Charisma News turns to Kenneth Copeland to claim absurd theologies regarding voting and the upcoming election.

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Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. -- John 6:15 (ESV)

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/78452-kenneth-copeland-if-you-don-t-vote-you-automatically-vote-against-the-will-of-god

As we turn the page on 2019 and begin to enter a new decade, we should expect the efforts of Satan to escalate as the end times deepen. We will continue to see the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) dominionist teachings take hold in the apostate church as we head toward the one world religion prophesied about in the bible. These teachings used to be more egregious in that the claim was that Jesus could not return until the church conquers the seven cultural mountains, starting with government. Realizing that most people took this idea as the lunacy it was, the NAR now speaks of the seven mountains in more muffled tones. Now it is about "influencing" instead of conquering, wink wink. The reality remains the same. The apostate church has a firm grasp on the current occupant of the White House and they get the scraps he allows to fall off his table so they can all bow down to his likeness. We saw this recently, when the editor of Christianity Today wrote an opinion piece calling for the ouster of Trump through the impeachment process. The apostate church went ballistic with false teachers like Paula White, Jentzen Franklin and Robert Morris in full freak-out mode while political hacks disguised as Christians like Franklin Graham, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell Jr. did likewise. In the midst of this, Charisma News, which is nothing more than an arm of the Republican Party, turned to the wisdom of the chief NAR heretic, Kenneth Copeland (linked above) to discuss the upcoming vote in 2020. Let us reason together once more beloved.

'There's a lot going on in our country, and we have to learn how to view it through the lens of faith. And who better to help us learn that than evangelist Kenneth Copeland? Throughout the years, Copeland has been well-known for his powerful teachings on faith--and those teachings are just as relevant and vital now as they ever have been. One major step of faith Christians nowadays need to take, he says, is simply voting. "If you don't vote, you automatically voted against the will of God," he says. "You have to think about that. You automatically voted against the will of God. That's a vote for the other side. ... That ballot is your seed. Even if you vote for the wrong [person], if you believe you're following God, then that ballot is your seed, and you did it before Him--whichever side you voted for."' -- Stephen Strang

"Through the lens of faith" is a straight up NAR term. It is similar to "biblical worldview." The true view of the world from a biblical standard is that it is fallen, will be judged and will pass away. The NAR however wields tremendous power and wealth in this world, which is why they are so enamored with it and are constantly trying to revive it. Kenneth Copeland is worth in excess of 630 million dollars and he himself has bragged that he is worth over a billion dollars. All money he fleeced from the flock of God to teach is prosperity laden, word faith heresies. We can see his poor grasp of the bible right off the bat here as he clearly does not understand the will of God. the notion that not voting automatically means you voted against the will of God is unbiblical and asinine. Always a fan of the heresy known as seed faith, Copeland tries to expand it into the political realm. Copeland ascribes to the pagan notion of God's will that says when we come to the fork in the road -- we need to figure out which way God wants us to take. In other words, one path is God's will and the other is not. This is not how the will of God works. Both paths are equally the will of God and not the will of God depending on what we do in that path. What is so insidious here, which is at the heart of NAR dominionist teaching is to pretend that one political party is the will of God and one is not. The reality of course is that neither party cares about the cause of Christ and what Copeland and the NAR do is to confer righteousness upon the Republican Party. I saw a local pastor post on Facebook recently that if you even thought about voting Democratic then you could not be a Christian! That is a heck of an evangelism plan!

