You prevented brothers and sisters from fellowshipping with you because they didn't have the right technological product in their body. You took it upon yourself to decide who gets to hear the gospel, who gets to draw near to the table, based on the "trend".
You publicly advocated that other Christians do the same thing, making a mockery of Ephesians 2:11-22:
"11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."
__
Having asked for forbearance, you then wrote this article. Can you still not see what it is that you did? You handed your flock over to an economy of bodily merits and exchange, of medical correctness, delineated by a technological utopia: algorithms in the body, policed by QR codes and risk managerialism. We were "expired users", discarded by the state and then discarded by those who called us brothers and sisters in Christ. The body deeply grieves to this day.
None of this is temporary in the absence of repentance. You can't announce that you will sever something so sacred, and then still expect fellowship. But there is time to repent still.
Actually, no. I don’t accept the premises of your accusation, and I do not apologise for the call I made. Either way, we were subject to a division (temporarily), or we would not meet at all. If we allowed the non-vaxxed, then we excluded those who would not meet with them. We had a choice to make. We also had the on-line option. In the end, the exclusion lasted for precisely two weeks.
The reality speaks for itself. You allowed yourself to divide the church in line with what the world wanted and expected. And you publicly proclaimed your actions.
It would not have excluded anyone to say: "we will not exclude anybody under any circumstances, on account of the unity we all share in Christ". "We will wait so that we can meet as one."
We know, from how it panned out, that those who wanted others removed from the Body on account of their own fear were wrong factually, let alone theologically, about the danger their brothers and sisters presented to them. Their position was incoherent in any case, since vaccination was supposed to confer individual protection. In this case, it weakened rather than strengthened the Body, because of the division it introduced. Those who did the excluding allowed their concerns to override something which God has made sacred.
Do you think that the fact it was a two week period (in Sydney) in any way diminishes the gravity of the norm that was established, or the grief that was caused to those who fell on the wrong side of this worldly division? Do you think that having been cast out, those people would be wise to trust those who excluded them, who proclaimed it publicly, and who to this day overlook the sternest warnings of the NT in places like Galatians or Matthew 18?
My anguish is that greater divisions than COVID-19 vaccinations will come to the Australian church, and that public Christian leaders of influence such as yourself will not have changed their building materials in time.
We will have to agree to disagree. It was a sensible and practical emergency measure in the light of a public health crisis. It is those who insist on unreasonably making this a supposed matter of theological correctness who are introducing division, by making it appear to be what it was not.
I was prevented from attending the funeral of a close friend by a major evangelical church under similar rules and reasoning in Victoria. I know one single woman with children who was pressured into getting a vaccine she didn't want so she could again be part of her Christian community, and earn her living among them again (!!)
What you have just written is gaslighting, the kind of dismissive pragmatism that abusive leaders rely on. You have not reckoned with the real world impacts of your decision, nor what the Bible actually teaches.
There are many prayers before the throne of our King on this matter, and he will judge between us.
You hypocrite. Does Jesus not see your heart and your actions?
https://eternitynews.com.au/opinion/dear-sister-in-christ-about-the-vaccines/
You prevented brothers and sisters from fellowshipping with you because they didn't have the right technological product in their body. You took it upon yourself to decide who gets to hear the gospel, who gets to draw near to the table, based on the "trend".
You publicly advocated that other Christians do the same thing, making a mockery of Ephesians 2:11-22:
"11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."
__
Having asked for forbearance, you then wrote this article. Can you still not see what it is that you did? You handed your flock over to an economy of bodily merits and exchange, of medical correctness, delineated by a technological utopia: algorithms in the body, policed by QR codes and risk managerialism. We were "expired users", discarded by the state and then discarded by those who called us brothers and sisters in Christ. The body deeply grieves to this day.
None of this is temporary in the absence of repentance. You can't announce that you will sever something so sacred, and then still expect fellowship. But there is time to repent still.
Actually, no. I don’t accept the premises of your accusation, and I do not apologise for the call I made. Either way, we were subject to a division (temporarily), or we would not meet at all. If we allowed the non-vaxxed, then we excluded those who would not meet with them. We had a choice to make. We also had the on-line option. In the end, the exclusion lasted for precisely two weeks.
The reality speaks for itself. You allowed yourself to divide the church in line with what the world wanted and expected. And you publicly proclaimed your actions.
It would not have excluded anyone to say: "we will not exclude anybody under any circumstances, on account of the unity we all share in Christ". "We will wait so that we can meet as one."
We know, from how it panned out, that those who wanted others removed from the Body on account of their own fear were wrong factually, let alone theologically, about the danger their brothers and sisters presented to them. Their position was incoherent in any case, since vaccination was supposed to confer individual protection. In this case, it weakened rather than strengthened the Body, because of the division it introduced. Those who did the excluding allowed their concerns to override something which God has made sacred.
Do you think that the fact it was a two week period (in Sydney) in any way diminishes the gravity of the norm that was established, or the grief that was caused to those who fell on the wrong side of this worldly division? Do you think that having been cast out, those people would be wise to trust those who excluded them, who proclaimed it publicly, and who to this day overlook the sternest warnings of the NT in places like Galatians or Matthew 18?
My anguish is that greater divisions than COVID-19 vaccinations will come to the Australian church, and that public Christian leaders of influence such as yourself will not have changed their building materials in time.
We will have to agree to disagree. It was a sensible and practical emergency measure in the light of a public health crisis. It is those who insist on unreasonably making this a supposed matter of theological correctness who are introducing division, by making it appear to be what it was not.
I was prevented from attending the funeral of a close friend by a major evangelical church under similar rules and reasoning in Victoria. I know one single woman with children who was pressured into getting a vaccine she didn't want so she could again be part of her Christian community, and earn her living among them again (!!)
What you have just written is gaslighting, the kind of dismissive pragmatism that abusive leaders rely on. You have not reckoned with the real world impacts of your decision, nor what the Bible actually teaches.
There are many prayers before the throne of our King on this matter, and he will judge between us.
Amen