Does Scripture Promise that “No Virus can Touch your House” as a Believer?
I don’t want to destroy your faith. I am not against Scripture. I believe Scripture with all my heart.
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness". 2 Timothy 3:16I’ve trusted God’s Word with my life and with my eternal soul and I believe every… single… word. I am not against praying with faith. Scripture clearly tells us:
"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him". Hebrews 11:6
And I am also not against physical safety and protection from disease. I pray God’s protection for your family and for mine, for your church and my church family, and for anyone who asks me to pray for their physical safety.
I share the heart of the Apostle John who said:
"Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers." 1 John 3:1-2I am not trying to remove or revise any portion of Scripture. I believe in the Word of God, the Power of God and the Spirit of God. But can we at least be honest and agree that God, for His own purposes, has chosen to answer some of our requests for physical safety and protection by saying “No”?
Last week a faithful missionary for 72 years in Italy, one of the most difficult countries to minister in passed away. A faith-filled lady died, to non-smokers lung cancer, just over a week ago. She was a beautiful example of confident trust in a sovereign God. Her life was an illustration of what 1 Peter 3:4 calls, the
“imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.”HERE'S THE RUB
If physical safety and protection in this life are God’s promises to us, we would have to admit that God has not fulfilled His promises in a way that is clear to all of us.
Honestly, if God fulfils His promises in the way that some Charismatic religious teachers are claiming that He fulfils His promises, I’m not sure what we mean by promises anymore.
It’s ironic that many people, who claim that they take the Scriptures literally, are satisfied with a less than literal fulfilment of what they understand the Scriptures to teach. Many people are satisfied with healings that don’t remove the symptoms, prophecies that never come true, and promises that are never fulfilled.
If you believe in the literal interpretation of the Scriptures and, at the same time, you also believe that it’s always God’s will for you to be physically healthy and financially wealthy, you’ve got to be wondering, “did I miss something here?”… at least a little bit.
If Jesus promised His disciples that He would physically rise again on the third day and He didn’t physically rise again on the third day, would we believe anything else that He said prophetically?
And if a religious teacher tells us he can protect Florida from the Coronavirus, or that he can blow the CoronaVirus away, should we believe anything else that he says prophetically?
I’ve recently seen video feeds from “Word of Faith” preachers, who have taught that “no coronavirus can came near you or your household” and they attempt to base their false teaching on Scripture. I listened to one teacher, who used Psalm 91:10 to prove that Covid-19 won’t affect you, or anyone in your house.
"No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent." Psalm 91:10
Does Psalm 91 promise us that no virus can ever enter our household? Do the Scriptures teach us that we will never suffer from a disease, disaster, danger, or destruction?
Let me give you at least 4 reasons that interpreting Scriptures like this, in the way that some are proposing that we would interpret them, is not faithful to Scripture or to the God that authored them. Are you still with me? Okay, hang in there.
1) First of all, it’s not historically true to say that believers never experience disease, disaster, danger, or destruction.
Many believers who have trusted in God, and made God their dwelling place, suffered greatly. Let me introduce you to Job.
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Job 1:1Job suffered from a disease, disaster, danger, and destruction but was at the same time blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. The Apostle Paul suffered from a physical malady. He told the Galatian Christians…
but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; Galatians 4:13Paul’s son in the faith, Timothy, was instructed…
No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. 1 Timothy 5:23
And Paul also informs Timothy…
Erastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. 2 Timothy 4:20How could Paul leave any believers sick?
- Did he run out of prayer cloths?
- How could Timothy suffer from frequent ailments?
- Did he lose the number for the local Faith Healer?
- And how could you be an apostle and suffer from bodily illness at the same time?
- Did Paul forget to “plead the blood”?
The truth is, believers have suffered and many have suffered greatly.
And out of all the believers who have lived, every one of them has died (some like Enoch and Elijah were taken) but no believer in Biblical History has survived on earth until the present day. Something took them out, whether it was disaster, disease or death. They are no longer with us. The ultimate statistic still holds true, 10 out 10 still die.
