Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
Covid-19 and Whether We Should Wear Masks
There are many Christians who are standing against getting the vaccine for Covid. I have seen them state there is a lot of bad stuff in the vaccines. I have seen people state that to get the vaccine would be akin to throwing yourself on a sword. I have also seen plenty of Christians compare it to the mark of the beast.
The first thing I want to address is that this vaccine is NOT the mark of the beast. Take this from someone who actually studies the End Times prophecies.
1) The mark of the beast will be pushed hard by the antichrist and the false prophet. It will be done AFTER the antichrist is revealed. It will be done at the middle of the 7 years of tribulation.
Today, we still do not know who the antichrist is or the false prophet is. We still have yet to even enter into the 7 year tribulation, much less get to the middle of it. If you wonder how I know we are not in the tribulation yet, I would suggest you read my articles on the End Times.
2) God is not a conniving cruel God. He is a fair and just God. He is not going to let the mark of the beast get slipped to us in disguise so we don't know what it is, and then claim that if we take it we will go to hell. That would be ridiculously unfair. When the mark of the beast happens, the believers will all know for certain it is the mark of the beast. The mark will be forced on the people to take it or they will not be able to buy or sell anything without it. The people will have to choose between taking the mark and life being easier and going to hell for it, or refusing the mark and suffering, going hungry and possibly execution but going to heaven for refusing it and following Jesus.
To be clear however, we do not have to worry about the mark of the beast. The rapture will happen before the tribulation even begins. I know the more common teaching is the rapture doesn't happen until after the tribulation. That teaching is absolutely false and it is literally impossible for it to be post-trib according to scripture. After the rapture, there will be many who see it as proof and will turn to Christ. They will be the ones who need to worry about the mark of the beast. All of that is in the link of articles I listed in point 1.
3) I know some believe this vaccine is not the mark but it is set up to program us to accept the mark when it does happen. To get us used to accepting new government pushed vaccines or marks. This just isn't true!
If that was true, then they have been preparing us since the dark ages. People have been given vaccines for generations now. The chicken pox vaccine caused a lot of the same fears. The only difference really was that back then, social media didn't exist to allow fears and lies to run rampant. In the end, it ended up being just a vaccine.
Think for a second. If the government was trying to get stuff in your body without you being aware, they would have it made in a form we can ingest and put it in the fast food industry or the refreshment industry. If they truly wanted to sneak it into us, they could. They would not spend billions coming up with a virus, letting it loose, coming up with a vaccine and putting it in the vaccine. That just isn't logical.
Your greatest enemy is not the government. As lousy and evil as the government can be, they are not out to get you. Your biggest enemy in this case is the conspiracy theorists pushing lies on social media and the masses just believing everything they read. They will tell you that the government is trying to make them all look crazy by calling them conspiracy theorists, but the truth is they make themselves look crazy. There is no doubt there are some conspiracy theories that are true. The problem is that when they start finding conspiracies in everything that happens, nobody knows who or what to believe anymore.
There were a lot of videos passed around at the beginning of this about 5G networks being the blame of the fake virus. That the new 5G network was messing up people's brains and the government was using it to shutdown businesses to install weaponry. Seriously? People actually bought into this crap! Yet 5G networks are still growing and fewer people are dying from the virus now.
The best advice I can give you is to stop paying attention to what is spread on social media and start looking up actual numbers.
At the time of writing this, about 51 million people have been fully vaccinated. Newsweek did a fact check on a report that 994 people had died from the vaccine and found it is true, but could also contain cases where people died from car accidents or something else within 24 hours of the vaccine. The data base used was flawed in this extent. So the 994 is a very high number compared to the true amount of deaths most likely. Still, we will use an even thousand deaths to make this easy. If you divide 1000 by 50 million, you get the percentage of people dying from the vaccine. That comes out to be 0.002% fatality rate.
On the other hand, 30.2 million have had the virus and 548 thousand have died in America. That is 1.8% of them that have died.
Now if we average them both down to an even 1,000,000 what do we get?
For every 1 million people who get the vaccine 20 of them die.
For every 1 million people who catch the virus 18,145 of them die.
Now look at those numbers and tell me which you think is more dangerous to you? If you catch the virus, you are 907 times more likely to die than if you get the vaccine.
On the other hand, there is a demographic that I have not mentioned yet. One that I personally fall into. Those who have already had Covid.
Let's be clear here. I am not talking about people who were sick for a while and assume they had the virus. If you were not checked and officially found to have it, you cannot claim you had it.
I did some looking and found that 30 million people in America have had Covid already. Worldwide there have only been 66 confirmed cases of re-infection. Only 11 of those were in America. So by dividing the 11 cases in America by the 30 million overall cases of Covid in America, you get the percentage of those who got it twice.
11 / 30,000,000 = 0.00004%
This means that someone who has been vaccinated is 54.5 times more likely to die from it than someone who has already had Covid is of getting it a second time.
The old saying goes, "People lie, numbers don't lie!" This is what the numbers tell us....
