By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry. Today, we’re going to look at a very important phase that we are in. The pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the economies of nations and, more importantly, on people’s lives. But there are certain prophetic connections that are largely overlooked by most. They are not understood because people aren’t studying their Bible, or they would know what to expect. People aren’t interested in their Bibles mostly. We are now unmistakably headed for the final conflict of the great controversy.
As we begin, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we are living in very interesting times. But they are also times that warn us that Jesus is coming soon, and of the events that are going to be taking place in the near future. Help us to be ready. If there is anything in our lives that needs Your forgiveness please let us make it right urgently. If there is any character defect in our lives, please show us what it is and help us to overcome it. And please save us in Thy Kingdom, we pray. Also, we pray that You’ll be with us today as we study and meditate on the important and compelling times in which we live. In Jesus’ name, amen
Please open your Bibles with me to Matthew 10:36. I believe this Bible text will be dramatically and literally fulfilled. The time of trouble is coming when men’s hearts will fail them for fear. And fear will drive some of the strangest and most difficult events that you can imagine. The world is headed for global tyranny. Global, national and religious authorities are uniting together to bring this all about. And they are trying to divide the population into two groups of people.
“A man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”
The world is currently being divided into two classes, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Long term friendships are being tattered and separated over disagreements about the COVID vaccinations. This is what to expect when a Sunday law comes. The two classes of people are already in place and being developed. Though all of them aren’t evident visibly, those who are loyal to God are in one small class, and those who are loyal to the enemy in the other, much, much larger class. Listen to this statement from Christ’s Object Lessons, page 283.
“There are only two classes in the world today, and only two classes will be recognized in the judgment—those who violate God’s law and those who obey it. Christ gives the test by which to prove our loyalty or disloyalty. “If ye love Me,” He says, “keep My commandments…”
Friendships Are Breaking Up Over Vaccines [1]
Delta variant is stoking our anger at the unvaccinated. Don’t tell us to calm down. [2]
As COVID Resurges, Vaccinated Americans Rage Against Holdouts [3]
And those who spread “misinformation,” which are those who raise questions about the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness, are being demonized. The Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla recently said, “Those people are criminals. They’re not bad people. They’re criminals because they have literally cost millions of lives.”
Pfizer CEO says people who spread misinformation on Covid vaccines are ‘criminals’ [4]
It strikes me that they aren’t bad people but their criminals. I thought all criminals are supposed to be bad people. But in the last days there will be good people that are criminals, at least in the eyes of the world.
Of course, his statement is false and self-serving. But this is the kind of misrepresentations the people of God will face at the end of time too. There will again be two classes, those that are loyal to Christ and keep his law, and those who are loyal to the enemy and keep his law through human enactments. All the arguments will not convince God’s true people to change their minds. Strict measures will not convince them. And today we are getting a sense of what it will be like by watching how the vaccine is applied.
The vaccine is undoubtedly a test of loyalty parallel to the experience of Daniel and his three friends in the court of Babylon. They resisted the King’s meat and drink because they knew that they could not defile their bodies with the substance that would diminish their standing before God. I’m not saying that those who got the vaccine are doomed to failure in the great test that is coming upon the world. Fortunately, you can still change course and stand victorious in Christ. There are more tests to come.
And the nations are getting used to separating the people into two classes already. When the Sunday law comes it will be a very easy thing for them to make the differentiation between one class and the other.
There was a time, early in the pandemic, when Bill De Blasio, the mayor of New York City, openly encouraged people to snitch on their families and friends and coworkers if they disobeyed COVID restrictions. But now it’s not just the city of New York that is encouraging this. With the federal mandates for businesses of over 100 employees, the US government is putting into place pressure on businesses to encourage their employees to tattle on their employers if they do not comply with the mandate. Of course, this is not members of their own household. But as people get familiar with this method, it will easily be expanded or twisted to include everybody, even of one’s own household.
While most countries limit international arrivals to only vaccinated people, Canada restricts domestic travel on public transportation, whether by plane, train, bus, ferry or other carrier to vaccinated individuals only. This effectively limits the travel of unvaccinated people to personal vehicles. It essentially makes them second class citizens.
Canada Will Require Full Vaccination for Travel from Canadian Airports [5]
After closing its border for over 600 days, Australia has opened them now, but restricted almost all unvaccinated people from coming to Australia.
