This message is a reflection on the division over COVID vaccines, and some Biblical principles that can guide believers in how to navigate their relationships with one another.

<p>This message is a reflection on the division over COVID vaccines, and some Biblical principles that can guide believers in how to navigate their relationships with one another.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AudioVerse

Eugene Prewitt

Liberty, Opportunity, and Responsibility


Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, I ask you to bless this talk, that you'd teach me what to say and what not to say. I ask in the name of Jesus, Amen. So I'm speaking to you today from my last few hours in the great United States. My wife and I are headed today to Bangladesh where we're gonna be living.

And we're moving from a land with more freedom to a land of less freedom. And if you live in the United States today and you think you don't have much freedom, well maybe you don't have as much as you had yesterday, but try moving and see how that goes for you. I want to talk today about liberty, opportunity, and responsibility. And of course, that means about the virus and the vaccine. By all accounts, COVID-19 has generated unprecedented interest in the tension between personal liberty and mutual responsibility.

You've heard both of these kind of expressions. You've heard people say, My body is God's temple. I am obliged to honor him above all human authority and consequently I have a right to liberty regarding what goes into my body. And you've also heard people saying with passion, no man is an island. When my choices endanger others, those choices are selfish and evil.

If I put the needs of my body, temple, higher than the needs of others around me, In what sense am I imitating Christ? And, well, at least for me it's hard to argue with either of those conscientious statements, though it does seem at times that they're arguing with each other. And I... They do that ad infinitum, just so on. We've heard plenty of arguments.

Let me offer a few ideas that might serve to dial down the rhetoric. First, I wanna say some words to my anti-COVID vaccine friends, my anti-vaxxer friends. I hear you. I didn't want the vaccine either. It is certainly not likely to help my personal health, nor is it likely to make me safer to those around me.

I already have natural immunity to several strains of COVID. And I personally hate needles. And I have significant thoughts about the shortness of the period over which we have been gathering data on the long-term effects of these mRNA vaccines. But just a few weeks ago, my wife and I got the second dose of that jab, and this is why. The opportunities it opens for us to minister in various places in the 1040 window are worth more to me than my life.

Yes, you heard that correctly. My opportunities outweigh the value of a human life because they open the door for many humans to have eternal life. Your opportunities also might outweigh your rights. How valuable is your opportunity to minister in places that are closed to you if you refuse the vaccine? My anti-vaxxer friends, I want you to consider this.

But now let me say some words to my pro-vax friends, my pro-COVID vaccine friends. Listen, let's drop this business of condemning people for unintended consequences. I mean, Jesus is not responsible for the evil on this planet even if he does send rain and sunshine on the evil and on the good. And you are not responsible for the drinking habits of the manager of the gas station where you fill up your motorcycle. The reason is plain.

Our responsibility ends where our choices end. So while the unvaccinated may be exposing themselves to significant risk, they are neither suicidal nor murderous. Instead, they are taking a calculated risk to themselves because of the values that they hold. And for all you know, friend, They may be more careful than you are to not spread or shed the virus. That's called merciful thinking, and we need more of that today.

But now let me say a few words to both camps. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And that liberty has always been a boon, especially to minority opinions. This is what I mean. Liberty extends to the following.

An atheistic professor, a lesbian counselor, a Jesuit doing polemic work for the Catholic faith, a young man advancing a communist agenda, a Jehovah's Witness missionary, and a successful mullah helping Westerners revert to Islam. But these 6 individuals are really doing much worse things than even super spreaders of the virus. These persons are causing false Gospels to proliferate to their own everlasting shame. They are causing young and unsuspecting persons to become hardened and lost. Still, we advocate extending liberty to them.

God requires us to do this, and if I wasn't a conscientious objector, I would fight to defend their rights to promote their sincerely held opinions, however dangerous those opinions might be. That respect for them, however, would not prevent me from vigorously opposing them by teaching and writing. You might ask, why should we extend liberty to them when they are destroying the eternal lives of our neighbors? I answer, no 1 is qualified to tell a man how he must worship God. Every person answers directly to God for his choices regarding worship and obedience.

It is not the work of any, this is quoting Ellen White, it is not the work of any man to prescribe the work of any other man contrary to his own convictions of duty. It is right to give counsel and to suggest plans, but every man must be left free to seek direction from God, whose he is and whom he serves. When it comes to vaccines, the governments of the world find themselves in a bind. On 1 hand, they are obliged to make policies to promote public health, such as that corpses must not be buried near water sources, persons with Ebola must strictly quarantine, medicinal drugs must receive federal approval, homes in some areas must be checked for radon periodically to avoid dangerous radiation accumulation in the basements. I mean, there are many such laws that are designed to protect public health.

But on the other hand, the best of world governments feel obliged to interfere with life and liberty of their citizens as little as possible. And as the laws of Moses show that God authorizes significant policies for defending public health, I mean it does show that Israel had many rules related to sanitation, parallel to those of our health department today, and infectious persons were required to strictly quarantine, living ever outside the cities until health returned. Miriam's prestige and power did not win her an exception to these rules. As nations weigh these conflicting ideals of protection and liberty, let us be charitable in judging our government. Not all restrictions ought to be viewed as overreach.

Honor to whom honor is due is part of our moral duty to governments, and policies without teeth are not rules. So let's not accuse our government of coercion when she threatens nonconformists to her health policies. Now, yes, there's another side. The topic of vaccines and mask mandates is just very complicated. I know good solid doctors on both sides of the debates.

