The Spiritual Understanding Of Epidemics And Pandemics: The Ebola Health Crisis As Case Study

In the 1970s, the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) around the world, especially in Third World countries, in order to protect children and infants from communicable diseases and reduce infant mortality. The EPI was introduced in 1974 in Nigeria and most of West Africa and children under 2 years were immunized against Tuberculosis –BCG; Poliomyelitis-OPV, Measles Rubella-MCV2 and MR Vaccines, while women between 15 and 45 years were similarly protected.

In my hometown of Owo, Ondo State in Western Nigeria, the EPI was experimented and discovered to be a pilot study with 100% success. Even the WHO specifically singled out my hometown for praise and plaudits but that was how far the world organization could go. I have reminded the WHO several times why the EPI shouldn't be renamed EPI-OWO but the campaign hasn't reflected this historic reality.

Few years ago in Florida, I had to lecture some Americans on the success story of the EPI in my hometown when they insisted on giving me shots for these diseases. Since there were no documents to that effect, I could not argue my case. You see, as late Chinua Achebe once said, if the animals do not write their own versions of hunting expeditions, the hunters would always be the heroes. The other day, two homosexuals gave the world the dreaded HIV-AIDS but somehow, the Western media manipulated the world and “traced the origin of HIV-AIDS to Mother Africa.” I engaged a homosexual in a heated argument in Maryland few years ago who told me to my face that homosexual lifestyle originated from Africa.

Every history book written by white historians have twisted and manipulated historical events to demonize African people, because our people have refused to acknowledge the veritable power of history. The positive contribution of Africans to world civilization has been confined to the limbo of forgotten things, because African leaders prefer to steal and keep the loot abroad while Western leaders shape history and thus the future.

African leaders keep women in their harems; build palaces and chateaux they will never sleep in, keep fleet of cars they don't need and billions of dollars of pilfered money they will never spend in their lifetimes, and invest little or nothing on intellectual works which will outlive them and shape the future of generations. These shortsighted African leaders have forgotten that money, valuables and such ephemerals do not endure; what endures are printed works.

We still read Shakespeare, David Lawrence, Keats, George Orwell (Eric Blair) and the rest great wordsmiths of our time and as long as the world endures, the great works of great writers will endure. Those who shape today and the future are not myopic African leaders who have no sense of history and the future. Even in the spiritual realm, the True Jehovah Lord God Almighty values the power of the print works so He commanded every time He speaks that His Words must be written and documented.

In Exodus 17: 14, we read: “Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven."The Lord God Almighty instructed Jeremiah in Jeremiah 36: 2 "Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now.”

Throughout the entire Bible, we see how history shaped our world, because the Sovereign Lord of the heavens and the earth is the One making history. Any person, group of people, community, town, city, nation or race that forgets its history is doomed, for the past may have gone, yet it is the contours through which today is understood and the future is fudged.

The Lord God said in Isaiah 43: 18:"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” but He also told us to learn from the past in Romans 15: 4 “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” This power of history to understand the present and shape the future is clearly evident in the current Ebola epidemic in West Africa. For starters, Ebola is a name of a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo nestled between two other rustic villages: Etoumbi and Cuvette in the Great Lakes Region. The Ebola virus was so nicknamed for Ebola Town because that was the town the outbreak was first reported. It occurred during the internecine civil war, ethnic clashes and the political instability of the Congo in the waning years of Dictator Mobutu Sesezeko. Food and edibles were scarce, millions were displaced, children were killed, many became orphans, women were constantly gang raped and starvation was widespread.

Unable to fend for themselves, rural villagers headed into the thick jungle of the Congo, the second largest nation in Africa in land mass, bigger than Western Europe. When human beings fight nasty among themselves, guess who bears the brunt: animals and forest! To remain alive, the villagers descended on the elephants, zebras, and chimpanzee just anything to keep alive.

The carcasses of gorillas and chimpanzees were not spared and since the meat had been infested by bugs and other deadly insects, the virus which later became Ebola infested humans and today, Ebola has become a pandemic in West Africa. The Word of Life says in Romans 8: 21-22 “…that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

Why is creation groaning until now and waiting for the sons/daughters of God to emerge and be liberated? Simple- the activities of human beings after the fall and our continuing disobedience and disregard for God's Law have brought about all manners of epidemics and pandemics on the human race. What drove starving Congolese into the jungle foraging for food? Hunger. What caused the hunger?

