Should a Christian get a COVID-19 vaccine? - GotQuestions.org Podcast Episode 2

Welcome to the GotQuestions podcast. One of the best things about serving at gotquestions .org is that we get to see the questions that people are asking. So more so than maybe any other ministry in the world, we know what questions are on people's minds.

In the past 20 years, we've received over 650 ,000 questions. So that gives us a lot of insight. So I'm here with Jeff and Kevin today, and we're going to address a question that we've been receiving a lot over the past five or six months.

The COVID-19 Vaccine and the Mark of the Beast

And you may have guessed that it's something to do with COVID -19. And the topic at hand today is the vaccine, or the vaccines, I guess, more accurately. What should a Christian think about the vaccine?

Should a Christian get these vaccines? And so we're going to approach that from a few different angles based on the type of questions we're receiving. The first one, when I'm going to talk about here briefly, is whether the COVID -19 vaccine is the mark of the beast.

For those of you who may not even know what is the mark of the beast? Well, in Revelation 13, it talks about a mark that the Antichrist will require people to receive in order, sort of like a pledge of allegiance to the kingdom of the Antichrist.

What exactly that is, the text isn't all that clear. But because of that, anytime there's anything that everyone in the world is receiving or considering receiving something like this, people start wondering, could this be the mark of the beast?

Could this be a forerunner of the mark of the beast? Well, just so you all can make a fully informed decision on whether you get the COVID -19 vaccine, wanted to maybe dispel a few myths for you. And this will be the first one we talk about.

But also, I need to remind everyone that this ultimately is an issue between you, between God, your family, and your doctor. So please, by all means, consult your doctor on any questions related to the vaccine or anything else COVID -19 related.

But back to the mark of the beast. In Revelation chapter 13, there are five things the passage talks about that will help us to identify the mark of the beast. And we believe makes it clear that the COVID -19 vaccine is not the mark of the beast.

So let's go through those pretty quickly here. First of all, the mark of the beast will be instituted in the end times during the reign of the Antichrist. And last time I checked, there is not one person who's in control of the entire world.

So the Antichrist does not appear to be here. So that would seem to be an argument against this. Second, the mark of the beast will be required for anyone to be able to buy or sell. That's in Revelation 13, 17.

No one is proposing that you have to get the COVID -19 vaccine in order to be able to buy or sell. There's some talk of a vaccine passport that maybe with the vaccine, you'll have more freedom than without it.

But no one is proposing this be a qualifier for economic activity. Third, some form of worship and or allegiance to the Antichrist will be required in order to receive the mark of the beast. This isn't just something you go into a pharmacy and get injected and get the mark of the beast.

No, there will be some sort of, I am with the Antichrist, I'm with his kingdom. I am pledging my whole self to following him aspect to that. And fourth, it will somehow relate to the number 666. How exactly it relates and what exactly the number 666 means.

There's a lot of debate about that, but whatever the case we know, the mark of the beast will be connected to the number 666. And fifth, anyone who refuses to take the mark of the beast will be killed.

So none of these seem to be happening with the COVID -19 vaccine. I've seen a few COVID -19 clinics. I did not see a guillotine sitting outside for all those who refuse the mark. So the COVID -19 vaccine is not the mark of the beast.

So a lot goes into making a decision like this, but we just want to remove the question of whether it's the mark of the beast from the equation so that you can proceed to the more important, more realistic questions as to whether we get this particular vaccine.

So it's amazing how many times we've received this question. And I know some people personally who are convinced that the COVID -19 vaccine is either the mark of the beast or a precursor to it. So let me just dispel that myth, at least right now, the way it's functioning, the COVID -19 vaccine is not the mark of the beast.

And I think it's good that we do dispel those misunderstandings by making sure that we're talking about accurate understanding. One of the subjects that I see coming up a lot when it comes to COVID -19 vaccines is the issue of tissue from aborted infants.

Aborted Fetal Tissue and Vaccine Ethics

That's something that people ask about pretty often. And that, again, is an area where there's a lot to consider, there's a lot of things to think about, but whatever choices and decisions we make, we have to be sure that we're making them from accurate understanding.

And there's a lot of different ways that people assume the connections between vaccines and abortion. One of them is that the vaccines literally contain the products of abortions, that there are pieces or parts or cells from aborted infants inside the vaccines.

That's not the case. There's no such thing like that in the actual vaccines themselves. There's also the question of whether or not abortions are being performed in order to test the vaccines or to produce the vaccines.

That also is not the case. Where there is truth in this connection between abortion and the vaccines is in something that are called fetal cell lines. The short version of that is that in the 60s and 70s and 80s, there were a few abortions that were performed for completely separate reasons.

