Viruses have been with us for a long time. They live in many different environments and can inhabit insects to humans. They are not parasites; typically, they are predators. They seek out a host whereby they can replicate and spread, and most viruses don’t kill the creature they inhabit. There are those, however, which are so virile and toxic that they leave a trail of destruction wherever they go.
Lately, I’ve been reading books by Richard Preston that explore the deadliest viruses in the world. I started with The Demon in the Freezer and went backward in the series to The Cobra Event, and am now reading The Hot Zone. The books are – to put it mildly – frightening as all get out. Preston does not spare the reader in describing the horrific symptoms accompanying the onset of virus infections in the human body. I gave an example of this in my recent article: Monkeying with Monkeypox.
Demon was primarily about Smallpox with some Anthrax thrown in; Cobra was a fictional account of a truly awful cannibalistic brainpox based on a rare disease called Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome; and Hot Zone details the quest to understand and find the origins of the hemorrhagic afflictions of Ebola and Marburg. Preston has a couple more books in his virus series, so I’ll likely continue learning and freaking out about these most terrible of organisms.
The last couple of years has brought viruses to our attention. We’re told that COVID is a virus that jumped from bats to humans. That’s highly suspect. Although there are plenty of deadly natural viruses, it seems that man can’t leave well enough alone. Our sin nature has a propensity to find things which are natural that are bad, and to make them worse for our own purposes. It has indisputably been shown that COVID was weaponized with gain-of-function research for the express purpose of introducing the “vaccines,” which have shown themselves to be much worse than the disease they’re supposedly intended to alleviate.
There is no known cure for virus infections. They can be vaccinated against, but with the worst of the virus illnesses, it’s usually a downhill journey to an awful death. Read the Preston books, and you’ll see what I mean.
In my reading of these accounts of the men and women who have worked tirelessly against these viral diseases, it also brought to mind the people who likewise labor in this field but do so in the attempt to reduce the human population. There is some suggestion in the books about this purposeful effort, but again, this reality has come to the fore lately as we’ve observed COVID, the people behind it, and the narrative which advocates that all of humanity must be vaccinated for our protection – which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Thinking beyond our current situation made me reflect on Richard Preston’s description of the origins of viruses. There’s no indication that he’s a Bible-believing Christian. He speaks of evolution and the earth being billions of years old. From this perspective, he believes that lethal viruses are older than mankind. For those of us who read the Bible literally, this is an impossibility. In that case, where did these deadly viruses come from in the first place – even before man started tinkering with them and making them worse?
Obviously, since all that God made was good, He didn’t introduce them into the world. We attribute all the bad things to the consequences of sin, and that would be true. But that still doesn’t help us really understand the basis for their existence.
I have a theory.
Satan tempted Eve and Adam with the possibility of being like God. All they had to do was partake of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Notice, the knowledge therein wasn’t just about good things. In some way, this tree contained the means to achieve all evil. It’s like the fullness of God and what He knew was contained in this repository of all divine understanding. God didn’t unleash evil, but being aware of it, He seems to have maintained knowledge of it in this one place.
This Tree was in the Garden of Eden. The Garden was on the holy mountain of God. Because we see no surprise on Eve’s part in encountering the serpent (nachash in Hebrew, meaning serpent and shining one, i.e., literally one of the holy ones of God), we can presume that many entities inhabiting God’s Kingdom made their appearances there. Seeing and interacting with a divine being wasn’t out of the ordinary for her. Just as God walked in the Garden in the cool of the day, nothing in Scripture tells us that it was off limits to the rest of the heavenly realm.
We also have no indication that these other spiritual inhabitants of the Kingdom didn’t eat of that fruit. In fact, they were immortal beings and perhaps had no instructions not to consume it. (Or, is immortality gained even by spiritual beings by eating of the Tree of Life?) Satan certainly seemed to have the knowledge of evil that would have come from the Tree of Knowledge. Why not other such holy beings?
From Genesis 4:21-22, we see that mankind, after the Fall, suddenly acquires certain expertise:
“His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.”
The book of 1 Enoch confirms that this occurred when the sons of God, a.k.a. Watchers, lusted after human women and traded such knowledge for sex. They gave all sorts of secrets to mankind, including sorcery, astrology, cosmetic arts for seduction, and the like. Genesis 6:5 informs us that following this traversing of their heavenly boundaries by the bene Elohim, and “marrying” these women with the resulting abomination of the race of Nephilim being birthed, that the following happened:
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
The consequences resulting from the evil in man’s heart were a direct result of the fall of the sons of God.
During this antediluvian era when wickedness and abomination rose to such great heights – or should I say that goodness was eradicated and all on the earth fell to the lowest depths? – perhaps other kinds of evil were seeded into the planet that weren’t killed off by the flood. Could it be that these deadly viruses – the understanding of which was obtained by these divine entities from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – were planted throughout the globe to be unleashed at certain times and in specific ways?
After all, Satan and these various demonic spirits wanted nothing more than to harm mankind in every possible way. This would seem to be one more arrow in their quiver to destroy all that God called good.
In the Tribulation, Revelation 16:2 describes the following judgment:
“So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.”
Is it possible that God uses one of the viruses that evil men have manipulated for their own purposes and turns it around to plague those who hate Him? Wouldn’t that be ironic and a just reward?
We’re all aware that none of the events occurring today, or what will happen tomorrow, catch God by surprise. If my hypothesis of where these viruses originated is correct, He was well aware that His rebellious sons would corrupt His good earth with these evil organisms. In order to bring deliverance to a fallen people – us! – God had to allow this wickedness to percolate and grow.
But a time is coming. It will soon be at hand. Genesis 50:20 shows us the Lord’s mercy through these things:
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
The wickedness and lawlessness of the world bring us to the realization of our great need for God. Lethal viruses and their effects can be truly awful. Yet, God is already victorious. When we turn to Him and place our faith and trust in Christ, none of this matters. He has a better way and will soon redeem us from this alien and very hostile place.
Give glory to God and sing His praises. It won’t be long before He brings us home.
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Gary Ritter website: books & blog
Kindle Vella story: Tribulation Rising