Genesis 1 establishes that God asserted His authority over chaos to bring order to it so that life could flourish. God then created humans and gave His authority to us so that we can assert that authority over this world to bring order out of chaos so that life can flourish.
I believe that the recently developed vaccines are one way that humans are exerting their authority over the COVID-19 virus to bring order out of the chaos it has created so that our lives can flourish again.
Both Jesus and Paul tell us, in the New Testament to obey the governments we find ourselves under because they have been setup by God. The only times we are not to obey the government is if the government asks to not love God or to not love other people.
So when presented with a government mandate to get a vaccine I need to ask two questions: Does getting the vaccine cause me to not love God? Does the getting the vaccine cause me to not love other people?
I have heard Christians argue that getting the vaccine causes them to not love God because it requires them to put harmful substances into their bodies, which are to be treated as a holy temple.
Jesus specifically teaches that nothing going into a person can defile them. The only exceptions would be if ingesting something causes it to be difficult to love other people. For instance, eating too much or drinking too much are sins because the consequences of obesity and drunkenness make it difficult to properly love other people.
Remember, Jesus asks us to lay our lives down, so worry about how the vaccine will affect us personally should have no bearing on our decision, except as it could affect our ability to properly love others.
I believe that getting the vaccine, unless I were to have a specific medical condition that would make it impossible, actually helps me love others, and therefore, love God. The vaccine makes it less likely that I will spread COVID-19 to others, which is a way of loving others. Getting the vaccine also means that if I should get COVID-19 I will most likely get a milder case, also making it easier to continue to properly love others.
I realize that there are some who believe that the vaccine has killed more people than COVID-19 has. As someone who has done biological research in the past and also worked for a medical company that did a lot of research, I find that hard to believe.
So I think that the vaccine mandates are the government doing what God designed government to do: exercise His authority to bring order out of chaos so that life can flourish.
"Most Likely to Succeed" 
Thank you Oneta for your thoughts. I really appreciate getting to hear what everyone thinks, especially people I respect like you. I can understand why you are confused by the inconsistent message given regarding illegal immigration. I don’t have an answer for that except to say that maybe the govt feels like the risk to the people of not letting them into the US is greater than the risk to the US if we let them in. I don’t know if that is true or not, but if we are all vaccinated, then the risk to us is definitely less. I agree that I don’t like that there is no testing or vaccinating happening at the border. I’d say, if you want to come in – get a vaccine.
I don’t see this vaccine as anything other than a public health issue, just like the polio, measles, mumps, and other vaccines of the past. No vaccine protects 100%, so the more people that are vaccinated, the less chance of anyone getting the disease. Because this current virus mutates quickly, getting more people vaccinated faster will slow its ability to mutate, thus keeping the current vaccines more effective. The problem we are in right now is that the virus has created mutations not as effectively covered by the vaccine. That is why an unvaccinated person is still a threat to a vaccinated person. The longer people hold out on getting a vaccine, the less effective the vaccine may become.
It’s all about working together to fight this virus, but that isn’t something Americans, as a culture, are good at doing. We were, after all, mostly founded by a bunch of groups of separatists (my ancestors being some of them) who then rebelled against their rulers. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have rebelled. I’m just saying that not trusting our government is who we, as Americans are. The vaccine mandate is just about the only thing I agree with our current administration on, however. I am so sad about so many other things, like their stance on abortion, lgbtq issues, making us dependent on the Middle East for oil again, and the list goes on and on.
Here’s my main problem. I work with international students. They are required to be vaccinated to come here and study. I, in good conscience, can’t invite them to a church right now because they may get COVID from someone there. Church should be the safest place for anyone at any time, and right now a Broadway musical is a safer place, physically. So my ability to introduce people to Jesus is being hampered by the Church’s inability to be a safe place. That should not be.
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You have presented a good argument. But I have studied the other side also. I lean to it.
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I so appreciate your input, as I highly respect you. Blessings!
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If you would be willing to share, what from the other side are you leaning on? It is so helpful to better understand where others are coming from.
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Heather, I’m sorry I did not respond to this. I just now saw it. I get terribly behind sometimes and have to dump some good stuff. I am considering writing a post about why I do not get the vaccine, because there are many reasons. One of which is that I do not take our President and Dr. Fauci very seriously when they let in the thousands of migrants recently without requiring any tests or vaccines. Do they believe what they say or not? Why so inconsistent? Except for a bull headed order to obey which is consistent. Why force mandates on those who have already had covid and have natural immunities? I can’t figure what the agenda is. If the vaccine works, why so much blame to unvaccinated? That is just a drop in the bucket regarding my mistrust of this massive scheme. Now hospitals are firing nurses who have help covid patients for a year or two, some have had the disease, but now they are fired! Oh, my!! I have no criticism of you for being vaccinated. But why are you not safe until I get vaccinated? Sorry for turning loss a bit; I have a lot more. 😀
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