Render Redux

Last month, I wrote an article entitled "Render unto Caesar," and it dealt with the fact that although I dislike and distrust the vaccines and do not support them, I don't see getting vaccinated as a sin, unlike a number of other believers. My basic point was simply that someone who is caught between taking the vaccine and providing for their family shouldn't be made to feel as though they were absolutely forbidden from getting a vaccine, or were committing an abominable sin by doing so. They have a biblical mandate to provide for their family—so if it comes down to a forced choice between a vaccine and their family's welfare, their family's welfare wins that one.

But what caught me off-guard was the flipside of the denarius, so to speak.

I described my own personal experience, where I faced just such a situation. I had two choices: jab or no job, and I was at my wits' end because, like many of you out there, I hated the idea of the vaccine but also had a family to support—and I felt I had to keep my job. I finally went to the Lord in my distress and laid it all at His feet; and within minutes the Holy Spirit gave me a profound peace about the issue, and His answer was as clear as a bell:

"Render unto Caesar."

That's all it took. In other words:

"Relax...go ahead and get your vaccine and go back to work. Everything is under control."

Whatever it was that had been making me regard getting vaccinated as utterly unthinkable simply melted away in a matter of moments. And when I went to get the vaccine, I can assure you I was praising and glorifying God every step of the way—my conscience was as clear as a fresh spring morning.

I'm happy to say that I received a number of kind and cordial expressions of thanks and appreciation from readers who were in similar situations, and some described how they had been run through the same wringer: friends and acquaintances telling them they absolutely had to avoid the vaccine at all costs because...well, because they just had to:

"Pray for a miracle! Pray for God to lead you to a different job that will never require a vaccine! Pray for the company to change its policy! Join a protest! Fight back! Think up a reason to apply for an exemption...like 'vaccine phobia' or something. I'll help you find the paperwork!"

I'm joking about the "vaccine phobia" thing, but just barely.

But then there were others...

Sorry, but I just had to pause there and take a deep breath, because those "others" are what virtually forced me to write this follow-up article.

Although I did receive some very warm and polite responses from a few people who appreciated what I wrote but simply viewed things a bit differently (and were able to communicate that difference of opinion in a manner befitting a brother or sister in Christ), I received emails from several people who, shall we say, were less than cordial. I heard from several individuals who made me think somebody out there somewhere had literally given the order:

"Heretick! Release the hounds!"

As the pain and frustration abated, however, I began to appreciate this handful of virulent responses if for no other reason than they gave God a chance to show me that there actually were a couple of important issues I should have examined in the context of His Word in my original article but didn't, and that certainly warranted such examination.

He also made me realize that I had made a mistake in my original article that I don't often make:

It literally never occurred to me that people could so misapply Scripture.

Hence this follow-up.

Flee!

The bulk of the anti-vax arguments of a religious nature are predicated on the unspoken assumption that getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a sin. Of course, if you start with the assumption that getting vaccinated is a sin, the world is your oyster when it comes to spinning out one anti-vax argument after another. So, the vaccine's presumed inherent sinfulness is a key starting point.

By far the most common ways I've seen people try to argue that getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a terrible sin are based on quotes taken from a passage from Paul's first letter to the believers in Corinth, and a bit of background information will help clarify exactly what Paul is talking about.

Hint: It's not vaccines.

In ancient times, the Greek city of Corinth was a city steeped in idol worship, and their brand of idolatry involved sex—lots of it and on a regular basis. Taking a turn with a temple prostitute was part and parcel of worship for these people, and it all seemed normal and healthy in their "If it feels good, do it" approach to life. In fact, in those days, the expression "to corinthianize" was a Greek slang expression that meant to have sex with a prostitute.

This was a routine part of the lifestyle the believers in Corinth had come out of, and it had come to Paul's attention that it had begun to creep back into the lives of some of the congregation's members. Paul addresses several issues that were troubling the Corinthians in this first letter, including lawsuits among believers, pride and division over what famous teachers one followed, the eating of food offered to idols, marriage-related issues, etc. And sexual immorality is one more prime issue that Paul hammers away on. The quiver that most of the anti-vax arrows are drawn from is in chapter 6:

After reading verses 12–20 carefully, try your hand at the following pop quiz:

Q. What is the only type of sin Paul is talking about in this entire passage?

A. The f-word.

That's right: fornication. Paul is addressing men in the Corinthian congregation who had slipped back into their old habits and had started visiting temple prostitutes again, just as they had done on a regular basis before they got saved. Paul is expounding on the fact that sexual sin is in a special category, separate and distinct from all other types of sin—and he spells it out about as clearly as it can be spelled out.

