Abstract

The article is mainly dealing with covid 19 vaccines that has a lot of conspiracy theories behind. Most of these conspiracy is connected to the mark of the beast truth in revelation 13:16-18. This mind set has developed into conspiracy stating that bill gates is behind the corona virus pandemic so that the chip implanting idea will eventuate. The study was done with the help of reviewing a lot of literature to come with a conclusion that is fair and helpful for readers to make a right choice. After analyzing all the literatures through reviewing, the conclusion was made according to the following. The vaccine is not the mark of the beast and it is relevant for people to protect themselves from the covid 19 by taking the two doses. It is also necessary that each individual to exercise his or her powers to choose whether to take the dose or not to take the dose. Church leader’s duty is to clarify the true meaning of revelation 13:16-18 so that people can clearly understand how it is related or not related to the covid 19 vaccines.

Introduction

The paper was prepaid mainly to address the widely assumption that covid-19 vaccination had related to the mark of the beast alluded to in revelation chapter 13:16-18. It has become very challenging for most of the countries in the pacific to willingly receive the complete dose. Fiji is the only country with huge population in the pacific that successfully fully vaccinated 90 % of its population regardless off all the conspiracy theories. Most of the Melanesian countries in the pacific such as Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea had struggled to accept the vaccination roll out approved by World Health Organization. The slow rate in vaccination roll out is mainly caused by the belief that was rooted down in the prophetic interpretations in revelation 13, that suggests the vaccine is the mark of the beast. The true meaning of revelation 13 needs to be exegetically exposed so that a fair analysis can be done so that all levels of people can understand. The slow roll out of vaccines in most of the countries have been hindering a lot of economic activities such as free travel service between the pacific island countries, and other international flights that attract the boosting of the economy in the pacific. The slow rolls out of vaccine also challenged the traditional interpretation of the mark of the beast in revelation chapter 13, and biblical scholars need to make it clear for the people. People have well versed with the process that guides vaccine discovery. They understand that vaccine is a scientific discovery that was usually discovered 10 years after a virus outbreak (Graham, 2020). When the discovery of the vaccine was done not even 2 years after the outbreak, people starts to question the genuineness of the vaccines. Science too had questioned the quick development of the used vaccine today and people had accessed this information from social platforms such as face book, histogram, imo, and YouTube. The issue now is sandwiched between the prophetic interpretation and scientific discovery. The two existing philosophies have prompt conspiracy theories that entirely fail the massive vaccination strategy of the world health organization in the world, and the pacific island countries such as Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea (PNG).

In resolving the uncertain doubt, the article serves to highlight the possible truth behind the conspiracy theories that hinders people from receiving the vaccine. Currently in the market, there are different brand of covid 19 vaccination recommended by the world Health Organization (WHO) and they have proven worked (Agha, et al., 2020). The hypothesis of the study is, ‘the vaccine is not the mark of the beast, but it might be a trial strategy design by system to control the entire world towards the one world order’. The diversity of the universe is beyond the control of any superpowers of the world. The United states of America has intervened a lot in the cold war period in spreading the ideology of democracy but still few countries had rejected it. Wars, sport, food, tradition, technology and religion cannot unite the world. When comes to health, everybody is behind the idea and they accept it. A lot of people in the world today fear death and they invested heavily in protecting themselves. The study therefore will try as much as possible to come up with conclusion that will help each person decide whether to get the vaccine or not. There is undecided individual who are confused and did not know what to do. Scientist needs to do a convincing presentation on the genuineness of the vaccine in a simplest term for illiterate individual will understand. Theologians needs to do a presentation that will clearly show a clear distinction between the vaccine and the mark of the beast. People have their own rights to decide on their stand in relations to vaccine, but there needs to be a knowledge presented to them before deciding.

