The Tree of the Knowledge of Covid-19
“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you ‘read this latest study’ your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When we lust for knowledge, the devil is happy to comply. How do we know what we know? What knowledge are we confident about? If there was ever evidence that mankind is quick to make judgments on limited information, just check the disparity in news feeds over the last two months. “The flu is just as bad” vs. “we’re all going to die.” We’re either in denial or panic, and nowhere in between, and it’s all because we’re overly confident about what we think we know. What makes us so confident about our current analysis? The more I look into the data, the more I’m beginning to think that our margin for error is growing at a more exponential rate than anything else. Why can’t we flatten that curve?
Rosaria Butterfield writes, “In 2020, we can scarcely escape media coverage of COVID-19 – nor can we seem to distinguish information from the vile stream of gossip and slander that passes as “information” from pundits and crackpots. … When we feast on CNN instead of Scripture to ease the existential dread that captures our souls, we become useless, unable to help ourselves or our neighbors.” Likewise, Pastor Tim has warned us to be careful with the data.
Knowledge is not neutral. Since the Garden, we have lusted for knowledge that God has not given us. Thousands of years later, Enlightenment Rationalism continued this worship of our intellect as we made an idol out of the human mind. For some reason, we think that we can think our way out of this. If we just know enough, then we will conquer it. But what if we can’t? What if God doesn’t give us understanding? What if we never know the virus’ origin or the actual death rate or even a close approximation to the actual number of cases? Would we resent God for keeping us in the dark?
God holds the exclusive rights to truth. The only truth is God’s truth. And a very important question for us to answer is how can we be confident that we know the truth? Because the human mind is so deceitful, why do we trust our conclusions? The mind is rarely more creative than when it is self-justifying. It takes creativity to make an idol. And to make matters worse, how can we trust what we hear from wicked men? We have abortion doctors informing the decisions of how we as a society value human life. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked (Psalm 1:1). Time and time again, man denies the truth of the Bible because he is overly confident in his scientific knowledge. Now, science and the truth of scripture are not at odds. But the sinful mind and the truth of scripture are at odds.
Coming from a dangerous left-leaning Anglicanism, NT Wright wrote for Time.com that Christianity offers no answers about the coronavirus because it’s not supposed to. He twists the biblical category of lament to be “what happens when people ask, “Why?” and don’t get an answer.” NT Wright is wrong. It’s not that God doesn’t answer our questions. He just doesn’t give us the answer we’re looking for sometimes. And much of the time, he gives us an answer by telling us that we’re asking the wrong question. God is not a Socratic teacher who leaves the direction of the class to the one asking the questions. God tells us everything we need to know and tells us that it is a lust for knowledge that seeks to transgress the limitations given to us. Unlimited knowledge is God’s prerogative alone. The secret things belong to the Lord and the things revealed belong to us. God is in heaven and we are on earth, so let our words be few. God has limited our knowledge. So, yes, Christianity doesn’t answer some questions about the coronavirus in the way we’d want, because we’re often asking the wrong questions. We’re seeking knowledge that God hasn’t given to us. But that is a whole lot different than saying that Christianity offers no answers. All questions have an answer, even if that answer is simply, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Every lament in the Bible is answered when it is typologically fulfilled with Jesus dying on the cross crying out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Did Jesus not get an answer? Of course he did, three days later. In a way, we can say that the death and resurrection of Jesus is the answer to every question (2 Cor. 1:20).
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.” – 2 Timothy 3:1-9
“Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” – 1 John 2:4
Because of our love for sin, we can be always learning and never able to arrive at the truth. Sin at its root is the suppression of truth. Some can even make confident assertions, like “I know him” but will find out one day that Jesus never knew them.
The mind that is submissive to Christ is first of all a humble mind, not considering a perfect knowledge of the truth a thing to be grasped (Phil. 2:1-11). It is our lust to be like God that expects and even demands to know everything. We believe the lie of Satan when we think that if we just know everything, then surely we won’t die from the Coronavirus. We may read every study ever done regarding this virus. We may know everything there is to humanly know about it. We may completely insulate ourselves by trying to know every possible way that the virus could get to us. Yet, we cannot say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit,” for we do not know what tomorrow will bring (James 4:13-14). It’s sometimes hard to know what is true, but it’s easy to know the One who is the way, the truth and the life. Do not trust your own understanding.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6