Drawing attention to the confusion pertaining to Covid-19 vaccination and the Christian faith, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) through its executive committee has requested all responsible to refrain from making irrelevant and wrongful interpretation of the Bible, which the church said could “create anxiety in the minds of the people.”
In a statement, NBCC executive committee asserted that vaccination and personal salvation, vaccination and Millennial Kingdom of Christ, or even vaccination and comprehensive Christian faith were being allegedly projected by “some sources” as incompatible.
NBCC, which held a virtual meeting on June 18, 2021 and discussed involvement and the role of the associations and churches in the Covid-19 crisis, expressed belief that the best reference to understand vaccination was the medical fraternity. Asserting that there was vaccine hesitation with varying degrees in different parts of Nagaland, the committee said that Covid-19 vaccine was “a hard earned effort by the community of scientists and researchers, aided by the most advanced research technologies to serve humanity.”
With proofs of vaccine’s efficacy in combating the virus fast emerging, NBCC, therefore, said that casting doubts on the tireless effort of those who made vaccine available would be improper. Maintaining that it was a matter of individual choice to take or not to take vaccine, the NBCC, however, said that the competent authority had been persistently educating the masses that vaccine was the best available solution, to defend “ourselves as well as others from this raging pandemic.”
Therefore, the committee urged all responsible to make a wise decision and avail what was within their reach for the common good. In line with Biblical revelations, NBCC said the pandemic would not be uncommon for the world to witness even in the future. Therefore, the Church asserted that everyone should be supportive and be the agents of hope and comfort to one another in trying time such as this.
“These are difficult times. We must take everything that is happening around us from eternity perspective. We must continue to pray that God will be merciful to us and preserve us to be faithful steward to a world that is much in distress. God is sovereign and he is the ultimate,” NBCC said.