Sometime between the years 1570 and 1440 BC, God struck Egypt with 10 plagues: water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the killing of firstborn children.
The Bible also reports that although these plagues ravaged Egypt, such was not so in the land of Goshen, where the fourth, seventh and ninth plagues were non-existent:
- Fourth plague: “Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.” [1]
- Seventh plague: "And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.” [2]
- Ninth plague: "And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." [3]
Here I am, a grown adult, and was never aware until now about God granting an exception to Goshen during these plagues. It is unknown why the church hasn't taught this as its members were in the midst of a modern-day plague.
Although many believe that God's protective arm, as recounted in the Bible, is the stuff of fiction, we do have a modern-day example, a verification, of how God protects the righteous, those who trust and believe in him.
His name was John G. Lake. From 1908 - 1913, he served as a Christian, non-LDS missionary to South Africa. During that time, Lake buried many with the bubonic plague. During that time, many nations sent ships with doctors and medical supplies to help stop this dreaded pandemic, which was so deadly, death was very likely if you touched anyone or anything with the plague.
Unlike other medical professionals, neither Lake nor his assistant were affected as they interacted with others who had contracted the plague. One of the doctors sent for Lake and asked, “What have you been using to protect yourself? Our corps has this preventative and that, which we use as protection, but we concluded that if a man could stay on the ground as you have and keep ministering to the sick and burying the dead, you must have a secret. What is it?”
Lake answered, “Brother that is the ‘law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus'. I believe that just as long as I keep my soul in contact with the living god so that His Spirit is flowing into my soul and body, that no germ will ever attach itself to me, for the Spirit of God will kill it.”
The doctor asked, “Don’t you think that you had better use our preventative?”
Lake replied, “No, but doctor, I think that you would like to experiment with me. If you will go over to one of these dead people and take the foam that comes out of their lungs after death, then put it under the microscope, you will see masses of living germs. You will find they are alive until a reasonable time after a man is dead. You can fill my hand with them and I will keep it under the microscope, and instead of these germs remaining alive, they will die instantly.”
They tried it and found it was true. The plague bacteria instantly died in Lake’s hand.
The doctor questioned, “What is that?”
Lake replied, “That is ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.’ When a man’s spirit and a man’s body are filled with the blessed presence of God, it oozes out of the pores of your flesh and kills the germs.”
Lake believed the Word of God is stronger than any sickness or any disease. And his faith in God was proven to be powerful enough to stop plagues on contact.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” [4]
Long ago, in the midst of utter, total darkness, there was light in Goshen, because that was where God’s people were. And when mere mortals can walk with God's presence in their lives, no virus can exist.
What does that mean for us today as we face the coronavirus?
"And the reason why he ceaseth
to do miracles among the children
of men is because that they dwindle
in unbelief, and depart from the right
way, and know not the God in whom
they should trust." [5]
QUESTIONS
Because of the aforementioned facts, I am left with the following questions:
- Should we, who have taken upon ourselves Christ's name, be examples of true believers in Jesus Christ?
- Do we latter-day saints consider ourselves God's people?
- Just what does it mean to have belief and faith in Christ? Does it mean to believe he existed, or perhaps something deeper, like believing his words?
- Do we teach that Jesus Christ is the master healer, that he is more powerful than any plague?
- Do we teach that our churches -- our wards and branches -- are healing centers, places where anyone can come and partake of Christ's goodness?
- If so, then why did the church shut down its buildings and discontinue its worship services during the coronavirus outbreak?
- Shouldn't it have done the opposite, and invited people in to partake of Christ's goodness, mercy and healing?
- Don't we have faithful priesthood holders who can pronounce protection from pestilences and healing from sickness?
- Just where is the faith of Christ's "anointed" ones whom we are supposed to follow?
- Why have our church leaders never mentioned God's protection of Goshen, who time and again, was protected by God from various plagues?
- What's the take-away when we read of a non-LDS, Christian missionary having the faith to walk among plague victims and believing God would (and did) protect him from a plague, versus a church which runs in the opposite direction?
- Of all the places on earth, wouldn't God protect temples and the Conference Center during General Conference? If so, why were/are they shut?
- What's the simplest explanation as to why we are not seeing miracles of protection like the people of Goshen and John G. Lake?
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TRUTHS BELOW FOR UPDATES TO THIS POST
1 Exodus 8:22
2 Exodus 9:25-26
3 Exodus 10:22-23
4 Romans 8:1-11
5 Mormon 9:20
