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Florida pastor: Coronavirus is divine punishment against the Jews

“We told everybody, watch what happens. It’s going to spread across America from AIPAC,” he said.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

Rick Wiles, a nondenominational Christian pastor from Florida, says that the coronavirus is a judgment by God against the Jews.

Wiles is the founder of the Christian news website, TruNews.

Wiles along with correspondents Edward Szall and Doc Burkhart discussed the coronavirus in a broadcast from their individual homes on March 25.

Wiles claimed that his ministry has been “under ferocious, vicious, ugly, nasty attacks by Zionists” and that the coronavirus is a judgment by God against his enemies.

After citing news stories about the spread of the virus in synagogues, he said, “Stay out of those things. There’s a plague in them. God’s dealing with false religions. God’s dealing with people who oppose his son, Jesus Christ.”

Wiles said that the coronavirus originated in the U.S. from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, D.C., in early March.

“We told everybody, watch what happens. It’s going to spread across America from AIPAC,” he said.

The first confirmed case of coronavirus in the U.S. actually occurred on January 21 in Washington state, with the first death also in Washington state on February 29.

Wiles supported his claim that the disease is a judgment against Jews by pointing to several news reports about Jews being infected and dying from the disease.

He then turned his comments to the Israeli prime minister. “Now, let me tell you, Mr. Netanyahu, let me tell you, ADL, God is spreading it in your synagogues. You’re under judgment because you oppose his son, the lord Jesus Christ,” he said.

Wiles offered Jews guidelines for avoiding the virus, theorizing that it is attracted by Kabala bracelets and Jewish religious texts. Kabala is a system of Jewish mysticism.

“So that would be the first thing you should do is get rid of your Kabala bracelet. Throw away your Talmud. Those things are contaminated. It’s attracting the virus,” he said.

The pastor told Zionist groups, “You have a plague in your house because you have been plaguing the church of God. You’ve been persecuting the preachers of Jesus Christ. Now, the table has turned and the plague is coming after you.”

Wiles also had a warning for his fellow Christians. “And I’m going to give a warning to the evangelical Zionists also. If you don’t mend your ways, if you don’t repent, this virus is coming for you too,” he said.

TruNews correspondent Doc Burkhart stated his belief that God would judge idolatrous religions.

“And people are going to get mad, but Judaism is an idolatrous religion,” Burkhart said. “They worship the Temple, the imaginary Temple that they’re going to build. They worship it.”

TruNews was founded by Rick Wiles in September 1998 in Dallas, Texas.

According to the website, the organization believes “that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God; that He came to earth as God in human flesh; and that He is the only way to God the Father.”

TruNews has faced criticism in the past for Wiles’ controversial opinions. The Anti-Defamation League has labeled him “virulently anti-Semitic.”