Thursday, January 28, 2016

A Modern Menace Emerging and Reemerging Diseases

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This past April, when the first cases of H1N1 swine flu were detected in Mexico and the United States, health officials around the world went on high alert.
Surveillance measures were put in place. Pharmaceutical companies stepped up production of antiviral drugs. In cities with confirmed cases, schools were closed. Large public gatherings, such as sporting events and concerts, were canceled. Malls, restaurants and other public places were empty. The scenes were very similar to what happened during the SARS and avian flu outbreaks that unfolded in Asia earlier this decade.
Aided by modern transportation, the virus spread rapidly. On June 11, with more than 125,000 confirmed cases and 140 deaths in 73 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) finally declared the never-before-seen virus a pandemic—a global disease outbreak. The organization had long hesitated to take such a step—declaring the first global flu epidemic in 41 years—lest widespread panic result.
What the final outcome will be remains to be seen. With the arrival of summer in the northern hemisphere—and warm temperatures that flu bugs don't like—the spread slowed considerably. While there have been a large number of infections, this strain has been milder than originally feared and has been responsible for a relatively small number of fatalities.
Still, “that may only be the lull before the storm,” warned Richard Besser, M.D., acting director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. His concern is over what will happen this fall when the traditional flu season begins. “What has been seen with previous outbreaks is flu goes away in the summer,” he noted. “But during the winter flu spreads better, so the virus could go away and come back.”
“I believe we are not out of the woods yet,” added Christopher Ohl, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the section on infectious diseases at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “I am concerned this virus is going to be with us for a while. It could change, become more virulent, have an increased secondary transmission rate…in the future.”
Of course, the spread of swine flu isn't the only disease problem health officials are concerned about right now. Let's consider the scope of the threat before us, look at some of the underlying causes, and see what light the Bible sheds on how the situation has developed and where things could go from here.

Deadly pathogens emerging or reemerging

Currently the WHO is monitoring about 40 emerging infectious diseases. These have been around only a few decades.
The list includes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), Ebola, dengue hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever, Nipah, Hendra, hantavirus, Marburg, monkeypox, mad cow disease (BSE), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus, Lyme disease, Legionnaires' disease and the cyclospora parasite. These pathogens—disease-causing agents—have either mutated or genetically recombined to become new strains or novel microbes, or they may have existed for millennia but weren't discovered until recent years.
According to the WHO, at least one new infectious disease has emerged each year since 1980, many of which evade traditional therapies and have no vaccine or cure. “There are far more virulent, very difficult-to-treat infectious diseases today than there were 20 or 30 years ago,” warns Klaus Stohr, D.V.M., Ph.D., director of the influenza task force for the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland.
At the same time, old infectious diseases once believed to be controlled, such as tuberculosis, staphylococcus, cholera, malaria, hepatitis, influenza and diphtheria, are reemerging as deadly new, often drug-resistant strains, or are springing up in new regions of the world.
With so many deadly pathogens coming on the scene, notes Dr. Stohr, “infectious diseases are once again the leading cause of death in the world—something that hasn't been the case since the pre-antibiotic era of the early 1900s.” Of the estimated 57 million deaths that occur annually in the world, the WHO estimates that 15 million of them are directly caused by infectious diseases. Millions more deaths are due to secondary effects of infections.
Scientists have identified close to 200 bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal pathogens that are linked with emerging and reemerging infections among human beings. There could be another 1,000 out there, according to Dr. Stohr. They just haven't been introduced yet into the population.
At least 75 percent of these pathogens are zoonoses—meaning they are transmitted between animals and people—which makes these diseases even more problematic. Transmission can occur through direct contact with an infected animal's blood, saliva, urine or feces, or via an intermediate vector—typically an insect or rodent—that gets the pathogen from an infected animal reservoir and then passes it to people.
“Zoonotic diseases cannot usually be eradicated due to the fact that it is not possible to eliminate all of the animal reservoirs or vectors that might be carrying the zoonosis,” explains David Freedman, M.D., professor of medicine in the division of geographic medicine at the University of Alabama.
“Even if you developed a vaccine and a cure for a particular zoonotic disease and it was somehow possible to simultaneously treat every person in the world that had it,” he observes, “there are still animals that can transmit that disease back to humans and continue the spread of that pathogen.”

Deadly epidemics prophesied

If you are familiar with end-time Bible prophecy, none of this may be a surprise to you. Perhaps what immediately comes to mind is the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and in particular the fourth.
The apostle John describes the horse and rider this way: “When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, 'Come and see.' So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades [the grave] followed with him” (Revelation 6:7-8, emphasis added throughout).
The latter part of this verse refers to death resulting from “the beasts of the earth.” Considering the huge number of deaths described here, this could well refer to epidemics caused by animals that transmit and carry infectious diseases.
In Jesus' parallel prophecy in Matthew 24, He reveals the true identity of this pale green horse: “And there will be… pestilences” (verse 7). The fourth horseman symbolizes climactic, globe-encircling plagues and pandemics. We need only consider the devastating “black death”—bubonic plague that killed tens of millions worldwide in three great waves—to understand how horrifyingly real this prophecy can be.

