RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION FOR SARS-COV-2 VACCINES
Should a Christian receive the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination along with all subsequent booster vaccinations (likely 2-3 per year) for the rest of their lives? Do these shots conflict with biblical doctrine and christian teaching?
Not every pastor and christian will answer these questions exactly the same way and that is okay. Some have argued they can take the vaccine with a ‘clear conscience’ while others have argued they cannot. At Mission City Church we do not discriminate between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. In fact, everyone who has taken the vaccination or chosen not to take it has done so with varying levels of information/disinformation. We believe most people are acting in good faith and seeking to do what is best. For this reason we do not look down on anyone’s decision. All are welcome to participate in every service or small group at our church without fear of being asked about their vaccination status or treated differently because of their vaccination status. I personally believe it would be a sin against God to turn anyone away from the church because of what medical procedures they have or have not received. Also, no one who works for the church is required to disclose any information about whether they have received the vaccination or not.
The remainder of this statement is for all of the members of Mission City Church, like myself,who cannot take any of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations in good conscience. As a pastor, I believe it would be a sin for any member of our church to take any of the vaccines without a ‘clear conscience’ before God. The Bible teaches throughout the New Testament that we must act according to a ‘clear conscience’ (1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Peter 3:16; Romans 14:3) and that ‘anything that is not done in faith is sin’ (Romans 14:23). These vaccines are violating the conscience of many Christians, for many different reasons, and the right course of action for these Christians is to abstain from the vaccine.
The first reason many Christians believe these vaccinations are against the will and purposes of God is that all of the vaccines were either developed, tested, and/or are continually produced (whether in actual production or in continued testing) using tissue from aborted fetuses. One can read and watch many articles and videos on LifeSite News with many doctors and scientists who explain this link. This interview in particular, with vaccine expert Pamela Acker, shows the link between the aborted tissue and its use in the continued testing of the vaccine. Though multitudes of ‘fact check’ organizations have attempted to convince the public that the link does not exist for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, it most certainly does. The HEK-293 cell line was not solely used in the research and development stage, it is also continuously used in the ongoing testing for both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Articles on The Stream also demonstrate these connections including The Abortion Ties of the COVID Vaccines and Would You Take a Vaccine Based on Mengele’s Nazi Experiments? Some ‘fact check’ sites have argued the fetal tissue was not necessarily from an abortion and could have been from a miscarriage. That is untrue as this article from The Stream makes abundantly clear: The Cell Lines Used for COVID-19 Vaccines Came from Carefully Planned Abortions, Not Miscarriages. On top of all of this, on October 6th a whistleblower from Pfizer who is Senior Director of Worldwide Research came out to Project Veritas. One can watch an interview with the whistleblower here. The article states, “Pfizer’s Chief Scientific Officer, Philip Dormitzer, admits aborted fetus tissue is used in the company’s vaccine program, but that employees should just stick with Pfizer’s polished narrative omitting any mention of aborted fetal tissue to avoid any issues with the public.” After this whistleblowers testimony a group of physicians came out with an article titled Aborted fetal cells and vaccines – a scandal much bigger than Pfizer’s whistleblower ever imagined. These doctors state, “The use of aborted fetal cells raises tremendous ethical, moral, and health concerns.” They also quote Dr. Stanly Plotkin who testified in court, saying, “Because living tissue is needed for the primary culture, these abortions are often done by the “water bag” method which delivers the fetuses (between 2-4 months gestation) alive.” The doctors go on to state, “Not only are the babies delivered alive, horrifically, their organs are often removed when they are still alive. This is how they got the HEK293 kidney cells used in the manufacture of the vaccines and why Pfizer wanted it to remain a secret.” An article by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano on LifeSite calls the use of aborted fetal cells in medicine “a human sacrifice of innocent victims offered to Satan.” A Christian cannot in good conscience take a vaccine with connections to the murder of babies in the womb. We believe the Bible clearly teaches that abortion is murder (Jeremiah 1:5; Judges 13:5; Psalm 139:13-16; Luke 1:41; etc.). The abortion industry is “shedding of innocent blood” and is part of the seven things that the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:16-19). The ends do not justify the means. Many Christians abstain, and have their kids abstain, not simply from the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, but from all vaccines with this connection to the abortion industry. These vaccines include MMR, hepatitis a, chickenpox, and shingles among many others. (See here.) Even if the HEK-293 line is only used in the continuous testing of the vaccines, that is still enough reason for all Christians to abstain because in partaking of the vaccine they are contributing to the necessity of further testing by shrinking the vaccine supply.
