Prolegomenon
The tone and candor of this post will be quite concise – not because the subject matter is not worthy of further discussion, nor because the gravity of the subject at hand is slight. On the contrary, this post will be concise precisely on account of these reasons.
This post is a response to a specific situation that is currently confronting many Christians: that of being confronted with an order of mandated COVID-19 injection compliance with the threat of termination for refusal to follow those injection orders (we are using the term "injection" in place of "v------" due to recent algorithms that restrict posts using that language). This is a particular situation, and we have accordingly framed a particular response. What follows in this post is correspondingly particular – we are primarily speaking within our local church context, while addressing the manner in which this particular injection mandate is being enforced by employers and governmental entities within the United States.
That being said, the principles considered within this post are biblical and thus have universal application, though the extent of their application may be determined by situational particulars in any given context.
A Few Cautions
Let me first say that this post is not meant to speak to everyone. This post is primarily for the family of Grace Community Church (Battle Creek), to help inform our church body how our leadership is carefully walking through a complex issue that has challenged many within our fellowship. The Elders of GCC have not come to this place in isolation, and we are grateful for the formative input of many within our church body and from sister churches on this matter. That being said, should any fellow believers find what follows helpful, they are welcome to glean any wisdom from what they might find herein. None of the conclusions reached here are completely unique to our leadership – many churches are working through very similar circumstances, and we are comforted that many of those churches are relying on similar biblical guidance and precedence.
This post is not meant to address everything relating to injections and injection mandates, certainly not in a single blog post. There are a host of complex issues that surround these discussions, issues which often derail said discussions rather quickly (and with great turmoil). That being said, the church does have something to say, because Scripture has something to say – we therefore will say those things quite clearly, and we will form our thinking and actions accordingly.
What gives us the authority to weigh in on this issue? This is a fair question. We have the authority to speak on this issue because Christ is the Lord of all of life, and He has spoken sufficiently for us to live in a way that is pleasing to God. Christ’s authority is not restricted to the walls of the church building, nor does Scripture remain silent on issues outside personal salvation alone. This assertion of Christ’s authority should not be surprising or unprecedented (see our recent post on the biblical basis of authority, here). Christ holds all authority in the heavens and on the earth, in this age and in the age to come – and His possession of all authority has consequences. Christ is the Lord of the church, He is the Lord who creates every human in His image, He is the Lord who defines and orders the family, and He is the Lord who structures and prescribes the parameters of the State.
This means that one can either love injections or disdain them, and yet still agree with Christ’s lordship and the parameters He has set for all derivative authorities in this world. It means that you can personally be very behaviorally cautious in regarding infectious diseases or you can be less restricted in your behavior, and yet still agree with the parameters of biblical authority (and the consequences thereof). In short, this article is not pro- or anti- any particular medicine or injection – it is a specific address to the Christian regarding the State mandating a medical procedure on the individual under threats that include termination (loss of means to provide).
Further, this is not a stance we take for popularity from either ‘side’ in any given debate. Our conviction as Christians is that we will often stand in unpopular circles, and we are quite comfortable to do so. When we so stand, we remember that we do so with no fear of men, but in light of a healthy fear of God (Acts 5:29). It means, as Chesterton put it, that “right is right even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong about it.” It means that we live coram Deo – living before the face of God and to His glory. We must boldly declare what God has declared and stand for those of our people who are under pressure for doing so.
One final caution, and this one is quite necessary. We cannot be imprudent or unduly excessive in our application of biblical principles. Luther once described such theological excess as a drunken man throwing himself over a horse’s back, only to throw himself back over onto the ground on the other side while trying to rectify his previously mistake. Our actions and reactions take each situation and its mitigating factors into account, and we do not use biblical truth as an excuse for unbiblical excess. However, the guiding biblical principles will always remain the same, and those principles must be the foundational cause we react in the ways we do. This point cannot be overemphasized – we have biblical parameters that we must work from.
Our Response
The leadership at Grace Community Church (Battle Creek) has been approached by several within our church who are facing the threat of termination for not complying with injection mandates placed on them by their employers. To the extent that a governmental entity (or employers acting on the direction of the government) cannot exceed its divinely-ordained sphere of authority, see our previous post (here). As the overseers of this church, our Elders have carefully crafted a response with the input of our leadership that is shared herein for our people to be familiar with and reference if needed.
As for this specific issue, we have provided a letter that may be provided to an employer in the face of such termination for the above stated reasons. Our letter does not state that we as a church or leadership categorically oppose the injection, nor does it state that we as a church or leadership categorically encourage the injection. Christians will come to differing conclusions on whether to take the injection or to decline, and we exercise Christian charity in these decisions (though we certainly encourage biblical reflection on this and every other issue).
What we do state is that there is a biblical category that concerns matters of conscience for the believer. These matters are not arbitrary or capricious but are formed by biblical conviction and reliance on divine guidance in the life of the believer, including divinely-instituted categories of authority. These convictions are neither entirely subjective nor are they inconsequential. Each believer will not hold these convictions of conscience identically, but they are no less serious for the believer (Romans 14; 1 Cor 4, 8), even constituting sin for those who violate their conscience (Jas 4:17). We therefore recognize these categories as biblically-formed categories which cannot be infringed by a governmental authority, nor can the conscience be coerced or violated in these matters through threat or force.
The below letter is our effort to explain these convictions, on behalf of our people at Grace Community Church (attached as a picture and as a downloadable pdf):
SDG,
Josh Howard
Josh Howard serves as the Elder/Pastor at Grace Community Church in Battle Creek, MI, co-hosts the Good Doctrine Podcast, and is an alumni of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (PhD, ThM).
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