To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? This seems to be the conundrum plaguing many people's minds. Social media is flooded with a spectrum of information. People are drowning under the myriad of perspectives. They are forced to swim to the shore of vaccines only to find the sun of public opinion beating down on their weary souls. After all, the world is ravaged by a pandemic. Surely the answer is to get as many people vaccinated as possible. Or is it?

Polarising factions

The vaccination debate has become a polarising issue with various factions taking a jab at each other. On one end of the spectrum there are some extremist groups amongst the Christian community. They view anyone taking the jab as evil because they align with the globalist agenda. Their accusation is that the globalist agenda has behind it a plot to alter the genetic composition of people through the vaccine. These groups employ verses from the Bible to justify their rhetoric, albeit many of those verses being taken out of context.

But it is not only these extremist groups who have such a view. Many people in the world are still not quite convinced in the validity of these vaccines because there has not been sufficient time to test them. This suspicion has grown some legs because some people have already died as a result of taking the vaccine. And it's running it’s course faster than I can say Corona Virus Disease.

On the other end of the polarising spectrum are some who see those who refuse to be vaccinated as non-caring members of society because they are not playing their part for the greater good. Some would go as far as categorizing them as enemies of society, the proverbial speed bumps to the progress of the world towards unbridled utopia. They are seen as anti-bodies who are making it worse for everybody.

It's Getting Complicated

On both sides of the polarising spectrum are people who are completely oblivious to some of the alarming conversations and laws that are being passed in various parts of the world. Alleged credible reports reveal that in some states in the US and Israel, those without a COVID vaccine are prohibited from various public spaces, such as cinemas, parks, sport stadiums and the like.

Back home in South Africa certain TV outlets are debating the constitutional rights of citizens who refuse to get the jab. Can employers terminate employment contracts because their employees refuse the vaccine? It was even reported on a news outlet that a landlord was seeking to terminate the lease of their lessor because they refused the vaccine.

The noble desire of our President to achieve vaccination amongst two thirds of the population is an admirable goal. He proposed the term “herd immunity” as the phrase that embodied his goal. It seems though that thus far, the only immunity he has achieved are many people’s minds staying immune to the gravity of the situation at hand. Recent research however reveals that a good majority of South Africans are hesitant to take the jab. What will happen to those who refuse the vaccine?

Last year the President assured questioning citizens that no one would ever be forced against their will to take the jab. But if the waves persist in their 6 monthly cycle, they will keep washing over our economy. Will the President’s promise hold sway in the long run? Does this mean that he would be forced to make the vaccine mandatory for all South Africans?

An issue of conscience

As a Christ worshipping Bible believing Christian, I would hold the COVID vaccine debate as a matter of freedom of conscience. God’s Word affords us freedom of conscience pertaining to certain matters, and this is one such matter. We err greatly when we turn open handed issues into closed ones. Sometimes we go so far as to fill up the syringe that is social media, with venomous accusations and squirt them at unsuspecting passersby, who then are unnecessarily roused up.

Above all, as Christians we are called to love our neighbour as the primary means of being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. In a COVID-19 pandemic, part of loving our neighbour involves observing safety protocols and regulations as set out by the government. These safety protocols and regulations go a long way in curbing the spread of the virus. This is the least we can do in loving our neighbour.

It is also helpful to do as much research on the make-up of the vaccines and the potential side effects. Those in the medical field are more qualified to make a judgement call on the vaccine as opposed to social media junkies who gather tid bits of information from unqualified sources and put together highly unsubstantiated stances that end up spreading uncertainty faster than the actual spread of the virus.

We need to be aware that taking the jab does not necessarily make us immune from contracting Covid-19. It just means that if we do contract the virus our symptoms are greatly reduced. In that sense observing safety protocols and regulations are still the primary way of halting the progress of the virus.

The sovereignty of God

As Christians we are also called to exercise discernment in prayer. In uncertain times, the one thing that is certain is a sovereign God who brings about his plans and purposes regardless of man’s vain attempts at seizing control of the uncontrollable. God is sovereign over the affairs of man and over life and death.

I recently came across a social media post by a fairly well know evangelical leader who vented about Christians refusing to take the vaccine. He even went to the extent of saying that some Christians have “died needlessly” because they didn’t take the vaccine. Does he really not believe that our days were written out even before they came to be? Consider these two Scriptures:

• A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed (Job 14:5).

• All the days ordained for me were written in your book, before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16).

A concerning development

Lastly some Christians have proposed that these COVID vaccines are the Mark of the Beast. Regardless of what they have said, these vaccines do not in any way biblically qualify as the prophesied Mark of the Beast. In doing so they have made a fool of themselves in front of a world that has already seen the church lose more and more credibility. In arriving at these conclusions they have made a laughing stock of the people of God.

Firstly the Mark of the Beast won’t just arrive on the scene out of obscurity. There is a lead up to it of conditioning the world’s population into forcibly having to accept common modes of doing trade and finance. Secondly anyone who takes the Mark of the Beast is swearing allegiance to the beast (the Antichrist). As far as I can tell, he has not yet arrived on the scene. Thirdly the Mark of the Beast is used to buy and sell goods and services, something which the vaccine does not qualify for.

Having said all of that, the concerning trend that has been emerging in the recent past is the growing homogenising of world thought and governing systems. Certain sections of the media have been the culprits of propagating agendas that cancel any thought or worldview that don’t agree with theirs. Free speech has been redefined to the extent that any opposing view is seen as hate speech. The extent of this homogeny will in future target Christians and their Gospel as hate speech, and will be villainized as vermin that have to be eradicated. That day is coming (read the letter of Revelation).

Nothing seems to have united world governments more than this COVID pandemic. In the space of a month, world governments stood united in shutting down countries by instituting previously unthinkable lockdowns. COVID has managed to achieve what the UN and other organizations have not been able to do for decades. Many nations are singing from the same hymn sheet. If a virus could bring this about, who is to say that a virus far more deadly in nature, or a global economic meltdown, or an incoming asteroid (all prophesied in Revelation) could not unite the world governments even more? This will be the perfect stage for one global leader to arise.

A virus far worse

I am not an anti vaxxer. My two and a half year old daughter has had all her vaccinations done since birth, at the cost of thousands of Rands. Medical scientists have discovered vaccines over the last 100 years that have helped eradicate previously fatal diseases. We are grateful for them. I am not yet standing in line to be vaccinated, and I have a right to exercise caution in this regard. I may or may not change my view on this. But if the day does come where I am forced to be vaccinated against my will, that would be a far worse day for humanity than this day.

Let us strive to love our neighbours and above all else, keep proclaiming the Good News of Jesus because there is a virus more eternally deadly than COVID, whose only cure is the blood of Jesus Christ. Instead of waving the vaccination flag fluttering under the winds of public euphoria, we ought to be waving the flag of the Gospel fluttering under the winds of eternal souls destined for an eternity without their Maker.