A second reason many Christians are abstaining from these vaccines is that they have great concern about the damage the vaccines could cause to one’s reproductive system. The first command the LORD gives in Scripture is ‘be fruitful and multiply’ (Genesis 1:28). Scripture also states ‘blessed is the man whose quiver is full of children’ (Psalm 127:5). On August 7th, Dr. Byram Bridle—one of the doctors who was part of the team developing the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines—spoke out on national television about a recent ‘bio distribution study’ which shows that as little as 25% of the vaccine stayed in the area of where one received it in the shoulder. This was a great shock as they expected all or most of the vaccine to stay at the injection area. He went on to state, “The rest of the dose seems to distribute systemically throughout all the body seeding all kinds of tissues… including at quite high concentrations in the ovaries.” 7% to be exact. And he goes on to explain how that could be destructive to one’s ovaries. Other studies have seen an increase of miscarriages among pregnant women who have been vaccinated. In this dialogue Dr Bret Weinstein (PhD Evolutionary Biology) and Dr. Robert Malone (Inventor of mRNA vaccines technology) talk about how the spike protein in the Covid vaccines can cause various adverse effects including miscarriages. The New England Journal of Medicine published an article in June titled Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Safety in Pregnant Persons concluded, “more longitudinal follow-up, including follow-up of large numbers of women vaccinated earlier in pregnancy, is necessary to inform maternal, pregnancy, and infant outcomes.” We have yet to have that longitudinal follow-up. In fact, one year-long study just commenced the first week of September, 2021. Reporting on this study, The Washington Post states, “The National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.67 million to researchers at five institutions to study potential links between coronavirus vaccinations and menstruation.” Dr. Bianchi goes on to say, “Nobody expected it to affect the menstrual system, because the information wasn’t being collected in the early vaccine studies.” Even more concerning is a study from October 2021 by Dr. Aleisha Brock and Dr. Simon Thornley titled Spontaneous Abortions and Policies on COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Use During Pregnancy. The abstract of this study states, “Our re-analysis indicates a cumulative incidence of spontaneous abortion 7 to 8 times higher than the original authors’ results (p < 0.001) and the typical average for pregnancy loss during this time period.” This appears to be mass murder. From a Christian perspective, if there is even the possibility that these vaccines could be causing spontaneous abortions or harming one’s reproductive system so that they become sterile or have a greater difficulty conceiving, this is reason alone that many Christians (in particular men and women of child bearing age) cannot in good conscience take the vaccine. We are still at the beginning stages of many of these studies and there is still much unknown. In that sense there is no true fully informed consent. This not only violates religious principles, but also the Nuremberg Code.
