Election Day and Christianity

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. It's almost over, ladies and gentlemen, we're all most there. Are you excited that it's almost over? I don't know about you. I cannot wait until it's over, Until we are done with this insanity, this madness. I want it to be I never want to hear vote ever again. I don't want to hear vote. Are you going to vote? You should vote. I don't want to hear anything about presidential campaigns. I don't want to hear about election promises. I don't want to hear about campaign rallies, don't I don't want to hear any I want it to be over, ladies and gentlemen.

0:48 And we are so very close now. My fear is I want it to be over tomorrow evening. And my fear is. This is not going to be over, and this is going to just drag on and and we're going to be and we're going to be an everlasting purgatory. And I want someone to get me out of purgatory. What am I talking about? Well, yeah, I mean I think you can kind of tell what I'm talking about. But I'll try to make it more clear right after this. Good afternoon everyone. It is Monday, November the fourth, twenty twenty four. It is currently one twenty eight pm Central time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well, it is almost election day here in the United States of America.

1:38 And you can tell, like you can tell right now if you'll grab the sermon's two point oh app. If you'll grab the sermon's two point oh app let me open it up right here. If you open it up and you look under I think the discover tab. If you look under the discover tab and you scroll down, you'll see a section that says trending the trending hashtags. Do you know what the trending hashtags are? Right now? In the sermons two point oh app Whenever a if you don't understand, whenever a church speaker, podcaster, broadcaster, whenever you get ready to upload your messages, you put little hashtags right It helps with searching, helping with putting things in category.

2:18 And right now, those hashtags that. Are trending Number one America, Okay, I think you probably know why. Number two vote the number two hashtag on the sermons two point oh app That means these are sermons that are going to be telling you, well, probably to vote. I don't know what they're going to say. There was a part of me that says, you know what I'm going to do, I'm just gonna grab this and I'm just going to start reviewing sermons. We'll just start reviewing. We'll go we'll go on a five hour marathon of just reviewing sermons. We'll review one, kind of get the basic idea, go to another one, and we'll see what the churches are out there saying in regard to voting, or why they create why they put the hashtag vote in their sermon metadata and their sermon description information.

3:09 Why did they connect this to the idea of vote. Well, because the election is about to be. Here, and let's just say many Christians are very outspoken, in fact, not just outspoken. They're basically telling you that if you are a Christian, you will vote, and if you are a Christian. You will vote for Donald Trump. And if you don't vote for Donald Trump, then you're not a Christian and you're. Basically going to go to hell. All right, that's basically how some Christians are approaching this subject and that already there is just maddening to me on so many levels. And don't think that I'm just like you know, oh, you're just making that up. Look, there's lots of information out here about this the situation, several and I'm reading now from different sources. Several prominent pastors and Bible teachers have express strong opinions regarding Christian's support for Donald Trump and the Republican Party. While some have suggested that voting for Trump is a moral imperative for Christians, some have explicit Some have even explicitly stated that failing to do so disqualifies one from being a Christian.

4:23 There are some who've said that if you don't vote for Donald Trump, it disqualifies you from being a Christian, meaning you're gonna die and go to Hell. So I guess salvation is now whoever believes and the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. Oh no, no, whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and votes for Donald Trump will be saved. Which is the most ludicrous, ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my entire life. Your salvation has zero to do with your salvation. Your salvation has zero to do with who you vote for. It has nothing to do with who you vote for. You say, well, no, you're saved by grace alone, through faith alone. But you're truly saved, you'll vote this way. No, that is not true. Voting is a complex issue with many issues at stake, not just one thing.

