The Pandemic and the Problem of Suffering
By Andrew T. Loke
Covid-19, Psalm 91, and the Problem of Suffering
By Andrew T. Loke
The world is plagued by Covid-19. Many Christians have been infected. Meanwhile, sermons on Psalm 91 claiming that ‘no virus can come near you’ have gone viral.[1] But what about those infected Christians? Are they guilty of not claiming Psalm 91, or do they not have enough faith? Might skeptics legitimately claim such cases as refutation of biblical promises?
There is another possibility. While those pastors may have preached out of good intentions, they have misinterpreted the Bible, such as ignoring the context of Psalm 91, which is full of figurative language. For example, verse 13 says, ‘you will tread upon the lion and cobra.’ I have not seen those pastors interpret this verse literally and go to the zoo and step on those creatures.
Most scholars throughout history have understood the lion and the cobra to be symbolic of demonic forces and Psalm 91 to be a statement of divine protection from demons.[2] In particular, the ancient Jewish translators of the LXX (the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced in the second-century BC) did not interpret the pestilence (Hebrew deber) mentioned in Psalm 91 literally. They translated deber in verse 3 as ‘troublesome matter’, and verse 6 ‘of the pestilence (deber) that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon’ as ‘of the thing that walks in darkness; of calamity, and the evil spirit at noon-day.’ They translated ‘plague’ (Hebrew nega) in verse 10 as ‘scourge’. The LXX is the Bible translation used by the New Testament authors. Brennan notes that ‘In the New Testament, Jesus refers to Psalm 91 in his reaction to the testimony of the seventy disciples sent ahead of him that they had power over demons’[3] (Luke 10:17-20). Jesus interpreted the serpent figuratively as demons (‘I have given you authority to tread on serpents…Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven’ [Luke 10:19-20]).[4]
Some might object that pestilences are due to demonic attack, thus protection against demons would imply protection against pestilence. However, there is no passage in the Bible which claims that all kinds of pestilence are due to demons. Contrariwise, while there are biblical passages portraying God sending pestilence as judgment (e.g., Exodus 9:14), it is invalid to assume that all sufferers of pestilence are judged by God. Just as it is invalid to assume (as Job’s friends did) that the sufferings of Job—including the boils that he suffered from, which is also portrayed as judgement in Exodus 9 (verse 10)—were due to divine judgement (Analogy: That Covid-19 has caused cases of pneumonia does not imply that all cases of pneumonia are due to Covid-19).
Moreover, the original audiences of Psalm 91 were Old Testament Israelites who were under a different covenant from New Testament believers (Hebrews 8:7-13). While prosperity preachers often claim old covenant promises of prosperity (Deuteronomy 28:11), I have not seen them claim Deuteronomy 28:7: ‘The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you’ and go and fight ISIS terrorists.
Biblical passages should not be interpreted as magical formulas, but should be interpreted within the framework of the sovereignty of God. While Jesus said ‘all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you’ (Mark 11:24), this should be understood within the context of ‘yet not what I will, but what You will’ (Mark 14:36). Jesus himself rejected the magical use of Psalm 91 (Matt 4:7//Luke 4:12). The Lord did not give what Paul asked for in 2 Corinthians 12:9, but said ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Some pastors have claimed that it is always God’s will to heal because it has been paid for by the atonement. However, they have misinterpreted Isaiah 53 and other passages (see http://www.ukapologetics.net/09/healing2.htm).
Prosperity preachers are repeating the mistakes of 18th century European postmillennialists who had been inclined to suppose that the spread of the gospel would eradicate volcanoes and earthquakes.[5] Such ‘positive thinking’ may have been very ‘encouraging’ and drawn a lot of people to churches initially, but the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 shattered their dreams and caused many to lose their ‘faith,’ which was based on false expectations. While many earthquakes had happened earlier in history, the Lisbon Earthquake was particularly damaging to Christianity in Europe largely because of the acceptance of false theology that preceded it. It was a major contributing factor to the anti-Christian sentiment of the Enlightenment and the subsequent decline of Christianity in Europe.[6]
Those proponents of a postmillennial Utopia and modern day Prosperity preachers should have emphasized that in this life Christians will suffer alongside non-Christians, but we have the promises of God’s presence in Christ which brings peace and joy even in the midst of suffering, the power to go through suffering (not freedom from suffering), as well as eternal life which is based on the factuality of God’s existence and Christ’s resurrection.[7]
With these promises we do not need to live in fear in the face of Covid-19, even as we take the necessary precautions as faithful stewards of Christ. God has given humans morally significant freedom which comes with significant responsibility, as well as the opportunities to exercise them so that they can have the space to grow and become mature in their moral character and to act in morally valuable ways (‘well done, faithful servant…’ [Matthew 25:23]), which is an important aspect of the meaning of life. Given that this is God’s will for humanity and that the creation of a morally significant world is the priority, it is no wonder that those countries in which people behave responsibly (e.g., wearing a mask in public) tend to stop the spread of the pandemic more effectively than those countries in which many people pray for the stop of the pandemic but do not behave responsibly.
We can pray for protection and healing, and we know that God can protect and heal. God honors faith and He wants us to focus on Him and not on our problems, to realize that He loves us and is concerned about every aspect of our lives, and to understand and experience His incomparably great power for us who believe (Ephesians 1:18-19). However, God also wants us to learn to use our freedom responsibly, to be considerate and to seek the good of others before one’s own (1 Corinthians 10:24), to learn perseverance and to ‘consider it all joy’ when we encounter various trials (James 1:2). Most importantly, to realize that the grounds of our devotion should not be because God has blessed us with health and wealth (Job 1:8-10), but because God is God. No matter what happens, we know that He loves us and is with us forever and that our lives are within His best will if we humbly trust and obey Him, and He will work all things out for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). We will never walk alone.
Notes
[1] e.g., https://bit.ly/3kTj3tq.
[2] Brennan Breed, ‘Reception of the Psalms: The Example of Psalm 91,’ in The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms edited by William Brown (Oxford University Press, 2014).
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] N. T. Wright, History and Eschatology (Baylor University Press, 2019), p. 6.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Andrew Loke, God and Ultimate Origins (Springer Nature, 2017); The Origins of Divine Christology (Cambridge University Press, 2017); Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Routledge, 2020).
— Andrew T. Loke (PhD, King’s College London) is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is the author of God and Ultimate Origins (Springer Nature), Ultimate Design (Springer Nature, forthcoming), The Origins of Divine Christology (Cambridge University Press), A Kryptic Model of the Incarnation (Routledge), and Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Routledge). In addition, he has published articles in leading international peer-reviewed journals such as Religious Studies (Cambridge University Press) and Journal of Theological Studies (Oxford University Press).
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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