Vaccine Mandate

Such a difficult subject in todays world

Let me start by saying this, I am no expert nor am I a scientist on this matter. However I am a Christian who cares about ones body and have spent hours of research on the vaccines before coming to my own PERSONAL decision about it. I believe it comes down to everyone’s own personal decision of ones health surrounding the Vaccine. We have freedom and liberty in this area as a Christian and a Nation of whether or not I should take the Vaccine or not take it. The problem arises with the idea of mandates or for that matter anyone who forces their opinion of the matter on you with judgement. Truth be told I didn’t even want to write about this subject because of how political it has become But feel I must say something about how dividing it has become to the Universal Church. I would like to take the time below to discuss a few thoughts and concerns surrounding the Vaccine but more importantly the mandates.

Thoughts about the Vaccine

Lets talk about the Vaccine in general and some questions that stand out to me.

1. Is my Health in jeopardy because of Covid – 19

Is my own personal health at risk from Covid-19? Do I have any pre-existing health issues or any underlining issues that I don’t know about? Is my age demographic at risk? What affects is Covid-19 having on the population in general and within my age group? Am I healthy?

2. Should I as a Christian get the Vaccine?

What does the Bible say about my own personal health? Who does God put in charge of my health/health decisions? Who has the ultimate authority over it? Can I Glorify God with the decision to get the Vaccine or not get it? To what degree do I follow what the government says or mandates?

3. Is there a moral obligation to get the Vaccine?

If I don’t get it, am I truly Loving my Neighbor? Would Christ take it? Will it hurt others and or hurt my witness by not getting it? Does it truly protect others, if I get the Vaccine? Is it selfish to not get it?

4. What do I know about the Vaccine?

Have I done any research on it? Am I taking it only because the Government is telling me to? Is there any long term effects from taking the Vaccine? Do I know the differences between the different Vaccines? Do I fully understand what the Vaccine does?

5. Am I placing my Hope and Salvation in the Vaccine?

Am I looking toward the Vaccine as a savior? Am I getting the Vaccine out of fear for my life? Am I placing my life and faith in the Vaccine instead of God? Am I placing my hope in anything that will give me control over my life?

6. Who is telling me to get the Vaccine?

Is it my pastor? Is it my mentors? Is it my Church family? Is it the media? Is it my friends? Is it my Doctor? Is it my social media? Is it the Government? Is it from God? Is it my conscience? What does my family say?

7. Am I judging others base on whether or not they have been Vaccinated?

Do I treat others different based on their Vaccination status? Is it my place to judge others? Do I avoid others based on their Vaccination status? Am I trying to push the Vaccine on others?

8. Do you fully trust and have faith in the Vaccine?

If you don’t trust the Vaccine to do its job, why get it? Do you have faith in it enough to say this is what God would want me to do? Do you trust that it is 100% safe for you? Can you take it with thanksgiving to God?

These are a few questions I think everyone should ask themselves before getting the Vaccine. Answering these question might lead you to or away from the Vaccine, everyone will have different answers based on their conscience. We as Christians should be very intentional in everything we do to bring Glory to God. We should do all things in and through faith that God has given us.

I am going to share a few honest Concerns I have with the Vaccine.

1. The Vaccine has been out for only a short time.

With the Vaccine only being around for less then a year now, how can we know all the long term affects of the Vaccine? How do we know all the health risks of taking the vaccine? We have already learned that the Vaccines are less efficient towards the new strain of Covid-19 Delta. The Pfizer’s shot went from a 95% effectiveness in December 2020 to 39% by late July when the Delta strain became predominant in Israel. So will we have to get new vaccines or booster shots multiple times a year?

2. The Vaccine has also caused many health problems and deaths

We know that the Vaccines have been causing increase risk to myocarditis¹ in the younger ages² and mostly men. Also blood clots issues are staring to arise after vaccination in all ages Known as TTS³.