5:11 You cannot say your salvation is proven by who you vote for. My salvation is proven by the finished work of Jesus Christ, because I'm saved by an imputed righteousness, not an infused righteousness. Do I mean, for some weird reason, maybe Christians needs to spend more time studying the doctrine of imputed righteousness than they do worrying about who they're going to vote for. Yeah, you can tell them pretty fired up about this. I want this all to be over. I'm so done with it. But let's just go through some of these Christians. Doctor Albert Mohler al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Semit, I think it's Almler, Is it Albert Muller? I think it's Almueller. Has argued that voting for Democrats make Christians unfaithful to God. Hey, You're unfaithful to God if you vote for a Democrat, but your soul faithful if you vote for Donald Trump, who cares what Donald Trump says?

6:03 Who cares what Donald Trump does? You're just unfaithful of you if you if you vote opposite of him, Like, how are you out of your ever living mind? Franklin Graham has endorsed Trump, stating that God spared his life following an assassination attempt and applying divine favor. So this is the idea because because this happened, well, then that's divine favor God. Well, so so if some didn't they try to assassinate Hitler didn't that didn't that assassination plan fail, So then that means that was divine favor upon Hitler. Like, if you go with that logic, that's just ludicrous.

6:43 Just because an assassination attempt is successful or not successful, you're now going to determine whether that's divine face. Just stop it, Christians, just stop talking. That's what we need to do, including me, right, we all just need to give up. PAULA. White, who's serving as Trump's spiritual has been a vocal supporter, leading his National Faith Advisory Board and suggesting that Trump's leadership aligns with Christian values. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, has supported Trump, describing him as a baby Christian and advising him during his first term. While these leaders. Advocate for Trump, the assertion that not voting for him disqualifies one from being a Christian is not universally held.

7:25 Will praise God for that. The relationship between faith and politics is complex, and many Christian leaders emphasize individual conscience and discernment in voting decisions, but there's even some more prominent. Pastor John MacArthur and Pastor Mark Driscoll have made statements suggesting that a Christian's voting choice are closely tied to their faith and biblical principles, and twenty twenty, MacArthur stated that any real true believer is going to be on your side in this election, referring to then President Donald Trump. I mean, that's that's just what Any true Christian is going to be on Donald Trump's side. Any true Christian, Well, then I guess I'm not a true Christian. Okay, go ahead and throw me out of the Kingdom of God, throw me into hell, because I don't agree with your crazy political stance. Mark Driscoll has expressed strong opinions on political matters, and then it go basically saying some of the exact same things. And I could pull up all the things. I think there was an article on a I would have to look on which website it was.

8:31 Were the Roys Report, Christian Post, you can find it where Mark Driscoll basically saying the same thing. Basically, you're not a Christian if you vote for Democrats. Now, I. Look, I want this whole thing to be over. I want this whole thing to be done. I am so tired of it all. I just want it to be over, ladies and gentlemen. I just want it to be over. I I and I'm more concerned about it. Now. Listen to me. I've tried to articulate this, and I don't think it's ever I don't. For some weird reason, it doesn't. It can't register in the brains of some people. But look, I've stated, if I look at this from a purely philological perspective, forget everything else, forget America, forget anything. Just from a pilological perspective of what is best for the church.

9:25 The church has been so infiltrated by political ideology. The church has been so hijacked by politics that the best thing that could happen to the church from a purely philological perspective, is that twenty four hours after election day, the church in America wakes up and looks around and go what happened? Because every single Republican from city council, mayor governor, senator, congressman, president, every level of government, there's not a Republican left.

10:06 They've all been voted out of office. There's no one left. They look around, the entire country is now controlled by Democrats. That would be the best thing that has ever happened to Christianity in the history of America, because Christians would wake up and go, well, what are. We going to do? Where are we going to turn? What is our hope? And then someone can lift up a Bible and go maybe we get back to this. Maybe we get back to scripture. Maybe we get back to prayer. Maybe we get back to fasting, Maybe we get back to preaching. Maybe we get back to evangelism and fasting. Maybe we get back to being Christians. Maybe we get back to living out our Christian life in the midst of the culture, whether the culture is for us or against us. Maybe we maybe we realize we're not of this world. Maybe we realize we're just pilgrims and strangers, strangers just passing through.

