THE QUARANTINE TIMES

This title sounds somewhat like a newspaper publication doesn’t it? Or maybe the title of an article found within it? Regardless, these are interesting times to be alive.

This appears to be the first time the US Government has taken the unprecedented step of ordering the healthy to shelter in place as well as quarantining the ill. Throughout history those who became sick were the only one’s quarantined. The rational given for this change was that the corona virus is so contagious, the health care providers needed time to prepare for the pandemic.

No one can be sure about how long these orders should last or when they should be fully lifted. It may be best to leave these questions alone for now. But there are aspects of this whole episode that makes one wonder and say, “Hmmm.”

Is this sheltering order a training program being used to make preparations for a one world government? Are the new legislative bills being introduced, to locate and follow people on the pretense of Covid 19, a precursor to the mark of the beast on one’s forehead or hand?  Time will tell.

The concept of time is essential to understanding so many things.  Time itself isn’t easy to understand, even though it is used all the time. One just can’t seem to get away from it. I’ve had occasion to write about time before. A previous blog article called “Quirky Times” will be useful in discussing the various aspects about these interesting developments.

I have described the elements of time in the book titled, “A Conversaunt Existence.” In it a lot of words are written about time and at one point I say that, “time is a moving target.”  Well, those instances that get called quirky or interesting are somewhat hard to fully define also. It seems that quirkiness is related with time by being an experience that is unexpected. The term interesting can be expressed similarly. The terms, interesting and quirky, can sometimes be used to characterize someone with unusual traits and they both can be used as criteria for describing events. Since events are related to life, and life has a relationship to time; interesting and quirky then are related to time.

All experiences happen in this medium called time. As these individual events are experienced those occurrences in time get called, “the present”. It is called this because it is a gift from our Creator. It is a gift precisely because the gift of life occurs in a continuous flow of present moments where each and every one of them is special. This gift of life’s present is explainable by looking at the Kalam Cosmological Argument for the existence of God. This argument shows the impossibility of anything in this world being a real infinity. In doing so, it shows that the universe is contingent. This means that the universe has a beginning, so the question of why there is a universe at all must be explained.

The only credible explanation is that God created it. The thing is, this universe is also interacting within time. Now, there wouldn’t be a need for time if there were no things, so time itself is as contingent to God as the universe itself is. Therefore, the only valid explanation for all of what is, is a Creator. God necessarily exists outside of our universe and transcends time itself. To quote from the book “A Conversaunt Existence” let s call this Creator the, ‘Great Omnipotent Designer,’ or God for short.

This explanation is not saying that God is outside of our parameters of experience. No, God can make His own decisions on interacting with His creation. To mankind’s ultimate benefit God has been intimately involved. He came in the person of Jesus Christ, died on a cross and was resurrected on the third day. He paid the price for our sins and He showed us the way, including what it means to believe and to inherit everlasting life.

Everlasting life gets us back to the subject of time. This additional gift from God goes beyond there merely being a present. First off, we know that the present moves into the past and is there to stay. It can’t be cyclical as eastern religions say, it is linear. Actually it’s even less than linear. Time is in the moment. Then the moment is gone, replaced by a subsequent new moment. Everything else has to be designated as “past.”  Well almost. Another peculiarity about time is that one can claim that a time is coming. That there is a future that has attributes of becoming a part of what we call time.

The idea of everlasting time is just one quirky detail. It becomes even more interesting when one considers that God the Creator of time, of us, and of this universe has said that there is an end times. This is where everything is headed one moment at a time. Before the end actually occurs many details, written in the Bible, need to happen first. God has foretold these events in order for mankind to recognize its coming.

Coming back full circle then; these quarantine times may be showing believers that the end times are getting closer. (I have personally wondered more than once if I will live to witness them?) Whether it is or not, the facts are that the Creator chose to create us, our universe, and the time found within it. Mankind gets to experience these “present” moments including the interesting and quirky ones. 

He has called believers who are immersed in the present, a job to do. Christians are to reach out to unbelievers and tell them the good news, the gospel. Today’s current, interesting times, are a springboard to reach out and address these quirky times, whether or not they are the end ones. Understand, God hasn’t left mankind in the dark. He has told us the Truth; all of the truth that we need right now. The only way to know that these are the end times with certainty is to live them present moment by moment.

A postscript: God’s existence, the Kalam Cosmological Argument, and so much more, is described in detail in the book, “A Conversaunt Existence.” The book has important details describing the importance of world views, and the Christian world view in particular. I hope you use it and this article to help others experience Christ’s love and the free gifts God has given us during these interesting times in which we live.