Woodward, (2020) wrote an article entitled “Will the COVID-19 Vaccine Become the Mark of the Beast?”. He emphasized the interpretation of the mark of the beast as a literal showcase that will be placed on the forearms and the four heads according to biblical students. While on the other hand, the c-19 vaccine will be entering the DNA with a chip that will be monitored by certain authority and it is a miss-match analogy. In explanation to the conspiracy theory, he breaks down the bible text to explain his argument. He suggests that the mark of the beast was associated with buying or sale. There is nothing as a biological implantation of chips into the body for tracking as a lot of people believe in. In regards to the timing of the occurrence of the mark, both beasts must appear to perform diabolical authority, and there has to be the full force of worship of the beast before the enforcement of the mark of the beast will occur. He mentions that another very important discussion in relation to the end time prophecy is the IBM barcode scanner that is said to have 666 in it. He further mentions that this could be the closest analogy to the mark of the beast compared to the Covid -19 vaccine. He did not rule out that vaccines could be a method which authorities used in controlling the whole universe. He concludes that he doubts that the Covid 19 would be the mark of the beast in revelation 13:16-18.

Thomas & Zhang, (2020) wrote an article on how Covid-19 catalyses’ existing online conspiracy movement. The conspiracy was rooted down to philanthropist Bill Gates as the person behind the pandemic. In the US right now, 44% Republicans and 19% Democrats believed that Bill Gates was linked to a plot to use vaccines as a pretext to implant microchips into people. The Gates conspiracy currently was referred to as the ID2020. The main message spread by the ID2020 conspiracy is that “the vaccines in turn are a cover for implanting some form of microchip, radio frequency identification (RFID) chip or other digital tracking device”. The chip was then believed to be the Mark of the Beast or the mark of Satanic religion. From all the conspiracy theory, fringe conspiracy media put a modern twist to the conspiracy by stating that, The ID2020 Alliance, is a digital identity program that aims to ‘leverage immunization’ as a means of inserting tiny microchips into people’s bodies. The article has no conclusion to the conspiracy theories related to the vaccine. There are local conspiracy and international conspiracy in which the article highlighted. The authors of the article suggest that there is a tendency for the conspiracy theories to keep spreading to different audiences and it will cause a hindrance to the role of vaccination in the entire universe. Social media has become the platform in which conspiracy theories spread like a wild wind.

Macpherso, (2005) wrote an article on the interpretation of the ‘Mark of the Beast’ and explain that the subject of the mark of the beast has proven elusive and difficult challenge to commentators. Some of the more futurist interpretation claim that John foresaw a future society where computer chips are literally placed in one's right hand or forehead. the article further state that few scholars uphold literal approach whilst most scholars have s restrict their commentary on the mark to surveying, without necessarily affirming, the different suggestions, and instead offer largely spiritual interpretation. The preterit was also unsuccessful in their effort to any of the events in the history. The author therefore highlights that he will approach the Mark of the Beast as nonliteral and nonphysical reading of the mark itself. He decides to see that mark of the beast as the ‘sign commandment’ which can be referred to as the ‘anti-Sabbath’. He used the Old testament background to the mark of the beast and its relationship to the textual, thematic, and structural evidence within Rev 12-1 5. The article concludes that mark of the beast functions like a sign commandment and a direct parody of the Sabbath. The author further state that the mark of the beast stands as the eschatological sign of rebellion against God. it is not a literal phenomenon or a biological implanting of chips in the body.

