Anthrax and the End Times

The government considers the anthrax scare case of 2001 closed. Following the wrenching 9/11 attacks, anonymous letters laced with anthrax were mailed to Washington politicians and others and were lethally handled by ordinary citizens. U.S. Army researcher Bruce Ivins was a troubled man with connections to Princeton, which was the envelopes’ mailing point. As the government’s investigation neared its end, a crush of evidence pointed to Ivins. To apparently avoid a trial, conviction and punishment, Ivins took his own life, depriving prosecutors of additional information. His suicide seems to substantiate the government’s claim that he was the one who sent the letters and that he acted alone.

Ivins’ motives for sending the letters appeared to be multiple and, in his own mind, reasonable. He had a hatred for those on the opposing moral side of social issues, and he also thought that the letters would enhance anti-anthrax research, which was his specialty. While under psychiatrists’ care, doctors noted an increasing mental instability in Ivins, and he had threatened to inflict violence on other researchers.

This biological case of fearful plague possibilities is typical of prophetic woes forecast by Jesus Christ, Paul and John. Christ’s end-time scenario regarding this is found in Matthew 24:7. "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places." That these may be man-made is clear from Paul’s warning in Galatians 5:19-21. "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissentions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." These are not natural disasters or mere epidemics caused by unsanitary contagion. These are people acts arising from human sinning. "Sorcery," or witchcraft as the older texts have it, is "pharmakeia" in the original Greek, which is clearly chemical or magical deeds by human perpetrators.

Interestingly, Ivins was a churchgoer, and well wishers even declared that they’d see him in Heaven. We hope there was a last-minute repentance, but the Galatians text indicates that "sorcerers" (debauched pharmacists) will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In fact, end-time sorcery is a sin unrepented of according to Revelation 9:21. "And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries ("pharmakeia") or their sexual immorality or their thefts." There is no evidence that Ivins showed remorse. In the polonium-210 killing of former Russian KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in England in 2006, no one came forth with remorse. Drug growers, smugglers and dealers and most users invariably face prosecution with hardened hearts. Only the Holy Spirit operating through Christian witness can soften hard hearts.

In a world of declining morality with lethal chemical, biological and nuclear agents threatening all of us, we must have our spiritual security in Christ. Pandemics and epidemics may take untold millions into eternity as end-time prophecies foretell, and we must pray that government is diligent in preventing these. But in case of failure, the believer’s fall-back is 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, which promises, "So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."

Dave Virkler