Many factors behind pandemics

That's the simple explanation for why these outbreaks will intensify. Yet there are a lot of factors behind these pandemics. Many believe mankind is actually creating its own disease problems, albeit unintentionally.
“In almost every case humans are the most important single factor in the surge of new diseases, whether it's feeding cow tissue to cattle to cause mad cow disease, people eating exotic animals in the case of Ebola, or air travel spreading dengue around the world,” claims Thomas Monath, M.D., chief scientific officer with Acambis Inc., a vaccine development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We are not simply victims of emerging infections, he says, but we're making changes in our environment or lifestyles to cause the emergence or spread of disease. Most of the change that has occurred involves several key areas.

• Agricultural practices and consumption of exotic animals

One of the primary ways new diseases emerge is through what biologists call “genetic recombination.” This can happen when two or more animal species come in contact with each other and exchange the viruses that each carries.
“Two different viruses may infect the same cell. Then the genomes get jumbled, and a totally novel virus emerges—which contains genetic material from both parental strains,” explains Roy Anderson, fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College of the University of London.
One way this is happening more and more is through a farming method which is becoming an increasingly common practice in Asia.
“Ducks or chickens are kept in cages hung above pigs, which are housed in pens directly above fishponds, where other types of fowl may also swim and eliminate their own wastes,” notes Bruno Chomel, Ph.D., D.V.M., a veterinary epidemiologist specializing in zoonotic diseases at the University of California College of Veterinary Medicine.
Farmers use this method to save money on pig feed and increase yields of fish. The pigs feed on the duck droppings, and the pig manure fertilizes the fishponds. “The problem is, it puts ducks and other waterfowl, which are major reservoirs of influenza viruses—although it doesn't affect them— in direct contact with pigs, which may also be harboring influenza viruses,” Dr. Chomel says.
A pig that eats duck droppings can take in any viruses the ducks may have, which may include both avian and human flu viruses. Those can combine with the pig's influenza viruses, and then they'll all be mixed up inside the pig's stomach.
That is how the H1N1 influenza virus—which is a mixture of avian, human and pig flu viruses—came to be. One of the reasons scientists are so concerned about the current swine flu outbreak is that it could recombine with a more virulent strain before returning to the northern hemisphere in the fall flu season.
“If a human flu virus, which is easily transmissible to humans, combines with a virulent and novel duck or swine flu, that is when you have problems,” Dr. Chomel says. “You get the worst of both, together in one virus.”
Recombination can also occur when humans eat nondomesticated exotic animals. In China, exotic animals like civet cats, coral snakes, tree shrews, flying squirrels, badgers, martens and pangolins are considered delicacies. In Africa, monkeys, apes, aardvarks and rats are all popular meat choices. Guinea pigs, capybaras and armadillos are commonly eaten in Central and South America.
When people consume these meats, any viruses the animal may have been carrying can combine with viruses the person may have. The result may be a new pathogen that infects human beings.
That is apparently how HIV, the deadly virus that causes AIDS, emerged. HIV is a fusion of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which infects monkeys and apes, and a similar type of virus that infects people. “SIV was transferred to humans as a result of monkeys being killed and eaten or their blood getting into cuts or wounds on the hunter,” Dr. Freedman says.
The bottom line, says Dr. Chomel, is “the practice of consuming wild species opens the door for a much wider variety of pathogens—those of wild animals—to come in contact with humans and develop transmissibility.”

• Changing land use increases contact

Ecological changes often cause disease emergence. “There are environments in the developing world that used to be quite remote that are now much less so as a result of human activities like deforestation, dam projects, irrigation, road construction and extensive agriculture,” says Jim Hughes, M.D., director of global infectious disease programs at Emory University and former director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the CDC.
These remote wilderness areas are home to some unique microbes—bacteria, parasites or viruses not found anywhere else. When people enter these ecosystems, they encounter these pathogens for the first time. For example, mankind's first contact with the Ebola virus occurred in the late 1970s when people began clearing the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The animal inhabitants themselves can also contribute to the spread of deadly microbes. “Once forests are cleared, the wildlife that used to live there have no choice but to migrate further out in search of food and land in which to live,” says Stephen Corber, M.D., director of prevention and control for the Pan American Health Organization in Washington, D.C.
“A lot of times they end up in suburbs and farming communities where they make contact with people,” he says. “If they're bringing diseases with them, that's when you have problems.”