Pacific island Countries covid 19 vaccination update

The conspiracy theories have been a biggest problem and it really affects the vaccination roll out in the major countries in the pacific. The Bar graph above is the vaccination overview of the pacific island countries with the fully vaccination color code of orange and the 1st dose color code of blue. From the graph you will see that most of the Polynesian and Micronesian countries have been corporately adhere to the importance of being vaccinated to control the covid 19 virus. 76.19% of the countries in the pacific island region had fully vaccinated above 50% of their entire population. This 76.19 % is made of Polynesian and Micronesian countries in the pacific and the remaining countries are Melanesian countries such as Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. What could be the implication of these findings because what appears in the graph show the type of people and their response towards the vaccination. The pacific islands countries should not blame economic problems in assisting their population get vaccinated. The United State of America has committed to provide vaccines for the pacific island countries with the help of building up their economy that the covid 19 pandemic has coursed (Lunday, 2021). Other pacific island countries that are still under the leadership of the U.S are advantageous to get the vaccine earlier than other pacific island countries. This may be another factor of why countries like Palau and American Samoa are advanced in the vaccine roll out. Fiji has been a model country to the major pacific island countries to roll out the vaccination with great speed. Countries like Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea have been very slow in rolling out the vaccination. This is the statistical figure displaying these three countries’ responses to the vaccination roll out. We can have assumed that the conspiracy factors could be the major setback to the rapid roll out of vaccination with other minor factors.

Discussion

Most people in the pacific region have not really taken well to the truth behind the vaccine. They have been so clouded with the conspiracy theory of bill gates, their world view of mark of the beast and how the vaccine comes into place. Everybody is everywhere in relation to the vaccine, and the most disappointing episode is to see that even health workers or qualified personnel are undecided to take the vaccine themselves. To make things even worse is that not all pastors are aligned in taking the vaccine. A lot of media outlets have been campaigning against the roll out of the vaccine and it's really challenging. To further deal with this issue, therefore few more articles will be reviewed so that a balanced perspective can be seen before making a conclusion of the topic. The conclusion made will not be rooted out of personal belief, but it will be the conclusion made out from reviewing peer reviewed articles. Under the well qualified scholars, who made thorough studies in the discipline of the need, fair conclusions can be made. The literature review has decided the framework of any statement made in the article. Opinions are also given with the guideline of the materials used.

An article was written by Letšosa (2021), on the subject “What has the beast’s mark to do with the COVID-19 vaccination, and what is the role of the church and answering to the Christians?”. The objective of the article was to develop an interpretation of 666 that could be relevant to the questions asked and suggest a way forward in embodying faith in a corona-defined world and beyond. This is the right question needed to be answered because the health of our people is at stake if the conspiracy is all at fault and the vaccine is the solution for today. According to the author's view of the prophetic message in revelation, he strongly agrees that there is nothing wrong with them. The problem is with the hermeneutic, With a sound literal grammatical historical hermeneutic. The author wants to highlight that the million deaths that were caused by the corona virus is not a small issue. The challenge is for the pastors and church leaders to reconsider the importance of the type of message that they are preaching in relation to the vaccine. Some devoted Christians have resonated their decision based on their religious dogma, it will be a problem if our messages have baseless evidence of what we say. This is a greatest challenge for the church leaders to relook into. The action of the massive congregation of our various churches depends entirely on the messages presented behind the pulpit. He did a thorough study into it by addressing areas such as vaccine and 666 and even he did hermeneutic study of the mark of the beast. The author concludes that the number (666) probably served as a warning to the first readers not to succumb to the pressure of the Roman Empire. He denies mark of the beast linkage to the vaccine, but sees vaccine as a very brilliant scientific development that is put in place to address the issue of covid 19. The Roman empire is seen in the passage as wanting to take the place of God. He concludes that the article was not written for the reader to get a vaccination, but it emphasizes the power of making your own decision.

Andrews (2017), wrote a book titled “Identifying the Antichrist” is a very important exposition that is relevant to understand. He further states different people and organizations have different views of the antichrist. The dispensation will see it as the Romans looking for a future ruler who will appear to rule over the earth, while the Amillennialist see it as symbolic. Apart from these two views, others have associate the anti-Christ with some of the powerful leaders of the earth such as Adolf Hitler, Emperor Nero, friedrich Nietzsche of France, and recently the radical Islam. He starts with discussing “let him who have underrating” and the who here refers to “man”. The Greek word for man is “Anthropos” which signifies the whole of mankind or humanity. He further state that 666 is the repetition of number six, and number 6 symbolizes imperfection because it is one less than perfection (7). Therefore, the 666 can refer to one that is opposed to the God movement or the antichrist. He further states that in order for one to understand the antichrist, revelation 13:2 is also equally important for unfolding purposes. He used the text and connecting it to Daniel 7 and there is numerous beast pop out in the seen. The body of leopard, feet of bear and mouth of lion. The combination of these three different beast can be referred to as the roman empire who continuously suppressing the Judah or the people of God. He further state that the two beast in revelation 13 is the two government powers and they are against Christ.

