No beloved. We need to enter into our own witness protection program. There is a reason why the Bible says to not let any corrupting talk come out of our mouths. Before we speak, retweet, or repost we need to ask ourselves what this will do to our witness for Jesus Christ. Why? Because our witness may be the only chance someone has to hear the first seed of the Gospel sown. Will what we have to say result in gathering people to Christ or scattering them away? Because in the end it's the Gospel stupid. It is the only thing that matters because it is the only thing that has to power of God unto the salvation of man. Do we honestly think on Judgment Day that Jesus is going to want to hear about how we reposted lies about cloud seeding or Fox News interviews swearing that two random people at a political rally had their faith mocked when they clearly did not? Do not fret about rendering unto Caesar what belongs to him. We serve the God of the entire universe! Do you think He fears a Trump or Harris regime? Voting is a secular privilege, not a Christian mandate. We are not taking over any mountains or setting up the United Christian States of America. If you want to positively affect this country, then protect your witness. If you want to really affect this country, preach the Gospel. Not the NAR false gospel of American exceptionalism but the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, the final plank in the platform of a Biblical Voting Guide.
Plank Number Five -- Do Not Defend Evil. One of the very real and perhaps unintended consequences of trying to insert faith into politics is the conferring of righteousness onto the unrighteous. By pretending that we alone have determined "God's choice" we actually end up making the argument that the lesser evil is somehow not evil. Spurgeon once said that when presented with the choice of two evils he chooses neither. We would be wise to do the same. We should pray and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit when it comes to our vote and then cast that vote accordingly. We should not however then pretend that we have made a righteous choice and others have not. The lesser of two evils remains evil and defending it is still defending evil. I have no issue with the arguments about the evilness in the candidacy of any candidate. But to use the Bible to try and defend a candidate is to abuse God and destroy your witness. Just as Kamala Harris is not Deborah, Donald Trump is not King Cyrus. Can God use Him? Sure; just as He would use Harris. God uses everything for His plans and His will. Barack Obama was not a righteous choice, and neither was George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote a play in the 16th Century about a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for worldly pleasures. Thus, the term "Faustian Bargain," refers to when one makes a deal to trade something of great moral value for material benefit. What the NAR dominionist agenda is selling the church today is a Faustian bargain. They say forget your witness for Christ and blindly line up behind one political party. In order to support this, you must trade in your dignity and true Christian identity. You have to pretend the God somehow hates immigrants. You have to disparage your brothers and sisters in Crist because they may perceive a different lesser evil. You may have to view them as not only lesser but actually unsaved because they have a different political opinion than yours. Just this past week we saw Jack Hibbs try and convince us that voting for someone other than his candidate means you will suffer eternally in unquenchable fire. The Faustian bargain requires you to lie about our brothers and sisters from other countries. It forces you to seek out YouTube videos to confirm your lies. It forces you to represent to the world that being a convicted rapist does not matter to God. That being unfaithful to your first wife with your second wife and then unfaithful to your third wife with a porn star is somehow aligned with being compared to King Cyrus or the prophet Elijah. The Faustian bargain requires what might be left of our decency to turn a blind eye to someone claiming that if you are famous, it is ok to grab women by their genitalia, or to openly discuss the genitalia of deceased golfing celebrities. This is not to support the other side, but no one is conferring righteousness to the other side. No one is claiming that Kamala Harris is the second coming of godly biblical figures or that not voting for her means you are not a Christian.
Perhaps the greatest trick the devil ever pulled is not convincing the world he doesn't exist but rather convincing them that truth does not exist. Beloved, the truth still does exist. Not in Facebook memes or Twitter reposts that confirms a political bias we already hold but rather in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth is that He died for all people, that all might be saved through Him. He died for the legal immigrant escaping poverty and devastation in Haiti. He died for the illegal immigrant trying to escape the tortuous death they might face in their own countries. He died for people who might choose to vote Democratic as they feel led. He died for those who may choose the truly righteous path is in not voting for any of the evil offered up to them. The gospel transcends all time and culture. The same gospel that saved the 4th century European serf, saved the 18th Century French revolutionist, and saves the man in Iraq today being martyred for refusing to denounce Jesus Christ. Beloved, with two weeks to go, do not allow the Charismaniacal NAR industrial complex to bully, intimidate or threaten you to vote one way or the other. Pray and vote as you feel led by the Holy Spirit knowing full well that on November 6th, God will still be on the throne. He does not need our help. He has not asked for our help. He is God all by Himself. I know it is hard amidst the cacophony of ceaseless noise but remember they are trying to spin you a yarn. They are trying to convey an imaginary tale to you designed for one laser focused purpose and that is to convince you to vote for the guy they want you to vote for. That tale however is biblically vacuous and scripturally insulting. To quote Shakespeare, it is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" Do not listen to the idiots beloved. Mark and avoid them.
Reverend Anthony Wade - October 24, 2024