10:57 Maybe we look we stop looking to the hills for our help and we start looking to God. Maybe we stop trusting in chariots and horses and we trust in God. Maybe maybe the best thing that could happen is that. Everything we've sold our soul to for political power and to try to accomplish our means through political force, we lose at all, and you wake up and you got nothing, you got. Zero, You get nowhere to turn. You've got no political allies, no one on your side except God. From a purely philological perspective, the best thing to happen to the church is that the church loses everything except God. On one hand, that would be great.

11:47 I know nobody likes that and nobody but the church has been so politically hijacked and politically corrupted. That's the only way to get what we need is something. But that's not going to happen. Obviously, Republicans are going to win. I don't know how. I don't know who's going to win, but there's going to be a Republican's winning, and then whatever happens, there's gonna. Be just a double down effort. Oh, we've got to fight for the next election, or they'll be yelling and screaming the election was stolen, no matter how many times it's disproven it was stolen because Christians just traffic and conspiracy theories because we don't care about truth. Because why don't we care about truth? Because we care about politics and we've abandoned truth, all right, So we can go through all of that. So that's not going to happen, which is unfortunate.

12:34 I think what my fear is is, twenty four hours after election day, I think the church is only going to just double down, become more politically hijacked, and become more politically compromised. I think for. Those of us who will not bow and kiss the ring of Trump, who will not waive the Republican flag, for those of us who are not going to wrap ourself in the American flag and and want patriotism and nation and Christian nationalism over biblical theology. For those of us who are not going to do that, I just have a fear that many many of us are going to look around. You're not going to have a church to go to. You're going to be an outcast. You're going to be considered less than You're going to be considered a heretic. You may even be considered an unbeliever because you will not follow the Republican Party and you will not bow and kiss the ring, which is which is very unfortunate. But I think that's where we're headed.

13:41 I want it to all be over, That's what I want. But this claim that Christian, that true Christians, that a Christian true to Biblical morality and faith must vote for Donald Trump or any particular candidate, raises significant theological and ethical considerations, and it involves and enters section of Biblical interpretation, Christian liberty. And political philosophy. I want you to hear that again. This claim that a Christian, a true Christian, and if you want to be true to Biblical morality and faith, you must vote for Donald Trump or any particular candidate, raises significant philological and ethical considerations, and it involves an intersection of Biblical interpretation, Christian liberty, and political philosophy. And let me make it very clear, anytime something involves biblical interpretation.

14:31 It's very This is where I get so sick of it because Christians love to say this is what you must do, you must do this, you must do this, or you're not really a Christian. Well that's based off your interpretation. And look, there's the one thing. If you study church history, nobody agrees on how to interpret anything. So you can sit there and say your interpretation is right and throw me into the fifteenth level of hell because I don't agree with your political ideology. But it comes down to biblical interpretation and we can't agree on how to interpret the Bible. So really, how can anybody tell anyone and they're wrong? That gets back to that whole never ending, maddening issue. But there's some major issues here. Let's look at biblical morality. And political allegiance.

15:12 Let's just talk about those two things, biblical morality and political allegiance. Well, we're going to talk about many things. Well, at least consider this biblical morality and political allegiance. The Bible provides moral principles but does not mandate specific political candidate or parties. And biblical morality is involves not just one thing. This is a weird thing. Whenever you get into this discussion about politics, well what about this and what about this? You're like, you do realize Biblical morality involves far more than one or two or three issues. It's all encompassing. For example, biblical morality, would it not emphasize the idea of justice, mercy, humility, truth, and a love for others?

16:01 Doesn't it involve all of those things? Wouldn't the Bible at least mention those things. Don't we have this verse? See uh yeah, Micah chapter six, verse eight. He hath shewed thee, oh man, What is good? And what doth the Lord require of thee? But to do justly and to love mercy. And to walk humbly with Thy God. Now I understand there's a historical context there and we could get into. But that's talking about justice, mercy, and humility. Doesn't the Bible mention love for others? Love the Lord that God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. And love your neighbor as yourself even and love your enemy. Turn the other cheek, resist not evil, do good unto those who would persecute you. Doesn't the Bible have lots to say? And we just reduce it to one.

