Can Vaccines Be a "Hill Worth Dying On?"
Christians are commanded by God to not sin (Matthew 5:48, 1 Corinthians 15:34). No Christian ever has—or ever will—be able to obey this command perfectly. It is only by the grace of God that the punishment due for our sins has been paid for in Christ's death on the cross. Yet over the last 2,000 years of world history there have been many times when civil authorities have demanded that Christians violate God's law. Countless believers have resisted those demands—and suffered as a result—even to the point of death. We have a rich family history of non-compliance to authorities who dictate that we abandon the hills that we believe are worth dying on.
"But Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men'" (Acts 5:29)
Today, many Christians believe that they are facing demands to dishonor God in their bodies —which scripture forbids them from doing (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). For them, this issue is a "hill worth dying on". Not surprisingly, there is an argument against those who feel this way. And it is founded on an erroneous line of thinking that I would like to address. It goes something like this:
"The Bible should be our guide in all matters of ethics and morality. The Bible does not explicitly mention vaccines. Therefore, no Christian can claim this is a hill worth dying on." - Random professing Christian
While I (as every believer should) can heartily agree with the first two statements in this line of thinking, the conclusion is a classic non-sequitur. In other words, the first two statements in this syllogism do not necessarily lead us to that conclusion (and may actually lead us to an opposite one). Not trying to get too "heady" here, so consider the following, which is from a recent sermon I preached:
I submit to you that there are three different Biblically-sanctioned categories of "hills worth dying on":
Category 1 Hills: (Bible-clear issues)
"Category 1 hills" are the simplest to identify, because they take little to no work to see in the Bible. Example: Do not worship anyone or anything but God. You need a verse? "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). Need another? "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them" (Exodus 20:4). There are obviously many other verses like these. But if you need more for me to prove that you should not worship anyone but the One True God, then this article is clearly not for you.
The Bible is crystal clear on God's prohibition against worshipping false gods. If you ever feel the temptation to do so, you should resist with all your might. Furthermore, if anyone were ever to try and force you to declare that "Caesar is Lord", you are Biblically obligated to resist—even to the point of death. Better to be thrown to the beasts in the coliseum (like many faithful Christians before you) than to dishonor the True God by bowing the knee to a false one.
Many professing believers however, are so unpracticed in applying all of God's Word to all of their lives, that they can't imagine any other "hills" worthy of dying on. Consider the following:
Category 2 Hills: (Issues necessarily inferred from the Bible)
"Category 2 hills" are identified as areas that are not explicitly stated in any one verse in the Bible, but are concluded by other clear texts of scripture.
For a positive example: the doctrine of the Trinity is not taught explicitly in any single text of scripture. But there are many texts of scripture from which we can deduce the doctrine of the Trinity (and with enough certainty that it is a CORE DOCTRINE of the Christian faith.) If a Christian were forced to choose between denying the Trinitarian God, or dying...he should choose to join the many faithful martyrs in history and lay down his life—to the Glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Even without a singular/specific verse, we can confidently assert that it would be sinful for a Christian to deny the Trinity.
But there is a third category...
Category 3 Hills: (Conscience issues)
The Bible explicitly teaches that there are unspecified matters in life that fall into this category. That is, there are certain activities/behaviors about which the Bible is silent—or expressly permissive—that could be SINFUL for a person to engage in. Take, for example Paul's teaching on eating meat:
"One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him…Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:2-5)
Scripture clearly teaches that it is NOT sinful [generally] for a believer to eat meat (Acts 10:15, Romans 14:14, 1 Corinthians 8:8). Yet Paul does not say [as those who make the aforementioned argument do], “The Bible does not prohibit eating meat (or getting vaccines)…so stop being so stubborn, and just eat it (or get vaccinated)!”
In other words, while scripture does NOT explicitly prohibit the eating of meat, it DOES explicitly forbid one Christian from demanding that another Christian violate his or her conscience. Simply put, a Christian may not be coerced into operating contrary to his or her conscience. For him or her to do so would be SIN.
"But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).
Conscience issues are a genuine BIBLICAL category that may determine a hill as WORTHY of DYING ON. Additionally, if anyone were to demand that his fellow Christian get a vaccine when he is conscience-stricken to resist, the one who makes the demand is the one who is "sinning against Christ".
"Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ" (1 Corinthians 8:12).
In conclusion:
Resisting COVID vaccines may be a hill worthy dying on. At The Mission Church, we affirm the individual believer's right to oppose vaccine mandates, and encourage them to resist getting the vaccine in a godly manner. Additionally, we outright condemn—on the basis of scriptural authority—the attempts to coerce people to violate their conscience on this matter.