It appears that the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic has led more than one person to recall a certain apocalyptic prophecy featured in the Bible.
As doctors are yet to produce a vaccine that would help curb the spread of the COVID-19, quite a few netizens wondered aloud whether this disease might fit the description of one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelations, Pestilence, with some also arguing that certain other recent events may account for the other three.
THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF 2020
— Birtday Skelton (@OzzyOPorosis) March 19, 2020
January - War, Trump bombs and Iraqi airport, killing an Iranian general
February - Death, the entire planet is on fire
March - Pestilence, COVID-19
April - Famine, consumers have overconsumed and producers have underproduced
Who would have thought when the four horsemen of the apocalypse came bounding over the horizon, dried pasta, tinned tuna, bake beans and toilet roll would save the world. #Covid_19 #coronavirus #CoronaVirusUpdate pic.twitter.com/rp6AhC9a42
— Chris Clayton🇪🇺🇺🇦 🇵🇸🐝 (@chrisclayton98) March 13, 2020
The U.S. is currently carrying out air strikes against Iranian forces in Iraq, so all Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are now here.
— JRehling (@JRehling) March 13, 2020
The Four Horsemen: War, Death, Pestilence, Famine.
— sammy (@samrjamr914) March 18, 2020
WW3 conspiracies: War
Global fires (Amazon, California, Australia): Death
COVID-19: Pestilence
???: Famine is next. Panic buying leads to panic indulgence leads to shortage of supplies leads to starvation? Maybe?
It’s only March and we’ve already had two of the four horsemen; War (#WWIII freak out) and Pestilence (#CORONA #COVID_19)...
— no shit niv (@Nivothana) March 12, 2020
Hmm maybe the Mayans were only off by a couple of years...
However, Jeff Kinley, an author from the United States who penned several books about the biblical prophecy, argued that only a person "just completely ignorant about what the Bible says about the End Times" might think that the end is nigh, according to MSN News.
The biblical texts, Kinley reasoned, are very specific regarding what would transpire before the end of the End Times, and since some of the events mentioned there – such as, for example, the rebuilding of the legendary temple in Jerusalem – are yet to take place, all the apocalyptic hype might be a bit premature, to put it mildly.
And Michael Brown, host of the Christian radio show "The Line of Fire", argued that the current pandemic is not the end of all but rather an opportunity to reflect on things to come, the media outlet adds.
"I see this as a trial run to see how we respond to calamity and hardship," he said. "If we’re shaken now, how are we going to react when it really gets wild?"