SDA has issues with SDA church policy on vaccinations

Received the following in an email today:

March 21, 2017

Let us work together to replace our Church´s condemnable pro-vaccine stance* with a credible, neutral vaccine policy!

* This is the SDA:s vaccine policy, as currently stated on its website (boldface by me):

“The Seventh-day Adventist Church places strong emphasis on health and well-being. The Adventist health emphasis is based on biblical revelation, the inspired writing of E.G. White (co-founder of the church), and on peer-reviewed scientific literature. As such, we encourage responsible immunization/vaccination, and have no religious or faith-based reason not to encourage our adherents to responsibly participate in protective and preventive immunization programs. We value the health and safety of the population, which includes the maintenance of ‘herd immunity.’

“We are not the conscience of the individual church member, and recognize individual choices. These are exercised by the individual. The choice not to be immunized is not and should not be seen as the dogma nor the doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” …

Our Church´s leaders will have us believe that their vaccine policy is supported by the Bible and by Ellen White, but nothing could be more untrue. To imply that our Savior condones the horrendous practice of injecting people – and infants in particular – with toxic chemicals is to insult God. Neither does “peer-reviewed scientific literature” support our Church´s pro-vaccine stance, because no study exists which proves that vaccines actually prevent diseases.

When mass vaccinations were initiated, the epidemics had already declined and were almost gone. We got rid of them thanks to improved sanitation and living conditions, clean water, and better food – not because of vaccines.

Lars Kullberg,
a Seventh-day Adventist Church member in Karlstad, Sweden

It is not just the SDA church. Many Protestant and COG groups have taken a similar position, basically for legal reasons.

Years back, the fairly pro-vaccine publication Consumer Reports mentioned that vaccinations seem to increase the probability of developing asthma. The State of California used to allow parents to not vaccinate their children, but now they are forcing the issue as are other governments. Let me state that having met with health officials in California, including giving testimony about two decades back before the Assembly Health committee, I have seen first hand how certain decisions appear to be made, and money and political considerations are normally more important than health and true public welfare.

The Bible teaches:

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:10)

Someone in the World Health Organization (WHO) was relieved of his job a while back when the Europeans realized that he overly pushed flu vaccines two years in a row using scientifically-unsound scare tactics and had ties to the company making certain flu vaccines. Do not think that money and greed play no role in the politics of vaccinations.

Of course, vaccines per se are not a massive doctrinal issue, but the trend around the world is to reduce rights of parents and others who have concerns about them. Much of the world is moving towards a more totalitarian government–and moving away from religious freedom.

My wife and I did not vaccinate any of our three children. Nor have she or I had any vaccines in adulthood despite traveling to various countries around the world.

Am I saying that all vaccinations are necessarily wrong?

No.

If I had to get a shot to visit some country to do the work, I would do it.

Yet, I also do not believe that one must intentionally expose oneself or ones’ children to the pathogens and other elements involved with vaccines. Nor do I believe that vaccines should be mandated to parents.

The old Radio Church of God published the following back in 1961:

One doctor states that polio is caused by a weakened physical constitution and that health-promoting foods can prevent polio completely. Children who indulge in soft drinks (especially “colas”), candy, over-sweetened and refined, starchy foods, are the greatest sufferers of polio. POLIO IS UNKNOWN in countries where people live on NATURAL foods — raw milk, whole-grain cereals, fruits and vegetables — and do not have our refined, devitalized, demineralized foods, candies and soft drinks. …

The main diet of many people, especially children, in summer (the polio season) consists of colas, soft drinks, candy, hot dogs, hamburgers and ice cream. If we would replace this “junk” with substantial meals of fresh fruits, melons, milk, vegetables and protein foods (meat, fish, poultry and eggs), then we would have greater resistance to polio and other diseases. Also, there would be almost no tooth decay. Vaccination does not eliminate the CAUSE of disease — that of WRONG LIVING HABITS! Disease is caused by wrong eating, living and thinking! Our WAY OF LIFE must be changed in order to eliminate sickness and disease. This can only be done by following the principles of life — the basic laws of health — given by our Creator in His Word, the Bible. (Boraker R. The TRUTH About DRUGS and VACCINES. Good News, August 1961)

People should eat what is good (Isaiah 55:2) and try to live in accordance with God’s laws of health.

