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What Is God Doing through the Coronavirus?
blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned
away from evil” (Job 1:1).
And as we saw earlier, God’s own people experience
many of the physical effects of his judgment. The apostle
Peter put it like this:
It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God;
and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those
who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous
is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the
sinner?” (1 Pet. 4:17–18)
For “the household of God,” this judgment from God is
purifying, not punitive—not punishment. So not all suffering
is owing to the specific judgments of God on specific
sins. Nevertheless, God sometimes uses disease to bring
particular judgments upon those who reject him and give
themselves over to sin.
EXAMPLES OF SPECIFIC JUDGMENTS ON SPECIFIC SINS
I’ll give two examples of specific judgments on specific sins.
In Acts 12, Herod the king exalted himself by allowing
himself to be called a god. “Immediately an angel of the
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