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Diseases such as covid-19 and influenza can be fatal due to an overreaction of the body’s immune system called a cytokine storm....The name ‘cytokine’ is derived from the Greek words for cell (cyto) and movement (kinos). Sometimes the body’s response to infection can go into overdrive. For example, when SARS -CoV-2 – the virus behind the covid-19 pandemic – enters the lungs, it triggers an immune response, attracting immune cells to the region to attack the virus, resulting in localised inflammation. But in some patients, excessive or uncontrolled levels of cytokines are released which then activate more immune cells, resulting...

How did America endure (by the grace of God): Major modern influenza pandemics: Basic source is from Wikipedia, but with specific US data added as well as for the 2017-18 flu season, with other words in [brackets] being added, and formatting improved, while reference numbers are removed for clarity (see original for such) Name [Main]Date U,S. population World pop. Sub-type Reproduction rate Infected (est.) U.S. Deaths [Tot.] Deaths world-wide U.S. fatality rate [World] Case fatality rate Pandemic severity I also added this column: During the 2017-2018 flu season the the % of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was...

A lack of adequate testing means many of those who have been infected with the coronavirus will not appear in official statistics. This suggests that many estimates for its mortality rate are much too high... Public health epidemiology is the science of counting to prevent disease and promote health. We count the number of new cases of a particular disease; this is the incidence. Then we count how much a disease has spread in a population; this is the prevalence. When it comes to COVID-19, counting is a challenge. Despite all the news articles and reports, we know very little...

Recent data for Covid-19 cases and tests alongside state population size, along with deaths from 2017-2018 flu, with options for more rates. The Covid-19 data is from Politico via The COVID Tracking Project as of 4-05-20 AM of positive cases per state, and the # of tests done (the more tested, the more cases are found), the increased number of tests done since last week, and the # of deaths, alongside the total population of each state (you must do the math for the percentages left out), plus death rates for the 2017-18 flu. There are clear contrasts between states...

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. ( Luke 21:34-36)The subject of the Rapture is really about escape. The Scripture polarizes humanity into two different groups, “Those who...

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)The primary understanding of this commandment, is a prohibition of perjury, testifying against a neighbor falsely before a Judge. However, as in the rest of the commandments, the stated prohibition is only chief of a whole category of Sins. Our God is a God of Truth, and commands us to Love truth, and to speak the Truth in Love. God doesn’t lie, neither should his holy people. Exodus 23 expands on this commandment , Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be...

Thou Shalt Not Steal… (Exodus 20:15)A man can have nothing unless it is given to Him by the LORD…( John 3:27)God gives gifts to people. He gives advantages, strengths, talents, insights, personality traits, family connections… etc. , we all have different gifts, by the grace of God. In this sense, God is not egalitarian, He gives varying gifts in differing amounts to people as it pleases him. We are all called to be stewards of those gifts, and it is possible to develop them or squander them, to increase them or to trade them away, but everybody has received certain...

On July 31, 1976, the natural and man-made basins and reservoirs above Colorado’s Thompson Canyon reached a critical tipping point. Several unusual rain systems seemed to have snagged on the rugged Rocky Mountain peaks. It was as if the clouds were punctured by the craggy spears of rock and the rains gushed out relentlessly. Finally, somewhere up there, a tipping point was reached. A “tipping point” occurs when clusters of small events — like repeating cloudbursts — become weighty enough to cause sweeping destruction. So, somewhere in the Estes Park region a critical mass of rainfall had accumulated in a...

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. ( Exodus 20:1-3)God spake all of these Words saying… Moses didn’t originate the Ten Commandments, God spoke these Words. He also wrote them with his finger on tablets of stone, and re-iterated every single one of them, save one, in the New Testament. We are not saved by the Law, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have much to say to us and...

I explore Surah 78, and point out the fatal flaw in Muhammad's eschatology. I describe how the lack of Original Sin-and the lack of substitutionary atonement-doom the Islamic narrative of resurrection/judgment.

Dear X, I offer you the warmest greetings in the name of Jesus, I am writing out of a concern for you and a lot of others of your generation. You were born into a world which was already well into a “sexual revolution”, and this has presented you with perplexing questions and issues which my generation (Baby Boomers) didn’t have to bear as much as yours. I come as a friend, and concerned Christian, in Jesus name. I want you to understand that I know why there is such a gap between my generation and yours. I didn’t grow...

I explore Surah 69, The Sure Calamity, and examine how Islam distorts key aspects of the End Times, including the great tribulation, and role of Christ in judgment.

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were...

The Bible is the Word of God. It is an amazing revelation, showing us Who God is, and what he has done to save mankind from the sin that we are all prone to. Central to that revelation is the truth that God hates sin and evil, and everything that is false, but God loves man. He has made a Righteous way to save man from the consequences of Man’s own rebellion. In a recent sermon I made this observation, which some have found hard to understand; I said that the Bible doesn’t really say that much about Love. God...

Posted on November 12, 2019November 4, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Preparing for Judgment This is the sixth in a series on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.In the past two articles we have recalled the reality of the judgment that is upon us when we die and we have surveyed the parables in which Jesus urgently warns us of it. In this post we consider something of a plan to prepare for judgment.You are going to die and you donÂ’t get to say when. This should inspire a sober, urgent, and daily preparation for death...

Posted on November 11, 2019November 4, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Parables by Jesus on the Day of Judgment and on Our Need to be Ready This is the fifth in a series of articles on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.credit: Ashland CTCJesus was urgent in warning us to be ready for judgment. He did this in many ways, but most notably in the parables. In this post let’s ponder His teachings and hear His urgency.Most casual readers of the Bible tend to view the parables as merely interesting, entertaining stories. While that is so,...

The ninth Psalm is eschatological. It is a celebration of the return of King Messiah, whose coming is an intervention, a deliverance of Israel from the amassed nations of the world who have united to destroy her. The psalmist taunts the enemies who have sought Israel’s destruction, O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.(Psalm 9:6)Either this is rendered as ‘Your destructions are over forever!”, or it means “You are eternally destroyed”. Perhaps it is both, for the Coming of the Messiah shall certainly produce both effects;...

In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain...

The discussion of this topic usually begins with this question, “Are You saying that we can lose our Salvation””, or “Do you wonder from moment to moment whether or not you are still saved? or some other variation of this thought. I am happy to answer an emphatic “No” . No I do not think I can lose my salvation, and No I do not wonder from day to day whether or not I am still saved. My first spiritual crisis after being born again, was about the security of my salvation. I have an incredibly tender conscience, in fact...

ELYRIA — Lorain County Common Pleas Judge John Miraldi has ordered Oberlin College to post a $36 million appeal bond before he stays execution of the multimillion-dollar judgment recently won against the college by Gibson’s Bakery and the Gibson family. Attorneys for the Gibsons had requested the college post a bond worth $36,367,711.56, representing the total amount of judgments against the college, plus interest, awarded by a jury and Miraldi following a six-week trial that lasted from late May into early June.