16:49 Or two issues. Christians can interpret how these principles might align with different political stances. But this doesn't necessarily mean that one candidate or party fully embodies these values. But see we no, it's just this issue. Well then if it's just that issue, then don't talk about Christianity or biblical morality. But see what you do is you use biblical. Morality because you can pick one issue and say, well, this party does this on this issue, therefore they're the biblical one. But then I could look at another issue and say, but this is that political party doesn't follow that issue, so they're not biblical. Who gets to decide which issue determines who's biblical. Here's a novel idea. None of the political parties are biblical, none of them because they are operating outside of a biblical worldview.

17:34 I don't care which party you have, I don't care. They're not Christianity. They're politics. And politicians unless you're going to go with a Christian nationalistic idea, are there to represent people of all different faiths and ideologies. See what some people wants, We want a dictator that says everyone will this way. But don't you want a country where there's freedom of ideas and perspectives, and so you can't just force one thing on everybody unless you want some kind of dictatorship. We do not live under a theocratic monarchy, nor do I want to.

18:16 I don't want to live under a dictator. You want someone who will represent all Americans from a political standpoint, from a thiological Christian standpoint, we can say this is right, this is wrong, this is what the Lord says, repent of that follow Jesus Christ. That if you want to change people's behavior, you preach Christ and tell them to change their behavior because they're following Christ, not because you're going to force them to do so by. Some political mandate. No one party is I can find scripture that can condemn every party.

18:56 Well they follow this, yeah, but they don't. Follow this or this or this this biblical morality and political allegiance. You can't just take. The Bible to try to support your political allegiance. How about Christian liberty and conscience and passages like Romans fourteen and First Corinthians ten. Paul emphasizes that Christians may have different convictions and non essential matters, and that they should respect one another's conscience. Applying this to voting, one might argue that Christians have the freedom to choose candidates based on personal conviction and perful discernment without a one size fit all approach. Is there a one size fit all approach? That's if you want to reduce it down to some simplistic concept. Things are much more complicated then you may want them to be. We can't forget jesus teaching on power and kingdom allegiance. Jesus allegiance. Jesus taught that his kingdom was not of this world, and he emphasis size a spiritual kingdom over political power. The New Testament consistently prioritizes allegiance to Christ's kingdom over earthly politics. From this perspective, Christians might view voting as a moral responsibility, but also recognize that the ultimate hope and trust lies in God, not in any political leader. And I'm going to say I have no moral responsibility to vote. There is nothing in scripture that tells me to vote. There's no command for me to vote, because I didn't even understand that kind of system. And if you want to vote simply

20:32 because you want to impose your morality upon other people, well that's not even a biblical concept. We don't impose our morality on other people. We preach the truth of God's law, demonstrating to people that they cannot keep that law, put their faith in Christ so that they will be saved. And then we teach them to obey out of gratitude. For what God has done for them. The obeying it follows conversion. It's not you do this, No, you are saved because you can't do it. But Christ did it for you, and you put your faith in Him, and then we seek to fill and even afterwards, we're never going to do it perfectly. Supporting a candidate often involves weighing multiple issues, and candidates typically hold a mix of positions that may align with some biblical principles and diverge from others. For instant, one candidate might uphold certain moral issues central to some Christians while diverging on others integrity, humility, justice for the marginalized. Historically, Christian leaders have not universally agreed on specific political candidates as the definitive Christian choice.

