Revelation 5. Worship is continued in heaven and the Apostle John saw a scroll. Nobody but the Lamb was worthy to take and open the scroll with seven seals. All present broke out in praise, singing a new song, saying, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood” and “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.”
Zephaniah 1 is a prophecy of the Great Day of the LORD.
Zephaniah 2 is a call to repentance and a prophecy of judgment on many nations.
Revelation 4. The Apostle John was shown the throne room of Heaven. Someone was sitting on the throne. A rainbow was over it, 24 elders were around it, in the front were seven lamps, representing the seven-fold spirit of God. Around it were also four creatures, one like a lion, representing Jesus as king (Matthew), one like an ox representing Jesus as a servant (Mark), one with the face of man representing the humanity of Christ (Luke), and the fourth like an eagle representing Jesus is God (John). All sang or said praises, a true worship.
Proverbs 27. More Proverbs of Solomon. This chapter deals with the future, and what to do about it today. One notable quote: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
Revelation 3 ends the message to the seven churches: To Sardis, the church that claimed to be alive, but in God’s eyes was dead; to Philadelphia, the church that kept its faith, and as a reward will be kept from the hour of trial that is coming; and finally to the church of Laodicea, the church that thought it had it all figured out and prospered, when in reality it had nothing. These can be seen as seven historical churches, which they were, but also as seven types of churches as they exist today and through history. They can also be taken as seven states of the individual believer. However you take it, there is something in it for every believer, even today.
In Habakkuk 3 is recorded Habakkuk’s prayer, a hymn of faith.
Psalm 147 is a great Psalm of praising God for His protection and creation, for His care and power, for His provisions, wisdom and His word. It ends with praise to the LORD for His special attention to Israel.
A large medical study of seniors, both Viagra users and non users (7.2 million seniors medical records were scanned for six years by the Cleveland Clinic) and they found that Viagra users were 69% less likely to develop Alzheimer disease. This was interesting. Did they find anything else? Less Cancer, less Parkinson’s disease?
Could there be something else that made a difference? Viagra itself was developed to be a blood pressure lowering drug by expanding the blood vessels. During the early trials they found that it had some unexpected side effects. For some, the side effects were desirable, so they repurposed the drug, and Pfizer racked up about 15 Billion dollars in sales until the patent expired in 2020. It is now generic under the name sildenafil. There is only one problem with this. To repurpose a drug, in this case against Alzheimer you have to have a control group that is not aware that they are given a placebo, which is not possible in this case. Plus it is now generic, so there is no interest in doing a double blind study for economic reasons, it no longer fits the medical industry’s business model.
Many years ago I saw a nicely framed plug for flossing in my dentist’s office. It said: People who floss every day live on average seven years longer. This may very well be true, but could it also be because people who floss take care of themselves in many other ways?
A long time ago there was a study that established a strong correlation between circumcision and prostate cancer. People who were not circumcised had a much higher incident of prostate cancer, case closed, get circumcised. There was only one problem with the study: It was taken mostly in Minnesota with a large Scandinavian population. Scandinavians do not get circumcised as a rule, and they are genetically much more prone to get prostate cancer than other people. When the genetic variations are taken out, there is no difference between circumcision, non circumcision and cancer.
Which brings me to COVID-19 and why more pigmented people are more likely to suffer, even die from COVID-19. The first excuse is that they get an inferior health care because we are a deeply racist society. There are a couple of other possibilities. An Indonesian study showed a strong correlation between Vitamin D levels and fatal outcome for older people with COVID-19. If the level was below 27 ng/ml the death rate was over 80%, if the level was over 31 ng/ml the death rate was less than 10%. See: https://lenbilen.com/2020/12/27/vitamin-d-as-covid-19-fighter-a-most-important-virus-fighter/
Another possibility is there are genetic differences between people of dark complexion and pale-skinned people. It is through genetic differences we determine our ancestry, it has become widely popular, so it is not in and of itself racist to look into one’s roots. It turns out that the rate of COVID-19 in equatorial Africa is much lower than in U.S. In Africa there was a debilitating illness called river blindness. The parasite killer Ivermectin, originally developed against parasites in horses and as heart worm killer in dogs proved effective against river blindness, and so it became widely distibuted in Central Africa. The countries that use Ivermectin have around one tenth of the cases than the countries of North and Southern Africa. It seems that Ivermectin had been inadvertently repurposed to fight COVID-19. See: https://lenbilen.com/2020/12/27/vitamin-d-as-covid-19-fighter-a-most-important-virus-fighter/
To test this hypothesis Indonesia, India and Japan did introduced Ivermectin as the primary early prophylactic and therapeutic COVID-19 fighter. The results are startling, Indonesia has seen new cases drop 99.5% and deahs drop 99.4% since the peak before introduction of Ivermectin. The corresponding numbers for India are 98% and 93.3%, but in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi the results are much better. In Japan the cases are down 99.5% and deaths are down 98.4%.
Can the U.S. achieve similar successes by repurpose Ivermectin to fight COVID-19? It is a strong virus killer, and it is more broadband than the mRNA vaccines. The vaccines work too as a Prophylactic Therapeutic for a season, but is what they call leaky insofar that they are more specific and make possible an occasional vaccine resistant mutation to develop, and so a vaccine booster variant has to be developed and distributed, thus satisfying the medical industry’s business model, first do not cure the patient, but maintain stable control and assure the patient of a long life of dependency.
