The Pale Horse Rides On

THE prophet John was inspired by God to foretell a time when disease epidemics would run rampant throughout the earth like a charging pale horse ridden by death. (Revelation 6:8) The appalling spread of AIDS is more grim proof that we are living at that time. In fact, New York City health officials describe the burgeoning growth of AIDS as “the epidemic to come.”

In Thailand, 70 of the 73 provinces now harbor the AIDS virus. In 1987 only 1 percent of Bangkok’s drug users had AIDS; by mid-1989 more than 40 percent had it. Brazil expects 75,000 diagnosed cases of AIDS in three years, with 1.5 million others infected. Of Brazil’s 1,200 blood banks, only 20 percent had screened their blood supply in 1988, and 14 percent of AIDS sufferers got the disease from tainted blood. In Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, about 75 percent of hemophiliacs are infected. In Côte d’Ivoire, up to 10 percent of pregnant women and 10 percent of blood donors have AIDS.

An American medical official at an 87-nation meeting on AIDS said: “The epidemic of HIV [the AIDS virus] infection is out of control in the United States and in the world.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that by 1998 one million Americans will have the full-blown disease, with many more having the virus. Estimates on the number who already have the virus were recently revised upward drastically. In New York City, AIDS is now the third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.

Blood banks have been sued for supplying AIDS-tainted blood for transfusions. Several have been ordered to pay damages. They may yet face many more lawsuits. Lamented the chief counsel for the American Association of Blood Banks: “What does the future hold? I don’t know. The worst-case scenario is blood centers going out of existence.”

Soon, there will indeed be an end to all blood banks because we are nearing the time that will see a world without AIDS, a world without hospitals, sickness, or death. John, who described the ride of the pale horse, also recorded God’s promise of “a new earth,” a human society freed of the scourge of disease. (Revelation 21:1-4) It is urgent to evaluate that promise now, for in the meantime the pale horse rides on.