Christianity and the coronavirus

An interesting Echo Letters debate appears to be developing over Christianity and the coronavirus.

John Catt, in my view, is perfectly sensible to argue that, if Christians welcome the vaccine as an act of God, what about the virus itself? I think it’s very likely that the virus and the vaccine are linked – but neither are the work of God.

Sadly, the letters of the Christians expose the fact that many churchgoers are as in the dark as anyone in the current extraordinary times.

For these same people, who according to Mark’s gospel ‘will pick up snakes with their hands, and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all’ are largely hiding behind closed doors and face masks in fear of a virus that doesn’t affect 90 odd per cent of unbelievers!

I believe they have been played and as much in error as those they believe to be lost and destined for hell.

I do think there are golden nuggets of truth in The Bible and that Jesus, who was given the title ‘Christ’, was a divine human with a message that continues to be light years ahead of his time.

But the concept that everything in the ‘ good book’ is 100 per cent true and inspired by God is obvious myth.

Instead the Romans who put Jesus to death adapted the scriptures through the Roman Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicea to use Jesus for their own ends.

Almost ever since the Roman Catholic Church has controlled Christians through the falsehoods of original sin, judgement and that humanity needs an intermediary between themselves and God.

The ‘rapture’, referred to in two recent Echo letters, is a more common belief of Pentecostal and other fundamentalist churches, as John Catt rightly says, and is part of the same ultimately dark theology.

‘Rapture’, the supposed coming together of the elect believers and the Lord in the air, depends for its logic on the idea we are all ‘born in sin’ and therefore in need of salvation. Instead my belief is that Jesus came to tell us that we are divine in nature – ‘the Kingdom of God is within you’ and we are ‘lost’ only in the sense that we fail to acknowledge the truth within ourselves. Jesus also told us ‘the truth will set you free’ whilst the church’s dogmas enslave humanity in fear and guilt.

God is not confined by the boundaries created by man-made religion. God is not exclusive. All of us, whether we believe in God or call upon our own higher selves, already possess the answers we seek even in these most distressing days.

John Brindley