John Piper
“Jesus has all knowledge and all authority over the natural and supernatural forces of this world,” Piper said in a Feb. 28 interview.
“He knows exactly where the virus started, and where it’s going next. He has complete power to restrain it or not. And that’s what’s happening. Neither sin, nor Satan, nor sickness, nor sabotage is stronger than Jesus. He’s never backed into a corner; he is never forced to tolerate what he does not will. ‘The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations – Psalm 33:11.
“‘I know that you can do all things,’ Job says in his own repentance, ‘and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted’ – Job 42:2. So the question is not whether Jesus is overseeing, limiting, guiding, governing all the disasters and all the diseases of the world, including all their sinful and satanic dimensions. He is. The question is, with our Bibles open, how are we to understand this? Can we make sense out of it,” Piper questioned.
“… All natural disasters – whether floods, famines, locusts, tsunamis, or diseases – are a thunderclap of divine mercy in the midst of judgment, calling all people everywhere to repent and realign their lives, by grace, with the infinite worth of the glory of God. And the basis for that building block is Luke 13:1-5. Pilate had slaughtered worshipers in the temple. And the tower in Siloam had collapsed and killed eighteen bystanders. And the crowds want to know from Jesus, just like I’ve been asked, ‘Okay, make sense of this, Jesus. Tell us what you think about these natural disasters and this cruelty. These people were just standing there, and now they’re dead.’
“Here’s Jesus’s answer in Luke 13:4–5: ‘Those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent [he shifts from them to you], you will all likewise perish.’
“Now, that’s the message of Jesus to the world at this moment in history, under the coronavirus — a message to every single human being. Me, and you … and everybody who’s listening, and every ruler on the planet, every person who hears about this, is receiving a thunderclap message of God, saying, ‘Repent,’” the pastor asserted.
“And I think the Chinese authorities should especially pay attention, who have recently – and I just read another article yesterday – become so increasingly harsh and repressive against the followers of Christ.
“Repent and seek God’s mercy to bring your lives – our lives – into alignment with his infinite worth,” Piper concluded.
Photo courtesy: John Piper Facebook
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