He then uses bible verse to define antichrist. He quotes from 1 John 2:18 to project the antichrist will be seen at the last hour. The original context referred to the period in which the 12 disciples are protecting the Christian congregation from the upcoming great controversy. He then defines antichrist as deceivers (2John 1:7). The antichrist is also those who did not believe that Jesus Christ God and this is the spirit of antichrist (1 John 3:4). The antichrist will also refer to himself as God or claiming himself God (Matt 24:23-26). The anti-Christ will also come as the false prophet and they will show great signs and wonders (Matt 24:4-5). He further states that there are false Christ and prophets that came before the 70 ce. He strongly believes that 666 is the identity of an antichrist who denies Jesus as Christ, denies the father and the son, abandoned the Christian faith and goes against God and the antichrist is anti-Christian. The author also suggested that to pinpoint one particular person as the antichrist is a clear example of misidentifying the anti-Christ. Based on Paul’s writing (2thes 2:3), the antichrist is made up of doctrinal deception, moral insensitivity and ethical departure from God’s truth. The antichrist will persecute those who will follow Jesus as their lord and savior. The anti-Christ can be seen as the higher Criticism sects who want to weaken, challenge and undercut Christians confidence in the scripture. They do not believe in literal antichrist but interpret it as good vs evil. Further to that, they conclude that literal antichrist is nothing but a myth. Therefore, the mark of the beast represents a religious power that goes against God, the religious power that operates alongside politics.

Salali and Uysal (2020) do a cross-cultural study purposely aiming to examine the levels of covid 19 vaccine hesitancy, and its association with belief on the origin of novel coronavirus. They conducted an online survey in the UK with 1088 participants and 3936 participants in turkey. They collected information such as those who are willing to be vaccinated, those who believe in the origin of the novel coronavirus and several behavioral and demographic predictors such as anxiety, risk perception and government satisfaction level. The result obtained was that 31% of the participants in Turkey and 14% in the UK were unsure whether to take the vaccine or not. 3% for both countries rejected the vaccine, and 54% of the participants in Turkey and 63% in the UK believed in the natural origin of the novel coronavirus. The understanding of the novel coronavirus has then increased the odds of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Based on the result, they conclude that there is a concerning level of vaccination hesitancy level especially in turkey. They also suggested that there is a need of communicating to people of the scientific consensus on the origin of novel coronavirus. The coronavirus vaccine strategy was not done properly so that people will accept it. The time frame in which the virus was known to be outbreak and the development of the vaccine is what makes people suspicious and come up with many different kinds of conspiracy.

In conclusion, there are several statements I want to make based on the information gathered. The mark of the beast is not related to the covid 19 vaccines. The mark of the beast is the religio-political power that will exercise its power and will persecute the church of God. The notion that speculated that the vaccine is the mark of the beast is not true. The mark of the beast cannot be associated with a person, so the bill gates conspiracy can be ruled. The only one needs to understand is the vaccine is the normal development in the field of health to counter viruses that will cause humans to get sick. There have been a lot of virus outbreaks in the past and scientists develop vaccines to protect the immune system. From the information gathered, vaccines are good so that humans will be protected from the virus. Health is very important so anything that the health authority suggests is of greater importance. The vaccine is okay so that our immune system will protect us from the virus. The choice is yours, if you want to live then go and take your vaccine, but you do not like it, then it’s up to you.

Bibliography

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Salali, G. D., & Uysal, M. S. (2020). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is associated with beliefs on the origin of the novel coronavirus in the UK and Turkey. Psychological Medicine, 1-3.

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