Dear Editor
It is so disturbing to note how Church leaders are going into overdrive canvassing against the Covid 19 pandemic vaccine. May i take this time to share my thinking with regards to this matter. In the times past there has been vaccinations against different types of diseases and people have been saved form the deadly ravaging effects of these diseases. Coming closer home one way or another majority of people in Zimbabwe were vaccinated against polio at birth. If vaccines are a mark of the beast 666 as some men and women of the cloth are putting it why is it that the same men and women of the cloth are still worshipping God instead of the devil of they received the vaccine then?
Arguments based on little knowledge and lack of research are a danger to the citizens of a country. It would be very helpful if the men of the cloth keep their lane and allow medical researchers and specialists to do their work. Mankind can be spared if those at the helm of church organizations can appreciate medical science instead of demonizing it.
The same church leaders are not offering and alternative to the vaccine yet they are lambasting the vaccine and some Church leaders have suddenly become experts on virus study and micro biology when they can hardly define a cell later on label it. The issue of micro chip being inserted as a vaccine should be dismissed as a near credible hypothesis based on man’s figment of imagination and does not stand the scrutiny of serious common sense.
All of a sudden there are all these teachings concerning certain figures who are taken as agents of darkness. The print and electronic media is awash with theories and theories of why vaccines are a way the devil wants to destroy Africans. Church leaders need to recallibrate themselves and upgrade their skills and update their knowledge so that they don’t misrepresent God in the name of mysteries.
There is need to understand why the vaccine containers are labelled ‘for Africa only’. Check with medical personnel why this is do. You will be surprised as to why this is so and this may help. Understanding the times we are living in is very critical.Yes these are the last days according to the Holy Book. I am not sure of a vaccine can change and solidify upon injection into a human body. We need to understand the fact that we are in an emergency and people are dying for real and it’s not drama or some Nollywood movie.
There is no time for bickering and trying to explain what we are not competent to comment on. The house is on fire lives must be saved. The vaccine is the EU to go. Just a few years ago some Church leaders stopped people from taking HIV medication because it was a sign of lack of faith. People died from something that could have been avoided. What we are about to witness is similar to such occurrences. May I exhort some Church leaders especially those against vaccinations to do a thorough study of eschatology.
They may be surprised to realize that the mark of the beast that they are pushing as if it is happening now is actually in the future. We are in 2021. There is an explosion of information. One needs to be careful concerning what they take in as information. There is a lot of propaganda being churned and one has to judge and throw away certain do called expert information.
The issue at hand does not require a pedestrian approach but rather robust engagement to reach at meaningful and useful conclusions. Those who have great faith can exercise their faith against the pandemic without discouraging those who would like to take the vaccine. Small pox was exterminated via a vaccine. Do the same can happen to the covid 19 pandemic.Fellow church leaders I encourage you to pray hard and demonstrate healing power of God over covid 19 pandemic. Unless this is done vaccine is the way to go. In the meantime let’s sanitize, maintain social distance and mask up as we continue trusting that the Almighty will curtail the pandemic.
Elias Chakabwata PHD D. BIBLE SCHOLAR AND SOCIAL SCIENTIST