In a recent podcast from The Gospel Coalition, host Collin Hanson and guest John Lennox talked about the complications that come from pointing to disasters, or pandemics like the coronavirus, as divine judgment.

Lennox said:

When someone who’s Christian, or not says, “That disaster is directly caused by God,” the reaction that I normally see is that people focus on that person. What right have you? Who do you think you are to say, it’s God’s judgment? That is, they don’t focus on God at all, and they’re not interested in anything that God might be saying through what is happening at all. They are simply concentrating on the right of a given person to, and their impression almost stand in the place of God, and say, this is God’s judgment.

What that tells me is that this approach is simply not helpful because it doesn’t turn people’s eyes, and hearts, and minds in the right direction. I would rather put it this way, that the coronavirus is a huge loudspeaker that reminds us of our mortality, and I hope at least that leads us to ask deep questions about life, about God, and eternity.