A Biblical interpretation of the COVID-19 vaccine fiasco
By JOHN LEAKE
Author’s Note: The following is a speech I was scheduled to deliver today at the Liberty and Health Alliance TRUE LIBERTY CONFERENCE in Phoenix, Arizona. An unexpected family matter prevented me from attending, so I am publishing the speech here so that conference attendees (and our broader readership) will be able to read and listen to it at their leisure. Many of our readers will note that it contains reflections I’ve posted in previous columns. However, the speech also contains additional exposition and interpretation.
Babylon the Great and the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex: A Biblical Interpretation of the COVID-19 Vaccine FiascoIn a cave on the Greek island of Patmos, JOHN had his nightmarish Revelation (Greek: Apocalypse) of the end of the world. Most vivid and frightening is his vision of Four Horsemen who are unleashed on the earth. The first is mounted on a white horse, armed with a bow, and adorned with a crown. He apparently represents Pestilence. The second is mounted on a red horse and armed with a sword. He is thought to represent Civil War. The third, who apparently represents Famine, rides a black horse and carries a scale. Upon the fourth horse is mounted a pale and gaunt figure who represents Death.
John was apparently exiled to Patmos by Roman authorities because he preached the Christian faith, which was proscribed and heavily persecuted under the reigns of Nero and his successors in the 1st century AD. Historians think he was sent packing to the desolate island under Domitian (81-96). However, in John’s reflections on the depravity of Roman rule, he seems to have been thinking mostly about Nero, who ordered cruel and sadistic persecutions of the Christian congregation in Rome after the Great Fire of 64.
Tacitus and Suetonius claimed that Nero himself set fire to the city because he (an aesthete) thought the old buildings were shabby, and he wanted an excuse to rebuild them. Tacitus went as far as claiming that Nero wanted to burn down the city to re-found it and name it Neropolis. It’s tough to say if the accounts of Tacitus and Suetonius were based on solid evidence or anti-Nero propaganda, given that the Emperor was hated by many of his Roman contemporaries, including the influential writer, Pliny the Elder.
According to Tacitus, Nero blamed the catastrophe on the obscure sect of people living in the city. They were, he claimed, a superstitious bunch who committed abominations in their communion rite of eating of the body and drinking of the blood of their crucified man-god. To punish them for their alleged arson, he ordered them burned alive.
That John of Patmos was thinking about Nero finds support in Revelation verse 13:16-18, which reads: “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” The Greek name “Nero Caesar” translated into Hebrew is NRON QSRN, which adds up (in the gematria numerological system) to six hundred and sixty-six. John understood that the Roman imperial administration was immensely organized and powerful, with disciplined legions that could swiftly reach anywhere in the world and destroy any group of men who opposed their rule. However, as he saw it, this great earthly power was not guided by wisdom, truth, and goodness, but by an insatiable desire for aggrandizement and total domination of all people.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about John and his Revelation. An especially notable passage is 18:23.
And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
The angel who utters this verse is referring to Babylon, alternately called Mystery Babylon and Babylon the Great—a powerful commercial city that is personified by a beguiling harlot (prostitute).
Many scholars have suggested that Babylon is a veiled reference to the city of Rome—the seat of world power and commerce in John’s time. Regardless of whether he was referring to the ancient city of Babylon or the contemporary city of Rome, it’s clear the city is a place in which POWER and MONEY are worshipped. Likewise, because men were enthralled by worldly goods and luxuries, they became subjects of the great merchants of Bayblon and were “deceived by their sorceries.” It's a notable fact that John uses the Greek word PHARMAKEIA, which seems to mean both “sorcery” and “deceitful action.”
This brings us to our current situation, in which the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex has achieved dominion over mankind with its deceitful claims of vanquishing all disease and death with an ever-growing arsenal of vaccines. During the pandemic, I often marveled at how virtually every country on earth immediately fell into lockstep with the same response—that is, suppress early treatment of the illness while fervently embracing the heralded COVID-19 vaccine as a panacea.
When the COVID-19 vaccines were released at the end of 2020, they were pushed with the greatest propaganda campaign in history. Soon the shot became, in the minds of millions, an object of veneration and salvation, thereby establishing something closely akin to a new religion.
The promise of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine seemed to cast a spell over the minds of millions. People seemed enchanted by it, and this enchantment was relentlessly amplified by the deceitful propaganda campaign that made false promises of the vaccine’s efficacy, and systematically obscured a growing list of harms it could inflict on the people who received it.
And so, we see that John’s use of the Greek word PHARMAKEIA—meaning both sorcery and deceit—now seems strangely apt. Perhaps the strangest moment in this bizarre story occurred last year, when Vatican City issued a 20 Euro silver coin. As the Numista Catalogue described it:
The coin depicts a doctor, a nurse and a young person who is ready to receive the vaccine. The Holy Father has repeatedly stressed the importance of vaccination, recalling that healthcare is a moral obligation, and it is important to continue efforts to immunize even the poorest peoples.
Note that the formulation, "a young person who is ready to receive the vaccine” is identical to the formulation for a communicant “who is ready to receive the host.” When I saw this, I wondered who wrote the catalogue copy. Was it the Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Vatican City State?
The obverse of the coin bears the name Franciscus, the year 2022 (“Anno MMXXII”) and the Coat of Arms of Pope Francis. Again, we see how many have placed something akin to religious faith in the COVID-19 vaccines, which are conceived as the Savior of Mankind. With this commemorative silver coin, issued in the name of Francis, the Pope officially endorsed the COVID-19 vaccines and bestowed upon them his sublime authority and prestige.
The fact that the Vatican chose to commemorate the COVID-19 vaccine in such stark religious terms—with a silver coin—again reminded me of John’s Revelation, in which Babylon is depicted as great commercial city. For centuries, silver coins were a primary medium of commercial exchange. The silver coin reminds us of the Roman silver denarius presented to Jesus by the Pharisee who asks him, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" As we know, the question was a trap laid for Jesus to get him into trouble with the Roman tax authority. In his response, Jesus touched on the vital distinction between temporal and spiritual authority—a distinction the Vatican badly muddled with its COVID-19 vaccine commemorative coin.
The commemorative coin also reminds me of Pfizer’s Viagra PR campaign. Pfizer initially developed the drug to treat high blood pressure and angina pectoris. However, as the company discovered in clinical trials, the drug was better at inducing erections than managing angina. And so, Pfizer repurposed the substance for erectile dysfunction and launched a massive, global PR campaign—including seeking moral approval from Pope John Paul II. The company’s clever marketing people persuaded him that Viagra would strengthen marriages and aid in procreation.
And so, I’ll conclude by posing a provocative question: Could it be that Pfizer and the rest of the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex are a manifestation of Babylon the Great—the corrupt commercial entity to which John referred in his Revelation?