3. The Vaccine was developed using the cell tissue of the un-born.

“In various stages of vaccine development and manufacturing, some of the COVID-19 vaccines used cells originally isolated from fetal tissue (often referred to as fetal cells), some of which were originally derived from an aborted fetus.”⁴

4. Natural Immunity has been proven to be better than the Vaccine.

The Vaccine is less efficient than Natural Immunity and has been known to actually weaken your immunity over time towards the virus. Natural immunity is far superior to the protection you get from the Covid-19 shot, because when you recover from the infection, your body makes antibodies against all five proteins of the virus, plus memory T cells that remain even once antibody levels diminish. Covid-19 overall lethality is on par with the common flu. Provided you’re not in a nursing home or have multiple comorbidities, your chances of surviving Covid-19 is 99.74%, on average.

Although I am not here to argue whether or not you should get the Vaccine, we should at least think through all these things. We should seek God first and His wisdom. My hope with this post is to get you thinking about things and being intentional in all matters of life. We should seek to understand Virus and the Vaccine. And most importantly we should keep our hope and faith in Christ, not the Vaccine.

5. What does the Vaccine actually do for me?

We know now that it doesn’t prevent us from getting Covid-19. We know Covid-19 can still also be transmitted between people who are Vaccinated. Those who are Vaccinated still have to be tested and wear masks. We also know you can still be hospitalize even though you are Vaccinated. So what does the Vaccine do for me? Maybe it lowers my odds just a bit while increasing the risk to bad reactions to it. The Vaccine seems to be failing in what it is actually suppose to do, in my opinion.

The problem is mandates not the Vaccine.

Here in the United States, we have always had freedom over ones private induvial health until here recently¹. This year our President on Aug. 12th introduced us to the Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate which has affected everyone in multilabel ways. It started with our Health care workers, shortly after that the mandate went to our military and is now currently taking affect in our private and public workforce. The issue lies in mandating the vaccine to the general population, by this time the vaccine has already been out long enough for everyone to make their own choice about it. So people that wanted to take it have already done so but that leaves us with the ones who might have chosen not to take it because of health issues or uncertainty about the vaccine or religious reasons. Our government however doesn’t truly respect ones personal decision surrounding the Vaccine, and therefore has mandated the Vaccine to the general population in a multitude of ways. This has caused many people to go against their believes and take the Vaccine out of fear, not for the virus but for fear of the government and losing their careers. While others have manage to holdfast in their faith and beliefs while at the cost of losing their careers that they have been building over years, not to mention the many relations they have lost based on their decision. Coercion is what they are doing, no longer is it freedom surrounding our choices. The authorities are saying submit or face the consequences. Is the Vaccine that Important for the government to divide its nation over it? Along with that we are seeing a great divide in the Church over Vaccinations. It has become our Nations new Gospel and the new religion to the point that is very scary if you truly study it. We must beware of what is happening and standing firm in Christ. We are seeing major separation between those who are Vax and those who are non-Vax. The segregation is happening in health care/insurance, transportation/traveling, jobs/careers, and even in Churches.

Churches are turning people away at this very moment because of Vaccine status. We are starting to see pastors and churches play god on who gets to hear the gospel, who gets to worship and who gets join the body of Christ over the Vaccine. We as Christians can not segregate who gets to hear the word of God. The word of God is meant to go to all nations, tribes and tongues no matter their Vaccine status and anything less as a Christian is disobedience. This is a very serious fight for Christian freedom and or idolatry in the United States.