Australian borders are finally open. Here’s who will be allowed in [6]
Austria has imposed strict new regulations on the unvaccinated. They can come into Austria with a negative COVID test, but they cannot use that COVID test too visit bars and nightclubs and other places where people gather, such as tourist sites.
Entry Regulations for Austria [7]
Friends, the noose is tightening. It will be very difficult to travel from place to place, just as the spirit of prophecy says. Here is the statement from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, page 22 again.
“We have no time to lose. The end is near. The passage from place to place to spread the truth will soon be hedged with dangers on the right hand and on the left. Everything will be placed to obstruct the way of the Lord’s messengers, so that they will not be able to do that which it is possible for them to do now.”
Listen to this. On November 9th of last year an article appeared in the news entitled: Whistleblowers to play key role in enforcing vaccine mandate.
“To enforce President Joe Biden’s [then] forthcoming COVID-19 mandate, the U.S. Labor Department is going to need a lot of help. Its Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA] doesn’t have nearly enough workplace safety inspectors to do the job.
“So the government will rely upon a corps of informers to identify violations of the order: Employees who will presumably be concerned enough to turn in their own employers if their co-workers go unvaccinated or fail to undergo weekly tests to show they’re virus-free…
“What’s not known is just how many employees will be willing to accept some risk to themselves — or their job security — for blowing the whistle on their own employers… The new mandate… will cover an estimated 84 million employees…
“Companies that fail to comply will face fines of nearly $14,000 per “serious’’ violation. Employers found to be “willful’’ or repeat violators would be subject to fines of up to ten times that amount.
“Should the mandate survive its legal challenges, though, the task of enforcing it would fall on OSHA, the small Labor Department agency that was established 50 years ago to police workplace safety and protect workers from such dangers as toxic chemicals, rickety ladders and cave-ins at construction sites.
Whistleblowers To Play Key Role in Enforcing Vaccine Mandate [8]
First of all, giving the mandate legal penalties will be similar to the Sunday law. In Australia there are huge fines being levied on individuals who break the COVID mandate to stay at home, even now. And now, as I prepare this message, the Victorian parliament lower house has already passed draconian legislation that gives the premier almost unlimited powers to fine, imprison, and subject people to the most serious lockdowns and consequences anywhere in the world for protests and other behavior that is against the dictates of the premier. It’s blatantly tyrannical.
Sydney lockdown fines hiked to $3,700 as Australia faces ‘worst’ Covid situation [9]
Dan Andrews plan to give himself ‘unlimited power’ to declare pandemics even with zero cases and jail Victorians for two years if they break restrictions is half way to becoming law [10]
And you guessed it, this is the way it will be during the Sunday law crisis. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but notice these things.
Listen to this From Great Controversy, page 607.
“The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and, in this work, papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence, and other rewards and advantages, as inducements to renounce their faith.”
The Nazis would be green with envy if they’re still around. They did a similar thing during World War II. They used regular citizens to spy on other regular citizens, particularly those who were hiding Sabbath keepers, and turn them in to the police. Jews were isolated from the rest of the population and locked down. And summary execution would be imposed for those who broke the rules even slightly.
In the United states, New York City has discriminated against the unvaccinated by refusing to pay up to $500,000 in death benefits for anyone who works for the metropolitan transit authority and dies of COVID and is unvaccinated.
Unvaccinated Individuals May Be Denied Death Benefits [11]
The Bible gives us an example of the kind of extreme pressure that will be exerted on those that are loyal to God and keep His law. In First Kings 18, it says in verse four, “When Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by 50 in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.”
That means that she had them executed (see vs 13). Why did Obadiah have to hide them in the cave? Because Jezebel and her henchman where hunting them down. They couldn’t go home and sleep in their own beds and eat their own food. She no doubt had spies everywhere that were prepared to turn them in, even among their families at times. The times were very difficult for these dissenters. Remember that Ahab and Jezebel assumed the role of being the enforcers of apostate religious laws on the land of Israel. In essence they imposed worship laws and issued the death penalty for anyone who disseminated so-called “misinformation” about Baal worship. Many were Baal worship-hesitant and refused to go along with Jezebel’s demands. Does that sound like something you may have heard is happening right now? The methods used are current, though it’s not over worship. It’s over a vaccine. But even religious authorities are advocating the vaccine and advocating that the unvaccinated be discriminated against and treated differently than the vaccinated.
