The World Health Organization has set out three essential characteristics of a pandemic: It must be a new virus to which no one is immune; it is capable of producing a fatal illness; and it can be transmitted from one person to another.
In 1918 a flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) spread to nearly every part of the world. Most of its victims were healthy young adults. That pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. When the killer disappeared mysteriously and without a trace, it had not only left behind a terrified world but also from 20 to 40 million persons dead. It is estimated that 20 percent of the world’s population at that time was affected in one way or another, qualifying Spanish flu as one of the most lethal pandemics in history.
With good reason many are concerned about the H1N1 flu that is spreading around the world. The Director of the World Health Organization said, “All humanity is threatened by a pandemic”, and “Every nation must activate immediately its plans to prepare for a pandemic.”
We have yet to hear the final number of those affected, but can you imagine a pandemic that affects 100 percent of the world’s population and is still more deadly than H1N1 or even the Spanish flu? Sin is a pandemic that commenced in the Garden of Eden. The Bible teaches that sin was introduced into the world for the first time when Adam sinned: “…by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin…” (Romans 5:12). So this new disease emerged and infected the only two humans living on the earth. The verse continues: “…and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Death is the result of this pandemic, and it has been passed from generation to generation. No one is immune.
We were not only born sinners, but we practice sin, and “the wages of sin is death…” Thankfully, the verse does not end there, but adds “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Death does not terminate our existence, but we will exist forever in one of two places – Heaven or Hell.
Have you put in motion your plan to prepare for dying? Is there such a plan available, a remedy for your sins? The Bible says there is. “The blood of Jesus Christ His (God’s) Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The sinner who by faith accepts the blood of Christ as having been given for him is saved and has his sins taken away.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
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