On January 21, 2019, Governor Cuomo of New York signed the “Reproductive Health Act” into law, making it legal for doctors to abort babies with no restrictions (up to full-term) if necessary, to protect the patient’s life or “health.” This law also removed any reference to an unborn child in laws that addressed murder, effectively making an unborn child a “non-person.” In other words, if you were attacked while pregnant and the child died as a result, your attacker would not be held accountable for killing the child.

To celebrate New York’s expanded freedom to kill children, Governor Cuomo ordered One World Trade Center to be lit up in pink. If you want to watch people celebrate the freedom to kill babies, you should watch the video of the signing (https://youtu.be/43VhkcIO5Gw). I couldn’t watch more than five minutes, as it made me nauseous.

One year later, to the day, January 21, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in the United States was diagnosed.  

Abortion is legal in every state, but I can’t help remembering the celebrations last year over New York’s willingness to minimize the value of an unborn life. Now New York is the hot spot, the center of this aggressive virus.

Now they are scrambling to protect lives, to keep people from dying.

Now they are railing against the federal government for not providing enough help to keep people alive.

Now they are desperate, fighting a foe that doesn’t care if you are rich, poor, young or old.

And only the fittest will survive.

Abortion is essentially survival of the fittest. The stronger, bigger, wiser (read: sarcasm) get to determine when and if the weak and vulnerable get to live. If the weak and vulnerable don’t serve my needs, if the weak and vulnerable interrupt my life plans, if the weak and vulnerable prove to be a nuisance or a bother, or if the weak and vulnerable threaten my own personal well-being (physical, mental, emotional health), then I, as the stronger, the “fittest,” get to survive.

I don’t want anyone to die of COVID-19. I am praying for God to supernaturally intervene to not only slow the spread of the virus but to completely eradicate it in such a way that only He can get the credit. But I also know this virus did not catch Him by surprise and that He has a purpose in allowing it to continue.

This virus is a result of the fallen world we live in. Disease and death are a result of mankind’s sin. The Bible tells us in the last days there will be increased death as natural disasters grow more frequent and more powerful, and war, famine, and pestilence spread across the world. These are the “beginning of birth pangs” warning us that our time is nearly up and that a judgment day is coming.

The world has been stopped in its tracks by something we can’t even see. How powerless we are to fight it! How quickly have we surrendered our freedoms in fear! Can you see how easy it would be for governments to institute martial law, and it would be welcomed by the majority of people, as they look for anyone to keep them safe?

COVID-19 has shown us how weak and vulnerable we are. I believe it is also a warning to the world. It is a reminder that sin has a payment, a wage. I’m not a prophet, but the thought does cross my mind that perhaps God is making a point in New York. When we celebrate depravity, there’s a consequence.

As of today, over 8,000 people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19. The White House is projecting 100,000 could die before it’s over. In 2017, 862,320 babies were aborted. Why are we in such an uproar? The fittest will survive, won’t they?

Here’s the real truth. We are ALL weak and vulnerable. We are all already infected with the worst disease mankind has ever faced: our sin nature. We were born with it. The good news is that we have a choice as to whether or not we want to be cured. Adam and Eve made a choice that has affected us all, but God defeated the effects of that choice when Jesus paid our sin debt on the cross. God has no desire for anyone to die; He desires all men to repent and come to faith in Christ.

Our world is deceived, and our values are upside down, and this is a direct result of our fallen, sinful nature. We campaign to kill babies, but when faced with the prospect of death ourselves, we are desperate for answers. My point in all of this is that when a nation turns its back on God, we ought not to be surprised when discipline and judgment result. This virus can turn our attention back to Him, or we can go on in our self-deception and pride and continue to fight Him. God is graciously showing us how weak and helpless we are.

I pray as a nation, as a world, and as individuals, we listen.

Zechariah 7:8-14 – Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, “Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts; “but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”