The New Religion

Observing this new push for the Vaccine, it seem like a new religion/cult has risen from it. Now this is not true for the majority of people but it is very true for some. It seems many place their salvation in it along with worshipping and praising it. Many have placed their Identity in it with being Vaccinated. They have adopted there own gospel message and creeds about it. Some seem to be extreme followers of those who enforce it and those who teach on it. There is a heavy amount of government praise for the vaccinated and public threats of judgment on the unvaccinated coming from the news, public figures,⁺ and media. They have also created a moral divide with an in-group (the virtuous vaccinated) and an out-group (the unclean unvaccinated). In the days of Covid-19, we have seen kind of supreme authority ceded to governing authorities, but especially the CDC. In fact, the religious response to Covid-19 is evident in the way the ruling elites are joined by a priestly class of celebrities who are skilled in selling their own bodies on social media which apparently qualifies them to tell you what to do with yours. How many celebrities, when they received their shot, celebrated with a picture, complete with a double mask, on Instagram. Virtue signaling their vaccination, these priests of culture call others to “Follow me as I follow Fauci.” Just look at places like Australia and Canada, who have had extreme lockdowns and inflicted harm on others who didn’t follow their rules or laws on Covid-19. If anything this has taught us how easy it is for some to blindly follow the government and how easy it is to lose our of freedom and liberties. Their gospel since day one has been: blessing is found in the vaccine, but death awaits the unvaccinated. In short, the Covid-19 Vaccine has made a divide between the clean and unclean.

“I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say, we owe this to each other. We love each other. Jesus taught us to love one another and how do you show that love but to care about each other enough to say, please get the vaccine because I love you and I want you to live, I want our kids to be safe when they’re in schools, I want to be safe when you go to a doctor’s office or to a hospital and are treated by somebody, you don’t want to get the virus from them. You’re already sick or you wouldn’t be there. We have to solve this, my friends. I need every one of you. I need you to let them know that this is how we can fight this pandemic.”
Governor Hochul

Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another

1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Romans 14:1-12

Summarizing his argument on conscience and religious devotion to God, Paul writes: “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom 14 v. 23). This simple principle needs to guide Christians at all times, but especially in moments when governing authorities are binding consciences by way of coercive actions that do not proceed from God’s truth. In fact, the first point to make is that coercion always makes faith null and void.
DAVID SCHROCK

There will be those who say we should submit all things to the government/authorities as Paul says in Rom 13:1 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” But let us also remember what Christ said in Mark 12:17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Caesar/Government has no right to tell us what to do with our own personal health, our bodies belong to the Lord not Caesar. We should obey and submit to the Government authorities but we should only submit to them the things that belong to them such as general laws and rules. But when the authorities overstep their boundaries and go against what God has said, we do not submit. At the end of the day God is the final judge and He is the one with all authority, He is our King.

Let us do everything in honor of the Lord and with thanksgiving towards God. Let us not despise, judge, or quarrel with one another over any matters and specially the matters of the Vaccine. Let us live for the Lord and not for ourselves. Understand that God is in control of all things including Diseases and Vaccines. My hope in writing this post was to get the reader thinking about the Vaccine and the mandates in light of eternity. In all of our decisions, no matter how big or how small we should seek guidance from God. We should be well educated on the Vaccines and mandates so that we can best glorify God in our choices about it.

John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, once received a letter with the question asking him: would he receive the small-pox inoculation(a Vaccine)? I loved how he responded saying he would rather not take it with the chance of contracting a disorder or even death from it. He followed that up with talking about how God was the best judge for the season and manner in which a virus may visit him. He also truly understood his life being in the hands of the Lord, with that he knew that he was in safest place no matter the outcome of his life. Below is a small portion of his response, which can also be read in one of the links below too.

If another person should say, My times are in the Lord’s hands; I am now in health, and am not willing to bring upon myself a disorder, the consequences of which I cannot possibly foresee. If I am to have the small-pox [or Covid-19], I believe he is the best judge of the season and manner in which I shall be visited, so as may be most for his glory and my own good; and therefore I choose to wait his appointment, and not to rush upon even the possibility of danger without a call. If the very hairs of my head are numbered, I have no reason to fear that, supposing I receive the smallpox[or Covid-19] in a natural way, I shall have a single pimple more than he sees expedient; and why should I wish to have one less?………. If I did venture, and the outcome should not be favorable, I would blame myself for having attempted to take the management out of the Lord’s hands into my own, which I never did yet in other matters, without finding I am no more able than I am worthy to choose for myself.
John Newton