A third reason many Christians are abstaining from these vaccines is because it is a very invasive procedure to the body. We believe our physical bodies are the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 3:16). The Bible says that what we do with our body effects our Lord Himself. For instance, if we participate in prostitution, we bring Jesus into that act (1 Corinthians 6:15-20). Many Christians believe injecting the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines into our body with very limited knowledge concerning long term data on how the vaccine effects our God-temple is sinful. Besides having no knowledge of what might happen in 2-10+ years in our bodies, the short term effects to our ‘God Temple’ is also very concerning to many. For instance, as of November 5th, 2021, VAERS currently states that there have been 18,461 deaths, 29,104 permanently disabled, 12,131 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis, and 875,651 adverse events reported due to the vaccine since its rollout. These adverse events include thousands of cases of Bell’s Palsy, Anaphylaxis, heart attacks, thrombocytopenia, miscarriages, shingles, severe allergic reactions, and many other diseases—some of which have caused irreversible damage. Federal agencies have stated that VAERS catches less than 10% of all adverse events and that the reporting of minor adverse events is less than 1% (see here). Many concerns about blood clots and irreversible damage at a microscopic level are coming out of Germany and Canada. The Canadian doctor is even reporting that 62%(!) of his patients have blood clotting issues! There are also still unanswered questions surrounding the discovery of what appears to be a ‘hydra vulgaris’ or some other identified species within the vaccines. Christians cannot in good conscience risk potentially harming their ‘God Temple’ forever by injecting a partially unknown substance into their body which is causing many short term adverse events and which has unknown long term effects. Besides VAERS, the fact that medical exemptions exist and that vaccine courts have payed out billions of dollars to the vaccine injured proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are many vaccine related injuries. There has been no vaccine in history with numbers submitted to VAERS anywhere close to the current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. This is very concerning. And the concern over the damage these vaccines could cause to our ‘God-temple’ is not isolated to the ‘formally uneducated’ among us. In fact, the most concerned are the most educated. Concerning the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, this study shows that the most ‘vaccine hesitant’ demographic in America are people who have PhDs. On top of that, this survey of doctors shows 60% chose to abstain with 80% of the abstaining saying, “I believe risk of shots exceeds risk of disease.”
A fourth reason many Christians are abstaining from these vaccines is that various Christian prophets have prophesied that Christians should abstain from all of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Prophets like Guillermo Maldonado, Tony Spell, John Leary, and many other prominent prophets have spoken prophetically to not take the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The Bible teaches that Christians have a duty to ‘not despise prophecy’ and to also ‘judge’ it (1 Thessalonians 5:20; 1 Corinthians 14:29). Those who have received and judged these words as genuine prophesy cannot in good conscience receive the vaccine and it would be great sin for them to violate their conscience, the witness of their spirit, and the prophetic word. I would never bind a members conscience by telling them to go against a prophetic word of the LORD that bears witness with them unless it went directly against Scripture. I do not believe a prophetic word about the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines violates any Scripture principle. While a Christian is only bound to the words of Scripture, we must receive words purporting to be prophetic with seriousness. While attending seminary at Oral Roberts University Guillermo Maldonado was invited to speak at one of our chapel services. I consider him a man of God who has given many true prophetic words. While this does not validate his prophetic word concerning the vaccine, I certainly do believe it is at least worth weighing. The prophetic office is one of the five-fold offices that Jesus Christ has gifted His Church upon His ascension and we must gladly receive that gift with ready hearts and open ears (Ephesians 4:11). Christians who these prophetic words as the word of the Lord must be given religious exemptions.
A fifth reason some Christians are abstaining from these vaccines is the eerie similarity they appear to have with ‘end times’ prophecy. Though not all Christians are dispensationalists (including myself), many who are dispensationalists see the vaccine as ‘conditioning people to receive the mark of the beast.’ These are the words of Calvary Chapel megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs who has a strong influence on many Christians in Southern California through his multi-media presence. He has spoken at many rallies and events that oppose the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. And there are many dispensationalist pastors and Christians who agree with him. The fact that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are enabling certain people to ‘buy and sell’ and ‘live and move’ in society to a greater extent than the unvaccinated population appears to some Christians to have similarities to how the ‘mark of the beast’ functions (Revelation 13:17). For instance, New York City has already instituted vaccine passports, some states in Nigeria have already begun banning citizens from banking and attending worship gatherings, and Australia has measures in place that The Atlantic is calling Orwellian. Even more chilling to these dispensationalist Christians is the testimony of Dr. Christiane Northrups’s that the vaccines containing ‘luciferase’ are able to track people and detect whether they have been vaccinated. In light of the fact that vaccine passports are already being utilized as movement licenses, are enabling people to ‘buy and sell’ in various places across our world and nation, and have a substance that is trackable in them called ‘luciferase’, I understand why many Christians want to abstain from it. While the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are not the mark of the beast, Christians should be able to refuse medical procedures that mimic the mark—including any medical procedure which enables us to ‘buy and sell’ more freely (e.g. employment, access to certain businesses, etc.). Before these SARS-CoV-2 vaccines there were zero medical procedures needed that would enable one to ‘buy and sell’ more freely at a global level. The SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have changed the ball game.
