Dr Paul Allen

Many Bible readers are familiar with the plague in Egypt at the time of the Exodus (Exod 7:14–12:32)—water turning to blood and infestations of frogs, lice, flies, locusts, and the like. With coronavirus on everyone’s mind, questions abound of whether the word “pandemic” appears in the Bible, too. The short answer is no—“pandemic” is not in the Bible. However, the words “plague” and “pestilence” are (no less than 122 times) and often reference individuals or nations1afflicted with a terrible illness.2 One Hebrew word often used is maggephah, which can mean slaughter (of battle), plague, pestilence (divine judgment), or a fatal blow, though there are other related words: neḡaʿ (Heb.)      →    plague, disease, stroke (metaphorical of disease) makkah (Heb.)   →    blow, wound, slaughter, plague, pestilence deber (Heb.)      →    pestilence, plague, murrain, cattle disease/plague mastix (Gr.)       →...

The coronavirus epidemic has disrupted our lives, shut down the economy, and killed thousands of people. If God is sovereign and good, some are asking, why doesn’t He stop it? There are often, at the heart of such questions, misconceptions about both God and the world. The prevailing view of God today is that of “moralistic therapeutic deism.” God is loving and good, which means that He just wants us to be happy. He can help us with our problems and wants us to be loving and good too. But He is not particularly demanding or judgmental, and He basically leaves us alone. This view is rampant among teenagers, research has shown, but it can also be found among contemporary theologians who insist that God is so good that He would never condemn anyone to hell or punish His Son for other people’s sins.  But while this sentimental view of God seemingly puts Him in a very positive light, it makes Him a straw man for the arguments of atheists, who contend that such a being is ...