• Rapid international travel allows quick spread

Since the third quarter of the 20th century, individuals have been able to travel huge distances in a matter of hours—well within the incubation period of many infectious diseases. “Today anyone can get on a plane and get to the other side of the world in a matter of 24 to 36 hours,” notes Dr. Hughes.
The speed of travel enables someone in North America, Europe or Asia to go on safari in Kenya, pick up the Ebola virus or some other pathogen, fly back home, pass unnoticed through immigration and customs checks, and then spend the next few days back at work before suddenly getting sick. During the incubation period—the time between getting infected and developing clinical signs of disease—this person may expose hundreds of people to the virus.
“People can be spreading disease and not even know they are ill,” warns Hugh Pennington, M.D., Ph.D., president of the Society for General Microbiology in the United Kingdom and honorary professor of medicine at the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
This is in sharp contrast to past days when people traveled by ship. It may have taken several weeks to travel from one continent to another. “If someone had picked up a virus before getting on the ship, he would have developed that disease while still on board,” Dr. Pennington says. “Upon arrival, it would have been obvious to port authorities which passengers were sick and needed to be quarantined.”
As illustrated by the recent rapid spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus, modern travel can allow deadly pathogens to quickly outrace our best preventative measures.

• Poverty and disease inextricably linked

Not surprisingly, the poorest nations usually have the worst problems with infectious diseases. Sadly, poverty levels appear to be on the increase for much of the world. According to a 2008 United Nations report, more than 80 countries have lower per capita income today than at the beginning of the 1990s.
“As poverty levels climb, so does the incidence of disease,” says Dr. Anderson. The poor are often malnourished, lack understanding of proper hygiene, have no access to medical care and live in densely populated slums—perfect conditions for the transmission of diseases.
One of the most desperate regions of the world is sub-Saharan Africa. A 2004 World Bank report found that close to half the population in this region lives in poverty, and this percentage is projected to increase in the years ahead.
But, warns Dr. Anderson, “This is not just a concern for Africa.” Just as diseases do not stay in the poorer parts of a town, they do not confine themselves to poorer nations. “Many of the diseases that Western nations are contending with today got their start in the developing world,” he adds.
Sooner or later, there's a visitor to a disease- infested area, or someone from that area travels to another region and then transports the pathogen to a new part of the world.

• Urbanization aids disease transmission

Increasing numbers of people, particularly in the developing world, are moving from rural areas to large cities to find work. In this way, contagions that may once have been obscure and localized in sparsely inhabited villages reach large population centers. Once in a city, the newly introduced infection multiplies among the local population and then spreads farther along highways and railroads and by airplane.
Many end up living in overcrowded “megacities”—huge urban conglomerations of 5 million or more residents. There are at least 41 megacities in the world today, most of which are in less-developed nations. In contrast, 50 years ago there were just eight megacities in the world, all but two of these in developed countries. Experts predict that by 2015, 59 megacities will exist, 48 in developing nations.
“Pathogens like dense populations because it promotes transmission from person to person,” Dr. Anderson explains. Because the populations of megacities have grown so rapidly, most are not prepared to deal with such large numbers of residents, nor are their local economies usually strong enough to finance a lot of city improvements.
“Sewage and water systems are often inadequate, resulting in water supplies that are tainted with deadly bacteria,” Dr. Anderson says. “There may not be enough hospitals, so when people do get sick, they cannot get the medical care they need.” Additionally, he adds, most megacities are located in tropical or subtropical regions where infectious microbes thrive.

• Forced displacement due to war or civil strife

The United Nations estimates there to be a record high of 35.6 million refugees and internally displaced persons in the world today. These are people who've been forced to flee their homes due to internal conflict, war or persecution. The majority are from war-torn regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Southern Asia and Latin America. In recent years the number of displaced people has steadily risen due to the increasing number of conflicts in the world.
This trend has a direct impact on the proliferation of infectious diseases. “Refugees are often in poor health and very susceptible to infectious agents. Any pathogens they may be infected with are transported with them on their route and to wherever they end up,” Dr. Monath explains.
Not only that, he continues, “the temporary settlements or camps they may be living in are typically overcrowded, have poor sanitation, are infested with rodents and other vectors, and the food and water supplies may be contaminated—just what bacteria need to flourish.”
A case in point would be the 800,000 Rwandan refugees who migrated into Zaire in 1994. Cholera and shigella dysentery swept through the camps, killing nearly 50,000 people in the first month.