A sixth reason many Christians are abstaining from these vaccines is that they simply do not ‘bear witness with it in their spirit’. Meaning, we believe the Spirit of God inside of us is ‘flashing red lights’ and calling for us to abstain from the vaccine and to deal with the situation holistically and in prayer (Romans 8:17). We believe what Jesus said when He declared ‘My sheep hear My voice’ (John 10:27). We believe the Lord leads and directs us away from harm when harm is on the way and always makes a way of escape for us (Matthew 24:16; 2 Peter 2:7). A Christian must never violate this Inner Voice. Rather, we must hold it up to the authority of Scripture and the experience of fellow believers. To force a medical procedure on a Christian who does not bear witness with it, and believes the LORD is leading them away from it, is to violate their conscience and cause them to sin. The Bible plainly teaches that we must act according to a ‘clear conscience’ (1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Peter 3:16; Romans 14:3) and that ‘anything that is not done in faith is sin’ (Romans 14:23). These vaccines are violating the conscience of many Christians, for many different reasons, and the right course of action for those Christians is to abstain from these vaccines. This should be reason alone for people to receive a religious exemption.
A seventh reason many Christians are abstaining from these vaccines is that these vaccines do not prevent them from either contracting or spreading SARS-CoV-2. This means the whole logic of ‘love your neighbor by getting vaccinated’ is moot. It would be moot even if the vaccine actually did stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 because as was described in reason one, the ends do not justify the means. In fact, getting the shot is already an act of un-love toward the most vulnerable of our neighbor in that it has links with the abortion/murder industry. It is also could be an act of un-love in that many virologists are saying the vaccinated are contributing to ADE (antibody-dependent enhancement) at a worldwide level. These virologists include Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche as well as the inventor the mRNA vaccine technology, Dr. Robert Malone. The fact that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines do not stop one from spreading the disease, and even the CDC is requiring that the vaccinated still wear masks in many situations and get tested, this means the primary reason someone is getting vaccinated is to protect themselves. In fact, all of the vaccine manufacturers admitted this from the beginning claiming that their vaccines do not stop one from contracting or spreading the virus. They only promised that one would be spared of severe symptoms and death. We now know even this initial promise was not fully true. For instance, from July 1st to August 12th 86% of all deaths in Scotland from SARS-CoV-2 are of fully vaccinated people. You can ‘fact check’ that at Public Health Scotland Open Date Dashboard. Many other countries, like Israel, are experiencing similar numbers. For an individual example, the VP of Oracle, Joel Kallman, who designed the CDC vaccine tracking system ‘v-safe’, died of Covid well after receiving his second vaccination. Another example being the boxing superstar, Oscar De La Hoya, who was at the peak of health ready to go back in the ring, recently was hospitalized with a severe case of Covid even though he was fully vaccinated. These examples could be multiplied thousands of times over.
As a pastor I believe the best thing Christians can do, unvaccinated or vaccinated, is to self-quarantine when they have any symptoms, treat the disease therapeutically early on with therapeutics that are moral in constitution, and make sure they don’t spread the disease to anyone else as it almost exclusively spreads through people who are symptomatic. They should also pray and trust the Lord who ‘bore their sickness’ and who ‘heals all their diseases’ (Matthew 8:17; Psalm 103:3). We do not view the disease as something harmless, but rather we seek to treat it in a way that comports with our sincerely held religious beliefs. Many Christians are taking substances like vitamin D-3, vitamin C, zinc, olive leaf extract, NAC, saffron, quercetin, thiamine, resveratrol, ivermectin, nebulized hydrogen peroxide, and many other natural and moral supplements that are contributing to drastic decline in death rates. Many of our congregants are following either the protocol given by the thousands of Front Line Covid Critical Care doctors, the protocol by Dr. Joseph Mercola, the protocol given by the world renown Dr. Peter McCoullough who has been on the front line of Covid treatment from Day 1, or the protocol given by many other alternative doctors that bring quick recovery and stop the spread.
