Was the Covid-19 pandemic foretold in the New Testament?

I offered many educated Latvian people the chance to read a prophecy - a vision of the future - and invited them to express about which era, in their opinion, is this depiction of the future:

"The merchants of the earth weep and mourn, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.

The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again! The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from them, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, "Alas, alas, for the great civilization that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste."

And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, "Alas, alas, for the great civilization where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste." The sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more, and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth…"

The experiment was conducted in December this year, and all respondents agreed that the prediction works as an allegory of the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In fact, it is just a lightly literary edited and modernized passage from Revelation 18 of the New Testament, replacing the word "city (Babylon)" with Western civilization and slightly shortening the text.

The idea to look at the New Testament came to me on December 28, watching an interview in the program Krustpunktā (LTV1 and LR), in which Aidis Tomsons talked to Professor Valdis Tēraudkalns from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Latvia. During the interview, Tomsons constantly put pressure on Professor Tēraudkalns to confirm that all those who do not believe in the effectiveness of the vaccine are Luddites, as they believe in stupid conspiracy theories and a "beast" that was mentioned, but not elaborated upon during the interview. Valdis Tēraudkalns refused to call all opponents of the Covid-19 vaccine Luddites and very vaguely explained that many believers were looking for "ready-made and simple answers" about there being an "imaginary beast and the like", and pointed out that many believers had a "literal comprehension of the text".

Throughout the interview, none of the interviewees were so brave as to ask what text he was talking about. However, since Professor Tēraudkalns mentioned that these people believe that "the apocalyptic beast is approaching," the apparently unnamed text of conspiracy theories is related to the New Testament Book of Revelation of John the Apostle.

Indeed! The New Testament Book of Revelation of John the Apostle is not an easy-to-interpret Bible text. One might ask, why was such a text included in the New Testament at all? In my opinion, it is not possible today to answer with a 100% guarantee why the Book of Revelation was included in the New Testament. This also applies to the question, why, for example, does the Christian Bible include the Old Testament? The explanations tend to be radically different. Russian historian and geographer Lev Gumilyov (1912-1992) supported the view that the Old Testament became the holy book of Christianity to prevent the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. At a time when Christianity began to spread rapidly, there was a law in the Roman Empire that punished supporters of newly established religions. By including the Old Testament in the list of Christian holy books, early Christianity identified itself as a traditional religion of the Roman Empire, a specific branch of Judaism. However, I agree with many theologians that the inclusion of the Old Testament in the Bible was important not only because of its historical succession but also because, in listing the historical events of the Jewish people over a thousand years, any current problem seems shallow and insignificant against the background of the horrific and tragic events mentioned in the Old Testament. The inclusion of the Old Testament in the Bible was important to balance today's events with past experiences. In my opinion, this also applies to some extent to the reasons why the Book of Revelation was included in the New Testament. The Book of Revelation of John the Apostle is a very allegorical vision of the future as to the coming of the beast (the antichrist) and how the world will then be cleansed of the destruction created by the beast.

If the leaders of early Christianity were fully convinced that the visions of the future contained in the Book of Revelation only concerned the possible rebirth of the Roman emperor Nero (37-68), then the first Christian leaders would probably not agree to include this text in the New Testament. In my opinion, the emotionally very expressive text of the Book of Revelation was included in the scriptures of Christianity because the founders of Christianity believed that the prophecy of this book was much more distant, therefore, this knowledge must be preserved for future generations.

Consequently, many of the innovations that all secular governments of the Christian civilization wanted to introduce in the Christian age had to pass the test of the antichrist (the beast) signs from the Book of Revelation.

What are these signs? I invite you to look at the source.

The Book of Revelation of John the Apostle. Chapter 13:

“11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.

12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.

13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,

14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,

17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

As such a text is in the most sacred document of the Christian faith, statements that the French government has drafted a law banning people who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 from using public transport, that the Spanish government announces that it has decided to set up a special register for all for those who refuse to be vaccinated, etc., bears so much resemblance to Revelation 13 that it provokes opposition and distancing from Christians who believe in Revelation literally. As soon as governments determine that there is some formal requirement that "no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark," it is a signal that power has been seized by those who have sold their souls to the antichrist (the beast). Those who believe in the New Testament literally will see such government decisions as a signal for the beginning of the antichrist age.

But that's not all. Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation contains a rather peculiar verse 18: “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

If a government minister considers it important to drive around in a car with a number plate similar to the combination of numbers in Revelation 13:18, this is an additional argument for some Christians to identify such government decisions as dictated by the antichrist (the beast).

Any government that disregards the mood of believers and ignores the signs of the beginning of the antichrist age as defined in the Book of Revelation will find itself in a situation where some believers will consider members of such government, as well as those who will support such a government, servants of Satan who have sold their souls to the wicked.

It must be understood that, in this age of uncertainty and unpredictability, a large part of Latvians will consider the government's and the Saeima's decisions an evil to be resisted, if they coincide with the features of the antichrist era mentioned in Revelation 13.