“CAREST THOU NOT THAT YOU PERISH?”

 by: Norberto Betita

Just the other week three of my known friends died, but not of COVID-19. Of course such loss of life did not in any way surprise the medical community and the local government. It is not their present concern. But with increasing recent deaths attributed to COVID-19 emerging, everybody moves as though there is a flying serpent around to devour every man, woman and children, and the whole populace are in fear and horror. Yet it is just a natural reaction and response associated with trepidation and panic in our encounters with life’s raging storms.   

We are no different from those fishermen who were with Jesus when a great storm came, with winds and waves beating the ship and filling it with water. Because of so much fear they awaken the Lord questioning, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” Despite His sound sleep, “He arose and rebuked the wind,”---so we are told---and perhaps waving His hands, “he said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” But He did not let the day pass without reminding the fishermen of a very important principle which until now is still very relevant for all of us---FAITH. “And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” (See Mark 4:37-40).

During this era of terrible catastrophic quickening, particularly with this present worldwide pandemic labelled as COVID-19, now raging in our small community of Surigao City, we show as did the fishermen the same faithless response. This reminds me of the words of Roger Babson as quoted by Mark E. Petersen which says, “Every great panic we have ever had has been foreshadowed by a general decline in observance of religious principles.”

As we are now threatened continually by this dreaded disease and other accelerating disasters long since prophesied as signs of the Lord’s Second Coming, I sensed and felt that it is no longer the people who called upon the Lord “carest thou not that WE perish,” but it is now He himself who is awakening us from our deepest skeptical slumber and asking, “carest thou not that YOU perish?” The fishermen, of course, were asking the Lord whether He cares of them dying physically. While the Lord was concerned about each of us perishing spiritually. Very lovingly and tenderly though He is both positively responsive to our dilemma.

He said:  “O, ye nations of the earth, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!

“How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not!

“Behold, the day has come, when the cup of the wrath of mine indignation is full.

“Behold, verily I say unto you, that these are the words of the Lord your God“ (Doctrine & Covenants 43:24-27).

Indeed, many of us do not listen to Him. We do not care about His atoning sacrifice and redeeming love and mercy to save us from our sins and spiritual death, “by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel” (Articles of Faith 3). We fail to recognize Him as the Master Healer and as our only advocate to the Father. We fail to acknowledge and listen to the voices of His appointed servants on earth. We fall short of time to commune with Him each day. We failed to open our ears to hear His personal revelation for us, uttered through the still small voice of the Holy Ghost.

Our family was blessed last Sunday, September 27, 2020, to have been taught by our granddaughter Keeshia a simple message about listening to the voice of the Lord through the Holy Ghost. She told a story of a boy who found the treasured watch of a farmer. He did nothing but just sit in silence and listen to the ticking of the watch and followed the sound.

In a calm and peaceful atmosphere or personal mood, we can be assured that our minds and hearts are best ready to receive the influence of the Holy Ghost and take us away from the unnecessary brainwaves and notions that stimulates feelings of distress, horror and panic, and thus lead us to better and more satisfying resolves. With personal peace and serenity come the hushed whisper of the still small voice that provides comfort and assurance of a better and peaceful day.  

Instead, however, we entertain more of the noise and conflicting voices of the world and disregard the Lord’s call to repentance and His sincere invitation to come and follow Him. Therefore, He declared with boldness: “Behold, the day has come, when the cup of the wrath of mine indignation is full” (Doctrine & Covenants 43:26). And thus “cometh wrath and indignation upon the people” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:88).

As the Lord’s Second Coming nears, we will be hearing Him discoursing His own sermons, yet no longer by the way He speaks His Beatitudes to his disciples in His sermon on the mount, but by “the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand.

“And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.”

Our fearful, faithless and alarming approach to fight the COVID-19 reflects in striking detail what the Lord says in the following verse, “And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men’s hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people.” (see Doctrine & Covenants 88:89-91).

We remain to be no better than the apostle Peter, who after having been privileged by the Lord to walk on the sea, surrendered his faith to fear as “he saw the wind boisterous,” which prompted the Lord to tell him, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (See Matthew 14:26-31).

We are in a time of the ongoing restoration of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in its fullness and it is expected that the signs of the Lord second coming will be poured out with accelerating pace to warn us and help us prepare for an impending total destruction.

Joseph Smith, the prophet of the restoration declared, "I prophesy, in the name of the Lord god of Israel, anguish and wrath and tribulation and the withdrawing of the Spirit of God from the earth awaits this generation, until they are visited with utter desolation". (Teaching of the prophet Joseph Smith, p. 328).

With this plague of a dreaded disease now displaying its intensifying wrath in our City of Surigao we need to be sober and temperate and not panic. We should collectively unite with strict obedience to the required protocols and restrictions that we may “HEAL AS ONE.” Let Us set aside all skepticism, agnosticism and individualism. Personally let us not count the dead and dying, it incites dread and terror. Let the assigned agencies do it. Instead let us individually look at the very high percentage of survival we each have in statistical comparisons, which can give us added hope.

If we could not flatten the curve, then let us flatten our fears and put our trust and flatly rest our faith on the one who stopped the roaring sea by such simple command, “Peace, be still”, the one who cleansed the lepers, who made the blind to see, who made the lame to walk, who raised Lazarus back to life, the Master Healer, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Who by now is waking and calling us, “carest thou not that you perish,” through this threatening pandemic. Our collective daily sincere prayers and petitions to Heavenly Father, in His name, will surely make a difference. May well our mutual communion with the Almighty find an altar in God’s highest throne of grace!