Time Magazine reported in June, “Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) technical lead for COVID-19, said at a press briefing on June 8 that asymptomatic transmission appears to be ‘very rare.’” It goes on to say that out of four studies conducted on the spread of SARS-CoV-2, “The highest estimate was a transmission rate of 2.2%, suggesting ‘asymptomatic spread is unlikely to be a major driver of clusters or community transmission of infection.’” In my opinion, corporations who are concerned about viral spread should simply tell all employees (vaccinated or unvaccinated) to stay home until they are asymptomatic seeing they both are vectors of spread. It is also unscientific that those with natural immunity are not being recognized as having immunity from SARS-CoV-2. As of August 29th, 2021, the most recent studies show that the ‘SARS-CoV-2 recovered’ have a much stronger immunity than the vaccinated. One study of over 800,000 participants in Israel shows that vaccinated people were 13 times more likely to get infected with SARS-CoV-2 compared to the Covid-recovered. It also shows that a vaccinated person is 27 times more likely to show symptoms if infected than someone who is Covid-recovered. In view of the most recent data from around the world, Martin Kulldorff (a professor at Harvard Medical School and expert in disease surveillance methods and vaccine safety) has written, “vaccine mandates are not only scientific nonsense, they are also discriminatory and unethical.” He also states, “The justification for vaccine passports becomes not just wrong but absurd in light of these new revelations”. The Hill has reported on this study here. For a more extensive archive on studies of the superiority of natural infection see here. Also, see 81 Research Studies Affirm Naturally Acquired Immunity to Covid-19: Documented, Linked, and Quoted. A George Mason University professor of law recently won a lawsuit over being banned from the university even though he has natural immunity. In fact, he has strong naturally immunity even 18 months after his recovery. An interview with him can be seen here. Even Dr. Fauci admitted in an interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta that people who have naturally recovered is a “real issue.” Leading SARS-CoV-2 treatment expert, Dr. Peter McCoulough, stated in an interview with Dr. Al Johnson, “It’s one and done. Once we have full immunity we’re done… There’s never been a bonafide second case confirmed with sequencing… Natural immunity is robust, complete, and durable, and it cannot be improved upon with vaccination.” Everyone should be allowed to show an antibody test to prove that they have strong immunity. Instead, they are being treated like they don’t have immunity. This current strategy is unscientific and has motivations that have nothing to do with public health. The reason natural immunity is better is because God is the one who has designed the natural immune response. This is our sincerely held religious belief that also happens to be scientific.
As Senior Pastor of Mission City Church, given authority by Christ to care for the souls of Christ’s sheep (1 Peter 5:2-4; Hebrews 13:7), I believe that if a Christian has issues with any of the above sated reasons, and should not take any of the current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines as each available vaccine violates all seven of the principles laid out above cannot take the vaccine with a ‘clear conscience’ before God, they must abstain and be grated a religious exemption. Christians are to have nothing to do with sin and must have a pure and clear conscience before God in everything they do (Proverbs 1:10; Ephesians 5:11; Romans 6:13, 13:12; Etc.). Some Christians will resonate with all seven of these points. Others with maybe two or three. And still others might not resonate with any of them. But any Christian who does resonate with any of these points must abstain, and corporations who offer religious exemptions must give them an exemption or do damage to their soul and livelihood.
As a pastor I believe the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine mandates being enforced on Christians across America right now are unbiblical and that pastors have a responsibility to speak up. No one should be forced to inject something into their bodies against their conscience. For this reason I have signed The Warrenton Declaration on Medical Mandates, Biblical Ethics, & Authority. It includes a lengthy biblical justification for why pastors and Christian leaders must stand against all SARS-CoV-2 vaccine mandates.
Sincerely and with love,
Joshua Hershey
Senior Pastor of Mission City Church
M.A. Theology, Oral Roberts University