2) It’s not contextually true to say that believers never experience disease, disaster, danger, or destruction.
In the case of Psalm 91:10, mentioned above, it is found in the context of Psalm 90 and Psalm 91, which stand together in the Psalms. The Psalms are divided into groups of Psalms and Psalms 90-106 form a unit of Psalms, called the 4th book of the Psalms.
Psalm 90, which begins this section, is a Psalm authored by Moses, and it speaks of the brevity of man’s life. During 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Moses would have witnessed some 2 million Israelites perishing. That’s roughly 140 funerals every day and many died by plagues.
However, Moses still opens his Psalm by saying, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Apparently, Moses did not see a contradiction between God being Israel’s dwelling place and the death that he was surrounded by. Even Moses himself would be taken out by the hand of the Lord (Exodus 34:5).
The same God, who is a dwelling place and saves believers from death in Psalm 91, is the same God, who is a dwelling place and gives believers over to death in Psalm 90. We can’t eliminate one passage of Scripture, in order to favour another.
3) It doesn’t make sense of what we know from the NT to say that believers never experience disease, disaster, danger, or destruction.
In Matthew chapter 4, we find Jesus at the end of a 40 day fast in the wilderness, being tempted by Satan.
Satan tries to get Jesus to doubt the provision of the Father (make these stones bread), the protection of the Father (throw yourself down), and the promotion of the Father (all these things I will give you).
Satan also uses Scripture. Guess which chapter of the Bible Satan quotes from? He quotes from Psalm 91:
If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'” Matthew 4:6“Word of Faith” teachers are not the first to misuse Psalm 91. Satan attempted to twist Psalm 91 to create doubt in Jesus’ mind regarding the protection of God.
Would God the Father really spare Jesus from every danger?
How did Psalm 91 apply to Jesus?
- As we know from the servant song in Isaiah 53, Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).
- Jesus was at this point in the wilderness suffering from hunger, thirst, and fatigue
- Jesus would later be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and crucified, which is much more than dashing His foot against a stone.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:1
Jesus was in the wilderness, being tempted by Satan, by the will of the Holy Spirit. Everything that Jesus endured was by the will of God. We find another example of Jesus’ trust in the will of God over in Matthew 26, after another period of intense testing, in the garden of Gethsemane, Scripture says:
And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:39
When Jesus prays, “yet not as I will, but as you will”, Jesus was recognizing that the only harm that would befall Him, would be that which the Father had willed for His life. Jesus gave us the example of “entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:23), not an example of one who escapes all dangers safely.
4) Finally, it wouldn’t make sense of what we know contextually from the OT to say that believers never experience disease, disaster, danger, or destruction.
Psalm 91 is also placed within the context of the Mosaic Law, where there were specific blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God…” Deuteronomy 11:26-28The blessings of obedience to the Mosaic Law included physical life, health, safety and protection. The New Testament Believer is no longer under the OT Mosaic Law.
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Hebrews 8:13Psalm 91 does not promise us that we will never experience dangers, disease, disasters or even death. But Psalm 91 does remind us that there is only one shelter and refuge that we can trust, in the midst of dangers, disease, disasters and death.
So what promises have we been given today as believers in Jesus Christ?
There are some interesting connections between the physical deliverance and safety offered to Israel and the Spiritual deliverance and safety promised to New Covenant believers.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39
According to Romans 8, we may experience tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword and even death!
- We might even experience death from COVID-19, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer!
- Our true life is hidden with Christ in God and He will protect us here until our work on earth is done and it’s time to bring us home to heaven. We don’t lose and we won’t be lost. That’s our Promise.
The recent death of believers - they are not lost. They have entered into their inheritance…
“…which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:4-5Scripture does not promise that “No Virus can Touch your House” as a believer, but it does acknowledge that all physical protection comes from God, and it does promise you that…
“…neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