'I was honored to have Copeland on my "Strang Report" podcast recently, where he shed some light on what's truly going on in our country from a spiritual perspective. The first thing we have to remember, Copeland says, is that "this country belongs to Jesus and was formed by people who loved Him with the very purpose of worshipping Him and worshipping our heavenly Father." Our nation is on the brink of forgetting this vital truth, he says. God has His hand on the United States for a reason. Copeland calls our nation the "cradle of the gospel," and because of that, Satan is doing everything he can to destroy it. "I believe with all my heart that this nation is being reborn," Copeland says. "All this trouble, this hatred and stuff going on--these are just symptoms. What else would you expect out of the devil?"' -- Stephen Strang

Part of the NAR dominionist talking points is that the evangelical church founded this country so they could all speak in tongues without persecution. Seriously, as someone who used to teach American History, Kenneth Copeland does not know what he is talking about. This country was founded by settlers who rebelled against the tyranny of higher taxes without having a say in their own government. The actual founding fathers were more deists than Christian. Thomas Jefferson removed all references to the deity of Christ and His miracles. Were they more 'religious" than folks today? Sure but so was the entire world. The problem is that Copeland and the NAR make the argument that this country was founded to be a theocracy and it most certainly was not. As for being the cradle of the Gospel, Copeland means the false gospels that poison this planet. Most of the horrific heresies today emanated from this country. Africa remains one of the poorest continents yet once we exported prosperity preaching there we now see the five richest pastors come from that still impoverished continent. There is simply no way that the enemy would be trying to destroy Copeland and his false gospel since they only serve the lord of this world.

"But rebirth is not an easy experience. As our country is being reborn, we are experiencing birth pangs in the form of unrest, division and animosity against biblical values. Another analogy Copeland uses for the state our nation is in is war. God is in charge, and we will win the war--we can stand firm on that promise. But Christians who take that promise as an excuse to sit idly by and watch the culture wars unfold are not walking in obedience to their faith. "Even though we know we win the war, we have to fight to fight," he says. "Faith is never just sitting down. Faith without corresponding action is dead. ... If there's a good fight of faith, that means there are enemies to faith. Now, we don't look at people. We look at the spirit realm. We wrestle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world and the wicked spirits in the heavens." Therefore, Copeland says, we have to pray. We have to intercede. We have to cry out to God on behalf of our leaders, especially Donald Trump and Mike Pence." -- Stephen Strang

Let me try and walk us through this. God has given the church the only tool that is needed to see people won to the kingdom and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The bible says it alone has the power of God unto the salvation of man. Throughout the millennia, the church has bastardized this Gospel and how it should be delivered. God's design was for the church to preach the Gospel so those that hear it might be drawn by the spirit. Outside of that, we were to spread the Gospel around the world as missionaries. The Crusades saw the church try to force people to convert to Christianity. When we "discovered" this country we did the same to the indigenous people. The reason why the world has so much animosity to biblical values is that they are forced upon them by people who cannot measure up to the same purity tests they demand. The world understands who Kenneth Copeland is. They understand who Paula White is. They see the millionaire charlatans for what they are and reject their compromised message of sin and repent.

Furthermore, Copeland and the NAR sell the idea that choosing not to vote is somehow idleness. That is nonsense. In 2012 the world gave us a choice between the liberal Christianity of Barack Obama and a member of a Satanic Cult, in Mitt Romney. The Copeland's of the world and the NAR declared the Satanic cult member as "God's choice." Now I agree the bible says we ought to pray for our leaders but only from the perspective of leading quiet and peaceable lives. The very best they can do is claim they believe their choice is the lesser of two evils. They cannot do that however because of how vociferously they promote their evil choice.

'Copeland recalls praying for Trump a month after he announced he was running for president. He was among the group of pastors who gathered to pray over Trump. He placed his hand on Trump's back and, without realizing how prophetic that moment was, he began praying for God to fill the future president with wisdom. How could he have known just how crucial that prayer would actually be? Copeland was also among those who attended a state dinner at the White House. He told me during a prior podcast interview that the event was like a "really anointed church service." Our next highest priority in prayer should be our judges: "The politicians make all the noise and they make all the news. ... But politicians come and go every four years. Judges are for life. They're the ones who affect our lives. They're the ones who say who kills babies and who doesn't. They're the ones who say, 'We're going to go for sexual perversion' or 'We're going to go toward the Word of God.'"' -- Stephen Strang

