Is there really a conspiracy ?

This is my first update in a long time, as I’ve been in recovery from a serious health issue (not covid, although I briefly had that as well).

Many people these days believe in a sort of hidden elite, manipulating events behind the scenes in the way that I portray Professor Mannis and his acolytes doing in my story.  So, are we facing an imminent descent into a time of oppression and persecution, culminating in end-time Tribulation, exploiting the Covid crisis to get it started?  In my opinion, no.  I believe that the end of days and the blessed Return for which Christians hope are not, in historical terms, that far away, but also that they are still “not yet”.  From the beginning of the pandemic, what I believe I (and not just me) have been sensing is not “resist the vaccine” but “resist the fear”.  The key to hearing correctly from God, I think, is to be asking not “how do I save myself in these times?” but “how do I minister in love to others?”  I am covid-vaccinated and I’m still here.

I strongly suspect that those who are shouting that covid is a hoax, and that Trump is still President across the ocean, are in fact false prophets, desperately repeating their lies as they see no sign of being vindicated.  As for those who believe that the covid vaccine is being demonically manipulated so as to alter human DNA, sorry, you’re in the wrong book.  I recognise the plot line but it’s Wendy Alec’s, not mine.  Though I did enjoy her Chronicles of Brothers series.

I believe that God has been refining the church through the crisis, testing out who will stand firm and who will cower in fear, and that the reason why the disease appears to be ebbing a bit as I write this (October 2021) is that the refining is almost done for the moment.  My sense is that those churches which have passed the test are going to see a time of some growth and blessing.  It won’t be long, because judgement is coming on the world, but it will be (ballpark estimate) a few years at least.  Though I also suspect, just from observing the ways in which evil seems to be moving, that the devil is soon going to be allowed to stage a deception which will play right into the “they are keeping things from us” narrative.  I urge all believers to seek the gift of discernment before it is too late.  More about that later.