Well, come to think of it, the state is asking us to worship and obey the medical establishment’s dictates. You know, we often think of doctors as gods. We will do what they say no matter what. In fact, if God gives us health counsel, we will still believe and do what the doctor says, in spite of the council from heaven. Often it is the exact opposite from what the doctor orders.
I think it’s very interesting because the vaccine, and the pressure to take the vaccine is worldwide. In my lifetime this is the first time that a medical demand is worldwide. The Sunday law will also become worldwide. It will be a universal Sunday law. They’re just working out how to do it, brothers and sisters. It’s only a matter of time. They are using a medical issue to test the system to figure out how they can use the technologies available, like cell phones, tracing apps, and pressure tactics. They will use other tools too, like the loss of your job, the loss of freedom, being barred from some places, and many more. When they have all this worked out, then they will switch issues, and something will happen that brings the Sabbath into prominence. The end game will be upon us.
The Bible workers in the days Elijah, known as the prophets of the Lord, exposed the wicked king Ahab and his heathen wife Jezebel. They explained to them from God’s word that what Ahab and Jezebel were doing was wrong and would lead to ruin. They were trying to get the people to remain loyal to God and not follow in the wicked apostate and licentious worship of Baal which was being enforced by coercion. So, it should be no surprise that coercion is a tactic that is used by human rulers to enforce their will and the will of the enemy on the human race.
Listen to this from Manuscript Releases, Vol. 5, page 47.
“You will always find Satan on the side of the oppressor. God does not oppress. God does not bring them [people] in by persecution, for He has let them live all this time, but when Satan gets the lines in his hands, he takes the spurious sabbath and sets it up against the perfection of Christ and [says] you have got to keep it. That is the spirit of persecution and oppression and bondage. It goes right with the spurious sabbath that has not one syllable for its sanctity in the Word of God. ‘If you do not keep Sunday, you will not buy or sell.’ And not only that, but they work their oppression in every way possible, but thank God, He lives.”
But the prophets of the Lord in Elijah’s day were persecuted; hunted like criminals. They had to find some sort of asylum. Jezebel and her agents managed to decimate their ranks by killing them whenever they found them. There would not have been a fair trial, or judicial process. Summary execution was the way Jezebel likely worked. We call it extra-judicial killing today, or assassination without the benefit of due process. Modern western governments will do and have begun doing this very thing. And they will do it to God’s people when they have evidence that they disagree with their edicts. This was a very trying time for anyone who did not want to bow the knee to Baal. It was dangerous to oppose Ahab and Jezebel, so it had to be done quietly.
Likewise, today, those who don’t want to take the vaccine have to be quiet about it. Especially in some places.
By the way, in the time of Elijah, it would not have been a good idea to live in the cities if you wanted to be faithful to the Lord undetected. In the city there were too many prying eyes and listening ears, surveilling like the cameras do today on many street corners and in buildings where the public can enter. In the cities there were many spies, secret agents and undercover police working to rout out anyone that opposed the religious regime. And it will be like that during the Sunday law crisis. You don’t want to live in the city.
And now there are apps to show your vaccination status. A green screen showing that you have been vaccinated, and a red screen to show that you are not current with your vaccinations. Other magnificent complementary systems have been developed to put the pieces together so an assault can be made on God’s true people. We have documented them over the years at Keep the Faith Ministry.
Have you wondered why God allowed this pandemic and fearful system of vaccination to wrap itself like a giant octopus around the planet? God hasn’t allowed these systems to be developed because He wants you to fear them. It is not because He wants you to tremble and cower in anxiety and worry. Oh no, He allows it so that we can see the construction of this mighty system of control and oppression under the jurisdiction of world leaders. That way we can understand what the enemy is planning for God’s people and we can throw ourselves on the mercy of God and trust Him more fully. It places an urgency upon us to get ready.
World leaders may not even realize it, but they are cooperating with the enemy of souls to build an advanced medical system, an advanced police system, and an advanced surveillance system, Enhanced interrogation methods, trials by tribunals, etc. that will one day be turned upon God’s true people. It’s already starting to happen and getting tested by using the vaccine. But the real assault on God’s people will be over the worship laws that will be imposed on the whole planet one day soon, using the same technology and the same tactics, refined and maximized for maximum effect.