The group of pastors praying for Trump included Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Jentzen Franklin, Jan Crouch, Steve Munsey, Bishop George Bloomer and Bishop Darrell Scott; as reported by the Queen of the Sneaky Squid Spirit herself, Jennifer LeClaire. The state dinner included the likes of Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Greg Laurie, Jack Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., Robert Jeffress, Tony Perkins, Ronnie Floyd, Sammy Rodriguez, and of course, Paula White. This is a cornucopia and heresy and political operatives who pretend to be Christian. Those in attendance say that they had an open mic and the pastors prostrated themselves before the president and gushed about how great he has been to them. Next is the golden calf of judgeships in this country. The church is like Charlie Brown running to kick that football all over again only to have Lucy pull it away at the last second. As you myopically cast votes for people you think will nominate judges that have said they share your beliefs realize this -- Roe was decided by a 7-2 Republican Supreme Court. It was strengthened and reaffirmed in 2000 by a Republican Supreme Court.

'Don't expect your prayers to make much of a difference, though, if you refuse to vote. In fact, Christians who don't vote should just stay silent the next four years, Copeland says: "Pray. Put your money where your mouth is. Support the candidates. Get on the telephone and get people registered to vote. "Start something in your church where you get people ready. Everybody in your church ought to be registered to vote--every one of them. Pastors, do something about it! Get over this business of not being able to talk politics in church. Thank God that because of Donald Trump, you can get up there and say whatever you want to!"' -- Stephen Strang

What? Copeland is actually claiming that God will not hear your prayers, let alone answer them, if you choose to not vote? God does not care about the carnal politics of man. Not one bit. Just look at the life of Jesus. His disciples sure wanted Him to be political and deliver them from the oppression of Rome. Jesus's kingdom however was not of this world. The deliverance He came to provide was a deliverance from sin and the devil. That Gospel message has not changed beloved. Copeland brags about Trump no longer enforcing the Johnson Amendment that prohibited churches from preaching politics but anyone who truly cares about the Gospel knows this was not a positive development. The apostate church today barely preaches the Gospel to begin with and now they have another distraction to preach about? Wonderful. As a preacher you were not supposed to just go up into the pulpit and say whatever you want.

"If Christians take this approach, Copeland believes God will move in the hearts of His people across the U.S. to vote in ways we haven't seen before. "He is going to stir up people to vote who have never voted before," he says. "He stirred up the church [in 2016], He stirred up the cowboys, He stirred up the hillbillies, He stirred up all over the nation. And we better watch out, because they're going to get stirred up again. And the Democratic Party will see that." I encourage you to listen to my full interview with Copeland. You will be so encouraged by what he has to say. And I hope each of you reading this will take his words to heart. Don't stop with making sure you vote. Make sure others vote. Share biblical voting advice on your social media pages. Talk about political issues from a biblical perspective wherever you go. Be a good representation of Jesus and how He would approach politics in our day and age." -- Stephen Strang

I agree that we should be a good representation of Christ and thus avoid the attraction of the political wars in this country. Jesus would not be political in this world or any world. He is King and Lord. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus realizes in our key verse that the people were going to try and force Him to be king. Did He embrace this political love? Did He engage in conversation politically? No. He withdrew to be by Himself. Beloved, think about how silly and self-centered the entire NAR premise is. Jesus is God. He created the entire universe by speaking it into existence. His message to humanity was about our salvation -- not this world. It is a message about our need to repent. Just watch this upcoming election season. The NAR will trumpet this as the most dire election in creation's history. Are we so blindly political and arrogant that we think God just cannot accomplish His will unless candidate X is elected? If you discern one candidate as being the lesser evil by all means exercise your civic duty and vote for them. Just do not lose sight if you choose to publicly brag or defend your choice that you are bragging and defending evil, no matter how much you think they are lesser. The world may have been shocked in 2016 but God was not. Just like He was not surprised in 2012 and He will not be in 2020. Get back to the Gospel and leave this NAR dominionist nonsense on the ash heap of heretical history.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- December 30, 2019

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.