By Callie Mitchell, SAVED News International Correspondent, Jerusalem, Israel
Imagine a world where every person faces a decision and if they decide in line with the government’s goals, they are granted a label. That label allows them to go out and do fun, joyous things like stay in a hotel, eat at restaurants, go to the gym, sports events, and concerts. Pastors are told that if everyone in their congregation has that label, they can meet in larger numbers. Meanwhile, government leaders told the public that those who do not choose the label are “dangerous” and their records might even be handed over to certain government officials for reasons they have not disclosed.
This all sounds like the makings of an eerie dystopian novel, doesn’t it? Or maybe even something out of the book of Revelation! I wish this was merely fiction, but beloved friends, this is the actual, literal, living, breathing reality we are facing in Israel right now and we need prayer.
The label in my opening paragraph is something called the “Green Passport” and it is granted to everyone in Israel who decides to receive a vaccine for Covid. In order to hear my heart, what I humbly ask for you to do right now is try to separate out your personal beliefs and decision about the vaccine from the way our government is working. It is not my intent to intrude on anyone’s personal healthcare decision, but rather to awaken hearts to where we are in history.
In a place of vulnerability, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head and heart around the fact that this is happening in Israel. Remember, during the Holocaust, the German people succumbed to propaganda that the Jewish people were harmful to “national health” and these innocent people were forced to wear a label, a yellow Star of David on their clothes. The fact that we are implementing a system that is dividing people with a label and that our Minister of Health has said that the one group is “dangerous” is shocking in this specific context.
From an ethical standpoint, no one should have to receive or disclose a medical procedure in order to participate in the economy. This is coercive and an affront to human dignity. Yet this is what’s happening. I’m of the mindset that this is a manifestation of an “anti-messiah spirit”. Let me be clear: This is not the mark of the beast. Rather, what I’m sharing is that for people to be required to have a medical procedure, and a document/phone app with a bar code to scan in order to “to buy and sell” (Revelation 13:17), per the opening paragraph, this is a shadow of things to come. It is an early “birth pain.”
Even as I grieve the division and fear present, I know that the Lord is sovereign over all that is taking place here in Israel. It is a challenging situation, though, so please remember to pray for Israel (and me personally) as we walk this out as a nation, and as individuals.
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