Ebola: A Biblical "Pestilence?"

All readers are, no doubt, aware of the very serious Ebola plague that is spreading throughout Western Africa. Three nations, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, are the most very affected and a fourth, Nigeria, is somewhat affected. Senegal is also now reporting a case of Ebola (first link). The third link and fourth link detail the anti-Ebola effort announced by President Obama which includes sending 3,000 military troops to the affected nations. Obviously, these 3,000 military members are almost surely not trained in Ebola-specific medical protocols. If they contract the disease and bring it back with them to the USA, the disease could spread quickly through the USA. Also obviously, these 3,000 troops and any other assigned personnel coming back to the USA from West African nations affected by Ebola will need to be quarantined before re-entering the USA to protect the America general population from an outbreak. While not mentioned in the links, the 3,000 American troops may also have to provide security services at airports, rail stations, bus stations, seaports, etc. to make sure that no one leaves or enters certain nations without permission. As evidence of this possibility, the nation of Sierra Leone is going to impose a three-day shut-down of the nation to try and stop the spread of Ebola (second link).

The third and fourth links paint a very grim picture of how bad the Ebola plague has become and how fast it is spreading. The fourth link cites President Obama as stating that the world faces an “unprecedented and out-of-control Ebola epidemic in West Africa, ” and that “It’s spiraling out of control. It is getting worse. It’s spreading faster and exponentially (emphasis added).” The same link reports that “infections are doubling about every three weeks” and that it could spread to other continents and even “mutate to become airborne.” If it becomes airborne, entire cities and nations will have to be quarantined and some may depopulate. The world seems slow to grasp the danger presented to it by this Ebola outbreak. This will not be stopped by the US acting alone. Any carrier of the disease could bring it to any other continent, business center or tourist mecca in the world very quickly.

The final link reports just how widespread this Ebola outbreak could become. It warns that unless the outbreak is stopped and contained, “In nine months down the road, we are looking at hundreds of thousands, not just in cases, but deaths (emphasis added).” If the outbreak does reach such a pandemic proportion, in it highly likely that it will present on all continents, not just confined to Africa. According to the last link, there are now approximately 5000 confirmed cases and the mortality rate seems to be running around 50% of all those infected. Paradoxically, it sounds like good news that the mortality rate for this Ebola outbreak is “only” 50% (previous outbreaks have been as high as 90+%). However, previous Ebola outbreaks have “burned themselves out” because they kill their hosts so quickly and thoroughly that it runs out of new people to infect. With a mortality rate of only 50%, it means this Ebola variant has hosts that can go on living and infecting new people for a considerable length of time.

This Ebola outbreak could damage the entire global economy if it is not forcibly contained to its current outbreak zone. If it spreads to Europe, Asia, North America and South America, there could be entire cities, regions or nations which will have to be placed under martial law to prevent people from leaving their homes and risk spreading or contracting the disease. Obviously, financial and economic activity will drop dramatically if this occurs. If you wish to see a gripping representation of this possibility, see the old movie, Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman, which is about an Ebola-like disease which spreads from Africa to North America.

Matthew 24:7 warns that “pestilences” will precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the latter days. Is this Ebola outbreak a “pestilence?” Without any doubt it is. The fourth link projects hundreds of thousands of deaths within 9 months if firm actions are not taken to stop its spread to other nations. If this Ebola variant mutates into an airborne form, the death totals could skyrocket into the many millions very quickly.

This is a very serious crisis. It is a “no brainer” that all public airline and transportation services should be stopped into/from nations where Ebola has been detected until that nation can be certified as Ebola-free by the WHO, the CDC, or some similar agency. It is not clear yet if the world has the will to take such actions. If they don’t take such simple actions now, they will have to take more draconian actions later.

Ebola: A Biblical “Pestilence?”

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