• Human morality and disease

The 1960s brought dramatic changes in human morality, particularly in terms of sexual behavior. “Whereas having multiple or concurrent sexual partners was unacceptable in the early 1900s, by the latter half of the 20th century it had become the norm in many societies,” notes Dr. Pennington.
Not only had “casual sex” among heterosexuals become acceptable, men having sex with other men became more commonplace. At the same time, intravenous drug use became rampant, with drug users often sharing needles with other injectors.
It all fueled the spread of HIV, hepatitis C, genital herpes and other sexually transmitted diseases—all of which are transmitted through the transference of body fluids.
• Overuse of antibiotics creates deadly new superbugs
Widespread antibiotic use—often when antibiotics weren't called for—has created new antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “Patients will often insist they need an antibiotic when they have a cold or the flu, and sometimes doctors will give in to these demands,” observes Trish Perl, M.D., director of hospital epidemiology and infection control at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The problem is that colds and flu are caused by viruses, which are not treatable with antibiotics.
According to the CDC, up to 40 percent of antibiotics prescribed in doctor's offices are for viral infections. This is not always due, however, to patients demanding they get an antibiotic. Sometimes physicians prescribe antibiotics when they can't make a definite diagnosis or “just in case” bacteria are present.
“With so many antibiotics in the environment, we're pressuring these bacteria to evolve into resistant strains,” Dr. Perl asserts. “A particular drug may be prescribed so much that sooner or later the bacterium outsmarts it and learns how to grow within that environment.” At that point, the particular drug is no longer effective at treating that type of bacteria.
Dr. Pennington explains the process this way: “Any population of organisms, bacteria included, naturally includes variants with unusual traits—in this case, the ability to withstand an antibiotic's attack on a microbe. When people take antibiotics, the drug kills the defenseless bacteria, leaving behind—or 'selecting'—those that can resist it. These renegade bacteria then multiply and become the predominant microorganism.”
Adding to the problem, North American livestock producers have been unnecessarily feeding antibiotics to their animals to try to promote growth and as a preventative disease-control measure. This has turned the livestock into a reservoir of drug-resistant germs. When people eat undercooked, contaminated meat, they can become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Today there are drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, malaria, streptococci and salmonella—to name a few “superbugs” that have emerged in recent years. Because they have the antibiotic-resistant gene in them, they are considered to be genetically new organisms. “Some infections are now so resistant to the drugs we have available that they are virtually untreatable,” Dr. Hughes says.
The infamous “flesh-eating bacteria,” methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is one of these terrifying new superbugs regularly making headlines.

Biblical perspectives

To students of the Bible, many of the factors just discussed are obvious violations of biblical instruction. A lot of the zoonotic diseases plaguing our modern societies would never have become a problem if people weren't consuming exotic or biblically “unclean” animals, which harbor a lot of contagious diseases that domesticated “clean” animals do not. We're told in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 which types of animals should and should not be eaten.
Many of those living in overcrowded megacities and refugee camps are faced with inadequate waste disposal systems, resulting in contaminated food and water supplies. This is another area addressed in the Bible. Deuteronomy 23:9-14 says that human wastes were to be buried outside the community, away from where people were living.
The Bible is clear about what constitutes sexually immoral behavior, which is the root cause of the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases plaguing our planet. In Leviticus 18 and 20, God prohibits incestuous relationships, extramarital and premarital sex, homosexuality and unnatural acts with animals. Homosexuality is specifically addressed again in Romans 1:27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:18 that “he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
Ultimately though, disease outbreaks and pandemics are a result of mankind's broken relationship with God.
When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He told them: “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26).
On the other hand, God warned of consequences for disobedience, including disease outbreaks (Leviticus 26:21, 25; Deuteronomy 28:15, 21-22, 27-28). Nevertheless, the Israelites persistently disobeyed Him. So has every society since, and mankind continues to reap the consequences.
The only real solution to the threat of devastating contagions is to turn to God in repentance—seeking and remaining committed to His ways. You as an individual can turn to God, and He will see you through the dark times ahead. This includes worsening pandemics, as the world at large is not yet ready to submit to God's will.
Today, humanity as a whole is cut off from God. His promise of protection from disease isn't there, but someday it will be. Jesus Christ will return to earth and establish God's everlasting Kingdom (Revelation 19:11-16). We can look forward to that day when mankind will be united with its Creator and will receive all the blessings of living God's way of life—which includes good health and a world free of disease outbreaks. GN

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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Ebola and Zika- New Terrorist Tools?

From http://el-paso.ucg.org/ or call 1-888-886-8632. Please follow this site here.