21:45 This diversity suggests that while some may feel strongly that their faith informs their vote in a specific direction, others may feel feel called to vote in a completely different way, or to even abstain as a form of witness to their priorities. The point is Christians never agree on it. So you can be all dogmatic and say this is the way it is. Well, guess what Christians don't agree on anything. Well. Individual Christians or leaders may believe that one candidate aligns more closely with their interpretation of biblical morality. Claiming that all true Christians must vote for a particular candidate can be problematic, at risk oversimplifying complex ethical issues and infringing on the principle of Christian liberty. It may also lead to conflating faith with political ideology, which can distract from the broader mission and witness of the Church. Each Christian is encouraged to vote in accordance with their conscience, guided by prayer, scripture, and love for neighbor. Now that's if we're going to think about this anywhere close to biblically, logically, cautiously careful.

23:01 But I have to do this. I have to. I have to address this next part because within conservative churches. In conservative churches, I always talk, I always focus my focuses on conservative churches and the reason why if you look at a conservative church, you look at their doctrinal statement, their their confession of faith. In most cases, I'm going to say. I agree with that, I agree with that, I agree with that, I agree with that, they still hold to at least the basics of Christianity to some level. When you go to very liberal, liberal liberal churches, they've always, almost always, they've typically most of the time, they've already jettison historical, biblical Christianity, the deity of Christ, the inspiration of Scripture.

23:45 They've already walked away from that. So if they're over here holding to a more liberal politic. It doesn't bother me. If they become political, who cares. They've already left Christianity. They've got to have something to replace it with, So why not not. Why won't it be politics or a social gospel or social justice makes sense. They've already abandoned Christianity. But over here, when the conservative churches, I'm always baffled because wait a minute, you still hold on to Christianity, but you're now in You're now corrupting your Christianity. With this political allegiance. But what they do is they their political allegiance is to the conservative side, So then they conflate their Christianity, conservative Christianity with conservative politics and it turns into some mutated something that's not truly Christian. And on the conservative side, it's almost guaranteed they're gonna say you must.

24:33 Vote for Donald Trump. I'm gonna vote for Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump. And they almost act like, I don't know, he's the newest member of the trinity and someone else has been. Moved out of it. Now they'll say that's not true. Just listen to the way they talk, though. But when you consider the many actions and statements attributed to Donald Trump, I think you should raise some I don't know, concerns among Christians and others regarding how closely his behavior aligns with biblical morality and values. When examining this, it's helpful to consider core Christian values such as humility, truthfulness, compassion, justice, integrity, peacemaking to assess Trump's actions and rhetoric and light of these standards. It's just so weird. We're like, oh, we get we getta.

25:15 We gonna go with God's morality. God's morality. It's all about morality. It's all about morality. But then all of a sudden, well, it doesn't really matter about morality when it comes at least to the person we're voting for. Then we throw it out. It's almost like it doesn't matter. The Bible consistently emphasizes the importance of truth. God hates lying lips, God hates lying, put away lying. Speak the truth. And to say that many of Trump's statements have been fact checked and found to be completely false or misleading would be the greatest understatement in the history of humankind. He is lied and lied, and lied and lied and.

26:02 Thrown out utterly ridiculous and crazy things, and yet it does not seem to matter to anyone. Is truthfulness? Does it even matter? Now what many people say, I don't care. I don't care if he lies every day. All I cares about his policies. Well, how can you trust any policy maybe constantly lies. Is that not a reasonable question to ask? Now, we could go through a lot of this humility, servant leadership, love for neighbor and compassion, peacemaking and reconciliation, personal morality, justice and equity, divisive nationalism versus unity, and Christ. If we go through all of these, trumpet it's just it's I mean, do we have to I mean, it's a train wreck of epic proportion.

27:00 But see, it will not matter. It will not It's so weird to me to have been a Christian in the nineteen nineties when all I could hear was character matters, Character matters. We have to elect people who are godly, who have godly character. We cannot have this vile adulterer, Bill Clinton anywhere near the White House. It's ungodly. Sin is a reproach upon a sin as a reproach before God. And a nation that will support a sinner like that, they are an approach God. God is going to destroy us. We have to do something. And now it's like, well, we're not electing a pope, we're not electing a past.

