Let me start by saying, everybody acts from faith. Faith in something, no matter what it is.
A billion Catholics are not the Vatican.
The Vatican, through the Pope, has made its position clear: take the COVID vaccines.
But then there are the consciences of a billion of the faithful.
In
prior articles in this series, I’ve made it clear that COVID vaccines
have, in fact, relied on a fetal-tissue cell line, HEK 293, for testing,
and the cell line was originally obtained via an abortion.
Moreover,
the evidence points to an abortion in which the infant was delivered
from her mother’s womb, alive, and then was killed by a doctor removing
her kidneys for fetal tissue. Infanticide. Murder.
Does
it matter whether the abortion and the murder were committed yesterday,
or in a room in a hospital in the Netherlands, in 1972? Are a billion
Catholics willing to say, “It was so long ago, it doesn’t have meaning
anymore”?
Is that a reasonable position of Faith?
My
understanding is this: Catholics believe Jesus commanded the founding
of His Church, which is their Church. Does that count now? Is it wrong
to contemplate what He would advise? As opposed, for example, to what
Anthony Fauci would advise?
I
also understand the Pope, in telling Catholics to take the vaccine, was
not claiming to speak from a position of infallibility. Doesn’t that
leave the door open to the consciences of the billion members of the
Church?
Is it archaic to speak about conscience? Is religious membership really an elaborate charade, a social stage play?
Suppose
a high member of the Vatican said to the world: “There are many medical
experiments that are used to develop and test vaccines and drugs. In
these experiments, which have been performed for a hundred years,
doctors remove an infant from his mother’s womb, ALIVE, and then take
his kidneys or make a hole in his skull and vacuum out his brain, or cut
out his heart. These killings are very real. Those of our faith should
think deeply about whether they want to receive the medicines and
vaccines associated with these murders…”
What would happen?
Suppose this esteemed member of the Vatican made this announcement, replete with details, every day for a month?
What would happen?
Suppose
this esteemed priest decided to keep making the announcement until
sufficient members of the congregation, worldwide, stepped forward,
visibly, and made their voices heard and refused the vaccine?
What would happen?
As some people are reading this, they will answer, “This esteemed priest would be murdered.”
Yes? And? So?
Don’t
the sacred vows of a priest go beyond loyalty to this world? Isn’t his
conviction to his faith a thing larger than his life on Earth?
Would
you expect or want a priest, who serves as a pipeline to God for his
congregation, to be a materialist, a person inextricably bound to his
comforts and duties here?
If
by joining the Church as a member, a person comes closer to God, is he
asked to pay no price for that gift? Is he asked to incur no risk in his
life?
The
Church is, in fact, founded on matters of life and death. That is where
faith encounters a reckoning. And this is true of all religions.
But
at their most profound pinnacle of teaching, where “the outer garments”
are cut away, religions guide the individual soul to come to his own
decision about what his faith means, and how far he will go in standing
with it.
One person, a billion people.
The Power is always there.
One step across the threshold.
~
George
Fox, the fiery 17th century preacher who founded the Quakers movement
in England, traveled the countryside exhorting thousands of people to
find Christ and God for themselves: “Why should any man have power over
any other man's faith, seeing [that] Christ Himself is the author of
it?”
At
the time, there were laws forbidding “unauthorized worship.” Fox
constantly broke them. He was frequently arrested---at least twice for
blasphemy, and on one of those occasions it was suggested he should be
sentenced to death. Parliament intervened on his behalf.
He performed many healings and wrote a book listing and describing them. The book disappeared, and no copies ever surfaced.
Thinking about George Fox and his courage as background and example…
Now,
in 2021, should believers grasp a destiny that outdistances the fear of
being banned from Facebook; being “attacked” online for expressing an
opinion about an election audit; being fired from a job; being
“canceled” for telling a joke?
Has
the need for security and comfort expanded to such a degree that people
of faith are willing to abandon their beliefs on a moment’s notice?
~
If
today you picked a few thousand people of faith and sent them back to
the time of Moses, to live as Egyptians under the Pharaoh; it’s quite
possible that when God loosed the 10 plagues against them---“water
turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail,
locusts, darkness and the killing of firstborn children”; the Pharaoh
would simply say: “The only adverse effects are minor pain and swelling
at the injection site and transient fatigue”; and these people would
believe him.
How much faith is required in order to open one’s eyes?
And having opened them, to have a voice and make that voice heard?
And to endure against the consequences, because faith is not ultimately invested in material things?
~
Book
of Revelation: “And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like
unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt
about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white
like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And
his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his
voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven
stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his
countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I
fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying
unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and
was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys
of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the
things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; The mystery
of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven
golden candlesticks…”
For those who believe these words, the majestic scope of these words, who take them as truth---
What will they do now?
Will they sit still, or will they rise up and take action?
~~~
(The link to this article posted on my blog is here -- with sources.)
(Follow me on Gab at @jonrappoport)
No comments:
Post a Comment