Like their al-Qaeda cousins, the Islamic State jihadists have shown themselves willing to use any weapon in their terrorist arsenal. Many wonder if Ebola and other diseases such as smallpox could be used as bioweapons.
We’re not talking about the rantings of conspiracy theorists here. As reported by several respected media sources, national security planners are already considering what could result if terror groups learn to use Ebola or other infectious diseases for their own purposes.
Deadly as it is, medical experts know that Ebola is only contagious when a patient begins showing symptoms—not during the 2- to 21-day incubation period. Could the Islamic State or other terror organizations, which have shown they have some mastery of modern technology, somehow develop a mutation of the virus, a sort of “super strain” that could become infectious during incubation?
Perhaps, but that would be the hard way to do it. Much easier, says Capt. Al Shimkus, a retired naval captain and now professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, would be for human suicide carriers to spread the current version of the disease.
“In the context of terrorist activity, it doesn’t take much sophistication to do that next step to use a human being as a carrier,” Shimkus told Forbes magazine (as reported on the Forbes website, Oct. 5, 2014)
In his scenario, the Islamic State or any other terror group could send soldiers into heavily infected areas where they would steal infected bodily fluids to use later, or they could deliberately expose themselves to the virus before heading to some target city or country. There, they would mingle with the population, infecting as many victims as possible.
The idea is not new. During the Middle Ages, armies catapulted the bodies of victims of plague over the walls of enemy cities to spread the disease.
There would be problems with this approach, say other observers. The advanced health-care systems of the United States and Europe, terror groups’ main targets, would be effective in combating the disease unless populations were infected on a massive scale, which presently seems unlikely.
In a Slate opinion piece published in mid-November, University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Nicholas Evans doubted that Ebola could be a viable bioweapon candidate because by the time the carrier started showing symptoms—the only time the disease could be transmitted—the terrorist contagion agent would himself be so sick he would have only a few days to do his deadly work.
Ebola in its present form is only spread by bodily fluids, which “are not efficient or stealthy weapons,” says Evans. Still, in the hands of a determined terrorist group with members only too willing to die for the cause, the idea of contagious diseases as weapons cannot be overlooked—especially since Ebola will not be the last deadly contagion we see.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Ebola and Zika: A Foretaste of Prophesied Epidemics to Come?

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Throughout history, disease epidemics have ravaged mankind. The Black Death of bubonic plague killed more than 20 million in Europe in the 14th century. A 17th-century outbreak of the dreaded disease in England killed more than 70,000 of London’s 600,000 inhabitants.
Modern vaccines and advancements in global hygiene were thought to bring these disease epidemics under control. Yet the last century witnessed the influenza epidemic of 1918, in which the H1N1 virus killed an estimated 70 to 100 million people worldwide. Estimates of death from the much more recent AIDS epidemic of the 1980s exceed 30 million, according to the World Health Organization.
Clearly the scourge of disease epidemics has not been eradicated. In fact, bubonic plague just killed 47 people in Madagascar in November ( Daily Mail, Nov. 26, 2014). And now there’s a devastating new menace on the world scene, Ebola.
This virus-born disease is not really new; the sporadic minor outbreaks of the past 40 years have been quickly brought under control. But a new strain that has ravaged West Africa since the summer of 2014 has brought back the specter of death tolls in the tens of thousands and threatens to spread from Africa to the rest of the world.
Spread by a virus native to the African fruit bat, patients contract the disease within 2 to 21 days after exposure. Victims suffer high fevers, muscle pain and severe headaches, usually accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea that lead to hemorrhaging and death.
In pondering these developments we ought to ask: What is the outlook for the world in the years ahead on the disease front? Does the Bible have anything to say about it?

Increasing pandemics prophesied

Students of Bible prophecy are familiar with the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse” found in Revelation 6. Putting these together with Jesus Christ’s outline of future events in His lengthy prophecy on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24:3-8, Mark 13:3-8 and Luke 21:7-11), we can see that the four horsemen symbolize a series of terrible conditions that would beset the world.
Mankind has been ravaged by the white horse of religious deception (Revelation 6:1), the red horse of warfare (Revelation 6:4) and the black horse of famine (Revelation 6:5).
When we continue reading, we also see a fourth horseman: “When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him” (Revelation 6:7-8).
Who or what is signified by this fourth horseman? The next conditions Jesus described were terrible plagues of pestilences (disease epidemics) and natural disasters.
Notice that the pale horse carried a rider, referred to as Death, accompanied by Hades, the Greek word for the grave. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary has this to say about the color of that horse: “ ‘Pale’ ( chloros ) denotes a yellowish green, the light green of a plant, or the paleness of a sick person in contrast to a healthy appearance. This cadaverous color blends well with the name of the rider—’Death’ ” (Vol. 12, 1981).
So the world has seen increasing epidemics, and it will yet see more. The recent Ebola outbreak, then, is a preview of worse things to come. Yet it is the disease now on the rise, and we need to pay attention to it.

