The Coronavirus is Not the Most Dangerous Virus
In a scramble to escape the coronavirus, a couple drove more than 3,400 miles across Canada and then flew another 500 miles deep into the northern Yukon territory.
Dana Tizya-Tramm, chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin, told newspapers that the man and woman from Quebec landed Friday in Old Crow, which is north of the Arctic Circle. “They had sold everything that they had, drove across the country and jumped on a flight to our community. He said that they literally just picked it out on a map and figured it would be the safest place in Canada to weather a Covid-19 storm because they were afraid to die from Covid-19.”
This long-distance effort to escape the pandemic occurred at a time when government authorities around the world, including in Canada, were urging people to avoid nonessential travel. The couple was intercepted at the local airport as they waited to pick up their luggage. The man told the authority that, with everything going on with the virus, they were afraid that that they might get infected and die and they wanted to find a place to be safe from the virus.
To ensure the visitors didn’t come into contact with others, the police immediately brought them to the local co-operative, which rents out rooms. They were met by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and instructed to stay in their room at all times until they left Sunday on a flight back to the territorial capital of Whitehorse.
“I do feel for these individuals—when I spoke with them, they were legitimately scared,” Tizya-Tramm said Monday from the fly-in community of 250 people about 60 miles east of the Alaskan border. “To me, this is a very human story. It’s a story of two people who were afraid of to die, who wanted to seek refuge, and thought they were going to a safe place.”
A Greater Danger
With justifiable alarm, we are witnessing a new and dangerous disease race around the globe. As fatalities increase, we take measures to try to protect ourselves and others. There is, however, a danger far greater and more pervasive than COVID-19. Of course, you already know we will all die someday. The question is not if we will die; the question is only when, and how. Why must we all die? The Bible gives us the reason: “By one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” We cannot help that we are born with the tendency to sin, but each of us has also become guilty of deliberate acts of sin.
No amount of hand washing or disinfectant can halt the spread of sin; the entire human race is already infected, and what’s worse, the mortality rate is 100%. Physical death is only part of the result of this “disease” called sin. The far greater consequence extends throughout eternity. The Bible says that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” God is absolutely holy, and any sin is unacceptable to Him. Anyone who dies with their sin unforgiven is forever separated from God, and consequently from all that is good. Jesus Himself repeatedly warned about the great danger of eternal punishment. Dear friend, this is real! God has provided a remedy, but if you haven’t received it yet, you are at this moment still in tremendous danger.
An Effective Cure
COVID-19 has experts racing to develop an effective vaccine—and other medical treatments—which we hope will prevent the loss of many lives. But I’d like to point out that God has a plan in place to combat and ultimately cure the sin pandemic. Below is a quote from John 3:16 in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The Lord Jesus the Son of God never sinned but took our place to endure the judgment we deserve. He died; He was buried; He rose from the dead. “Whosoever believeth in Him,” John 3:16 says. God loves you and longs to save you from your sin and from eternal death. He offers every guilty, sincerely repentant sinner the gift of salvation, simply through fully trusting Christ alone. Trusting yourself or any other way of salvation will never work. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:1). Yes, the danger of judgment for our sins is very real. But you can have forgiveness and cleansing from all those sins through the Lord Jesus Christ. “The wages of sin is death,” but the good news is: “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2.)
