I count at least four good reasons not to take the vaccine. But only the fourth and final reason is truly a ‘bridge too far.’ The first three reasons are good enough to justify refusal, but if I’m right, only the fourth makes it absolutely untouchable, unthinkable.
“All warfare is based on deception.” — Sun Tzu, military general, The Art of War
“But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” — John 2:24–25
Here’s a thought experiment: . . .
How can we actively participate in God’s instruction of worship? The Lord gave Israel just such an instructional roadmap in the proclamation of the Ten Commandments, especially the first four commandments which comprise the first tablet concerning our walk with God. Let’s take these one by one and ask the question: How does this commandment teach us to worship?
Lie: Worship is
an experience of God’s presence.
Truth: Worship is
a response to God that results in the arrangement of our lives around God.
I can’t think of any more important subject to get right
than the subject of worship. As Christians we all would agree that worshiping
God – whatever it is – is supremely important. And most would also agree that
getting this right is the one prerequisite to getting most everything else right. But the real disagreement
enters around what worship fundamentally is.
Too often we assume that we know this but the truth is that we’re confused.
Worship is such a broad and profound subject that there are simply too many
ways to get this wrong or woefully incomplete. Until we can better understand
the nature of worship it won’t really matter to talk about how we worship, which is precisely where most of the disagreement
normally occurs.
Lie: My life is meaningless
Truth: Your life is full of meaning and purpose.
This lie is told (most often subliminally) in different ways with different words, but all the ways and words are equally devastating:
Life is meaningless
What’s the use?
It’s just not worth it
What difference does it make?
I have no purpose
I’m bored
I don’t know what to do.
I give up
What’s the point of it all? or simply: ‘why . . Why . . WHY?!’
Nearly all of us struggle to some degree with this lie and no one is exempt from the assault. Some try to . . .
The philosophy of ancient Gnosticism perpetually reinvents itself. It’s the false religion that will not go away and that has come in many forms over the centuries. But it’s main tenant has not fundamentally changed. That tenant is this
Lie: We should keep quiet about conspiracy theories.
Truth: We should seek the truth and not be afraid to speak about anything, even so-called ‘conspiracy theories.’
To sin by silence, when we should protest / Makes cowards out of men. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from the first lines of her poem, Protest
Lie: I’m
responsible for my health.
Truth: What is
commonly called ‘our health’ is actually inseparable from our soul, which is integrally
dependent on God’s own life. So to be responsible for a health that is independent
of God, ignores the divine life intended to fill and power it.
It’s a common-enough assumption: ‘Hey, this is my body!’ After all, you may say, who else would it belong to? And furthermore, who else could do anything with it anyway? Yes, these are the bodies that we’ve been given, but that doesn’t mean they belong to us. We will one day leave this body — then whose body will it be?
We’ve all experienced it — that vague feeling of aimlessness, restlessness, perhaps in the late afternoon; in a word, the doldrums. We experience it as background noise, but don’t really know what it is. It’s an unpleasant feeling that we seek to either eliminate or mask with external stimuli. And the stimulus could be anything as long as it’s colorful, animated, rhythmic, funny or engrossing: TV, YouTube, mischief, porn, movies, games, books, food or all of the above. We’ll do anything to get rid of it.