Most recent U.S. Ebola patient

In the United States, the head of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Dr. Thomas Frieden, warned Americans that Ebola would likely jump the Atlantic to America. “The spread of Ebola to the U.S. is inevitable,” he testified before Congress in August (Fox News, Aug. 9, 2014).
Frieden was correct in his prediction. Since that time, all but one of the 10 who have contracted the disease, mostly from traveling to or working in affected areas of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, have recovered due to intensive treatment in U.S. hospitals.
But in mid-November Ebola claimed its second U.S. victim. Dr. Martin Salia, a surgeon who contracted the disease while working in Sierra Leone to treat other Ebola patients, died within 36 hours of being admitted to a Nebraska hospital. Dr. Phil Smith, who leads the Nebraska Medical Center’s bio-containment unit, had said the 44-year old Salia was “extremely ill,” adding that his condition was much worse than other patients treated successfully in the United States.
Despite fewer than a dozen U.S. cases, Ebola dominated American headlines in late 2014. Calls for the total elimination of flights from affected nations in West Africa were met with objections from those who saw the travel restrictions as a rejection of America’s traditions of open borders. The political firestorm was somewhat quelled with a compromise that restricted travel from those areas to five U.S. airports where patients are screened on arrival.

“Could affect world economy”

As of early December the deadly virus had killed more than 6,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leona. At present rates, thousands more are affected every month. The mortality rate has held steady at a consistent 50 to 70 percent, and researchers are desperately racing to find an effective vaccine.
The CDC publicized sobering statistics in October about the possible spread of the disease. “The worst-case scenario tops a million cases within a relatively short period of time, and not only would affect West Africa, but would inevitably spread to other countries,” Frieden said. Although the CDC later scaled back its projections, infections anywhere near that level could have widespread impacts.
While the CDC does not foresee a “significant health risk” in the United States, Frieden admitted that in an interconnected economy, “it could absolutely change the way we work here.” He continued: “It could change the economy of the world. It could change how we assess anyone who’s traveled anywhere that might have had Ebola.”
The highly contagious disease spreads from close human contact and transfer of bodily fluids. Observers have noted that often-crowded living and transportation conditions and the porous borders between many African nations further contribute to the spread of Ebola.
An ABC News story from October about the spread of the disease in Mali is revealing. “Ebola could cause many deaths here in Mali,” said Aminata Samake, who works at a bank in Bamako, the capital. “We have a tradition of living closely together that could contribute to a huge contamination. Take the example of public transport—you find people crammed into a bus, one on top of the other. Large families share the same plates, even the same glasses for tea.”
Responding to the threat, the CDC has issued a Level 3 travel warning for U.S. citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Also in place is a Level 2 alert against U.S. citizens traveling into Mali or the Republic of the Congo, where dozens of Ebola cases have been reported.
The political divide in the United States goes beyond the air travel issues mentioned above. The outbreak has fueled conservative calls for tighter border restrictions, while liberals still press for freer movement into and out of the country from all areas of the world and a greater reliance on Washington’s leadership in managing the epidemic.
Some have also expressed outrage at President Obama’s decision to send American troops to areas affected by the disease with little training in preventing infection.

Biblical principle of quarantine

Medical experts agree on the effectiveness of quarantine as a way to stop the Ebola advance. You may not know it, but the Bible teaches the exact same thing!
Ancient peoples did not know that most diseases are spread by microorganisms transmitted from one person to the next. They also did not know about laws of sanitation, such as making sure bodily wastes are kept away from human contact. Historians celebrate impressive achievements of the ancient Egyptians, yet those supposedly advanced people actually used animal dung as a primary ointment ingredient for all types of illnesses.
Nowhere in the first five books of the Bible—commonly called the books of Moses—did God reveal to ancient Israel that disease organisms transmit disease. But God did instruct Israel that the sick should be kept isolated from the rest of the population. Read for yourself God’s specific instructions in Leviticus 13 and 15 concerning people with various types of rashes and bodily discharges. They were to separate themselves from the camp of Israel for the duration of the illness.
Just as ancient Israel used the practice of quarantine to stop disease from spreading through the crowded camp of Israel, quarantine has proven to be the best method to stop the spread of Ebola.

Laws concerning disease and bodily discharges

Again, consider the time during which Moses wrote these instructions. Ancient Egyptian medical knowledge was primitive compared to that of the 1800s. It is obvious from the Papyrus Ebers manuscript and other ancient sources that there was no sense of sanitation in Egypt whatsoever—as illustrated by the dung ointments mentioned above.
The ancient laws of the Israelites, on the other hand, show nothing but concern for sanitation. These would have protected against microscopic pathogens. Yet how could Moses have known of the existence of such germs? The Egyptians certainly did not—nor did any other ancient culture.
In fact, “until this century, all previous societies, except for the Israelites who followed God’s medical laws regarding quarantine, kept infected patients in their homes—even after death, exposing family members and others to deadly disease. During the devastating Black Death of the 14th century, patients who were sick or dead were kept in the same rooms as the rest of the family.
“People often wondered why the disease was affecting so many people at one time. They attributed these epidemics to ‘bad air’ or ‘evil spirits.’ However, careful attention to the medical commands of God as revealed in Leviticus would have saved untold millions of lives.
“Arturo Castiglione wrote about the overwhelming importance of this biblical medical law, ‘The laws against leprosy in Leviticus 13 may be regarded as the first model of a sanitary legislation’ (Arturo Castiglione,  A History of Medicine … ,  1941, p. 71).
“Fortunately, the church fathers of Vienna finally took the biblical injunctions to heart and commanded that those infected with the plague … be placed outside the city in special medical quarantine compounds. Care givers fed them until they either died or survived the passage of the disease. Those who died in homes or streets were instantly removed and buried outside the city limits.
“These biblical sanitary measures quickly brought the dreaded epidemic under control for the first time. Other cities and countries rapidly followed the medical practices of Vienna until the Black Death was finally halted” (Grant Jeffrey, The Signature of God, 1996, pp. 149-150).
Of course, while taking all reasonable precautions, we should also be aware of the protections God offers to those who look to Him for protection. As Psalm 91 states: “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’ … You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday” (verses 2, 5-6, New International Version).

