Q & A: The COVID Vaccine and the End Times

Throughout the Making Sense of It All campaign, we will be inviting you to share questions with us about the challenging situations you are trying to make sense of in your life. Many problems do not have simple solutions, but here are some brief answers from David Jeremiah to address the most asked questions from this week. Be sure to follow his teaching series for more tools that will help you live fearlessly in a scary world.

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Josh, JulieGene, and Brenda want to know about the COVID vaccine: I’m trying to make sense of this vaccine. I believe it is a prelude to the mark of the Beast. What’s your opinion on the vaccine? Should we be afraid of it?

David Jeremiah replies: Without a doubt, prophecy casts its shadow on current events. What we are seeing now is an example of how the Antichrist could operate during the Tribulation period. This does not mean the COVID–19 vaccine has anything to do with the Antichrist—it merely provides an illustration of how his mark might be applied after the Lord comes for His Church.

What we are seeing now is an example of how the Antichrist could operate during the Tribulation period. This does not mean the COVID–19 vaccine has anything to do with the Antichrist—it merely provides an illustration of how his mark might be applied after the Lord comes for His Church.

For God’s people, the best strategy is to focus on Scripture rather than the Internet. Leading up to the Last Days, God’s Word describes a breakdown in society and acceleration of natural disasters, wars, rumors of wars that signal the imminence of Christ’s return.

For God’s people, the best strategy is to focus on Scripture rather than the Internet.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self–control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1–4).

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (1 Timothy 4:1–3).

Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:3–4).

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour (1 John 2:18).

Because these signs are evident in our world today, we know the time is short, and we need to be about the Master’s business. Our God is the One who controls history, and He is worthy of our trust. The Lord Jesus reigns! “He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16). Victory is secure.

Joyce wants to know: I am dealing well with this pandemic, just wondering if this pandemic is a biblical plague…. Are we, in America, under judgment now?

David Jeremiah replies: I think your question is on the hearts of many people right now. The COVID–19 pandemic is the most apocalyptic event that has ever happened to us. But even so, God’s final judgment of planet earth has not yet begun. Everyone who trusts Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be raptured to heaven before God’s judgment falls.

The COVID–19 pandemic is the most apocalyptic event that has ever happened to us.

That still leaves us with the question of whether we are living in the final days before Christ’s return—could the pandemic a sign of the End Times?

Our first step is to define what a sign is. A biblical sign is an event, symbol, object, place, or a person whose existence or occurrence indicates something important in God’s plan for the future. As we near the end of the age, “There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25).

But we have to be careful here. Prophetic signs are not prerequisites to the Rapture. We have it on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ that there will be no announcement preceding the Rapture. He will come for us imminently, without warning or sign. What I will say is future events cast their shadows before them. This means we can expect to see a groundswell of subtle warnings develop in our world today.

Could the pandemic be a precursor to the seven years of Tribulation and the Lord’s Second Coming? I cannot say with any sense of certainty that it is, but neither can I say it is not. It could be an early indication of the coming pestilence Jesus referenced in Matthew 24:7.

Is COVID–19 a sign of the Rapture? No, the Rapture will happen without warning. Could the pandemic be a precursor to the seven years of Tribulation and the Lord’s Second Coming? I cannot say with any sense of certainty that it is, but neither can I say it is not. It could be an early indication of the coming pestilence Jesus referenced in Matthew 24:7.

The pandemic has raised a lot of uncertainties, but we can cling to the promises of Scripture. You can have confidence knowing, “The Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:8).