Lord willing, I will begin preaching through the book of Romans when we get to September. That leaves a couple Sundays of sermons before then, and that gives me a shot to address some other things.

In God’s providence we are still being confronted with COVID panic, or we are being confronted again, or we are being confronted somehow with heretofore unprecedented measures. We have been told to stay home, we’ve been told to mask up, we have been told to vax up, and now we’re supposed to re-mask up. We’ve been told if we stayed home for 15 days we could get back to normal. We were told that if we wore masks we could get back to (a new) normal. We were told that if we got vaccinated we wouldn’t have to wear masks. We were told that if a certain percentage of the population got vaccinated we could be done with all restrictions. And now, many of you are being threatened that if you don’t get vaccinated you can’t keep your job, and it’s being teased that if you don’t get vaccinated you won’t be able to travel or shop in stores or eat in restaurants. Just this past week in Washington state, government employees were given an ultimatum for vaccinations, as well as health-care workers, and all school employees, whether public or private schools. It is surprising, and it would be just silly if it weren’t for how many people are taking it seriously.

In a Sermon?

I considered whether or not this should be a sermon. I asked the elders what they thought. A sermon isn’t the only avenue of communication available to us at this point; I could have sent an email, posted it on the website, etc. But this seemed to be a profitable use of my preparation time, as well as a way to edify the congregation.

So, yes, a sermon, for the stimulation and strengthening of your faith, both in content and capacity. What we believe—that is, what we’ve received from God in His Word—teaches us what and how to think in the world. And as we remember some of these relevant truths may God make us more bold in living according to them.

And, yes, a sermon, because we’re going to work through religious exemptions. The pastors are not doctors (or lawyers) and, even if we were, the teaching and authority of the church has limits. What we are required to provide for God’s people is religious counsel and shelter.

What this sermon will not be is a set of reminders about your Constitutional rights as a United States citizen or citizen of Washington State. It will not be scientific or medical stats or stories (though that is available and I’d be happy to share what I’ve read and listened to). It will not be about the necessary questions regarding the believability of our public officials or media outlets, about their changing of the goalposts or flip-flopping messaging without corresponding evidence. It will not promote an alternative fear to the virus, a “conservative” fear about tyranny, even though we should have our eyes open. Instead I want to remind us of what we know in summary form and to affirm our church’s support for your decisions made by faith.

So it’s not a legal defense, or medical exemption, or pleading of sanity (as sure as you may be the sane ones).

A couple qualifications about terms. I will be speaking about religious exemptions, especially for those of you who wonder about the legitimacy of claiming that status or who desire to seek such an exemption from your employers regarding “forced” vaccinations via threat of termination or retaliation.

But even as I give the first point below, what we believe is not a footnote, a digression, an incidental allowance for ourselves as some sort of crazies. Seeking an “exemption” is what it has come to, but those who are acting in the place of God have the first problem. Playing savior of others is a hard job, and there will be no exemptions from judgment before God for such arrogance. You may not even want to play along with the pride of men, or be put on their list like some sort of beggar. So be it. But I will speak toward the forced vaccinations situation regarding religious exemptions.

Also, from what I’ve read so far, it is not obvious that these requests for exemptions need to be super specific. For example, the few forms I’ve seen are small, and there have been no declared intents to check the sincerity of belief via church attendance or giving records or number of Bible quotes posted on social media (which makes one wonder why certain officials seem so happy to offer the exemption in the first place). For that matter, the exemptions are supposed to be personal, not corporate, though what is supposed to be and what things are have not been very congruous.

Faith

There are three things that are part of our faith, truths we believe in this religious “sect” of ours called Christianity, that apply to your appeal for a religious exemption from mandatory vaccination. They are broad truths that are relevant to “forced” medical procedures, and, ironically, these are the truths that established the principle of religious exemptions in the first place.

These truths are true whether or not your request is accepted. These truths are true even if we are persecuted for believing them.

1. God’s Sovereignty

Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth (Psalm 124:8). He is God, Creator of all, and He “does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). His Son is the King of kings and Lord of lords, risen from the dead. There is none like Him.

As stated in our longer What We Believe document:

We believe that God upholds and governs all things - from galaxies to subatomic particles, from the forces of nature to the movements of nations, from evil to good, and from the public plans of politicians to the secret acts of solitary persons - all in accord with His eternal, all-wise purposes to glorify Himself

Which means that we believe that God is sovereign over sickness and health, that He works through miracles and medicine. It means we also believe that every authority on earth throughout history has been established by Him.

For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. (Romans 13:1, see also John 19:11)

We believe in God’s existence and power and authority, which already makes us weirdos to those busy trying to suppress their knowledge of God (according to Romans 1:18, 21).

Part of the reason for our religious exemption is that we think there is a God over science, not that science is god. We think there is a God over the President and CDC and Governor and County Health District. In our current circumstances, these authorities are not just “doing the best they can” against a virus, they are acting without any reference to God at all. We object to their conceit, and to their entire lack of context “under God,” because of our faith.

As Christians we also are comforted by this truth of God’s sovereignty. He is God and Father. He clothes us, feeds us, cares for us (Matthew 6:26). He knows what we need before we do (Matthew 6:32). He knows that the Gentiles panic about getting their little greedy hearts less anxious. Because God is sovereign we are secure.

