Many people resist taking the COVID vaccines and they do so for many reasons. I will address only one. Some Christians feel that they should resist them for spiritual reasons. Are they right to do so? I will attempt to answer this question here.
You may feel that the COVID related restrictions and mandates, as well as some other things currently being done by the government, are, at least to some extent, being used as an excuse by the government to tighten their overall control. You may feel that this may be helping to lay the groundwork for the eventual government of the antichrist. You may feel that the COVID vaccines are laying the groundwork for the application of the mark of the beast. I completely agree with these things.
Because they may help to pave the way for the government of the antichrist and, eventually, the mark of the beast, you may feel that the vaccines are evil. You may feel that the vaccines are themselves the mark of the beast. You may feel that taking them represents a lack of faith in God. Because of one or more of these things, you may feel that a Christian should not take the vaccines. I completely disagree with these things.
The vaccines are clearly not the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast will be given on the right hand or the forehead (Revelation 13:16). There is some symbolism in this Scripture that I won’t go into here but I also believe that the mark will literally be given in one of these places and the vaccines are injected in neither of these places. Also, the mark of the beast will be administered under the government of the antichrist. Christ’s church will not see that happen because we will be raptured before antichrist rises to power (Revelation 4:1).
The infrastructures and policies and precedents being developed as part of the plan to administer the vaccines probably are, unknowingly, helping to prepare the way for the government of the antichrist, in that these things will probably aid in setting up the administration of the mark of the beast, which will occur under the government of the antichrist. However, I do not believe that resisting the vaccines is helpful to the cause of Christ. For one thing, things that Satan means for evil, God can and does use for good (Genesis 50:20). The most striking example of this is when Satan incited Judas to betray Jesus (John 13:2) and, in so doing, insured his own defeat and our redemption. Jesus could have successfully resisted the resulting events of this betrayal (Matthew 26:53 and John 19:11) but He did not, knowing that they were part of God’s plan. For another thing, although I do think we may be able to slightly slow God’s judgement through preaching repentance as Jonah did at Nineveh (Jonah 3), I do not believe that we are going to stop these prophesied events from unfolding. Finally, the fact that we are seeing signs of the coming government of the antichrist means that the time is growing short for us to bring a lost world to Christ and we need healthy soldiers in God’s army to do that. Some think that we should simply rely on God to protect us but, if Jesus was not willing to presume God’s protection from a fall of the pinnacle of the temple (Matthew 4:5-7), I don’t think we should presume His protection from COVID. Just as was the case for Christ’s betrayal, the vaccines can both be one step down a road to something horrible and also part of God’s provision for us.
If you don’t want to take the COVID vaccines because you are skeptical of the science, I don’t share your concern but I can understand that and you certainly have the right to make that choice. However, as Christians, we should not try to turn not taking the vaccines into a spiritual matter because it simply is not one. Personally, I believe that, as Christians, living in a world that is probably rapidly approaching the rapture, we should take the vaccines, in order to help to keep us healthy, so that we can go about God’s work, and then we need to diligently be about His work, while we still have time.
For further reading on related topics, see these recent articles:
Is Revival Still Possible?
http://www.scottduck.com/is-revival-still-possible/
Are You Trusting God or Testing God?
http://www.scottduck.com/are-you-trusting-god-or-testing-god/
