On April 1, 2020, less than two weeks after the original emergency orders in Ontario, I produced and published the below video. I published it on my Facebook page, a page which I have since abandoned for various reasons.
I remember at the time also posting a sarcastic remark on my Facebook page akin to “My name is Pharaoh, and I’m here to save you from the plagues.” That of course was another way to warn people against looking to the government for salvation. My message remains consistent.
Please forgive the poor video quality. It was the best I managed to muster up under the circumstances. Poor quality aside, the message stands. In this video I strongly criticized grounding public policy in computer models, as the tyrants were doing at the time. I maintained that policy should be grounded in transcendent principles, not the hypotheses of computers and bureaucrats. I used Scripture to criticize the policy, and I still believe that computer models are not unlike the false prophets God warned us about.
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)
At the time, it was controversial. It troubled some that I, trying to maintain a sober-mind, provided a sound application of Scripture, while many were being seduced into a hypnotized panic to abandon the worship of God. The computer models — like false prophets —as they were interpreted by bureaucrats, seduced Christians to stop worshipping God the way He commanded them. Now almost two years since, it’s still reasonable to conclude — hopefully less controversial — that Scripture is a safer standard for policy and Christian worship than computer models. I won’t say, “I told you so,” but I will say God warned us thousands of years ago in His Word. Many were too fearful to listen to Him, so the false prophets won the day, at least for a while. Thankfully, we have a merciful Christ who offers full pardon to the penitent and uses our errors to sanctify us in His Wisdom. May He receive a reward for His suffering.