2. Limited Government

Though that phrase isn’t in Scripture, it is a truth found in Scripture. Limited government is religious, and particularly Christian, not based on political conservatism or libertarianism.

God sets up kings, and He removes them, at will. God also says what government must do, and what they must not do (Romans 13:3-4; 1 Peter 2:14). He also reveals that sinful men, in their power-hungry pride, will often abuse their positions (Ecclesiastes 8:9).

While He is in control of evil men, He prohibits us from obeying men rather than God (Acts 5:29). God has commanded us to submit to earthly authorities, but not absolutely everything that they mandate.

Plus, it turns out, our system of government in the United States is “the people,” as asserted in our Federal Constitution, which was established to limit the government’s authority. The founders got that principle from knowing that the State wasn’t God.

God gave authority “to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Peter 2:14). He commands that we pay “taxes to whom taxes are owed…honor to whom honor is owed” (Romans 13:6-7). This does not mean that we will never be on the government’s bad side, it means that when the government acts badly we may suffer for doing good (1 Peter 2:15; 4:19).

But again, this means the government does not have absolute authority. The State may make a “law” that theft is legal, and that will cause the people to groan (as in Proverbs 29:2), but it is wrong. The State may mandate a medical treatment, but it is wrong. Of course the State can use its force, but that is abuse of authority. We object because of our faith.

3. Liberty of Conscience

Scripture does not use this exact phrase, but the truth is there. It has been recognized in political and church history (see a good example of this going back to 1721). We are not even allowed to speak evil against one another, let alone bind them to a moral good we’ve defined/declared outside of God’s Word.

There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:12, see also Romans 14:4)

It turns out that there are laws for our protection in this regard as well, even as we recognize that those laws themselves depend on religious truths, including the Bible’s teaching about personal responsibility before God.

Your body does not belong to the Governor, but to God, and it is not the Governor’s choice to make you safe from every illness, from all cancers (or climate). You are responsible to God as a steward to consider what is best for your body. What great opportunities God has given us for learning and for seeking counsel with those who have done more medical “practice.” But a public professional cannot dictate your conscience. We object to that because of our faith.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)

You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. (1 Corinthians 7:23)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2)

whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. (1 Peter 2:16)

Though many governors have taken up our own Christian language of “loving our neighbors,” they do not get to define that. For what it’s worth, neither do other Christians (pastors, ethicists, bloggers) seeking to make Christians feel moral guilt for not submitting to certain medical treatments, like vaccines. (Here is a bad example of such an attempt, with a good response here.)

Additionally, there are specific questions of conscience related to the current vaccines for COVID-19. All of the currently available vaccines depend on cells from an aborted baby for their production, or they have been tested on such cell lines (here’s my source for that claim). At the same time, I thought this was a helpful article working through distinctions between production of and testing with cell lines by Randy Alcorn. We believe in the dignity and sanctity of life from conception to death. Certainly all of this is relevant to our choices, and our consciences.

Force

And so the use of “force” through threats of termination, discrimination and retaliation, are sinful abuses of authority. Can the State, and employers, promote, encourage, and provide help? Of course. Does the Bible authorize the State to quarantine persons with certain sorts of contagious illness? We would say yes. But the Bible does not give State, or “masters”/employers, the authority to force any medical procedure on any person (or eat specific food, or only drive on Tuesdays, etc., for the “good” of your neighbor (Romans 14)).

What you must do is not go against your conscience before God.

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5)

For more see The Warrenton Declaration on Medical Mandates, Biblical Ethics, & Authority, most of which I could sign, and then also this statement by the CREC, a Communion which includes many of the kinds of churches we are like.

Conclusion

I am not saying that you must not get vaccinated. I am saying that you must make that choice, by faith, with wisdom through research and counsel.

The elders agree that we are not the boss of your medical choices, and we agree that elected representatives or appointed officials or public health officials or business employers are not the boss of your medical choices.

We are available to talk with you, to give you counsel, to give you support if applying for religious exemption including writing a letter on your behalf, to give you support in finding other employment. We labor for your progress and joy in faith (Philippians 1:25). These days, living by faith may bring you into collision with those who would try to force you to go against your conscience.

Today has its own trouble, who knows about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). Who knows what opportunities we will have to live by faith and call on the Lord. In our struggle against sin we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood (Hebrews 12:4), and we are not to grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:3). As a congregation we are not really running lean yet, but we are running together, and that will continue to be important in whatever days the Lord gives us.

Again, if you’ve considered the risks and have been vaccinated by faith, if you’ve been vaccinated because you willingly chose to make a sacrifice by faith, then you have our support. But what you must do is trust God, thank God, and be ready to give Him an account.

let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. (1 Peter 4:19)

John Bunyan wrote a book based on this verse, a man who paid the price for obeying his conscience before the sovereign Lord.

”There is that of God to be seen in such a day as cannot be seen in another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving of others; his making of shrubs to stand, and his suffering of cedars to fall; his infatuating of the counsel of men, and his making the devil to outwit himself; his giving of his presence to his people, and his leaving of his foes in the dark; his discovering the uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath, and of the whirlwind and the storm.” (John Bunyan, Advice to Sufferers, 694)

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Charge

Keep calling on the Lord. Keep fearing the Lord, not man. Keep living by faith, and let Him call the shots.

Benediction:

[May] God make you worthy of his calling and fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12, ESV)