Should Christians Take The Vaccines Endorsed By The Government?

By Joel Settecase / January 27, 2021

I received an email from a listener about the vaccines. Here is her question and my response.

Subject: Should Christians take the vaccines endorsed by our governments?

Message: 
Hello,
I hope you and your family are well. Thank you for your content.
I’m having concerns about these vaccines that are out. They are rushed, and pushed on to people to take it. I have done some research and some sources say in order for them to accomplish this type of vaccine, mRNA, you need stem cells from a human. From my understanding the stem cells they (Pifzer) (sic) used are from an aborted fetus. I’m am greatly concerned this will become mandatory, if so, what should Christians do?
Thank you again for your time and all your great content.

G

G,
Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm glad your enjoying the content and resources of the Think Institute.

Are The Vaccines Morally Acceptable For Christians?

Thanks for reaching out about this. I understand the concern, and I've had the same concern. What I found was this: while stem lines from aborted children were apparently used in the development of the vaccines, the final products by Moderna and Pfizer do not contain any tissue at all from aborted children. The (anti-abortion) Catholic US Bishops have approved the vaccines as being in line with pro-life values, and both Albert Mohler (SBTS President) and John Stonestreet (of the Colson Center) have signed off on it as morally clear. I'm not an expert on the vaccines by any stretch, and I share your aversion to using anything that uses aborted children. So the fact that these three stalwart anti-abortion voices have given their affirmation of the vaccine means a lot.

Of course, whether to take the vaccine or not is going to depend on your own conscience, and there are obviously other factors at play. For example, the WHO has apparently recommended against pregnant women taking the vaccine (but I think this is due to lack of knowledge, rather than knowledge that the vaccines are harmful to pregnant women or their babies). There may be other considerations as well.

In the final analysis, we can thank God that vaccines are possible, and that scientists were able to develop the COVID-19 vaccine(s) so quickly. I have not decided whether I'm going to get it myself, but I personally don't have any moral scruples about the vaccines from the perspective of being pro-life. I don't think the vaccine violates the sanctity of human life.

Here's the commentary from BreakPoint:
https://www.breakpoint.org/the-ethics-of-the-covid-vaccine/
https://breakpoint.org/bptw-vaccines/

And from Al Mohler: https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/mohler-endorses-pfizer-and-moderna-vaccines-they-can-be-taken-by-pro-life-christians-with-legitimacy.html

Three Questions Christians Must Ask About Every Law

When it comes to any law or mandate handed down by the civil authorities, there are three questions we need to ask:

1. Does this endorse biblical morality?

2. Is it within the scope of the authority God gives to civil government?

3. Is it allowable for me to obey this, or would doing so be disobeying God?

For Christians, Every Law Falls Into One Of These Three Categories

Based on these questions, we can divide laws and mandates up into the following [three] categories:

1. Laws that endorse biblical morality, are within the scope of biblical governmental authority, and are allowable for Christians.
   An example would a law prohibiting theft. This law (1) endorses biblical morality ("You shall not steal"), is within the biblical scope of governmental authority, (cf. Romans 13 & 1 Peter 2), and is obviously acceptable for Christians to obey (Christians shouldn't be stealing!).

2. Laws that endorse biblical morality or are amoral, but are not within the scope of biblical governmental authority, but which are still allowable for Christians.
   An example would be seatbelt laws. There's no violation of biblical morality there (in fact the Bible teaches the dignity of human life), but there's no specific authority in Scripture given to civil governments to endorse seatbelts. Nevertheless, it's certainly not immoral for Christians to wear seatbelts, so we should have no qualms about obeying seatbelt laws. One could argue that we're free to disobey the seatbelt law, but doing so may lead to legal ramifications, and so for that reason many Christians (who might otherwise disobey) will go along with it.

3. The final category is this: laws that violate biblical morality.
   Any law that violates biblical morality is automatically not within the scope of biblical governmental authority, and it is likewise not allowable for Christians. An example would be a law that required Christians to stop gathering for worship (Hebrews 10:25), or a law that required Christians to take vaccines containing cellular tissue from aborted children.
   Scripture is clear that, in such a case, the only proper response from Christians is to civil disobedience of such a law, out of obedience to God (see Daniel 6:10; Acts 4:19).
   

So What If Vaccines Become Mandatory?

So then, let's say the civil government to make vaccines mandatory.

Christians would then have to decide first whether taking the vaccine would be in line with biblical morality. As I explained above, I think that would be the case.

Next, Christians would have to ask whether vaccination mandates are within the scope of authority that God gave to civil governments. To that question, I believe the answer is no.

Christians would therefore need to determine whether they wanted to obey the mandate. They may choose to obey it out of a desire to avoid getting the disease, or to help eliminate it from society through herd immunity. Or they do so begrudgingly out of a desire to avoid being punished by the government. They are free to do any of these.

However, they also may choose to disobey the mandate and not take the vaccine. Doing so would be within their Christian liberty, given that the civil government has no God-given authority to require vaccines. However, they would need to be ready to deal with any societal, penal or legal ramifications of their choice.

I hope this is helpful, G. Let me know if there's anything I can clarify further.

In Christ,
Joel Settecase