Paul isn't talking about lying, cheating, or stealing. He isn't talking about anything you eat, drink, or ingest. Paul is explaining to them that when a person has sex with another, the two shall become "one flesh." So when you go to a prostitute, your body becomes "one flesh" with her—but a believer is joined to the Lord in the spirit, and your body, which belongs to God and is the temple of the Holy Spirit, will be raised to immortality in Christ. So how dare you "join" your body (and Christ's body) to a prostitute! God forbid!

Paul is telling them (and us) that no other type of sin works this way. Yes, you may be forgiven, but sexual sin perverts and enslaves people in a way that no other sin does. So flee fornication. I mean, literally run from it if need be, just like Joseph ran from Potiphar's wife when she finally resorted to trying to physically pull him into bed with her:

Consider David. God forgave his sin of adultery with Bathsheba, but it haunted him for the rest of his days like no other sin he had ever committed (and he had certainly committed his fair share):

No other sin David ever committed caused him such profound suffering, even though he had repented and asked for forgiveness countless times. Sexual sin stays with you—so you stay away from it. That's the gist of verses 12–20: When it comes to sexual sin...

Flee!

So, by the time Paul gets to verses 19 and 20 and says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that you are not your own, that your body belongs to God, that you have been bought with a price, etc., he has already made it 100 percent clear that he is only talking about sexual sin, and not other types of sin that are "without" or outside the body (v. 18). In other words, no other type of sin affects you the way sexual sin does because it is a sin against your own body...so avoid it all costs.

But what people are doing is snipping popular phrases out of context from verses 19 and 20, snippets such as:

• Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
• We are not our own.
• Our bodies belong to God.
• We have been bought with a price, etc.

Then they sanctimoniously misapply them to the COVID-19 vaccines—to which they do not apply. Paul is absolutely clear, and as a result...

You can't yank things Paul says in this passage
out of context and misapply them to the latest
right-wing, conservative offense du jour in order
to make it a sin and guilt people into rejecting it.

Which is precisely what I see people doing in regard to the vaccines—they are taking Scripture that applies to sexual sin and misapplying it to something different, and then using that to guilt people into avoiding the vaccines in accordance with some right-wing sociopolitical doctrine that is only superficially connected to the Word of God. And all it is doing is throwing a number of sincere believers into a heart-rending crucible.

Pass the A.1. sauce

Straight up: I'm tired of hearing people say things like...

"The vaccine is a sin because it contains (gasp) blah-blah-blah!"

And then start in on some of the wildest conspiracy theories I've heard since they faked the moon landing in 1969. OK, listen up:

I don't give a rat's patootie if these COVID-19 vaccines
are made from disease-infested camel poo and contain
secret microchips that can communicate with the Pleiades:
None of that makes getting a COVID-19 vaccine a sin.

Is that clear enough, or do I need to be a bit more graphic? Now, please understand that I fully agree that the COVID-19 vaccines are at best experimental slop—they are only marginally effective and are potentially dangerous, and the majority of people would do well to avoid them if at all possible. But as I will keep typing until my fingers turn blue:

The problem is that clumsily misapplying Scripture in regard to the vaccines only serves to leave innocent believers caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of the vaccine, their jobs, and their families, and feeling as if they have no choice but to put their family's welfare in jeopardy in order to fall in line with some sort of right-wing manifesto that has them in a sociopolitical headlock. Hey, you wanna flee from something? Flee from that.

That's a toughie: One other thing that I am growing weary of is listening to people who act like it's fine and dandy to trust God to find you a new job or career in which you will never be forced to get the vaccine; but it's not OK to keep your current job, get the vaccine, and trust God to protect you from any potential negative effects. Like that's just too tough for the Lord.

Trust me...it ain't.