Let’s all remember that Jesus said that a time of pestilences would come (Matthew 24:7-8). Vaccines will NOT stop this from happening, and could possibly make it worse. In an old radio broadcast, the late Herbert W. Armstrong stated:

Jesus said in Matthew 24, and speaking in verse 8 of the pestilence and of the famine that is to come; and we’re getting a foretaste of it and there is a terrific national drought coming that will be accompanied by such disease epidemics that one third of our people are going to drop dead; and in spite of all polio vaccines and everything of the kind my friends, things are coming that doctors will never know anything about or be able to cope with. It is in your Bible.

Vaccines are not going to save society (see also Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse).

Decades ago, the late Ernest Martin wrote:

Leading doctors have warned that there is no substitute for clean living – that drugs cannot nullify the damage done by wanton breaking of all health laws – and that wholesale vaccinations can weaken man’s overall natural resistance to disease. But as long as we appear to be well, almost no one gives these warnings a second thought.(Martin E. Will we ever learns? Plain Truth, August 1965)

Turning from sin, eating only what is good, and obeying sanitary principles in the Bible are more effective than vaccines.

As far as the SDA church goes, it has less emphasis on health than it did when it formed in the 19th century, plus it has gone through other changes as well.

In the Continuing Church of God, we send, to our members who request it, a letter for religious exemptions to vaccines. However, with laws in places like the State of California, such letters are generally ignored (which differs from the past). Even if the SDA church became anti-vaccine, its influence on that would be minimal.

Several items of possibly related interest may include:

SDA/CCOG Differences: Two Horned Beast of Revelation and 666 The genuine Church of God is NOT part of the Seventh-day Adventists. This article explains two prophetic differences, the trinity, differences in approaching doctrine, including Ellen White. Did Ellen White make prophetic errors? Did Ellen White make false prophecies? Here is a version in the Spanish language: SDA/COG Diferencias: La bestia de dos cuernos de Apocalipsis y 666. Here is a sermon in the English language: CCOG and SDA differences and similarities.
Seventh-day Adventist President Ted Wilson’s Comments on the Remnant Church Ted N. C. Wilson spoke on the SDAs striving to be the “remnant church”, but what do the related scriptures actually teach?
The Bible, Christians, and the Environment How should Christians view the environment? Does the Bible give any clues? What are some of the effects of air, water, and land pollution? Is environmental pollution a factor in autism and death? Do pollutants seem to double the autism risk? What will Jesus do? A YouTube video is available titled Air Pollution, Autism, and Prophecy.
Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse What is the pale horse of death and pestilences? What will it bring and when? Spanish: El cuarto jinete de Apocalipsis, el caballo pálido de muerte y pestilencia.
Five Rules for Effective Parenting Do you know that there are five simple rules that can make you a more effective parent? Here is a link to a version in Mandarin Chinese 五条简单有效的子女养育规则. There is also a 12 1/2 minute English language YouTube video on this, also titled Five Rules for Effective Parenting.
What Psychologists do not Know About Child Rearing This is an article by Herbert Armstrong that was used as the introduction to the pdf booklet The Plain Truth About Child Rearing.
The Plain Truth About Child Rearing This is a pdf booklet that the old WCG put out.
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, English, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Saxon (non-Dutch) Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? What will happen to Jerusalem and the Jews in Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo-Saxon nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first? Here is a link to the Spanish version of this article: Anglo-América & las Tribus Perdidas de Israel. Information is also in the YouTube sermons titled Where are the Ten Lost Tribes? Why does it matter? and British are the Covenant People. A short YouTube of prophetic interest may be Barack Obama and the State of the Apocalypse.
Will the Anglo-Saxon Nations be Divided and Have People Taken as Slaves? Will the lands of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand be divided? What about Jerusalem? What does Bible prophecy teach? Are there non-biblical prophecies that support this idea? Who will divide those lands? Who will end up with the lands and the people? Here is a link to a video titled Will the USA and other Anglo-nations be Divided and Their People Made Slaves? Here is a related item in the Spanish language ¿Serán divididas las naciones anglosajonas?
GMOs and Bible Prophecy What are GMOs? Since they were not in the food supply until 1994, how could they possibly relate to Bible prophecy? Do GMOs put the USA and others at risk? Here is a related YouTube video GMO Risks and the Bible.
Chimeras: Has Science Crossed the Line? What are chimeras? Has science crossed the line? Does the Bible give any clues? A video of related interest is Half human, half pig: What’s the difference?
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2017, 2018, or 2019? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: ¿Puede comenzar la Gran Tribulación en 2016 o 2017? ¿Es el Tiempo de los Gentiles? You can also see the English language sermon videos: The Great Tribulation from the Mount of Olives and Can the Great Tribulation begin before 2020? A shorter video is: Will the Great Tribulation Start in 2017?