If you have had the virus, you are the safest of anyone. You have a .00004% chance of catching it a second time and likely won't die from it.
If you have not had the virus, but get the vaccine, you have a .0002% chance of dying from the vaccine.
If you do not get the vaccine and catch the virus, you have a 1.8% chance of dying.
So I have established that the vaccine is clearly not the mark of the beast. I have established the vaccine is far less life threatening than not getting the virus. So now let's talk about walking in faith.
As a Christian, we are not to fear death. One reason I am certain I am right with God is that when I had the virus and was bed ridden and weak, I knew there was a fair chance that it could at any moment take a turn for the worse and kill me. Yet I was not afraid in the least. I asked people to not pray for my recovery, but to pray for God's will be done. If it was God's will to take me home, I was ready to go. Many claim to have faith, but showing it when the time comes is a different story.
Before I got it, I wore a mask. Not out of fear of catching it, but for two reasons. To not wear a mask would have been testing God, and my wearing one put others at ease. Today I still wear a mask. I have less reason to fear getting it again, but I wear it for the peace of mind for others around me. Also it is a mandate and the Bible tells us to obey authority.
Before I had it, I had no fear of catching it. I told people that if God wanted me to get it, I would get it and there was nothing I could do to stop it. If He did not want me to get it, I would not get it. But knowing it was out there, to go without a mask would be akin to testing God. God chose for me to get it and He chose for me to survive it.
Because I have had the virus, I do not plan on getting the vaccine. For me to get the vaccine even though the numbers say I am safer than anyone who gets it, would be to live in fear. I refuse to do that. I look at the facts and I take the less dangerous route and keep faith in Christ and do not test God. However, with that said, there is a chance I will end up getting the vaccine anyway. My step-kid is very cautious over his children. I love seeing those kids. If me not being vaccinated gives him reason to fear my being around those kids, then I will gladly get it. Not because I fear it but because I will ease the fears of others.
I do not see this vaccine as being against God in any way. I do not fear it can kill me or even harm me unless God allows that to happen. If it is His will, I will not fear it. For me to refuse to get the vaccine out of fear of what is in it, would be to show a lack of faith in Christ to protect me.
Too many will appease their fears and look for reasons to justify serving those fears. I refuse to do that. I will fear nothing. I do not fear death or becoming ill because I know God is in control. I will take the safest route and keep faith God will keep me safe. If my taking the safe route causes unease in others, I will take the next safest route that will ease their minds.
There is no reason or evidence to believe the vaccine is against God. However, I will say that in the end, you need to do what you think is right before God. If it is not fear of the vaccine that guides you, and you truly believe in your heart that it would be a sin to take the vaccine, then you should not. Paul tells us that what we do without a clear conscience is a sin.
The first thing I want to address is that this vaccine is NOT the mark of the beast. Take this from someone who actually studies the End Times prophecies.
1) The mark of the beast will be pushed hard by the antichrist and the false prophet. It will be done AFTER the antichrist is revealed. It will be done at the middle of the 7 years of tribulation.
Today, we still do not know who the antichrist is or the false prophet is. We still have yet to even enter into the 7 year tribulation, much less get to the middle of it. If you wonder how I know we are not in the tribulation yet, I would suggest you read my articles on the End Times.
2) God is not a conniving cruel God. He is a fair and just God. He is not going to let the mark of the beast get slipped to us in disguise so we don't know what it is, and then claim that if we take it we will go to hell. That would be ridiculously unfair. When the mark of the beast happens, the believers will all know for certain it is the mark of the beast. The mark will be forced on the people to take it or they will not be able to buy or sell anything without it. The people will have to choose between taking the mark and life being easier and going to hell for it, or refusing the mark and suffering, going hungry and possibly execution but going to heaven for refusing it and following Jesus.
To be clear however, we do not have to worry about the mark of the beast. The rapture will happen before the tribulation even begins. I know the more common teaching is the rapture doesn't happen until after the tribulation. That teaching is absolutely false and it is literally impossible for it to be post-trib according to scripture. After the rapture, there will be many who see it as proof and will turn to Christ. They will be the ones who need to worry about the mark of the beast. All of that is in the link of articles I listed in point 1.
3) I know some believe this vaccine is not the mark but it is set up to program us to accept the mark when it does happen. To get us used to accepting new government pushed vaccines or marks. This just isn't true!
If that was true, then they have been preparing us since the dark ages. People have been given vaccines for generations now. The chicken pox vaccine caused a lot of the same fears. The only difference really was that back then, social media didn't exist to allow fears and lies to run rampant. In the end, it ended up being just a vaccine.
Think for a second. If the government was trying to get stuff in your body without you being aware, they would have it made in a form we can ingest and put it in the fast food industry or the refreshment industry. If they truly wanted to sneak it into us, they could. They would not spend billions coming up with a virus, letting it loose, coming up with a vaccine and putting it in the vaccine. That just isn't logical.