In regard to what the vaccines may actually contain, however, another major argument that was thrust upon me by several readers has to do with the fact that some of the COVID-19 vaccines reportedly contain fetal cell tissue that came from aborted babies. Or aborted fetal cells were used in their testing phases, or something of that nature.

This argument, which is offered in a hushed tone as if the person relating it to you were fully expecting it to horrify you to your very core and make you spill your coffee, is quite simple:

Abortion is a terrible sin. The vaccines were made or tested using aborted fetal cell tissue. Therefore taking the vaccine is an equally terrible sin.

I mean, how could it be otherwise, right?

Now, I admit this is a sensitive topic, and my response—which I am satisfied is solidly based on Scripture—is sure to leave a few people unsatisfied (several of whom are likely to hang me in effigy...again). And I don't mean to sound flippant or aloof; but after reading a few of the (adjectives deleted) responses I got, I can honestly say that I'm not going to get upset over how people respond to this. I'm doing my level best to base my remarks on Scripture—so all I can say is if it rubs anyone the wrong way, they're free to take it up with the Author (who finally twisted my arm hard enough to get me to delete the above snarky-sounding adjectives at the last minute).

My response to this argument also comes from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, just two chapters after what we just discussed. As I mentioned earlier, one of the several issues Paul deals with in this first letter has to do with the eating of meat that has been offered to idols as an act of worship.

As I said, the people of Corinth were some major-league idolaters, and another practice pertaining to that was offering food to idols as part of their worship. Of course, believers in Corinth had abandoned idolatry per se, but the issue that was troubling them was whether or not it was OK to eat food that had been used in such worship.

Some felt it was just wrong since it had been connected to the sin of idolatry, and that it was a sin to consume it. Some disagreed, saying it was just meat—why let it go to waste? And it seems that some of those who had such liberty may have been getting just a bit puffed up with pride over the issue:

Paul wastes no time in putting the idols in their place and pulling the plug on the idea that we should be unduly concerned over their presumed influence:

Paul makes it crystal clear that idols are nothing, and there is but one God—our Father in heaven and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom all things exist. That right there pretty well makes the point that eating meat sacrificed to idols isn't sinful, because since idols are nothing, they certainly can't have any sort of "contaminating influence" on the food offered to them by people who are deceived enough to worship them as if they were something.

But Paul doesn't stop there:

Paul acknowledges that he knows the idols are nothing, and so for him personally, it's like...

"Meat sacrificed to idols? Mmm...pass the A.1. sauce!"

But Paul goes on to emphasize that it's not quite that simple, because some believers in Corinth still had misgivings about such food. They had lived for many years in a society that took those idols very seriously; and even though they were now born-again believers, all that idolatrous cultural baggage didn't just disappear overnight. They hadn't yet cultivated the same confident assurance and liberty that Paul had, and eating such food still bothered their conscience. Paul emphasizes that if such "weak" brothers eat food offered to idols, they will defile their conscience and as a result fall into sin.

But note carefully that the sin for these "weak" believers was not the isolated act of eating the food used in idol worship—if it were, it would have been a sin for Paul as well. No, the sin is in the transgressing of one's conscience. Paul's point is that when you do something that transgresses, violates, or defiles your conscience, you cannot do it as unto the Lord, or in a way that honors and glorifies God. You do it with a sense of guilt, and if you feel guilty about it, then you are definitely not honoring God.

On the contrary—you are sinning.

As Paul wrote to the Romans, to whom he gave essentially the same teaching:

Paul finishes the point by stressing that no one who has the type of liberty that he possessed should ever influence a weaker believer to do anything that violates their conscience, even though the act itself may not be a sin. And to knowingly so influence a weaker brother is a sin in and of itself.

Paul puts an exclamation point on it by saying that if it caused a weaker brother to stumble, he'd never eat meat again as long as he lived:

Now, back to the vaccines. So, taking a vaccine is a sin because it reportedly contains aborted fetal cell tissue. Before we consider the scriptural aspect of things, I want you to have a grasp of the actual situation:

Fetal cell lines have routinely been used in the creation of various types of vaccines and medicines for decades. It is common practice, and they have been used in the development, testing, and/or production of a large number of vaccines and medicines, including ones for rubella, hepatitis A, chickenpox, shingles, rabies, and any number of other diseases. Now, when I say "fetal cell lines," I mean fetal cells that have been replicated literally thousands of times over the last 50-plus years for use by researchers and pharmaceutical companies the world over. The HEK293 fetal cell line that was used in the research and development of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines descended from tissue taken from an abortion that occurred in the Netherlands in 1973. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses the PER.C6 fetal cell line in the production phase, and these fetal cells descended from an abortion that also occurred in the Netherlands in 1985.

