Kia ora ,
For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 2:7)
If you did not see our emailing last week, on “Christian churches and Covid lockdowns, the jab, and vaccination certificates”, see here. We reported what appear to be the majority and minority positions among Christians on a number of Covid-related issues.
Our overarching concern, though, was to encourage Christian people to avoid ungodly division and rancour over these matters, and instead to relate with respect and graciousness to those we may disagree with.
As fellow believers in Christ, we must carefully guard our unity in Christ (Ephesians 4:1-6). We noted the biblical mandate to obey the governing authorities (e.g. Romans 13:1), even though we all know that this and every other human government sometimes gets things wrong.
Insights from various sources
In the last week or so we have become aware of many Christians writing on these matters. Here’s some of it (and we don’t necessarily endorse all of it). See, for instance, this piece by Tim Palmer, surveying a wide range of Christian perspectives on vaccination. Or this
article from the Baptists, as well as these from the Syndey Morning Herald, The Gospel Coalition TGA U.S. Edition, and especially this piece from TGA Canadian Edition.
And finally, here’s an interesting secular article from The Spinoff on the wide range of people who are not happy with taking the vaccination.
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