Political instability in the nation. What caused the political instability? Fight and struggle for power among the various warlords. Why were the warlords wielding machetes and slaughtering the innocents? The calamitous 42 year disastrous reign of Mobutu Sesezeko, one of the most venal and brutal dictators the world has ever known who pauperized the people and unleashed a reign of terror in the Congo. Unless you are a spiritual zany, who doesn't know your left from your spiritual right, otherwise, you will understand the causality between Nature and human actions.

In 1980, a fully demon-possessed army sergeant seized power in Liberia. The psychopath known as Samuel Kanyon Doe unleashed a reign of terror on a once-stable and prosperous nation. Human souls counted for nothing and ten years later, the ugly chapter of Doe ended after he too received the just deserts he had earlier served those he murdered and cannibalized. Another demonic psychopath known as Charles Taylor opened his own ugly chapter and unleashed a civil war on Liberia.

During this series of Satanic process, precious human lives were lost and human demons descended on Liberia in droves producing such hideous characters as General Butt Naked who boasted of eating human hearts and souls in broad daylight while street urchins and child-soldiers barely literate and sane to distinguish between right and left raped mothers and grandmothers. Meanwhile, another wraith known as FodaySankoh began his own murderous rage and orgy of bloodletting in neighboring Sierra Leone. People's hands were being amputated and chopped-off so that they wouldn't be able to vote. These despicable characters all received financial support from the second in command to Satan himself, Madman MuamarGadhaffiof Libya who was consumed by his convoluted Pan-Arabism and self-immortality. Evil, naked evil bestrode the West African landscape full throttle.

In the Holy Bible, there are seven groups of human beings that the heart of the True Lord God Almighty warms to anytime they are being mistreated, abused, oppressed and maltreated. If they cry unto Him, He must avenge on their behalf. In Exodus 22: 21-23; God commanded the Israelites: "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”You shall not afflict any widow or orphan."If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry;”

There are three groups of people here the Lord God Almighty mentioned to avenge any wrongs perpetrated against them by a person, people, community or nation namely: an alien or stranger, an orphan and a widow. In Nigeria, the two administrations that maltreated aliens and strangers-Shagari and Buhari- were toppled. Till date, we're yet to know the numbers of aliens/strangers, orphans and widows that were produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 1980 and now because of the years of the locusts that ravaged those nations. Africans have been eating bush meats for centuries and there was no Ebola.

The cries of millions of women whose husbands were massacred and killed; the millions of children left behind by their deceased parents and the millions of aliens/strangers killed during those senseless wars precipitated by Mobutu and his war lords, Sergeant Doe, Charles Taylor, FodaySankoy and their demon-possessed bedfellows continue to rise unto the Tabernacle of the Lord God Almighty demanding for justice.

This is what the Sovereign Lord God Almighty, the owner of the universe and the God of social justice says He would do to any person, group of people or nation that oppresses the widow, maltreats aliens/strangers and orphans in Exodus 22: 22-24:…"You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. "If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry;and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.…” Even in our technology-driven world and so-called Age of Reason and Civilization, these laws are immutable, because it is impossible for God to lie (Numbers 23: 19; Titus 1: 2) and He-the Almighty God- is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13: 8) Hallelujah!

The remaining 4 groups of human beings that the heart of the Sovereign Lord of the heavens and earth is always disposed to and their cries, weeping and anguish of souls receive immediate and urgent attention are: children, the aged, the disabled and the fatherless (as distinct from orphans). To be fatherless is to be deprived of one's biological father whose duty is to raise and rear you to the age of accountability-which is 20 years. To be an orphan is to be deprived of both father and mother whose joint responsibilities that the Lord God Almighty has entrusted the care and nurturing of you to the age of accountability which is 20 years of age (Genesis18: 16-19: “When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

Here in the United States, the founding fathers of this great nation knew the immutable laws of God when they made it a law that any father who refuses to support his children from the ages of 1 to 18 will go to jail. Because of the Judeo-Christian foundation of this great nation, that is why the United States made it a law that if you're a man and you impregnate a woman, whether you're married or not, you must help her to support that child, whether a boy or girl until the child is 18 years and you must pay child support.

It is this Law of God in the Holy Bible that the founding fathers of the United States understood when they were building this Great Nation that disabled citizens must be supported rather than be left on their own and every year, this great nation opens its doors to scores of refugees, political asylum seekers, aliens and strangers from all corners of the globe being persecuted to come here and begin afresh.

It is this understanding of the Laws of God that social security benefits and old people's homes are available for retirees and senior citizens so they can be looked after and taken care of in the dusks of their lives. We may have our own internal demons as a nation, but the blessings and glories of the Sovereign Lord of the heavens and the earth will perpetually shine on the United States of America because of these Godly virtues.