OK? That's what we're talking about...and it's not that I'm trying to make it sound "nice." It's just that to hear some people tell it, you'd think that these Big Pharma companies had table after table filled with bloody, freshly aborted baby corpses on hand in their production facilities so workers could rip off a small bit of aborted fetal tissue and place it into each vaccine, and then wipe the blood off each syringe...mua-ha-ha-ha-ha (evil laugh).

Clean it out: By the way, if you sincerely believe that getting a vaccine is a sin because it was developed or tested using aborted fetal cell tissue and you expect people to take you seriously, then you have a little job to do: March into your bathroom with a trash can, open the medicine cabinet, and clean it out. Every single item—it's gotta go, because I guarantee you that at least some of the items in there were developed or tested using aborted fetal cells—even common over-the-counter medications like Tylenol. Go—do it now. I'll wait. (You may have to climb down off your high horse first, however, because I have a feeling Old Paint won't fit in your bathroom.)

Now, is abortion a sin? I don't even need to say it:

Innocent blood...and an unborn baby is about as innocent as they come. But what of the fetal cell tissue remaining after the fact? Is it also a sin to do something with that, even something that could save millions of lives?

The Bible doesn't come right out and say point blank that it is or it isn't. But in my personal view and in the view of many Bible teachers I respect, it's precisely the same situation as the meat offered to idols. The only sin in sight was committed up the line, so to speak:

The sin was in the worshiping of false gods—
what's left is meat that nourishes the body.

I am completely satisfied that the same biblical principle applies here:

The sin was in the abortion—what's left is cellular
tissue that has the potential to save countless lives.

Now, would it have been "better" if the fetal tissue had been obtained from a baby that died of natural causes? If that were the case, would it make you feel more comfortable about the vaccines?

Only you can answer that question.

To be completely honest, I wasn't even aware that aborted fetal cell tissue had ever been used for anything, let alone to make vaccines. Now that I know, would it have changed my mind?

Not one neuron. I clearly understand exactly where Paul is coming from in regard to the meat offered to idols—and in retrospect, I know I would have responded the same way in regard to the "tissue issue."

Uh-oh, they're b-a-a-c-k...

"So, you condone abortion, eh?"

I condone abortion about as much as Paul condoned idolatry.

"So, abortion doesn't make you feel the least little bit guilty, does it?"

An abortion performed in the past by others makes me feel about as guilty as idol worship in the past by others made Paul feel guilty.

Sigh. This argument goes nowhere in a big hurry. But we're not done here: The final issue is that of conscience. Now, I admit this is an area that I failed to address in my first article; and if I have anything at all that warrants asking forgiveness for, it is that—not the fact that I deigned to get a vaccine.

Paul explained to the believers in Corinth that even though they were free to eat meat that had been offered to idols because those idols were nothing, some simply couldn't bring themselves to do it because it genuinely bothered their conscience. They were racked with guilt over it—and to make matters worse, there were members of the congregation who felt complete liberty in eating such food who were lording it over them in a prideful manner. Paul uses a form of the Greek word asthenes (weak, without strength) in regard to these conscience-stricken believers, but you can hardly blame them for it. They simply hadn't been able to shake free from the pervasive influence of the idolatrous Corinthian culture they had been exposed to for so long.

And Paul lets those with "liberty" have it with both barrels: He makes it 100 percent clear to these people that if they use their liberty to influence a weaker brother to eat that meat and violate his conscience and in so doing fall into sin, they are sinning as well. And he ends the chapter by admonishing them to refrain from doing so in the strongest possible terms.

So, the bottom line is that even though the act of getting a vaccine itself is in no way a sin, if you are convinced that it is a sin and as a result it defiles your conscience and you cannot do it as unto the Lord, then in your case you are sinning...and you shouldn't get a vaccine.

You will have to trust the Lord to lead you down a different path.