And incidental to those, doctors took samples of cells from those aborted infants and used them to reproduce and re-multiply cells that they have since used for research. And they continue to use the same lines because as long as it's the exact same material, it's more consistent and it's easier to understand the results.

So the actual tissues that are being used are thousands of generations away from actual abortions. Does that mean that there's absolutely no connection anymore? Well, not necessarily. There's no question that the ultimate origin of those cells was from an abortion, but those abortions weren't performed specifically for the purpose of this research and they are not being continually performed for the purposes of this research.

So that gives us at least a more accurate grounds for understanding, okay, where do I choose personally to draw the line of how much connection I would like to have? And that's where we start to get into some of the more uncomfortable, awkward balances between competing interests and competing ideals.

The rubella vaccine, for example, I know is produced using some of those techniques, but my understanding is that somewhere around 5 ,000 miscarriages a year here in the United States are prevented because mothers are vaccinated against rubella.

So if we were to step away from the rubella vaccine as an example, because of an abortion that occurred in the past, then we would have to at least grapple with that idea. And that's not the only ethical concern that people run into.

There's also concerns about exactly what these different vaccines specifically do and how they work. And again, that's not only way outside our realm of expertise, it's way outside of our comfort zone.

So when we're answering these questions for people, we're telling them, look, we can give you a basic idea, but if you have any sort of a concern over what the vaccine's actually going to do or the effects that it's gonna have, you have to talk to a doctor about that because we're not here to provide that kind of understanding or that kind of advice.

The other thing that it does is it does make for, it makes for difficult conversations when we're having these discussions with fellow believers because there are questions that come up. At what point in time am I no longer comfortable with these being new vaccines?

How much of a connection to something like abortion am I willing to tolerate for supposedly the greater good? How much am I willing to participate in something like this? And having accurate understanding doesn't necessarily make the conversations easy, but it does help a little bit where it gets more complicated is in knowing how to navigate having disagreements with fellow believers without it becoming bitter or overly contentious.

Christian Love, Humility, and Submission in Disagreements

Yeah, exactly. And I think that that groundwork that you've laid there about having an accurate understanding is so important. And then Shay, with understanding that this is not the mark of the beast is also very important because we need to start from a spot of truth and then work our way forward when we're dealing with others who may disagree with us.

And maybe you've noticed not all Christians agree on this issue of, should I get the COVID vaccine? Should I not get the COVID vaccine? And it's such a, it really is a sticky wicket as they say. People get very emotional about this issue.

People have very strong feelings about it and they are very heartfelt in their conclusions. And how do we deal with people who disagree with us on this issue? I wish that there was a Bible verse that we could turn to that says, thou shalt get a vaccine when it is available or thou shalt not get a vaccine, even if it's available.

But there's no such verse. So as a pastor, I can't tell people it is God's will for you to get the vaccine or it's not God's will for you to get the vaccine. I think it's one of those issues that comes down to really a conscience, a matter of prayer, and again, medical considerations as well.

Just putting aside the medical and health considerations such as, should I have this vaccine to prevent possibly transmitting the disease to elderly parents, for example, or elderly people in the church who are at risk for COVID?

Putting aside all of that, we do have some principles in scripture that help us to work through all interpersonal problems and interpersonal relationships. And the three principles I'd like to just briefly mention here are the principle of love, the principle of humility, and the principle of submission.

Love is called the royal law in scripture. James 2 says that we should be fulfilling the royal law of love and love our neighbors as ourselves. So in all that we do, this is so basic to the Christian life in everything that we do, we are acting in love.

That is, we are actively working for the best of the other person, regardless of the cost to oneself. So that's the underlying principle. I think that's foundational, the law of love. But then we're also told in scripture to be humble with each other, Philippians 2 is probably the go-to passage for humility.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. That's an amazing command right there. Esteem others as better than we are.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you. Let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then Paul goes on to talk about how Jesus is the epitome of humility.

As he came into this world, he laid aside his glory. He willingly gave up so much to come into this world. And he even was humble to the point of death on a cross. That's our example. And what a standard to live up to in humility.

There's a, so whatever interpersonal relationships we have, whatever disagreements we have with a fellow believer, we need to approach the issue in humility and in love. And then the third principle is the principle of submission.

Ephesians 5 .21 says that we are to submit to one another in the fear of God. So ultimately God is our authority. We submit to him and his sovereignty, but how that works out into our interpersonal relationships, Paul deals with in the next chapter in Ephesians 6.

So wives submit to husbands, children submit to parents, slaves submit to masters, or in the context of today's world, we would probably say employees submit to employers or bosses but even in this passage, we can see that there's a submission going the other way as well.

