Empire State Building lit up in red during the Covid-19 pandemic, 3/30/ 2020 (Twitter)
At The Return event in September 2020, the congregation was repeatedly led in the prayer of humility and repentance found in 2 Chronicles:
2 Chronicles 7:14: 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.
But – let’s take a look at the verse immediately preceding this passage:
2 Chronicles 7:13: When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,
We see these judgmental actions stated by God in 2 Chronicles: drought, locusts, and pestilence.
God has shown us a series of actions in the Bible that are indicative of His judgement. In 2 Chronicles we see the withholding of rain, an outbreak of locusts, and then a release of pestilence. Since 2019, we have seen both drought and locusts—and we will take a closer look at both of these topics.
But first we will look at the repeated references to the judgement of pestilence—which today we call pandemic. And the pestilence that appeared in the land was a Coronavirus outbreak that would become known as ‘Covid-19.’
Covid-19
The year that Jonathan Cahn called the year of shaking witnessed a global pandemic that would become known as Covid-19.
It is a sad irony that on August 10, 2015 the Empire State Building in New York City was ablaze with the image of Kali – the Hindu goddess whose name can be translated as “she who is death”. This image was projected on the Empire State Building as part of an exhibition by filmmaker Louie Psihoyos, in an attempt to bring awareness to the preservation of species. The use of Kali was intended to depict Mother Nature in a warrior role to fight against animal extinction and champion sustainable development (Express Web Desk).
In Hindu mythology, Kali is depicted as a fighter who wears a necklace of heads, a skirt of arms, and holds a knife dripping blood (Cartwright). It is hard to look back on this image of the death goddess Kali and not marvel at its symbolism, given what was coming in the future.
Starting on March 30, 2020, the Empire State Building would once again be ablaze with light.
Kali on the Empire State Building 8/10/2015 (Android Jones)
This time the top of the building was bathed in red while its tower rotated like an ambulance light alternating between red and white light. This display was meant to honor first responders and symbolized the loss of life and state of emergency that existed in the city due to the Covid-19 outbreak. New York City was the hardest hit city during the pandemic and is considered to be ground zero for Covid-19. The death toll reached its peak in NY City on April 7th of 2020 with a reported loss of life of 598 in a single day (John Elflein).
The official path of the Covid-19 pandemic begins with the World Health Organization (WHO) China Country Office. This office received notification on December 31, 2019 that cases of pneumonia from an unknown cause had occurred in the city of Wuhan, China (WHO). On January 9th, 2020 the WHO reported the first link to coronavirus (WHO).
The first Center for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed case of Covid-19 in the U.S. was reported on January 20, 2020 (Washingon State 2019-nCoV Case Investigation Team). On March 13th, 2020, President Trump would declare a national emergency—and on March 15th, 2020 states began implementing shutdowns to stop the spread of the disease (WhiteHouse). By April of 2020 it was reported that roughly half of the worlds population was under some form of lockdown imposed by their respective governments (Sandford).
But as time passes, more and more we are beginning to understand that the actual timeline for the Covid-19 outbreak is much different than the official Chinese account, and the origin of the virus may not be as much of a mystery as we were led to believe.
In a Sky News Australia investigative report (based on Sharri Markson’s book ‘What Really Happened in Wuhan’), we are shown that not only does evidence indicate that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab in Wuhan, China, but that this occurred well before the official Chinese acknowledgment regarding the first reported cases on December 31, 2019. Sky News reports that on September 12, 2019 the virus database of the Wuhan lab was taken offline – with 22,000 samples of Coronavirus deleted. On the same day the institute increased security and started an effort to replace its Air Conditioning system.
This points at September 12th as the possible first day that the Chinese recognized that they had a Covid-19 leak.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: What Really Happened in Wuhan
Sky News reports that a month later the lab was observed going into an electronic blackout, with no cell phone or signal activity for two weeks at the compound. At this time the report states that three workers were sick at the Wuhan lab in Oct 2019 – with at least one feared dead since she disappeared from social media.
Following this came what has been described as a super spreader event, when the international military games competition was held in Wuhan from October 18 – 27, 2019. The Sky News documentary reported individuals getting sick as a result of these games (Sky News Australia). In January of 2022, a Canadian military officer who attended the games and fell sick called for an investigation regarding the Chinese claims that the virus did not appear until December of 2019 (Birrell I. ).
An interesting data point appeared in the U.S. when it was reported that Red Cross blood donations from early December 2019 in California, Washington, and Oregon tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies. This indicates that these blood donors had contracted Covid-19 before giving blood in December (Mathias). Then in 2022 another revelation occurred when it was reported that a review of dispatches archived on the Wuhan Institute of Virology website demonstrated that the WIV was facing an acknowledged “acute safety emergency” in November 2019 (Geraghty).
Let’s return to the day that the virus database of the Wuhan lab was taken offline. This occurred on September 12th, and if this was indeed the day the Chinese realized that they first had a problem—then this is truly remarkable. Jonathan Cahn has introduced us to the idea that 2020 was the year of shaking…and this shaking, following the Old Testament model, occurs 19 years after the initial strike that signals the start of God’s cycle of judgement. If we follow this premise, we see that the year 2020 was 19 years after the attacks of September 11, 2001—and then we see that the start of the 19th year would be September 12th 2001. This—if the stated premise does indeed hold true—puts the release of global pandemic on the very first day of the year of shaking. That is astonishing.
In addition, as we consider the seven-year period of time between the Great American Eclipse’s, it is of note that we find this pandemic sitting squarely in the middle of these times.
Regardless of when the Covid-19 outbreak actually began in Wuhan, we know that it defined the year 2020 and was the marker event for Jonathan Cahn’s year of shaking. But other things have occurred as well; because with pestilence in the land, we now return to 2 Chronicles 7-13 and consider this statement from God: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain.”
Next – Chapter 10: A Worldwide Drought
