On January 2, 2023, on live TV, during a Monday night football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills, hundreds of thousands of people watched a frightening scene. Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest following a normal hit causing him to collapse on the field after he briefly stood up following the tackle. Ryan Gaydos of Fox News picks up the story.
“The scary incident occurred with 5:58 remaining in the first quarter and Cincinnati leading the game, 7-3. The Bengals were on their second drive of the game when quarterback Joe Burrow threw a pass to Tee Higgins. Bills safety Hamlin came over to make a tackled to end the play.
Hamlin was on the ground for a while as he received CPR from the medical staff on the ground before he was put into the ambulance. Hamlin was being rused to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.”
On Tuesday morning, Damar Hamlin remained sedated, and listed in critical condition.
Because of the seriousness of the situation, the NFL later announced it postponed the game between the Bills and Bengals. It was the right decision because it gives individuals a chance to consider the situation from a medical, practical, and spiritual perspective.
The medical perspective should be very alarming for once more a young healthy male has suffered heart failure. If it is determined Damar Hamlin took the mandatory COVID shot, then the sports world should reconsider its policy. According to International Olympic Committee data, “an average of 29 athletes under the age of 35 suffered sudden death per year from 1966 to 2004. From March 2021 to March 2022, 769 athletes have died or suffered cardiac arrest.”
Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, also known as SADS, has been studied for many years. It is time to intensify that study to determine if a common factor in SADS is related to the very foolish political policy, and social pressure, to inject an unproven gene therapy into the body of healthy people, all for their own good of course. An authoritative paternalistic government always insists its policies are for the protection of society. When Big Brother speaks, no more discussion is needed. No more investigation is allowed. No dissenting opinion is to be heard. Any contrary evidence to the official policy is suppressed.
The practical result of Big Brother compelling individuals to do what they do not want to do is loss of freedom. “All the money, all the prestige in the world will never make up for the loss of your freedom” (George Monbiot).
In addition to a medical and practical consideration of Monday night’s event, there is a spiritual perspective to consider. The Bible tells us that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). Because we are spiritual creatures made in the image of God, the Lord speaks to His creation, sometimes in kindness, sometimes in comfort, and sometimes in signs that warn of the great danger we are in.
Those societies that do not consider their ways, repent, and turn back to God, will find themselves under God’s judgment. There are no less than five signs of Divine discipline.
The First of Sign of Divine Discipline is Loss of Health and Wealth
There will be the loss of health, decline of agricultural prosperity, terror, fear, and death in combat, and loss of personal freedom.
Often, personal freedom is voluntarily surrendered due to a misguided ideology such as Socialism and Communism, or misinformation.
Former NFL linebacker Uche Nwaneri, who played for the Jaguars, believed that every person who did not receive the Covid shots should be put in jail. On September 1, 2021 Nwaneri posted the following:
“Ok so lets get these vaccine mandates and Vaccine passports up and running ASAP. We seeing children DIE daily from the unvaccinated selfishness. Pregnant woman at risk too. PROTECT LIFE. MANDATE THE VACCINE. Jail anyone who refuses, to protect LIFE.”
Such is the mindset of ignorance and intolerance. On Friday, December 30, 2022, Uche Nwaneri, age 38, was found unresponsive by his wife at her Indiana home, according to a report. He died of an “enlarged heart with acute heart failure”, which is more and more being linked to the Covid shots.
“But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhors my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you” (Lev. 26:14-17).
The Second Sign of Divine Discipline is Economic Recession and Personal Depression
There will be an intensity of individual judgment for neglecting to repent. “And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits” (Lev. 26:18-20).
The Third Sign of Divine Discipline is Madness, Murder, and Mayhem
Violence and breakdown of law and order; severe restriction of travel and commerce. “And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate” (Lev. 26:21-22).
The Fourth Sign of Divine Discipline is Military Defeat
There will be military conquest and, or foreign occupation, scarcity of food (reduced to one-tenth the normal supply), separation of families.
“And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied” (Lev. 26:23-26).
The Fifth Sign of Divine Discipline is National Disintegration
“And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. 37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also, in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them” (Lev. 26:27-38).
When the Bills and the Bengals saw the serious situation the 24 years old Damar Hamlin was in, the teams spontaneously united to kneel in prayer. There was not an atheist or agnostic in sight and for this reason. God has placed Himself in the conscience of every person. It is as natural to seek the face and comfort of God in a time of crisis as a wounded child immediately seeks the comfort of mother or father. “Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair” (William Shakespeare).