Covid-19 and Isaiah 26

Break the chain scares! DON’T FORWARD THEM TO ANYONE! - Salty Scrivener

By Bob McEvoy - Posted at The Salty Scrivener:

Covid-19 and the Evangelical Proof-Texters

Well, it didn’t take long before the ‘proof-texters,’ sensation-mongers and the chain-letter writers got their teeth into the present Covid-19 crisis. The misinterpretation of psalm 91 was sure to happen sooner or later, – without any reference to Psalm 90, of course. But a recent ‘don’t break this chain‘ scam on social media has been based on a proof-texting use of Isaiah 26:20. The text reads,

Come, my people, enter your chambers,
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment,
Until the indignation is past.

So, of course, the proof-texters want to find in the words of that verse a prediction of our present state of lockdown and self-isolation. Some have even claimed that there is more than a coincidence between between the text reference (26) and the date of the Lockdown announcement. Worse still, the Charismaniacs are urging people to ‘decree and declare’ authority over the virus, and urging people not to ‘break the chain of prayer’ (whatever that is) by posting the deception on their own social media pages as well.

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