And as I like science generally, and health science in particular, I have personally taken a careful look at the data, and as I said, it is complicated. Cases for masks can be made sensibly, and a case can be made for the health benefits of unmasked respiration. Cases can be made for and against ivermectin and cases can be made for vaccine mandates and better cases can be made I think for vaccine freedom but you don't need me to think for you And that is where Romans 14 comes in. There God bids us be gracious to each other when we differ regarding doubtful questions. You can read that in verse 1.

We are to be sweet and understanding despite our deep feelings and differing yet passionate views. In the case of Romans 14 there was a question about whether they would keep Passover and some thought conscientiously we must keep it and every Christian should because Jesus had kept the Last Supper and indicated that we would keep it all the way to His Second Coming. Others thought no, the ceremonial laws were nailed to the cross. Jesus instituted a new ritual in the Lord's Supper. These 2 opinions were both held by studious persons and they couldn't agree with each other and they both felt so important about it and that's why we get this beautiful counsel of Romans 14.

Let me quote part of it to you. Let each be fully persuaded in his own mind. That's what the passage says. Since we each answer to God personally, and for that reason I should give you room to serve him how you think best, and you should give me the same. And the government may not give any such grace at all.

You see Romans 13 and 14 relate to each other just this way. First in 13 we respect God and do what he says. Then we respect Caesar and do as he requires. Then in 14, we respect each other and receive each other as friends and brothers, despite our differences on doubtful subjects. These 3 steps outlined in these 2 chapters would free the church today from much difficulty.

So if you don't get vaccinated and do end up in ICU, I'm going to care for you no less than if you ended up there as a vaccinated person. And if you do get vaccinated and publish the fact, I will suppose that you are a faithful servant of Christ and not a dupe of the best prepared preparing, not a dupe of the beast, preparing for the ominous mark. But 1 more thought, or more than 1. On that last point, what about the global elites? What about preparing for the mark?

Let's settle a few things, a few more. First, the ninth commandment forbids us to falsely accuse even evil persons we are not at liberty to gossip about friends Exodus 20 16 that says thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. But it's not only friends we can't gossip about. We're not at liberty to gossip about fiends either, about our enemies. So the first point again was that the ninth commandment forbids us to falsely accuse even evil persons.

And second, God places the man that he chooses in the thrones of this world's power brokers. You can see that in Daniel 4 17 where we find that God places the basest of men on the thrones of this world. These 2 ideas ought to be sufficient authority to prevent us from sharing any such rumor as that the global elite are seeking to depopulate the world via the vaccine or by chemtrails or by any other means. The bar for passing on accusations is set very high. Only witnesses may testify.

And as God established the heads of state that bear rule we don't want to criticize them unfairly. So recently I've heard someone coined the word sheeple and use it and it's a word for persons that it was being used for persons who don't believe excuse me who are themselves easily believing the kind of propaganda that's coming their way It's been used to describe people like me who don't believe that massive death is soon to come on the vaccinated. I've looked at that and I think that the science for that theory is bankrupt. But I do like the word, the word sheeple. That word has value even if the application of it is erroneous.

People do seem to follow others blindly today, and much more so recently than before. So if you perceive that such blind following is happening all around us, I understand you. But be careful how you connect the current craziness to the future crises. They differ substantially and fundamentally in the most important way. The final crisis, the final crises, parts man over a thus saith the Lord versus a thus saith the church.

The Lord says, remember to keep the seventh day, and the church says, keep the first day or suffer. The vaccine on the other hand parts people over a so-says 1 eminent doctor over so-says another eminent doctor. It separates men quoting scripture from other men quoting scripture. It separates persons who put scripture above tradition from others who put scripture above tradition. It separates sheep from sheep, while the final crisis will separate sheep from goats.

Yes, doubtful cases like the vaccine are unlike the final test. This 1 tests our love and courtesy as a time when the love of many is growing cold. In view of the coming battle between God's words and men's, this perplexity over human views should teach us not to talk and not to take dogmatic stands on either side. So let me summarize. With a great work to do and a short time to do it, the church is in crisis now.

And if the devil has his way the church will be paralyzed by the controversy just now when it has the most to do. Satan would have us divided over partisan views of medicine or strained opinions about world politics. But God would have us practicing Romans 13 to 14, serving Him, honoring the state, and giving gracious room to each other to think. We are to accept each other while refusing to accept arguing. That's what Romans 14 once says, not to doubtful disputations, accept 1 another, but not that far.

And God would have us grow in love while Satan leverages frustration to build animosity God would have a sacrifice even our life for the good of others Satan would have us guard self as supreme and our rights above all values God will test us over his authority. Let's not make any other test for each other. You know I've prepared these thoughts because I've seen friends parted over this issue of the vaccine and mandates that are likely coming and issues that are happening. I'm convinced that I know people who love the Lord Jesus on both sides of all the fences I've described. I think maybe you're 1 of those.

We must give each other grace and learn to love people who don't think like us, to serve people who don't think like us, and maybe most importantly, to put the needs of others above our own rights, above our own needs. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, I'm asking that you will bless these words to forward your mission and to bring 3 angels messages to the planet at a time when travel is so restricted. Would you please guard the minds and hearts of people? Show us where we have fallen into tricks that would lower our love and increase our frustration.

I ask for these gifts in the name of Jesus. Amen. More about Audioverse or if you

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Liberty, Opportunity, and Responsibility

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