And I have every confidence that He will. And if it's true that taking the vaccine transgresses your conscience in such a manner, then whatever you do...

Don't take it. If you can't do so
with a clear conscience, then don't.

Render what unto Caesar?

In my original article "Render unto Caesar," I discuss the well-known incident in Matthew 22:15–22 in which the Pharisees have come once again to trip Jesus up with a trick question in their efforts to discredit Him in the eyes of the people. The Jews are chafing under Roman rule, and loathe being forced to pay taxes to Rome. The specific tax in question is one referred to as the "tribute," a tax that amounted to one denarius—about a day's wages. The question is this:

Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?

The question is fawningly put to Jesus with feigned sincerity—it is a trap and He knows it. If He says "yes," then the Pharisees can paint Him as a traitorous Roman sympathizer, an extremely unpopular position for any first-century Jew to be in. On the other hand, if He says "no," they can paint Him as a firebrand—a radical who is bent on civil disobedience toward Rome and apt to stir up unwanted trouble. Every Jew knew that such trouble could easily cause Roman might to be brought to bear on them.

They've really got the Lord boxed in. Or so they think.

Jesus asks to be shown a denarius, and asks them whose name and image are on it. "Caesar's," they reply, to which Jesus responds:

As usual, His answer exposes their hypocrisy and puts them to silence.

As I recounted in that article, when I took my burden to the Lord, the words the Holy Spirit gave me were simply that: "Render unto Caesar." Every trace of guilt or dread I felt toward the vaccine melted away and was replaced by a profound peace, and I was told to go ahead and freely comply with the requirement to get vaccinated to keep my job.

But one particular reader took me to task over this, and it was clear from his tone that, like the Pharisees, he really thought he had me boxed in with this one. His argument was something along the following lines:

"How can you tell people it's OK to 'render their bodies unto Caesar' by getting a vaccine, when our bodies belong to God? We should only render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, which is the money. It was the coin that had Caesar's image and inscription on it, so it's only the coin that belongs to him—not our bodies."

The problem is that this argument all but completely misses the point, which is the fact that what belongs to both Caesar and God is our obedience, civil and spiritual, respectively. Caesar didn't just want the tribute money; he wanted their obedience in rendering it to him. God doesn't just want our bodies; He wants our obedience in offering ourselves as a living sacrifice:

No? Well, maybe this fanciful little tale set in first-century Israel will help clarify things a bit:

One sunny afternoon, Josiah and his wife Abigail were chatting over latkas.

"Oh, Josiah dear, did you remember to pay the tribute last Wednesday? That was the deadline, you know, and I reminded you every day for a week."

"Oy vey! I forgot, Abigail! I had the denarius in my pocket all day Wednesday and I totally forget to stop and pay it!"

"Oh, that's just great! How many times do I have to remind you?! Now some Roman putz is going to come around and hassle us about it. You do remember what they did to that nice boy from Nazareth, don't you?!"

"Oy vey, don't remind me while I'm eating."

"Oh, Josiah! How could you be such a schlemiel?!"

As Josiah sulks and toys with his latka, there is a knock on the door. Abigail opens it only to be greeted by a uniformed Roman tax official.

"Good afternoon, ma'am. Is this the residence of Josiah and Abigail Herzog?"

"Why, yes it is. What can we do for you, sir?" Abigail chirped politely.

"According to our records, you failed to pay the tribute. Is that correct?"

"Oh, well...uh, gosh...we've been so busy...and we can be so forgetful at times," Abigail snapped, firing a .22 caliber glance at her hapless husband.

"It's one denarius, you know...and it must be rendered unto Caesar."

"Well, bless his heart...we sure don't want to be negligent in our duty to your Caesar, now do we?"

"He's your Caesar too, ma'am," the Roman official quipped as he looked over his records.

"Well, of course he is. Uh, Josiah darling," she twittered sweetly, "do you still have that denarius for the tribute? This nice gentleman wants the tribute."

"Oy vey, I spent it on latkas!" Josiah muttered, smacking his forehead.

The Roman tax official notices something on the ground outside the door near the street, glinting in the afternoon sun, and steps over to pick it up.

