Now i’m waiting for the illuminati to locate me through the microchip; but I’m ready for them. I stocked up on a 6-month supply of doom spray.
I’m not trying to mock anyone or suggest there’s a simple answer to the whole Covid & vaccination situation and debate.
Trying to shame and press-gang everyone into getting vaccinated strikes me as being about as effective as every failed historical attempt to socially engineer and control entire populations. I’m reminded of the attempt to completely outlaw alcohol in America in the 20s. It led to economic downturn, an increase in alcohol consumption, and the strengthening of the mafia as they became key purveyors of outlawed booze. This kind of simplistic rule-making with unintended consequences is being played out again and again in our Covid crisis.
The powerlessness of external regulations to produce appropriate behaviour that flows from a heart of love and wisdom is the whole story of the Bible, with its narrative flow from the Old Testament / Covenant of law and death to the New Testament / Covenant of grace and life through Christ; this is clarified throughout the New Testament, but with a laser focus in Romans 7 & 8.
PS I’m not naively suggesting that law and external regulation have no purpose and function (that’s not what the Bible teaches at all), merely that they have specific, limited roles in specific contexts, in conjunction with other factors in God’s overall salvation strategy and economy (which is what the Bible teaches).
So, while I don’t wish to mock anyone, I do wish to foreground that which I’ve found to be the focus of the Bible, after a lifetime of studying it.
What I perceive is that we cannot strip-mine and misuse the Bible to find verses to support our particular stance or agenda in certain complex social issues such as Covid. The central thrust and focus of Scripture is to deal with our sin, reunite us with God through Christ and get us on the path of living lives of increasing righteousness, love and wisdom (climaxing in a renewed heaven and earth: Romans 8:18-23).
For now, it means striving for the best outcomes, but also learning to live with situations that cannot always be fixed and with people we cannot always agree with (PS google Niebuhr’s serenity prayer for a wise perspective).
The Bible has such deep wisdom, that speaks to every situation, including Covid. Take this verse, for example: Isa 8:12-13 “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. (13) The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.
I have collated a partial list of Bible verses, which challenge and inform the following four Covid-crisis-relevant thoughts, attitudes and behaviours. Click on the link if you want to read all the verses [https://drive.google.com/…/1ZuAhCMlM1lR7j5tGA4D…/view…]:
1.Angry and impulsive thought and speech (this is the one I most have to be careful of and guard against, in my own personality)
2.Arrogance and over-confidence
3.Simplistic thinking that is incomplete, unbalanced and one-sided
4.Superstitious, superficial, externally-focused religion
By the way, I am not so naïve as to think that simply listing or proof-texting Bible verses gets us to truth and right living, any more than gathering all the ingredients for a cake guarantees a delicious cake, or learning all eleven cords in “Layla” means you can sound like Eric Clapton, but it is a vital first step in avoiding half-baked, off-key offerings.