God wants us to see the magnificent system so that we can understand that there is no hope for protection from human systems and governments and from human leaders. He wants you to see it so that you will flee as a bird to Him. You are to depend solely on God, and He wants you to see why. Isn’t that merciful? God wants to help you get ready for the last moments of earth’s history. The enemy is being allowed to construct these magnificent plans so that we can more fully understand the power of God in overthrowing them. He did that with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He did that with Esther and the Jews in her day. He did it with Elijah, and He will do it again.
If you are dependent on the government for your finances, or your health care, you will lose all that support. Welfare will not apply to those who are loyal to God. Nor will any other government programs or benefits. And don’t expect benefits from private businesses or large corporations either. Those companies will comply with government rules and regulations.
When God’s people come up to the national and global Sunday laws, which are the ultimate destination of globalization and the new world order; when His saints are under the severest pressure to yield their faith or die; when escape seems hopeless and they are surrounded by all the forces of government surveillance, legal and economic lockdown and other oppressive enactments; God will reveal His power and will knock it all down, brush it all aside and show the futility of man’s power in contrast with the mighty power of God to deliver His saints. Isn’t that wonderful, my friends?
Listen to this interesting statement from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, pages 450 and 451.
“Satan will excite indignation against the humble minority who conscientiously refuse to accept popular customs and traditions. Men of position and reputation will join with the lawless and the vile to take counsel against the people of God.”
That’s talking about leaders of nations and the moneymen of the earth, and those who are respected as religious leaders. They will unite to oppose those who uphold true worship and the law of God, like Elijah did.
I’ll read on… “Wealth, genius, education, will combine to cover them with contempt. Persecuting rulers, ministers, and church members will conspire against them. With voice and pen, by boasts, threats, and ridicule, they will seek to overthrow their faith. By false representations and angry appeals, they will stir up the passions of the people. Not having a “Thus saith the Scriptures” to bring against the advocates of the Bible Sabbath, they will resort to oppressive enactments to supply the lack.”
What would those oppressive enactments be? They would include the decree or law that prevents them from buying and selling. The digital society has taken us to the leading edge of this. Digitalizing money is the easiest way to enforce such laws. It would also be oppressive laws that will be made to support the Sunday law, like losing your job if you don’t work on Saturday.
When there is enough of a crisis, the people will demand a Sunday law and legislators will yield, and the courts will find some justification for it.
Here’s the rest of the statement.
“To secure popularity and patronage, legislators will yield to the demand for a Sunday law… On this battlefield comes the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error.”
God allows these scary things to be developed and deployed on those who are not necessarily under His protection, so that His faithful people who are paying attention can get a glimpse at how serious the powers of earth are in their league with the enemy, including presidents, prime ministers and other mighty men of the earth. I’m not saying that they intend to be. They might even be completely unaware of it. But they are still in league with the enemy anyway, because the enemy uses them to establish his oppressive plans. Friends, have you noticed that the United states is acting more like a dragon then a lamb? This has to be developed. It can’t just happen suddenly as if in one day.
By the way they treat their adversaries, whistleblowers and other targets, we can understand the way they will work to corral God’s people and oppress them. We can see the tight seal they are constructing around society so they can trap those that reprove their ambitious and rebellious plans.
COVID vaccines are one of the means by which Babylon gets most people to violate the sacredness of their body temple. If the body is a temple of God, then anything you do to it to alter it creates a violation of the laws of health. This is true whether it’s a donut or a mRNA vaccine. Your body may be able to fend it off for a while, but there comes a time when it will have its effect. We need to repent of our health backsliding and order our lives according to the health principles that we have been given from heaven. Jesus wouldn’t even drink the sop as he hung on the cross. Why should we regularly insert a substance into our bodies such as the mRNA vaccines and their booster shots? A friend of mine from Australia, where they are the most extreme in the enforcement of mandates and penalties for breaking COVID rules, made this statement,
“We are being tested so we can see clearly where our loyalties lie. God is permitting us to face an issue that will bring out—without a doubt—whether we love the Lord supremely. Are we willing to lose all in order to not defile our bodies, which are God’s? And violate our conscience that must only submit to God? If we surrender for fear or convenience, then we have been shown we are not ready to face the final battle that is just around the corner. Do not surrender your body and conscience! Seek the Lord with all your heart and find rest and power in him for the challenges you are facing. This experience is calculated to develop the necessary faith and relationship with Jesus to prepare you for the final battle. Stand faithful!”
