Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it: those who do know history, repeat it anyway.
Going in for a routine checkup, your doctor tells you, “Here, take this shot, it will make you immortal to COVID. It will make you better than before (the way God made you with natural immunity can be bettered by man/science). It’s your obligation for the common good. Do you not want to be god-like? God never gets sick; He’s holding out on you, but if you just take this shot, all will be well and your humanity will be enhanced toward godhood. Don’t you want to be better off than those who don’t take it? Are you not better than they?”[1]
Listen real closely; does this voice sound familiar? Where have we heard these promises before? When you hear this kind of verbiage, or when you hear the Theologians doing Vaccine Infomercials, whose voice do you hear? Is there not an unmistakable tone in that speech? Is there not a recurring theme there? Where have we heard this promise of invincibility before?
According to our Lord, Who said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” it’s not just what is being said that is of the greatest import but who is speaking. It’s a matter of knowing His voice, recognizing the Good Shepherd, and filtering out the Angel of Light—Lucifer.
If that voice peddling the vaccine sounds familiar, it’s because it is the same old lie that was in the beginning, “Here, take, eat, you’ll live forever! Don’t you want to live forever? What God gave you is not enough.”
If you made the connection between the voices peddling the “vaccines” and the “Angel of Light” that slithered into the Garden, you are correct; they are one and the same no matter whose mouth it speaks from. Make no mistake; it is the same old lie offering bogus salvation in one form or another.
The lie always offers betterment without God! Deification without Union; Health without prayer; and peace—prosperity, wellness, vitality—without the true life of God’s presence within. However, this new lie was built on the backs of innocent infants, our own brothers and sisters, whose horrific deaths even many of our Orthodox Theologians choose to ignore or excuse. By explaining this away, they have become complicit in the worst kind of evil – child sacrifice. Where will they go next in pushing past boundaries long established by the Fathers of the Church?
Enduring the Truth
Convincing anyone in our modern world—including the Orthodox—, that there is evil in paradise is nearly impossible. They refuse to see the serpent (the main symbol of modern medicine) in their midst and do not avoid its dangers. Most Orthodox Christians are like Adam and Eve in the Garden, unable to see the evil in their presence. Sincere Orthodox Christians can’t imagine themselves performing an abortion, or using human fetal cells experimentally, and for sure they can’t imagine lying about the adverse effects of a medication for personal or professional gain. Since they cannot imagine themselves committing such atrocities, many good people cannot believe anyone else would either. Such naïve trust is always in for a rude awakening.
So they willingly believe the lie. It is more comforting, convenient, and less disruptive to life than the truth. Seeing the truth means things get real complicated real fast. Decisions have to be made differently than before.
The Utopian Lie
Adam and Eve were offered an utopian lie. The vaccine is just another in a string of lies where Satan offers humanity a “better world” than God is offering them. Just take the double jab, then one more booster, then another. Now show your passport to buy food or have a job or attend church. Just comply and look at how wonderful everything will be!
This is the same old satanic lie laying a trap to steal, kill, and destroy. There truly is nothing new under the sun and those who know history repeat it anyway. This is the same evil spirit that challenged in the mind of Eve concerning God’s willingness to care for His own. All sin in this regard is rooted in the concept, that God cannot be trusted for our daily welfare, health, and wellbeing.
The Categories of Bishops
The “pandemic” put many clergy in a no-win situation. The Faithful wanted answers and, of course, they went to the clergy of the Church. Unfortunately, the panic of the parishioners—hearing and reading about a “deadly” pandemic—became the panic of many hierarchs. Being pressured from every side, from every point of view, many looked to other “Orthodox” sources (e.g. the Orthodox Theological Society) for answers. Too many of them found the wrong answers, and we all suffered for it over the past almost two years. Had they relied on their own instincts and spiritual discernments, most would have chosen more wisely. Still, to lump all hierarchs into one category, as some have done, is a gross injustice.
Bishops can be sorted into three categories (which one is yours in?). First, there is the group that totally ignored enforcing any COVID protocols. They just went about their business as if nothing else in the world was going on. As I understand it, the Serbs fit into this category and probably a few others. They changed nothing for anybody, and refused to listen to the parish snitches. These men are largely out of the ongoing vaccine debates because they just stayed in their lane; the Orthodox lane. These are the “good” bishops. They got it right the first time.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who not only previously acted as agents of government—without (presumably) being paid for it—but are now doubling down on the remaining protocols and the vaccines. Without a doubt, these hierarchs are sympathetic to the globalist agenda (if not totally in the tank) and should not be trusted under any circumstances as they are enemies of the Church. If your bishop behaves this way, find a new one. It is doubtful they will never get it right, and likely will continue to enforce their political entanglements on the people.
But there is a third group, who in the beginning jumped on board the COVID train, but have gotten off and no longer act as government agents. These are the ones we need to commend because their actions speak of a change of mind: repentance. Their parishes are largely at peace; even growing. To err is human, and God is merciful to those who repent.
The pro-vaccine narrative is strong among many of the faithful. Too many clergy have put the weight of their position of trust behind what is becoming more and more apparent as an unmitigated health disaster far worse than the virus itself. It may seem at this point that the pandemic is forever and its ugly “new normal” is irreversible. But God has not abandoned us. He will see us through this and more yet to come, if we listen only to His promises in His voice and not to any other.
John Lee – an Orthodox Christian
[1] At the root sin is comparison (knowledge of good and evil).
