Black Swan event

Black Swan event

[The Lord Jesus Christ] was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 1:4

1 Peter 1:3-5

 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

The Black Swan Events have become a metaphor for events that comes as a surprise, and often have serious, major consequences. The term is derived from an old belief which presumed black swans did not exist. All swans that Europeans ever saw were white and only white. When Dutch explorer Willem de Vlaming went to Australia, he discovered black swans on January 10, 1697.

In 2007, Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote a book called the Black Swan Theory. He explained that Black Swan Events are metaphors. They describe incidents that are hard-to-predict, and rare events. These events are far beyond the realm of normal probabilities and expectations. They come as a surprise. No one expects them. They often have serious, major consequences and influence history, science, finance, and technology.

Is all of the concern regarding the spread of COVID-19 a storm in a teacup? Apart from the fish, a smoked herring which turns a reddish color, a Red Herring is something that misleads or distracts and draws attention away from more relevant or important matters. In the catchphrase of Fox news, “We Report. You Decide.”

On March 11, 2020, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, general director of WHO, declared, COVID-19, the coronavirus a pandemic. It was first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019. By March 11, 2020, the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica and infected more than 121,000 people, causing 4,300 deaths.

WHO defines a pandemic as “the worldwide spread of a new disease.” “Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death,” Tedros said.

The coronavirus disease was first discovered infecting humans in Wuhan, China in December, 2019. Many people could not help but observe eerie parallels with a fictional novel by Dean Koontz, The Eyes of Darkness, published in 1981. In the novel, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) develops a deadly virus called Wuhan-400. It is created in a secret laboratory in the Wuhan suburbs in Hubei Provence. The virus is a bioweapon. In the novel, it is highly infectious and 100 percent lethal. Has fiction become reality? It wouldn’t be the first time.

Biblical prophecy is not fiction or works of the imagination. It is written history before the events occur. Only the living God can do that. And that is exactly what the Father God did.

Isaiah 48:3,5

 3 Long ago I told you what was going to happen. Then suddenly I took action, and all my predictions came true.

 5 That is why I told you what would happen; I told you beforehand what I was going to do. Then you could never say, “My idols did it. My wooden image and metal god commanded it to happen!”

REFLECT & PRAY

Black Swans are alive and well throughout the Scriptures. They demonstrate the reality and existence of the living God. The Father has repeatedly and miraculously intervened in the time-space continuum. The things that then occurred were improbable, and in many cases impossible. Today we call them miracles.

Father thank you for predicting in the Old Testament the greatest, most improbable and impossible events of all human history: the virgin birth and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. You accurately predicted them, and through Your supernatural intervention, they came to pass.

INSIGHT

The Scriptures are replete with Black Swans. They have had massive influence on the history of the human race. I want to focus on just two.

The first was a remarkable birth, a virgin birth. That in and of itself was highly improbable, if not impossible apart from divine intervention. But on top of that, that child was the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He had humble human origins. Yet He was indeed God’s Son aand the Messiah of Israel. By all accounts, He lived a regular, “normal” life right up until the time that He was baptized by John the Baptist. John recognized Him as, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

As a result of His birth, an entire new calendar system was created. The timeline was split. A whole new reckoning system was created. New terms were introduced: B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini – “In the year of our Lord”).

“He died upon a cross of wood, yet made the hill on which it stood.” Death by crucifixion was a fairly common form of execution carried out by the Romans. What was unpredictable, improbable, if not impossible was the historical fact of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the greatest and most significant Black Swan Event in human history. Through His death and resurrection He brought salvation and redemption to the human race. Eternal life was now available to anyone who accepts Him as their Savior and Lord.

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