Hear me loud and clear; if you are a pastor or so-called man of God and you shepherd a church as a general overseer, you can preach and the earth will shake, you speak in tongues 24/7; you are full of the Holy Spirit and can perform miracles that have never been recorded in human history, yet you have neglected to take care of your children who are under 20 years of age (Numbers 14: 29); you have refused to support the woman who gave birth to your children that are still under the age of 20; you are flying about the world in private jets, own fleet of Limousines and Rolls Royce automobiles while the widows who are 60 years of age and above are in your church uncared for while you are collecting tithes and offerings and the disabled in your church are not catered and taken care of, you will be disappointed on that Day.

Hear what the Sovereign Lord God Almighty of the heavens and the earth says in His Words: “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus19: 32 ESV). In Proverbs 23:22, everyone is commanded thus: “Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old,” (ESV). These seven vulnerable groups are very dear to the Lord God Almighty: - widows, orphans, the fatherless, strangers/aliens, children, the aged and the disabled; when any of them cries to the Lord to avenge a wrong or any injustice, the judgment of God is always swift and decisive. Here are few instances in the Bible. In 2 Samuel 21: 1 we read thus: “During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, "It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death." King Saul had caused the deaths of innocent people, had killed children and turned many of them into orphans and fatherless; many women had become widows just as Samuel Doe, Charles Taylor, Yormie Johnson and all those demon-possessed warlords did in Liberia in the 1980s and 1990s. King David didn't know that the past atrocities of murderous King Saul would have consequences on his reign until God revealed this to him. So what did King David do?

The story continued in 2 Samuel 21: 2-6: “The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.) David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord's inheritance?”

The Gibeonites answered him, “We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.” “What do you want me to do for you?” David asked. They answered the king, “As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord's chosen one.” So the king said, “I will give them to you.”Read the full story in the whole chapter.

Another example was the consequences of the atrocities committed by King Manasseh in 2 Kings 21: 10-15: “The Lord said through his servants the prophets: “Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols. Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and give them into the hands of enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their enemies; they have done evil in my eyes and have aroused my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.”

There is no nation that would slaughter innocent children, maltreat, rape and kill women and girls; kill strangers/aliens, massacre fathers and turn their children into fatherless, allow kids to rape mothers and grandchildren and massacre disabled souls and the vulnerable as we saw in Liberia, the Congo and Sierra Leone as we witnessed during their civil wars and expect the Sovereign Lord God Almighty not to avenge the victims. As for Nigeria, I have disclosed it in this column before and I am repeating it for the umpteenth time, all the innocent blood that have been shed in that country throughout the murderous regimes of Ibrahim Babangida and SaniAbacha and those politically-motivated killings and assassinations during the administrations of OlusegunObasanjo, UmaruYar'Adua and the current Jonathan Goodluck must and will be avenged. This is the dialectics of history. Whatever we sow as individuals so we shall reap and similarly nations too will reap whatever their leaders sow. Epidemics and pandemics do not just occur or happen; they are byproducts of what people and nations do. In Ezekiel 14: 12-14, God says: “The word of the Lord came to me: Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its people and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.” The Lord continued in Ezekiel 14: 19-20: “Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath on it through bloodshed, killing its people and their animals, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness.”

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE? No matter the ingenuity of our scientists and medical personnel, the amounts of billions we throw at Ebola and other epidemics; if we don't go to the basics, more deadly and pandemic outbreaks of other unknown diseases are coming the way of people of the world. Sin is a cancer. We can't violate the laws of God with impunity and expect Nature to be at peace with us. I read the story of a-19-year old boy in Edo State, mid-Western Nigeria who had sexual intercourse with a dog few days ago as reported in many local newspapers. The dog was killed but the boy was spared.

That boy must be killed just as the dog was put down otherwise, that boy will soon become the channel through which another deadlier and more dangerous epidemic worse than Ebola will arise in Nigeria. The Christian leaders in Liberia knew the genesis of the Ebola virus in their country and have declared a national mourning and repentance in accordance with God's Words in 2 Chronicles 7: 1316-: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague (likeEbola, myword) among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Until there is spiritual healing, physical healing is impossible. Even when there is a relief, it's just temporary. This is how the physical world is controlled and run by the spiritual laws of the Lord God Almighty until people of the world recognizes this fact, more epidemics and pandemics are in the offing.

LETTERS OF THE WEEK
Calvary greetings Sir. I am a Pastor from Mountain of Fire and Miracles. I am 27 years old. Sir, I read your prophecy on the Internet and I know truly that you are a Man of God. Please sir, I have always coveted the Holy Spirit gift of prophecy and hear from the Lord God Almighty clearly. There is also contemplationon my part whether I should remain in ministry or work with my Master's degree in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies but to me I have always loved to be a preacher. Please what can I do sir so that I will not fall out of His presence? Thank you----Pastor OlatokunboGboyega, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry, Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa.