"Well, hail Caesar...it's a denarius! Somebody must have dropped it as they passed by your house!" he exclaimed, calmly dropping the coin into his bag. "Well, I guess that'll take care of your tribute."

"What?!" Abigail gasped. "You mean...you'll give us credit for that denarius you just found on the street? You mean...we're not in any trouble?"

"Trouble? Naah. All Caesar wants is his tribute money, that's all."

"Yeah, but...but...we didn't pay what we were legally obligated to pay! We missed the deadline! You mean we're not going to be held responsible for failing to pay it, or punished in any way?!"

"Naah, forget about it. As long as Caesar gets that little coin with his name and face on it, he's a happy camper. I'll mark you down as 'paid' in the records. Listen, you folks have a nice day. Salami...er, I mean, shalom."

Josiah and Abigail sigh with relief as the Roman tax official marches away.

"Thank you so much, sir! And hail to your...er, I mean, our Caesar!"

I know it's a goofy little tale, but the point is made. Do you actually believe Roman officials would casually blow off a Jewish citizen's failure or refusal to pay the tribute as if it were nothing? Not a chance—they would certainly be punished in some way. OK, perhaps not seriously, but they would face at least some type of penalty. A fine or a citation of some kind. Why? Simple: They failed to obey the law, and they would be held accountable for their failure or refusal to obey Caesar's statutes...the same as they would in virtually any society anywhere in the world in any age. And why is that?

Because what they were required to "render unto Caesar" was their obedience to his civil authority, and that happened to include paying the tribute of one denarius, among any number of other things.

The point is self-evident:

It's not about the money itself:
It's about obedience to the law.

In other words, the Lord is telling us is that we should be obedient to civil authority in regard to earthly matters, and obedient to God in regard to spiritual matters—there is no reason why we can't be at peace with both. That is, insofar as civil authority doesn't try to force us to disobey God. That's a different kettle of fish, and it doesn't apply to getting vaccinated because, as we have seen, you can't scratch up anything in Scripture to make the case that getting vaccinated is a sin or being disobedient to God or His Word.

So, if civil authority requires you to get a vaccine in order to keep your job, and you fully intend to keep your job, then unless you sincerely believe getting a vaccine is a sin and thus violates your conscience, potentially granting you some kind of "conscientious objector" status, then congratulations:

Your situation falls squarely under the heading of "render unto Caesar."

I scarcely see how you can view it any other way, and I've yet to see an argument that convinced me otherwise. And to all those who claim it's not a "render unto Caesar" thing, (and a few have), all I can say is that I simply beg to differ based on my reading and understanding not only of Scripture, but of common principles of legal and governmental authority. Feel free to interpret the issue as you like.

The fiery furnace

One person who wrote to me made what I thought was a surprisingly big to-do over Daniel's homies Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (whom he insisted on always referring to by their lesser-known Hebrew names Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah).

He persistently wanted to know what I had to say in response to the great faith and courage shown by these three Hebrew lads (faith and courage I obviously lack, since apparently in his eyes I caved at the first hint of pressure to get vaccinated to keep my measly little job and so clearly deserved a hot date with the nearest fiery furnace). These three Hebrew boys refused to bow to the king's golden image at the cost of their lives—in his view a fitting parallel indeed to refusing to bow to the requirement to get a vaccine in order to keep one's job to provide for one's family.

I confess that I hesitated to spend any time on this one, since it can be neutered with a single snip:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were being forced to disobey the first and second commandments—what commandments or scriptural mandates are you being forced to disobey by getting a vaccine to feed your family?

Sigh...and it's déjà vu all over again with yet another argument based on the assumption that getting vaccinated is a sin.

Incidentally, I say the first two commandments because it could be argued that they were being forced to both (a) honor a god other than the one true God (i.e. regard King Nebuchadnezzar as a god), and (b) worship a graven image (i.e. bow down to his golden statue). Or you could just lump it all under the second commandment. It makes no difference, because the point is they were being forced to violate Scripture that I guarantee you those boys could have quoted verbatim from the Torah. But all you've got in regard to the vaccine are a few snippets of Scripture yanked out of context and misapplied with the desired anti-vax spin. Not quite the same.

One reason I decided to go ahead and include this quick bit about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is because I realized there is a bit more to it than the question of violating a commandment or two.