Interesting Interview With Australian Evangelist Samuel Braga [12]
If you were driven by fear during this pandemic, if you took the vaccine because you were afraid of catching the disease itself, or because you were afraid of losing your job, or were afraid of something else, think carefully. Take yourself in hand. Because if you are driven by fear, the Sunday law will overcome you. Take normal and even extra precautions. Be sure your immune system is up to the maximum it can be. Live by the health laws that we have been given in God’s word.
I’m not suggesting that if you have taken the vaccine, or have submitted to unreasonable government regulations, that you will automatically fall in line with the Sunday law. But what I am saying is that you need to think about what you submit to and how you are going to react the next time that fear drives the population. What are you going to do when the government enacts mandates that all citizens must comply with or lose their job, or lose their income, or lose their government welfare check, or lose their ability to feed and clothe themselves? They will even take away your ability to buy and sell. Think about the fear that must drive that kind of requirement. If they have to take such measures to pressure the populace to take the vaccines, there is something that’s not right about it. Nor will it be right to obey the Sunday law.
Your conscience must rest in the word of God. Your mind and your physical body must be submitted to God alone, not to some medical science. Science is confusing and contradictory in many cases. If you try to make a decision about whether to take the vaccine on science alone, it will lead you down the wrong path. And you may actually not experience any outward negative side effects. But think about what you’ve done to your body if you took the vaccine. Daniel chose not to defile his body on something far less impacting inconsequential than the mRNA vaccine. If Nebuchadnezzar would have given Daniel a similar vaccine what do you think he would have done? I think he would have done the same thing and not divulged his body. If you know how to trust the Bible, you will not be afraid, nor will you have uncertainty. You will have confidence in God and peace in your heart.
Fear is one of the main driving factors in the crises at the end of time. When you read about the disasters and war and famine it can’t help but strike fear into the heart. Fear is also a mechanism that the government uses to get people to do what they want them to do. And when the government is trying to create fear in order to get the population to do something that is not in their best interests, there is no telling where it will go.
The Nazis operated on the basis of fear. The population feared them. The Jews feared them. And when there is total control based on fear, human beings can be unreasonable and brutal. The enemy knows what he’s doing. Expect worse things to come.
Jesus was not motivated by fear. And this is what the leaders hated about Him. It was subconscious, maybe. They didn’t realize that they were responding to His lack of fear. But they didn’t like that He said bold things and did things that were deliberately targeting their false teachings. Jesus was not afraid of them. He knew He was guided by heaven and loved by His father. So He was secure and wasn’t afraid. Christ’s followers are going to face the same issues in the last days. This means that they will have to deal with the issue of fear in their lives. They will have to do things that are very fearful to most people.
That should be no surprise. The Bible is full of people who acted with courage in a time of fear. Think of Daniel in the lion’s den. Think of Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Think of Noah in the ark when the rains came for the first time in earthly history. That no doubt convinced him beyond any other, that God had spoken to him and prepared him for the end of the world as he knew it.
Think about the martyrs of history. Being thrown to the lions in the Colosseum in Rome was, no doubt, fearful. Being burned at the stake was, no doubt, fearful. But they trusted in God and they yielded to His will in their lives. Many times they had to stand alone against a powerful foe. But they knew they were sustained by a more powerful agency that was not of this world and that had overcome the enemy. That power was more able to protect them than the mightiest earthly power. It was a spiritual protection. God doesn’t guarantee you physical protection. But He will not allow anything to come to you that is greater than you can bear, but will provide a way of escape.
2 Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
Last month I made a comment that the church will not defend your liberty of conscience during the vaccine mandates. When the government has made demands that are anti-freedom or anti-liberty, the church has always sided with the government for reasons of its own.
Listen to this from a lengthy statement issued by the General Conference. I will just quote a few portions of the carefully worded statement and you will see that they will not support you very much at all.
“The decision whether to take the vaccine or not is not a matter of salvation, nor is it related, as some may suggest, to the mark of the beast. It is a matter of personal choice.”
A violation of conscience IS a salvation issue. The church should be advocating liberty of conscience, not advocating for the vaccine. And the question of vaccine mandates is certainly related to the mark of the beast. The issue in Revelation 13 is whether you will go against your conscience and accept the mark in your forehead or hand to obey the ruling authorities or to accommodate your own convenience. The vaccine edicts require some to violate their conscience in order to live normal lives, the same as the Sunday law will do. It is actually a health test of faith leading up to the Sunday law.
