pale horse of Revelation. Pestilences include epidemics and pandemics such as the coronavirus. This terrible disease continues a long history of pestilences represented by the pale horse. Pestilences and the other troubles represented by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse will intensify as the return of the Messiah to the earth nears. But does this tell us exactly how close we are to the
May/June 2020