Dear Pastor Gboyega, your letter refers. Why not pray fervently to the Lord so you can hear His Voice clearly that He is really calling you to ministry? Once you get the go-ahead from the Lord of lords and King of kings, I can assure you that working for the Sovereign Lord of the heavens and the universe is the ONLY thing that will give you joy on earth and the hereafter. It is good for one to acquire all these earthly degrees-I have plenty of those earthly degrees and titles too-but all these secular accomplishments will not count on the Day of Judgment. When we appear before the Great Judge-our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ-, there is only one question He will ask each of us; did you carry out the purpose for which I created you on earth?

Read Matthew 7: 21-23 of what our Lord Jesus Christ will say to those who parade themselves as pastors, evangelists, general overseers on earth and other such fanciful titles when they were not specifically instructed to do such works which were not the will of God for such people and hence will not make it to heaven. “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evil-doers!'

You see, I have noted in this column before in previous exegeses and its worth repeating here again; we can't impress God by our human behaviors because He created us and knows us through and through. Consequently, it is not what we do for God as redeemed souls that please Him; rather, it is doing what He has us to do, period! Many Christians have forgotten this vital spiritual truth.

Any spiritual activity we do on earth, however benevolent and good in human eyes such activity may be, if it is not initiated by the Holy Spirit, it has no eternal value. When you and I appear at the Seat of the Great Judge-Jesus Christ –it isn't what we have done here to please Him we shall be asked to account for, rather, did we accomplish and carry out what He-Jesus Christ-revealed to us to do while here on earth? That is the meaning of the Will of God so seek God's Face and know His Will for your life and carry it out. Thanks and remain blessed my fellow worker in the Lord.

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Dear Sir, I came into contact with one of your articles in Nigeria world. Please Sir I don't know if I can get the eBook version of the book titled: “TheKingdomofSatanExposed.” I am from Nigeria and I read with interest all your articles because lately I have been having sexual intercourse in my dreams. It was these that led me tomany of your articles which are incisive and spiritually-knowledgeable. Help me sir, I am being tormented and I want to break the spiritual relationship. Thanks---Sister P.F.T, Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa.

Dear Sister P.F.T. Your email refers. Please visit our company website at the link below www.allternativecommunication.net on how to purchase an EBook copy of our book titled: “The Kingdom of Satan Exposed." If you can afford it, please call me in Chicago at 773-660-8917 . Meanwhile, I am currently in Austin, Texas and will not be back to Chicago until next week. If you can't afford to call me on the phone about the issue you have, send your contact telephone number to me in an email so I can call you next week when I return to Chicago. Do not be afraid, the Lord Jesus Christ will deliver you. Remain Blessed in His Holy Name, Amen.

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Dear DrMoshoodFayemiwo, Sorry to read about the death of your friend and brother Lawyer Fadipe. Unfortunately, the Nigeria/ Nigerians we were and knew had changed tremendously in every major aspects of life. May LawyerFadipe's gentle soul rest in perfect peace,Amen. As for family dynamics post death of parents, that is when siblings exhibit their true characters. Your experience typifies many in Nigerian families. May the good Lord deliver us in Jesus Christ NameAmen.----Mrs. OlufunkeAkinwumi, Toronto, Canada, North America.

Thank you very much Mrs. Akinwumi for your letter of commiseration. I know my friend and lawyer, Kunle is in a better place and resting in the bosom of the Lord. As for Mr. TayoFayemiwo and his co-travelers in my family: Mrs. FunmilayoAdedapo-Aisida and Mrs. RonkeTolaOlasoji who stole family money and behaved as “bastards,” I have handed down to the Good Lord who would mete out just punishment at His own time and the type of punishment they deserve. However, I will not stop from calling them out at every available opportunity so they would repent and ask for His Divine reprieve. The Laws of the Almighty Lord God are just and immutable: whatever we sow is what each and every one of us, including me shall reap.

Dr. Fayemiwo, currently in San Antonio from Austin, Texas doing the Lords work, is quondam professor of Biblical Exegesis at Kingdom Bible College and Seminary, Tucson, AZ and CEO, Alternative Lifestyle Communication, DBA Chicago.

He is the co-author of the latest book: “Coming to America,” and also member, board of directors/ director of administration, The Millennium Stem Academy Charter School of Chicago, Illinois. Visit his company's website at www.allternativecommunication.net.Please all private email for urgent attention should be sent to this email address: [email protected]