Another paragraph reads as follows.
“Submission to government authorities is a biblical principle unless it conflicts with obedience to God (Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:1-7)… When it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations, we believe individuals have the right to state and defend their conviction whether to be vaccinated or not. Mandates usually allow exemptions for individual religious convictions or health conditions.”
In other words, individuals, not the church, should state and defend their convictions. You are left on your own if you have vaccine convictions. Submission to governing authorities is a biblical principle, but when the government issues mandates that violate conscience, submission to governing authorities is not possible if you are going to be true to your conscience. The statement is saying that the church is more responsive to government authority than their individual members and their convictions. Again, the church should be focusing on liberty of conscience, not advocating for the vaccine.
“With widespread personal testing available, individuals may choose instead to submit to regular testing if required.”
Here the church is advocating that those who refuse vaccination should be subjected to discrimination, and disabilities to their participation in society. This is happening at a time when some countries are actually stopping vaccinations due to adverse side effects.
In the next paragraph the statement reads, “The Seventh-day Adventist Church, in consultation with the Health Ministries and Public Affairs and Religious Liberty departments of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, is convinced that the vaccination programs that are generally being carried out are important for the safety and health of our members and the larger community. Therefore, claims of religious liberty are not used appropriately in objecting to government mandates or employer programs designed to protect the health and safety of their communities.”
If the church thinks that “claims of religious liberty are not used appropriately” against the vaccine, why would the church assist anyone in defending a religious liberty claim? To be dismissive of those who have these convictions is at best, brushing aside the church’s historic stand for religious liberty and disenfranchising those members who have religious objections to the vaccine. It would have been better to be neutral on the matter of vaccines than too promote the use of dangerous drugs and dubious concoctions.
Another section of the statement reads, “If we use our religious liberty resources in such personal decision advocacy efforts, we believe that we will weaken our religious liberty stance in the eyes of the government and the public. Such efforts would make it less likely that these arguments will be heard and appreciated when they are used for matters of worship and religious practice.”
That statement is surprising. A well-reasoned defense of religious liberty and of conscience would strengthen the credibility of the church when faced with the Sunday law, not diminish it. The way other faith groups strengthen their credibility is by asserting those rights early and often, not waiting for the big issue.
This statement is a sending a clear signal to those that want to enforce vaccine mandates that they will not have any opposition from the church which lays the foundation for more coercion, more unjust mandates, and more religious oppression. We have a duty to stand for religious liberty now when it matters so that we have credibility later when we defend our duty to obey the fourth commandment. What a missed opportunity to stand apart from the world, to be a light shining brightly to all nations, to stand for Christ and His sole authority over our bodies, and to give the health and the religious liberty message in loud and clear tones.
Here’s another, “Instead of focusing on our individual convictions, we should draw more closely together in relationship with Christ and with each other.”
What? Why brush aside the legitimate concerns of those members who stand for freedom of conscience, and suggest that they are dividing the church by their personal religious convictions? This condescending, moralizing and patronizing statement should never come from the General Conference.
And finally, the clearest statement of all, “The Seventh-day Adventist Church does not advocate for religious exemptions to vaccination on either a global or national basis, based on its understanding of both the Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White, and as expressed in this statement.”
The statement is carefully worded to downplay its implications. Those who refuse the vaccine will not be defended by the church, no matter where you are in the world. The church has basically surrendered to government authority, even adopting its false and misleading narrative. It has published documents that allegedly respect member’s freedom of choice, but at the same time advocate discrimination against unvaccinated members. In no uncertain terms the church encourages everyone to get vaccinated. The church has done very little to support or defend freedom of conscience!
The bottom-line question is how you are going to act when these tactics and technologies are used to promote and coerce the Sunday law. I’m sure that things will be a lot worse then.
Keep hold of God. Lean on God’s word. Trust no human reasoning. Live by the health principles given in the inspired writings, and above all, be faithful to the light you have received.
Let us pray. Dear Father in heaven, it is in Jesus name that we come to you asking for strength to resist the pressure from worldly sources to compromise. The world wants to enforce a vaccine that does much harm to many people and hasn’t really been tested properly. Give us strength to live by our convictions even if it causes us to have to live with inconveniences. This is just a prelude to what will take place during the Sunday law. So give us assurance from Your word that you will stand by our side and sustain us now and in the future during the Sunday laws. In Jesus’ name, amen.