What to watch for

The beginning of 2015 sees a world somewhat relieved that earlier fears of a massive Ebola outbreak have not materialized, but still nervous as it views the spread of the disease to other nations.
However, we have to ask ourselves: Could this signal that the fourth horseman is ready to begin his deadly ride? And if this horseman is not riding through the advanced Western countries, is it riding through other nations? The events of Revelation 6 can become starkly real—and indeed they already are to tens or hundreds of thousands of people in affected areas.
This is not a time for complacency or letting down our guard. All that would be required for an epidemic to begin to ravage the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia or some other Western nations is for perhaps a dozen new cases to break out while our attention is diverted elsewhere. If each of those infected people had contact with 10 other people, who had contact with 10 others, who had contact with 10 others …
Yes, it could happen just like that.
The media easily diverts our attention to whatever is “hot news” at the moment, keeping us attuned to their advertising messages. Yet Jesus’ warnings in His Olivet prophecy and in the book of Revelation are for our time today, when a chaotic, troubled world will experience the pinnacle of misery before at last being replaced by the just reign of God through Christ over all nations.
“Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36, NIV).
God gives His prophetic warnings for a purpose. He wants His people to see the danger coming and do what it takes to avoid it. Will you be one who heeds the warning?

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Friday, January 22, 2016

Abortion and Planned Parenthood A Cause for Righteous Anger

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Why should abortion—and the merchandising of the body parts of murdered babies—fill us with godly, righteous anger?
Every day I read at least some news, so I spend my fair share of time feeling sad or shocked or simply perplexed at the things seemingly regular people do to other seemingly regular people. Thankfully, information saturation hasn’t numbed me to human suffering, and I can still get shocked and upset by what I see. I really wish there was enough good news to offset the bad, and I really wish I could walk away from a news report feeling happy and hopeful for everyone whose stories I read and hear about. It doesn’t happen very often.\
Godly, righteous anger is about justice , not revenge.
Every now and again I read a story that goes beyond the everyday shock and awe at the darker sides of human nature. You probably had the same reaction when you read about it or watched the videos that were shared around. I’m talking about the revelation that representatives of Planned Parenthood, the United States’ largest abortion provider, were caught on video bartering over body parts from aborted children.
Sure, I was shocked. I felt stunned and sad. But I felt another emotion as well—something deeper and rawer than sadness or shock. I was  angry.
Was it right for me to be angry? Should you be angry about abortion? Is it possible to be angry in a godly way? I’ll come back to America’s abortion crisis, but first let’s lay some groundwork on the complex concept of righteous, godly anger.

God’s anger is righteous

We don’t often think of anger as a Christian emotion—and for the most part, that’s probably a good thing. Christians are to be defined by their relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. They are measured by the character of Jesus Himself. And He perfectly modeled self-control, patience and mercy. But He was also capable of anger when the situation called for it.
All four Gospels record Jesus’ anger at the moneychangers in the temple for profaning God’s holy house. Maybe when you think about our Savior shouting, flipping over tables and using a makeshift whip to drive animals out of the temple it makes you uncomfortable. Maybe you have a difficult time reconciling this very real image of Jesus with other very real images of Jesus defending the weak, healing the sick and taking up the cause of the poor.
If we honestly and humbly read the Bible, though, we’ll see that this instance of Jesus’ life is 100 percent, entirely consistent with His righteous character as it’s displayed throughout the Bible. The author of Hebrews gives us an essential truth about Jesus: He is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). That means the same godly character that produced anger at the temple moneychangers also produces great mercy every day. The same godly character that commands care for widows and orphans commands justice and judgment on those who reject God’s way.
Psalms 7:12 tells us, “God is angry with the wicked every day.” It should come as no surprise then that God is very angry at the senseless killing of helpless children. We shouldn’t be shocked that God is angry that people are profiting from the killing of His precious children. We also shouldn’t be afraid to feel some of that anger ourselves and to “sigh and cry” over the evil actions we see (Ezekiel 9:4).
When we read about callous violence and injustice, it’s right to be angry. We need to tread carefully however. Anger is a powerful and potentially very destructive emotion that, in the wrong context, wrong frame of mind and wrong spirit, can wreck our spiritual lives and cause us to hurt others.

