Wrestler Hulk Hogan and the Coronavirus

May 11, 2020:

  Wrestler Hulk Hogan says the coronavirus has taken our modern gods from us. He compares COVID-19 to the 10 Old Testament plagues that struck Egypt.
  
“In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship,” Hogan said in a post. “God said, 'you want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centers. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don't want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where you can't go to church.’”
  
Hogan referred to 2 Chronicles 7:13-14: “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
  
Hogan said it’s time to think about what matters.
  
“Maybe we don't need a vaccine, maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus,” his post concluded.
  
“Some may scoff at Hogan’s post but then again so did Pharaoh,” says Writer Bob Williamson.
  
Hulk Hogan’s real name is Terry Gene Bollea. Born in Augusta, Georgia, and raised in Tampa, Florida, he says he was saved at age 14 and has been a dedicated Christian. He says that his faith kept him on the level.
  
“The only thing that is really real is the stuff that’s gonna last forever, your faith and your belief in God,” Hogan says. “And knowing that once you’re a Christian, you’ve accepted Christ as your savior . . .  you’re going to have ever-lasting life. That belief and that faith is what’s pretty much the only thing that’s real to me.”
  
Did God send the virus to America?
  
Some Christians say God didn’t cause the coronavirus, but he allowed it.
  
Dr. Roger Barrier, writing for crosswalk.com, responded to this question: “Does it [coronoavirus] have anything to do with End Times?”
  
“Whether or not the coronavirus signals the beginning of the end times, or not, I don’t know,” Barrier says. "However, as I examine it closely, the spreading coronavirus is certainly a foreshadowing of the plagues of the book of Revelation.”
  
Barrier says the Spanish flu killed over 100 million people in Europe and the United States from 1918 to 1920.
  
(My late grandmother, Lillian Crain who attended Faith Temple Church, told me that her whole family was so sick during the 1918 flu that when a brother died, no family member could attend her brother’s funeral. Ms. Lillian was born on July 4, 1902; she was probably 17 or so when her brother died from a flu considered to be a modern-day plague.)
  
“Each flu season we know that we must inoculate people against a different strain of flu than the year before,” Barrier says. “Why? Because the flu mutates and changes each year. Some viruses burn themselves out — like Ebola. Others, like the Spanish flu, can mutate and become worse over time.”
  
Barrier says the world economy is at risk as trade is hindered, workers stay home, supplies such as pharmaceuticals run short, foodstuffs grind to a halt, and stock markets struggle worldwide.
  
“Seldom, if ever, has our earth faced a global crisis like the current worldwide spreading of the coronavirus,” he says. “Coronavirus may very well foreshadow a potential worldwide economic collapse because of the ensuing panic and incredible debt loads incurred by almost all nations.”
  
Barrier says that God often sent plague and pestilence to deal with his own people.
  
“It’s no stretch of the imagination to believe that he will send the same sort of plagues today upon a world that wallows in sin and ultimately rejects him as Lord and Savior,” he says. “God will allow an escalation in trials of all kinds to bring men to Christ. In fact, the purpose of the Tribulation itself is to bring pressure for men to surrender to Jesus and find salvation. Jesus describes End Time events in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.”
  
Barrier says we stop worrying, pray, and thank God for answers.
  
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6).