Husbands can be seen as submitting to their wives in that they love their wives as Christ loved the church sacrificially. And fathers submit to their children in this way in that they do not provoke their children to wrath.

And then even masters are told in a way to submit to their slaves. Bosses submit to their employees in this way that they are treated the same way. That's Ephesians 6 verse nine, do the same things to them.

That is kind of the golden rule coming in. Treat others as you would be treated. The point is then that God shows no partiality and that in Christ, we're all on equal footing. Probably a good word here in this discussion of submission though is deference.

The willing suspension of my rights in order to help somebody else. We defer to others as a Christian principle. We practice deference. We practice humility. We practice love. I think those three principles from scripture go a long way towards smoothing things out in our interpersonal relationships.

So I can't tell somebody, go get the vaccine. I can't tell somebody to not get a vaccine. Whatever your choice is in that matter, and I don't need to know about it. I need to be treating you in love and humility and deference.

Grace, Deference, and Wise Conversations About the Vaccine

Excellent thoughts, Kevin. I mean, I've seen this principle played out well in some churches over the past year and poorly. And whether it's the vaccine specifically or how to respond to COVID, whether people always should be meeting together just as we were before COVID because God will protect us or the people who seem so fearful of COVID that they are locking themselves at home and are only attending anything and everything virtually.

So with the vaccine, I've seen churches almost come to splits based on a pastor recommending the congregation all get the vaccine because he's hoping, rightly so, that the church can begin meeting in full again and having small groups and fellowships and so forth.

And it's hard to do when you don't know for sure if you have COVID or possibly could spread it to others. So I've seen it done well. I've seen it done poorly. Thankfully, the church I attend, I've seen a lot of grace.

I've seen a lot of people deferring to one another and submitting to one another on this issue. And there are people with some strong opinions in our church, but at least so far, thank the Lord, I've seen most everyone disagreeing agreeably, so to speak.

And that ability to disagree without being disagreeable is important. And I like that, Kevin, you're talking about deference. And part of deference is understanding that other people have different perspectives.

That just because something makes a lot of sense to me in my perspective, in my experience, in my life, doesn't necessarily mean all of those pieces and parts are gonna fall together exactly the same way for somebody else.

But when it comes to vaccines, I appreciate the perspective that I have. My father was born in 1950 and he had polio. He contracted polio shortly before the vaccine actually was able to be administered.

So I was raised my entire life with a deep appreciation for not only what vaccines present, but for the positive things that the use of vaccines do. But going along with that, I understand that not everybody has had that same experience.

There are people who've had medical issues that they feel that they can tie to a vaccine. There are people who have more personal issues or concerns over the substances that are in them. And I remember as much as I can when I'm having conversations with people that I need to defer to their perspective, at least when it comes to the way I interact with them.

Just remembering that that person has their view that comes from somewhere and for some reason. So even if I don't ultimately agree with the person, I need to understand that they have a reason for why they have this perspective and this approach, and I need to at least respect that.

Yeah.

I think Kevin brought up another really good point in that this should be in most cases a private matter. I had a really good friend who recently got her first dose of the, I think it was the Pfizer vaccine, and she posted it on Facebook, that she was excited, looking forward to being fully immunized, or however you say that.

And she had several people, several friends of hers who post strongly negative feedback and turn into an argument. Imagine that, an argument on social media. But, and now her friendship with these individuals is strained as a result.

So I'm not saying this is something you need to keep private, but maybe think twice before you proclaim to the whole world your viewpoint on this issue, because anything that's as controversial as this is can very easily lead to an argument.

And we don't want something that's ultimately a personal decision between you, God, your family, and your doctor to create division in your other relationships. Be careful and be wise.

Yeah.

And before you weigh in on someone else's choice, whether that choice is to get the vaccine or not, before you weigh in on that, just realize that none of us have a complete understanding of any given situation.

Our intelligence that we have is partial and we don't have all the facts no matter what we're talking about. So humility, the principle of humility comes in again.

So difficult topic, but again, this is a question we've been receiving a lot recently. So we hope you found our conversation helpful. And ultimately, again, our advice on this is pray about it, talk to your doctor, talk to your family, do research on these vaccines, and then try to make a fully informed decision based on how God is leading you.

So that's the conclusion that we've come to. And we think it's a biblically balanced perspective, but again, it's a difficult issue. The best thing we can do is come to decision in the right manner, and then show grace and love and deference to those who may come to a different conclusion than we do.

So again, hope you find this conversation helpful. And this is the Got Questions podcast, and we're here to help. So Got Questions? The Bible has answers.

We'll help you find them.