Is your anger righteous?

Christianity is all about becoming more and more like God as Jesus modeled His righteous character for us to follow. It’s important that we keep close tabs on our thoughts and actions to make sure that we’re following His lead and not the pulls of the flesh and allowing human nature to dictate our responses. That’s why we need to constantly examine ourselves to make sure we’re staying on the “straight and narrow.” How do we know if we’re right or wrong in being angry at something?
Many scriptures show us there’s a vast gulf separating righteous and unrighteous anger. In the very beginning of mankind’s history, Cain’s anger drove him to murder his own brother (Genesis 4:8). Unfettered anger—or misdirected anger—can lead us to great sin. God Himself tells us that it is good to be angry as long as we don’t sin through misdirected, unrestrained anger (Ephesians 4:26).
So what is godly anger? One condition of righteous anger is that it should be directed toward sin. Just as Jesus was furious at the profaning of His Father’s house, we should hate sin and the negative consequences it brings on people—especially the innocent or helpless.
Proverbs 6 lists seven things that God actively hates. The common denominator is sin and its effects on people: “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19).
A second aspect of godly anger is that it isn’t quickly or easily kindled. God’s anger at sin isn’t explosive. He’s not a “walking time bomb” like some people are.
No one likes to be around other people who have a reputation for their quick tempers. Sometimes people with explosive anger can be very dangerous. God Himself testifies to His slow temper: “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).
If we want to cultivate only righteous anger, we need to follow His lead, being “slow to wrath” (James 1:19). In fact, this quality of God is one of the fruits of His Holy Spirit that develops in us as we grow close to God and He begins producing His character within us. Paul wrote that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23, emphasis added). Notice here self-control —another essential trait of those who don’t sin in anger.
A third factor in godly, righteous anger is that it’s about justice, not revenge. Do we get angry at people and hope for the time when they “get theirs”? If I’m being honest, I have to admit that sometimes my anger over horrific events like the mass slaughter of infants gets me going down this path.
But that human desire for punishment isn’t even remotely related to God’s promise of true justice for the innocent and the guilty. Paul tells us that we should “give place to wrath, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Wait for God’s time of judgment and justice.
God will ultimately deal with evildoers. And it helps to always keep in mind what God is well aware of—that people are misled in their thinking and actions by a powerful malevolent spirit—Satan the devil (see 1 John 5:19 and “An Evil Spirit World: Where Did It Come From? ”).

Why be angry about abortion?

Back to the Planned Parenthood controversy: Why should abortion—and the merchandising of the body parts of murdered babies—fill us with godly, righteous anger?
Consider that our society—our culture—is murdering, wholesale, the most precious and helpless among us. Psalm 127 tells us that children are a gift from God. They are precious to Him and should be to us. They’re not a burden, not a negative consequence, and certainly not a “parasite” in the womb as some characterize the unborn.
To say that we can choose to, at any point in a nine-month window of time, kill the next generation of the human family—all potential members of the divine family of God—is a great evil and a curse. We should be furious at the very notion.
Let’s be honest: Almost all abortions, by some estimates more than 99 percent, are performed for the reason of convenience.  The baby was conceived at an “inconvenient time” for the parents. No one has yet explained why a child can be given the death penalty because of the circumstances of their conception.
A fairly conservative estimate—based on numbers collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—puts the number of legal abortions performed in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 at approximately 51 million. That’s 51 million lives cut short, 51 million untold stories, immeasurable potential thrown away and sacrificed to the false god of convenience and personal choice. Does that make you angry? It should.

Godly anger should lead to repentance

It should make you angry because, as Ezekiel warned Israel, sin twists people’s lives (Ezekiel 7:13, New Living Translation). The sin of murder through abortion twists the lives of those affected. And on a bigger scale, the widespread acceptance and support of abortion and organizations like Planned Parenthood twists the moral fiber of a people. If America’s national conscience can tolerate the dismembering of a child and the merchandising of its body parts, what can’t it tolerate?
There’s one last element to godly, righteous anger, and it’s the most important element. The anger that comes from God should convict us to change and become more like Him. It should motivate us to fix our problems and turn toward the mercy and love God desperately wants to extend to us.
God doesn’t want people to suffer the bad consequences that sin produces, and He doesn’t want any nation to suffer these consequences either. God is patient and “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8).
It’s not too late for those whose lives have been twisted by the sin of abortion to repent and live by God’s high standard of respect for the sanctity of life. And, while it would require a great miracle, it’s also not too late for America and other countries where abortion is legal to experience a nationwide repentance and to turn away from this sin.
God is waiting with arms wide open to accept those who turn away from sin to seek Him. Will America respond? Will you?

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