The other buisness model advocared by the medical doctors and nurses is that they really want to cure the patient. Ivermectin will go a long way to achieve that goal. Just think, reducing COVID hospitalizations and deaths by a modest 90% in about seven weeks after Ivermectin is fully approved would change things.
Revelation 2:12-29 continues the message to the seven churches, church three and four: Pergamos, a church that looked good but compromised itself, and the church of Thyatira, a corrupted church, but with hope of repentance. These can be seen as seven historical churches, which they were, but also as seven types of churches as they exist today and through history. They can also be taken as seven states of the individual believer. Whichever way you take it, there is something in it for every believer, even today.
Habakkuk 1 begins with the prophet’s first complaint and the LORD’s reply. After that the prophet poured out his second complaint.
Habakkuk 2. The LORD answered the prophet to his second complaint. It contains this gem, just as valid today as it was then: “The just shall live by his faith“. On the other hand God promised more woe to the wicked.
An investigation of available data shows that worldwide football / soccer match cardiovascular deaths in 2021 are 278% higher than the 12-year average, and analysis further indicates that the vast majority of excess mortality in the UK this year has been due to cardiovascular, immunological and neurological damage caused by the Covid-19 injections.
Revelation 2:1-11 begins the message to the seven churches. The first two are: Ephesus, the church that lost its first love; Smyrna, the church that stood firm even when it was persecuted; These can be seen as seven historical churches, which they were, but also as seven types of churches as they exist today and through history. They can also be taken as seven states of the individual believer. Whichever way you take it, there is even today something in it for every believer.
Proverbs 26 is a collection of more proverbs of Solomon collected after his death during the reign of Hezekiah.
Psalm 145, a Psalm of Praise, of David. In an acrostic fashion David praised God for his fame, glory and for His goodness; for his kingdom and His providence, and most of all for his saving mercy.
Psalm 146 is the first of the five final songs in the Book of Psalms, known as the Hallelujah Psalms. This one gives praise to the Lord for creation, for what He is doing and will do forever.
Revelation 1. The final book of the Bible begins with an introduction and promises a blessing to all who read it and take it to heart. It sends a greeting to the seven Churches followed by the most wonderful vision of the Son of Man.
Nahum 3. The prophet Nahum ended with a “woe to Nineveh.”
Jude. Greetings from the half-brother of Jesus Christ to the called ones. Jude told the followers to contend for the faith for there had crept in apostates in the church,and since they live in the last days he urged them to maintain their life with God and give all glory to God.
Nahum 1 speaks of God’s wrath on His enemies, in this case the coming destruction of Nineveh.
When the COVID-19 menace entered Europe, Sweden was the only country that didn’t do a complete lock-down, they took the approach to let the pandemic rage and so achieve herd immunity; only protect the most vulnerable as best they could. The initial result seemed catastrophic, but herd immunity was more or less achieved, and current results are impressive:
As we can see, for Sweden daily deaths are down 98% from.previous maximum before vaccines began, and daily cases were down 83%. The total death rate per million people is 1,480 and the Swedish vaccination rate is 72%
How are the other European nations doing on the same score. They are listed in order of Increase/decrease in death rate from pre-vaccine peak, from worst to best.
A= ratio of highest case rate before vaccines to current case rate
B= ratio of highest death rate before vaccines to current death rate
C= total deaths per million people this far
D= vaccination rate, at least one dose
Country A B C D
Ukraine 155% 299% 2,036 29%
Russia 114% 218% 1,926 43%
Belarus 90% 167% 548 33%
Georgia 93% 142% 3,119 28%
Finland 314% 140% 249 77%
Hungary 176% 102% 3,649 62%
Greece 223% 90% 1,797 66%
Croatia 112% 82% 2,769 51%
Moldova 37% 81% 2,292 14%
Serbia 26% 81% 1,372 47%
Slovakia 346% 78% 2,727 47%
Latvia 80% 76% 2,304 67%
Bulgaria 58% 76% 4,197 16%
Poland 90% 76% 2,267 54%
Bosnia & H. 53% 71% 3,930 26%
Montenegro 38% 63% 3,708 42%
Chechia 150% 52% 3.135 60%
Norway 528% 50% 199 77%
Romania 16% 50% 2,997 29%
Netherlands 193% 49% 1,144 77%
Lithuania 56% 47% 2,572 69%
Austria 121% 46% 1,409 68%
N. Macedonia 31% 45% 3,668 42%
Estonia 80% 43% 1,374 62%
Slovenia 89% 30% 2,557 58%
Germany 229% 34% 1,231 70%
Denmark 122% 34% 508 78%
Slovenia 89% 30% 2,557 58%
Albania 40% 25% 1,082 32%
Belgium 104% 24% 2,330 75%
Switzerland 98% 15% 1,328 67%
France 80% 14% 1,826 76%
Ireland 80% 13% 1,138 77%
Italy 41% 10% 2,224 78%
U.K. 77% 9% 2,129 74%
Spain 34% 6% 1,885 82% .
Portugal 21% 6% 1,800 89%
Conclusion: All countries will eventually reach herd immunity, the vaccinations only delay the inevitable: The pandemic will be with us like the common cold or the flu.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 