Just Get Vaccinated!
After experiencing several of my anti-vaxxer friends and colleagues die from a disease that a simple injection could have cured, I decided it was time to break my silence on an important COVID-19 issue. Recently, I asked a woman had she been vaccinated; her response was a resounding “NO!” She followed up with what she thought was a show-stopping question: “Do you know the long-term effects of the vaccine?” she fearfully said. My response was, “Uh, yeah, as a matter of fact I do, but the long-term effects aren’t as important as the short-term effects which is pretty much, you get the ventilator and sometimes you die!”
Like this sister, so many church folks that I know are ill-informed, uninformed or improperly informed. They are a sad lot that usually succumbs (no pun intended) to leaning to their own understanding. Even Christian pastors arrogantly act as if they are as knowledgeable and capable as trained and educated medical professionals. If your research only consists of subjectively self-evaluating or making life endangering decisions after checking with “Dr. Google”, you are making a foolish error, to say the least! One pastor told me that he conducted some “research” that everybody that took the vaccine would die in two years. Another flat out said to me in a loud voice, “Y’all going to hell!”
Along with the kooky religious excuses there are political leanings that stop people from taking the lifesaving vaccine. Many of Donald Trump’s supporters formerly declined the vaccine because he spoke negatively about it. Then, in a news conference when he announced that he had received it, his formerly loyal fans booed him. COVID vaccine lies, and misinformation seems to be a hotbed for conspiracy theorists and it’s getting more and more odd every day. Not only do some refuse to wear masks, but they also get angry and try to infringe on the rights of people that do protect themselves with masks.
Included in some of the ignorant ideas about the vaccine are the following lies the devil told you about the COVID-19 vaccine:
1. The vaccine is made with dead/aborted fetuses. FALSE
While the vaccine used lab-replicated fetal cell lines during its production process, the vaccine does not contain any fetal cells.
2. The vaccine is the mark of the beast. (Unbiblical and) FALSE
3. The government, Bill Gates is using the vaccine to track people. (Unnecessary and) FALSE
4. The vaccine was created/developed too fast to be effective. FALSE
5. You only need to wear a mask to protect yourself from vaccinated people, transferring the vaccine from themselves to you. FALSE (and dumb)
And yes, I’m embarrassed to say that that last one is actually a real, present day, jaw dropping conspiracy! These and other unlearned conspiracies are patently and categorically perfidious!
The same people that advance false claims about the vaccine should know that (mostly) all vaccines are made the same way, and the method of developing vaccines is used to cure many diseases.
If you’ve ever had a vaccine for Hepatitis, Rabies, Rubella, Smallpox or even Chickenpox you may as well get the COVID-19 vaccine. They all come from the same base, the same stock.
Also, since 1960 vaccines for shingles, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and many others have been made the same way. Scientists, researchers, and developers have been at work creating the basic formulas for new, upcoming, and present-day vaccines for many years. If my anti-vaccine friends were honest, or at least properly informed, they would know that most of the medicines they take every single day are made the same way as the COVID vaccine is made, and many include the same ingredients.
Religiously speaking, the mark of the beast is not even relevant to today’s Christian, that is, depending on your eschatological worldview. For most of us, the mark of the beast won’t appear as an option until after the rapture of the saints has occurred. This means that the COVID vaccine couldn’t possibly be the mark. Additionally, the mark of the beast will literally be taken in upon a person, not injected into them. The mark won’t be a secret. The mark won’t be private. The mark will come with a caveat and offer you can’t refuse!
Secondly, nobody has been prevented from buying or selling due to not taking a COVID vaccine. No matter what your end time doctrinal view is, the Bible clearly shows us that the mark of the beast will be a voluntary pledge of loyalty to the worship of a man and probably his system.
This is certainly NOT the case with the COVID vaccine. If the COVID vaccine were the mark of the beast there would be no confusion, speculation, or debate. You would know it! Your soul will not be dammed to the lake of fire by mistake!
Consider this!
Question:
Do the COVID-19 vaccines contain aborted fetal cells? NO!
According to infectious disease expert James Lawler, MD, the COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any aborted fetal cells.
Additionally, since the 1960s the following vaccines were made in a similar fashion as the COVID-19 vaccines:
· Hepatitis A vaccine
· Rabies vaccine
· Rubella vaccine
· Chickenpox vaccine
· Shingles vaccine
· Hemophilia vaccine
· Rheumatoid arthritis and cystic fibrosis vaccines
Also, according to doctors such as Megan Ranney, associate dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, and Shelly Harkins, chief medical officer of St. Peter's Health in Helena, Montana, what most people don’t understand is that the science around the COVID vaccine is not new. Scientists have been working on vaccines for this family of viruses for the last 15 to 20 years. They did not start from scratch.
We need to get vaccinated to protect ourselves, our own families and for the public.
The majority of COVID-19 patients filling hospital beds is avoidable. The vaccine can solve plethora of issues. Doctors say that in some hospitals people who come in with a heart attack may not get CPR, and patients who would have been hospitalized may be sent home with loved ones who are unable to properly take care of them. Since approximately 80% of ICU beds in the country are in use and nearly 30% are being used by COVID-19 patients, I think it makes sense to drop the fear and conspiracies and just get protected. One man told me that he’s going to wait until enough people have taken the vaccine before he takes the “risk” of vaccination. What’s interesting is that over a billion doses of the vaccines have been given worldwide, with only a few rare side effects being noticed.
The fact is that unvaccinated people are slowing down the healing of the nation. We live in a time where, as one man said, “America’s god is freedom” (everybody can have their own truth / interpretation). As a result, anti-intellectualism and the spirit of leaning to our own understandings has plagued the Christian church.
Bottom line? What do you tell a person that’s on the fence about the vaccine? It’s simple. If he’s in danger of a head injury, he should wear a helmet. If he’s in danger of a car accident, he should wear a seatbelt. If he plays hockey, he should wear shin guards. If he’s in danger of some type of serious skin or fatal, fragile bone injury from a fall or bump, he needs to save his life by any means necessary, even if it means being wrapped in bubble wrap!
When the subject is saving a life, one can never be too safe, ergo… if there’s an airborne sickness or disease floating around in air droplets, he needs to wear a mask. COVID-19 is real, it’s everywhere and it requires vaccines and the proper wearing of a mask to help combat it.
Oh, and no! Bill Gates is not trying to track you or take over the world or planting microchips in the vaccine bottles. These are all fake conspiracy theories that the BBC and other news outlets have proven to be malicious and unlearned lies.
Why get the vaccine?
· Get the vaccine because vaccines are your only protection, if you are exposed.
· Get the vaccine because when you do, you are protecting yourself and others.
· Get the vaccine because vaccines such as COVID-19 provide 90% to 97% protection from severe disease from all variants, including Delta.
· Get the vaccine because COVID-19 vaccines are safe.
· Get the vaccine because your family doesn’t want to bury you.
· Get the vaccine because vaccinations are free and easy to find.
· Get the vaccine because you don’t want to bury your family.
· Get the vaccine because being vaccinated can get you back to your life and daily activities.
And finally, eschatologically speaking, there’s nothing in the Bible that connects the vaccine with the “rapture” of the church, the anti-Christ or the end of the world. COVID-19 started out as an epidemic, now it’s a pandemic, but it’s NOT any type of biblical “plague”. The world isn’t about to end because of it, and neither COVID-19 nor the vaccine means that any of us will be getting “raptured” anytime soon. Get the vaccine, please!