The BBC, FOX News and media outlets around the globe are interested in the perspective of John Lennox on the current Coronavirus pandemic. YouTube clips featuring Prof Lennox on the Coronavirus pandemic have already been viewed over 200,000 times.

John Lennox is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Oxford, a widely published author of books on science and faith and a Christian apologist. He recently released a short yet profound book, "Where is God in a Coronavirus world?" He calls this book, now being translated into 23 languages, one of the most important pursuits of his life.

Prof. Lennox engaged in a live Q & A with a global audience on April 22nd to address the issue of how Christians should think, act and lead in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Prof. Lennox was interviewed by Dr. Richard (Rick) J. Goossen, Chairman, ELO, who also facilitated questions.

Here are some extracts from the conversation with Prof. Lennox, which have been paraphrased and summarized for brevity. 

NOTE: For the exact context of Prof. Lennox’s remarks and a word-for-word record of his comments, please refer to the webinar recording. The below summary is not to be quoted as the exact words of Prof. Lennox. Thank you.

RG: Do you think the Coronavirus pandemic provides an opportunity to have people focus on the bigger questions of life (such as meaning, purpose, the existence of God)?  

Absolutely. Let's go back to C.S. Lewis because as usual, he says something very sensible. He says pain is God's megaphone shouting at us to ‘wake up’ and it seems to me that it's having that effect. It's leaving people, particularly in their isolation, to really think about their mortality. Many of my friends have to have something big hit them as they say, ‘I did not really believe I was mortal. I thought I was going to live forever!’

RG: In terms of praying with people, are we praying that they can endure the present suffering more effectively or praying that the suffering will be removed?

Jesus healed people in his day, and I have no doubt that God heals today. What is very clear, even in the time of the New Testament, is that there is no guarantee, however much we pray, of a particular outcome. One of the people that from a rational perspective would have deserved ‘healing,’ if that's the right word, more than anybody else, was the Apostle Paul. He had some real problems with his eyesight. He was a writer and author. That must have been desperately painful. God did answer prayers but not by healing. He said my grace is sufficient for you. That is a tough one. It means that I can not—and it is a very dangerous thing to do—give people any sort of guarantee that they are going to come through this current Coronavirus situation, or any other, without any suffering.

At the same time, I can certainly pray because it is a natural instinct that God may do something very real in the lives of others. He may either enable them to understand why He is allowing something to happen, like he did to Lazarus when He healed him, whereas in other cases people are left to die. Death may come not by a COVID-19 cause; it might be in a bus accident. Nevertheless, we pray with people that we can bring them nearer to God. This is a sensitive matter which is why it seems to me that the better you know people the less you are likely to make mistakes in guaranteeing them something through prayer.

I remember what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:11 [“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”]. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer as a birthright when they trust Christ. Due to your mortal bodies no matter how much you pray, you are not going to conquer death. So, therefore, we have to be very careful before we make judgments as to whether the Lord is going to heal the person or not.

RG: Business leaders and leaders generally would wish to be difference-makers in the present situation and yet they have many of their own challenges—how do they carry on?

All of us have to deal with that reality now. I think I mentioned in the Oxford Entrepreneurial Leaders Programme last summer that I've never really given employment to anybody, except printers of my books! [So, I have not been a business owner or employer, but let me offer the following comments.] If you think of the track record up until this Coronavirus struck, many business leaders [like those in the listening audience] would have had people who are very thankful to them—or ought to be—because they have houses and cars and food and clothing thanks to the employment you created for them. Now that you have come into a very difficult situation, I think there is no real alternative but to let some people go. That may be very hurtful but if you go bankrupt there will be no jobs.

So how do you streamline [reduce expenses] in order to avoid letting people go? I know that our [UK] government is providing certain programmes, furloughing people and making up their salaries. Of course, from country to country it is very different, and I can imagine that many of you [in various countries] with different legislations, taxes, laws and all of that are facing huge mountains of problems.

I want to say to you that God has an interest in the business you are running.  He is interested in your work because He gave it to you to be part of your experience of Him and His Kingdom. I believe that in a crisis situation it is totally legitimate and right to get involved in thinking deeply about what the Bible teaches you in terms of morality and love of other people. As a result, instead of this present situation being a problem to be overcome it is a problem to be lived through.

What do I mean by that? Many years ago, I used to think that I would solve all of life's problems by about age 37 and then I would really live when I got them all solved. Someone said to me, ‘you have got it all wrong!’ I said, ‘why is that?’ They said, ‘John, the process of solving the problems is living.’ [What is the application in a business context?] You have an opportunity to sit with your fellow executives and say, ‘right, how do we live through this and what can we learn of God's provision and his guidance in this?’ That means that the whole experience can be brought to God rather than waiting for it to be solved. It is in our work that we face reality. That is absolutely right. I cannot learn a moral lesson sitting in a lawn chair reading philosophy, but I can if I need to give work and I have got to do my tax returns. I would certainly encourage you to ask yourself at this stage, ‘how can I maximize my potential to help myself and others through this now?’

RG: How can Christians be people of hope in these circumstances?

The central Christian message is that Jesus is God Incarnate come into the world. We are shortly after Easter time. There are two things: a cross and an empty tomb. First, the cross on which Christ suffered. What does that tell me? Well, if that is God it means that God has not remained distant from the issue of human suffering but has himself shared it and become part of it. In that sense, Jesus can weep and He understands. Second, the other side of it is that on the third day God raised Him from the dead and that makes everything different. It means that having trusted Christ that He is taking the weight of the mess I have made in my own life and other peoples’ lives and He has given me forgiveness and eternal life. That will not be beaten by the Coronavirus. The promise to every believer is that one day they will hear the very same voice that Lazarus heard. One day He will say to us, ‘come out of there.’ It is to give people that hope that I want to spend the rest of whatever days I have got left.