What is the worst epidemic facing mankind?

Which one is so deadly it could lead to man’s extinction? (See list of epidemics over the centuries.)

Bubonic Plague? Typhus? Cholera? Influenza?

Is it the Ebola virus? According to the charity group Doctors Without Borders, it is out of control in Africa. A new strain is showing up in the Philippines.

Ebola is a particularly sinister plague. It forces bleeding inside and outside the body and kills 90 percent of its victims, according to the World Health Organization. There is no known cure.

But that’s not the worst epidemic facing mankind.

Perhaps it’s the “End of the World” plague recently uncovered in Egypt that reportedly decimated the Roman Empire. It was so horrific, one bishop warned his followers to prepare for the end of the world.

Could it return?

According to experts, the epidemic struck between A.D. 250-271, and killed more than 5,000 people a day in Rome alone. The effects on the body were particularly gruesome.

But that’s not the worst epidemic facing mankind either. Keep reading.

Maybe it’s the recent outbreak of MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), a virus striking several Arab countries. It affects the respiratory system and kills 30 percent of its victims.

No, that’s not it either.

Epidemics are scary, a fact not lost on a Hollywood that constantly churns out films and TV shows on the topic.

In June, a TV series titled “The Last Ship” debuted on basic cable. It deals with a viral strain that wipes out the majority of the planet’s humans.

Another called, “The Strain,” pops up in July, also on basic cable.

Of course we think of physical epidemics when the topic is “What plague could wipe out humankind?” But there is another, far more deadlier epidemic afflicting the population today. It’s all around us.

It’s not Ebola. It’s not MERS. It’s not the “End of the World” disease.

These are viral epidemics with earthly consequences.

This “other one” has eternal consequences.

The Worst Epidemic Ever

The worst epidemic affecting mankind today is the “Lack of Faith in God” plague.

“However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.”

-(Deuteronomy 28:15-16)

The consequences of this epidemic are as lethal as the Ebola.  This one will kill your spirit just as surely as a stake driven through the heart.

If we continue to ignore God, I believe we could be cursed to the point of extinction.

Man scoffs at God’s Word and even His existence.

Man feels superior to any notion that God rules the Earth.

Man turns a deaf ear to God and brazenly feels he can do it all himself.

“I’m self-sufficient and can think for myself, I have superior intellect over animals, I can build towers and fly into outer space, so why would I ever think there is a God over me,” he says.

The end result of that kind of thinking is pure chaos, which we are now witnessing around the world.

The Middle East, Asia, Africa, the Ukraine, Russia … even America is hit by this plague.

Name a country, and its populace has fallen victim to the “Lack of Faith in God” epidemic.

Even Israel, God’s chosen, has gone through the revolving door of turning it’s back on God, facing His wrath, and returning to the fold.

As Israel has learned, without this faith, man falls to ruin. We see it happening before our eyes.

To ignore God and His precepts for a joyful life is to invite a substandard existence.

Instead, man sins, man kills, man lusts; man’s inhumanity runs rampant on this Earth. It can be an evil world.

Man disregards God’s laws, waging wars, destroying governments and, in the case of America, ripping to shreds the very fabric of religious freedoms founded on Judeo-Christian principles.

Not being able to talk about God or bring a Bible to school, taking God out of government, letting atheists control the cross through the courtroom is a deadly disease, as our society is discovering.

Why We Suffer From the Lack-of-Faith Epidemic

There are many reasons why we suffer from this lack-of-faith epidemic.

Some feel that if they can’t see God, they can’t believe in Him.

But that is not true faith, as Hebrews 11:1 reminds us:

      “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Why is it so hard to have faith in God? All you need do is look around you.

Examine the intelligent design of our planet.

Like a superb architect, God created the mountains and the streams, the hills and the valleys, the air we breath, the water we drink, the sun that shines on us and grows the foods that sustain us.

     “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalms 19:1)

Look at yourself and the intelligent design that went into making your body work.

To embrace the belief we somehow evolved from a primordial fish is akin to believing a wristwatch can wash up on shore, with all its intricate moving parts, all by itself, without ever having a creator.

Now that takes some faith.

God made you. Psalms 139: 13-14 tells us:

“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.”

Even more so, you were “fearfully and wonderfully” created to shine like Jesus.

     “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

-(John 1: 1-5)

The Cure For the Lack-of-Faith Epidemic

Bacteria is resilient and mutates to survive, that’s why when an antibiotic is created for one strain, it often doesn’t work on another. Cures are difficult.

But the “Lack of Faith in God” epidemic has a cure readily available, and that’s Jesus!

Call on His name and you will be saved (Romans 10:13).

     “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

Have faith He can do all great things on this Earth.

     “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

-(Deuteronomy 28:1-2)

Have faith your Heavenly Father will care for, protect and heal His children and their country.

      “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Have faith that your God hears you.

      “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” (1 John 5:14)

Above all, have faith in the one true God, your creator, your rock of salvation, the Lord of Hosts, the Praise of Israel, Jehovah-Rapha (“The Lord Our Healer”), the Ruler of the Universe.

God’s love for you is legendary and abounds without measure.

Want to stop that “Lack of Faith in God” epidemic in its tracks?

Then take John 3:16 to heart.

     “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”