Your greatest enemy is not the government. As lousy and evil as the government can be, they are not out to get you. Your biggest enemy in this case is the conspiracy theorists pushing lies on social media and the masses just believing everything they read. They will tell you that the government is trying to make them all look crazy by calling them conspiracy theorists, but the truth is they make themselves look crazy. There is no doubt there are some conspiracy theories that are true. The problem is that when they start finding conspiracies in everything that happens, nobody knows who or what to believe anymore.
There were a lot of videos passed around at the beginning of this about 5G networks being the blame of the fake virus. That the new 5G network was messing up people's brains and the government was using it to shutdown businesses to install weaponry. Seriously? People actually bought into this crap! Yet 5G networks are still growing and fewer people are dying from the virus now.
The best advice I can give you is to stop paying attention to what is spread on social media and start looking up actual numbers.
At the time of writing this, about 51 million people have been fully vaccinated. Newsweek did a fact check on a report that 994 people had died from the vaccine and found it is true, but could also contain cases where people died from car accidents or something else within 24 hours of the vaccine. The data base used was flawed in this extent. So the 994 is a very high number compared to the true amount of deaths most likely. Still, we will use an even thousand deaths to make this easy. If you divide 1000 by 50 million, you get the percentage of people dying from the vaccine. That comes out to be 0.002% fatality rate.
On the other hand, 30.2 million have had the virus and 548 thousand have died in America. That is 1.8% of them that have died.
Now if we average them both down to an even 1,000,000 what do we get?
For every 1 million people who get the vaccine 20 of them die.
For every 1 million people who catch the virus 18,145 of them die.
Now look at those numbers and tell me which you think is more dangerous to you? If you catch the virus, you are 907 times more likely to die than if you get the vaccine.
On the other hand, there is a demographic that I have not mentioned yet. One that I personally fall into. Those who have already had Covid.
Let's be clear here. I am not talking about people who were sick for a while and assume they had the virus. If you were not checked and officially found to have it, you cannot claim you had it.
I did some looking and found that 30 million people in America have had Covid already. Worldwide there have only been 66 confirmed cases of re-infection. Only 11 of those were in America. So by dividing the 11 cases in America by the 30 million overall cases of Covid in America, you get the percentage of those who got it twice.
11 / 30,000,000 = 0.00004%
This means that someone who has been vaccinated is 54.5 times more likely to die from it than someone who has already had Covid is of getting it a second time.
The old saying goes, "People lie, numbers don't lie!" This is what the numbers tell us....
If you have had the virus, you are the safest of anyone. You have a .00004% chance of catching it a second time and likely won't die from it.
If you have not had the virus, but get the vaccine, you have a .0002% chance of dying from the vaccine.
If you do not get the vaccine and catch the virus, you have a 1.8% chance of dying.
So I have established that the vaccine is clearly not the mark of the beast. I have established the vaccine is far less life threatening than not getting the virus. So now let's talk about walking in faith.
As a Christian, we are not to fear death. One reason I am certain I am right with God is that when I had the virus and was bed ridden and weak, I knew there was a fair chance that it could at any moment take a turn for the worse and kill me. Yet I was not afraid in the least. I asked people to not pray for my recovery, but to pray for God's will be done. If it was God's will to take me home, I was ready to go. Many claim to have faith, but showing it when the time comes is a different story.
Before I got it, I wore a mask. Not out of fear of catching it, but for two reasons. To not wear a mask would have been testing God, and my wearing one put others at ease. Today I still wear a mask. I have less reason to fear getting it again, but I wear it for the peace of mind for others around me. Also it is a mandate and the Bible tells us to obey authority.
Before I had it, I had no fear of catching it. I told people that if God wanted me to get it, I would get it and there was nothing I could do to stop it. If He did not want me to get it, I would not get it. But knowing it was out there, to go without a mask would be akin to testing God. God chose for me to get it and He chose for me to survive it.
Because I have had the virus, I do not plan on getting the vaccine. For me to get the vaccine even though the numbers say I am safer than anyone who gets it, would be to live in fear. I refuse to do that. I look at the facts and I take the less dangerous route and keep faith in Christ and do not test God. However, with that said, there is a chance I will end up getting the vaccine anyway. My step-kid is very cautious over his children. I love seeing those kids. If me not being vaccinated gives him reason to fear my being around those kids, then I will gladly get it. Not because I fear it but because I will ease the fears of others.
I do not see this vaccine as being against God in any way. I do not fear it can kill me or even harm me unless God allows that to happen. If it is His will, I will not fear it. For me to refuse to get the vaccine out of fear of what is in it, would be to show a lack of faith in Christ to protect me.
Too many will appease their fears and look for reasons to justify serving those fears. I refuse to do that. I will fear nothing. I do not fear death or becoming ill because I know God is in control. I will take the safest route and keep faith God will keep me safe. If my taking the safe route causes unease in others, I will take the next safest route that will ease their minds.
There is no reason or evidence to believe the vaccine is against God. However, I will say that in the end, you need to do what you think is right before God. If it is not fear of the vaccine that guides you, and you truly believe in your heart that it would be a sin to take the vaccine, then you should not. Paul tells us that what we do without a clear conscience is a sin.