Like the meat offered to idols, this also speaks to the issue of conscience.

In the case of these three Hebrew boys, to say obeying the king's command would have violated their conscience is an understatement of the first magnitude. Are you kidding me?! This utterly transcended their conscience. This was quite literally carved in stone, straight from Yahweh to Moses, and straight from Moses to their forefathers. This was nothing less than sin of the first magnitude.

But the question of conscience is still lurking in the background, as with the meat offered to idols. Consider: Instead of ordering them to violate (at least) the second commandment, what if the king had ordered them to do something else—and it was something that Shadrach was OK with, but Meshach and Abednego were not? Maybe it wasn't a sin and didn't actually violate anything in God's Word, but it still bothered the consciences of Meshach and Abednego, although Shadrach was cool with it. Maybe it troubled the consciences of Meshach and Abednego as a result of something in their backgrounds that didn't apply to Shadrach—whatever. Then what?

Here's what: If you find yourself in such a position...

Then it becomes a matter strictly between you and God.

God knows your heart, and knows exactly what troubles your conscience and why. And it would be up to Shadrach to honor Meshach and Abednego's decision to refuse, and give his two friends his most sincere blessing and support—in spite of the fact that he chose to comply.

Oh, and one small detail some people seem to be overlooking:

It would be equally up to Meshach and Abednego
to honor Shadrach's decision to comply and
give him their most sincere blessing and support.

That's strange...for the life of me, I can't imagine what made me want to emphasize that last line.

Conscience clear

I'll be perfectly frank with you: I really didn't want to have to write this article. Like many of you, I'm sick to death of the lunacy of this whole virus/vaccine scamdemic that is ripping society as we know it to shreds. But after reading some of the responses, I felt I simply had no choice—there were a couple of issues that had to be dealt with, and I have done my best before God to address them in a scripturally sound manner.

I realize many believers have strong feelings about the issue of the vaccines. I get it. And I'm certainly not out there casually encouraging everyone to just run out and get vaccinated—that would be stupid and reckless of me (not to mention a sin). I fully support those who do not wish to get vaccinated for whatever reasons they may have, be they conscience related or otherwise. It's their choice—or at least it should be.

And I have never and will never encourage
any believer to get a vaccine whose conscience
is genuinely defiled by that decision. Period.

Get the jab and get a free jelly doughnut! On the other hand, I'm not saying that a black-and-white choice between getting vaccinated and keeping your job to feed your family is the only acceptable situation in which to agree to get vaccinated. It doesn't matter why you get vaxxed—even for reasons that are based on misinformation or that promise frivolous perks. It's still not a sin and your conscience should be just as clear.

My goal here is the same as it was last month: to reassure believers who are faced with the forced choice of getting vaccinated or losing the jobs they need to provide for their families that there is no biblical reason why they cannot comply with an absolutely clear conscience, because they are not sinning or violating anything in God's Word (I just dug deeper into that Word this time, that's all).

If they have already gotten vaccinated, I want them to know they have nothing whatsoever to be ashamed of. (And if they do feel any residual guilt about it, I pray the Lord would assuage that guilt and completely cleanse them of it.)

And because they have nothing to be ashamed of, they shouldn't let the hardcore, quasi-scriptural, right-wing rhetoric being spewed by so many these days make them feel otherwise. And when I say "many," I mean by people both in the body of Christ and in the world. And those last three words should speak a word to those with ears to hear. Just saying.

No? Well, ask yourself the following question:

Why on earth would Satan influence certain conservative, right-wing media personalities to essentially throw gasoline on the fire of the anti-vax sentiments held by a relatively small group of believers? Hmm...

Think really hard. Hint: Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that this is precisely the type of society Satan is seeking to establish in preparation for his kingdom on earth—one in which you have a large bloc of people who mindlessly believe the mainstream media and obey the government and another bloc that can readily be identified and singled out to be eliminated (a bloc that just happens to include anyone who so much as smells like a Bible-believing Christian)?

I'll let you chew on that one for a while. But as for me...

God knows my conscience is clear.
He should—He's the one who cleared it.

I pray yours is as well.

I also pray that it's a r-e-a-l-l-y long time before I ever feel the need to write about the vaccines again.

Greg Lauer — SEP '21

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