LOOKING THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD

Charles Faupel

Many years ago, while sitting in a sociology class on collective behavior, I learned of a rather strange epidemic that took place in the Seattle, Washington area in 1954. It became known as the windshield pitting epidemic. Tiny pock marks were noticed on the windshields of some cars in the area. Police initially believed that the cases of reported pitting were due to vandals with BB guns. This was ruled out, however as news spread of the pitting and it was found in neighboring towns as well. As newspapers began reporting the story, more and more cases were being reported throughout northwest Washington state. By April of 1954, there were nearly 3000 reported cases of pitting. Numerous theories were offered as to what was going on, some of which were frightening. One such theory attributed it to the work of sand fleas. Still another theory offered that a new million-watt radio transmitter at a nearby Naval Radio Station was emitting waves that caused physical oscillations in glass. It was also theorized to be the work of dangerous cosmic rays. This was all causing a great deal of confusion and even panic. After a thorough investigation by the Seattle Police Crime Laboratory, it was concluded that windshield pitting had always been going on due to the natural elements in the atmosphere. It seems that the so-called “epidemic” was the result of people now looking at their windshields instead of through their windshields as the story began to hit the local newspapers. This was a classic collective behavior phenomenon, variously known as “contagion,” “mass hysteria,” and “mass delusion.”

Looking back on it, this is now a rather humorous incident in our nation’s history, but it has great relevance for the “epidemic” that we are facing now with Covid-19. This has been characterized as a “pandemic” that threatens to wipe out hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in the United States alone. There is widespread disagreement about the extent, seriousness, and even the nature of this virus. There is, however, one thing that there is very little disagreement about: it is causing widespread fear and in some cases even panic in the land. I hear even people of God expressing such fear. What a messy, pitted windshield that they see, and just as with the people in Seattle, they fail to see through all of this to know and understand that God is in control of it all, and moreover, that all of this is being orchestrated by God Himself to accomplish Kingdom purposes that we do not yet fully understand.

Then there are those who do claim to see through this virus phenomenon to see that it is an orchestrated event engineered by globalists or others seeking to maximize their own political and economic power in the world. Those who see “through the windshield” of the covid-19 pandemic theorize that these globalists seek to achieve their global domination by controlling (by fear) the population, bringing down national economies, and a myriad of other nefarious strategies. They also postulate theories about the nature and cause of this “windshield” known as the “corona virus”. These theories range from assertions that there is no such thing as a corona virus, and that this is nothing more than a simple flu; to making correlations between “hot” pockets of death and locations where 5G technology has been rolled out, postulating that 5G technology weakens the immune system and makes people more susceptible to the deadly effects of the virus. I am intrigued by some of the ideas that are coming out, and it is very clear that these people are “seeing through the windshield” of the coronavirus outbreak to see what might be behind it.

I speak now to those of you who see beyond the apparent crisis of coronavirus. I speak very frankly and forcefully here that the “truth” to which you claim to have been awakened is nothing more than yet another “windshield” that you are looking at rather than through. You look through the first windshield (coronavirus pandemic) only to look at a second. While all of your assertions may be factually correct—just as the pitting in the Seattle windshields was indeed factually verified—these facts which you assert are nothing more than a pitted windshield that has been in operation in one form or another since our progenitors Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In all of your attempts at explanation through many hours of research and reasoning, you, too, are eating of the same tree. And you are looking at a smokescreen—a pitted windshield—that hinders your ability to see through this windshield to the Truth Who lies beyond.

Looking Through the Windshield to Behold the Truth

Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). All of the “facts” that are presented to us, regardless of how accurate they may be in terms of describing that which is taking place, are not Truth. We have not been called out of our comfort zones over the past months and years to proclaim facts. We have been called to proclaim Truth and only those truths (small “t”) which issue forth from the Truth (Spirit of God) residing in us. We have, if you will, been called to look through the windshields of pitted facts to Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith.

With this in mind, then, we boldly declare that the coronavirus, and indeed any and all malevolent schemes that are using this epidemic for nefarious purposes are ordered by God to accomplish His kingdom purposes. Many people find it difficult to accept the fact that a loving God could cause such destruction. Yet, scripture is replete with such acts of God, even to the captivity and destruction of many of His chosen Israel. Many of these times, God used wicked kings and despots to accomplish His purposes. Nowhere in scripture do we see the prophets of God waxing indignant, attempting to identify all of the strategies that Nebuchadnezzar or other wicked servants of Satan were scheming. They were, instead, speaking forth truth from the councils of heaven, whether that truth was a word of judgment, of exhortation, or of encouragement. It was God’s word, that was spoken, not a parade of fear-inducing facts.

Let us hear, then, the word of the Lord in these uncertain times. Our God is most certainly bringing forth His judgment in the earth and the peoples will learn Righteousness. Let us understand, however, that while this judgment is death to those who refuse to align themselves to His purposes, it is life to those who do. Indeed, God would so deal with a rebellious man through His judgment so as to bring that man to a place of submission to God and His purposes, and in so doing, to bring him from death to life. Let us be clear here: Judgment, Peter tells us, begins at the house of God—which we are (1 Peter 4:17). Many of us have been experiencing the judgment of God over many weeks, months and years, and we have come to recognize that this judgment in all of its many forms has been for the purpose of refining us, purifying us, removing the dross from our lives that hinders us from entering into the fullness of His divine life. We have learned, and are even now learning, that His judgment is not motivated out of anger or wrath, but is being exercised from the heart of a loving Father who longs for intimate fellowship with His children. The writer to the Hebrews tells us, “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6).

This calls for an opening of ourselves up to God to allow Him to search the deepest recesses of our hearts for anything that we have—even unknowingly—allowed to occupy a place of importance that should not be. Do you worry and fret over your health, finding yourself preoccupied with protecting yourself from this virus? Take this to the Lord, repent of your lack of trust in Him, and open yourself up to His peace. He wants you to know that He has you, that He knew you from before the foundation of the world, and that He has every hair on your head counted. Maybe you are fearful over how you will provide for yourself in the event of an economic collapse, and find yourself taking all manner of precautions in response to the fear in order to save your assets. This fear, and the importance that you place on financial security, must also be repented of and offered to the Lord never to be taken up again. God would strip you of all props that you have relied upon—those that you may even regard as virtuous—so that your trust is in Him alone.

God is not looking for prognosticators of world events at this time. He is not looking for men and women who would expose all of the evil deeds of those bent on destruction or amassing power and empires for themselves. Most of all, He is not using human mouthpieces to spread fear, which is precisely what all of this “fact” reporting does. He is looking for men and women whose hearts are so set on Him that they can see His purposes in world events, whatever they may be, and speak these liberating truths to a world desperately in bondage to the circumstances around them. It is time, precious brothers and sisters, to stop looking at all of the pits in the windshield of our circumstances, and see them for what they are—nothing but a smokescreen that would keep us from embracing the liberating truths of God’s sovereign and highest purposes for our lives. Let us start looking through our windshields of circumstances and at the source of all truth, the one who IS the Truth, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried, and raised again to new life in us!