27:40 It doesn't matter. Wait character, So now character doesn't matter. See, you know why, because people don't really care about holding any logical They just care about their political ideology. And if all you care about your political ideology, then you know what, just say that, you know what, I don't really care about the Bible, I don't really care about God. You know what, just hate liberals and I want a conservative. Well, then stop with your God Jesus, Bible talk and just admit that that's what you want. But it doesn't matter what information comes for, It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what Trump says. You can say outlandish, horrible lies, miss under just say the most Christians.

28:27 Will support it and will support it, and will support it. And will defend it and will excuse it. Then can we do this? Then? Can we just stop saying that you're voting for biblical morality, family values? I mean, give me a break. Can you just say you just name the conservative policies that you're and don't get them all, don't don't go. With morality moralities. Just stop it.

29:12 People say abortion, abortion, abortion. Look, I think I even have the article still here. I told everyone what was going to happen once Roe v. Wade was overturned. I said abortion rates would go up, which they have. They have gone up. So turn overturning Roe v Wade didn't do anything. Then it's been handed to the states. So if you really care about abortion, you would vote for state the state of governmental positions. That should be what you should be so concerned about. So well we've got to vote for Trump. Well, vote for Trump. He's already says he opposes a national ban on abortion. He opposes that. So what are you voting for? You well, for abortion, for abortion. Wait a minute, He's not going to put forth a national ban on abortion. So why are you voting for Trump?

29:57 You should be more worried about your each individual state, what state you live in. What are the state officials saying, what are. They going for? Are they going to have a state ban on abortion? What are they doing? And you can continue to fight the abortion issue politically. You can continue. That's if you want to try to act like that's the big biblical thing. I'm telling you. You keep fighting it politically, you just you just watch. Unless you can. Change the heart and minds of the. People within the United States of America, unless you can make Americans more pro life than pro choice. Unless you can do that, I don't know if it's I'm not I'm not gonna say it's going to be this year.

30:40 I'm not gonna say it's going to be two years from now. I'm not gonna say it's going to be four years from now. But you're gonna wake up and the people, the people and in this in the government or the people within the country are going to tell you, sorry, I don't care about your stinking morality. We want a pro choice situation, and then it will just everything will be overturned. You can win it politically by going around the will of the people, but if you allow the people to make the decision, a lot of the decisions you want are going to go against you because well, I don't know. We live in a country where it's supposed to be, you know, buy the people for the people. So the Christians should always be fighting the war by going to the individual with the message of the Gospel, with the Bible, and we teach, we baptize, and then we disciple. But see, we're like, nah, this, that's forget that, that's trash. We don't like that idea. Let's get laws passed so that we can tell the people what they can and cannot do.

31:39 We're going to impose it on the people. Well you can try to impose it, just do it sooner or later. If you don't change the minds of the people that will raise up. They will throw off all of your stuff and they're just going and they're going to hate you for your political position, not because of you presenting Christ crucified that's always the problem. Fighting it politically, and fight it politically, and well, how does the world see many Christians. They see Christians immediately as Trump supporters, which always drives me crazy. Are you a Christian? Yeah, oh, so you vote for Trump? No I don't, Okay, I don't, so don't put me in that camp. I want to be known for being a christ follower, not a supporter of any political party.

32:23 I am not supporting any political party. I don't know what's going to happen. I know what I would think is best for the church theologically, that's every Republican lose and there's not a Republican left on the face of planet Earth. Then the church will have nowhere to turn. You'll have no political eyellies, you'll have no political influence, you have nothing. I think that would be great for the church. Obviously, that's not going to happen. As an individual Christian, I can tell you what you can't do if you really care about Biblical morality is you'll stop with the lies and the misinformation and the disinformation, and you'll stop with the conspiratorial thinking.

33:23 We saw this after the last. General election and all Christian radio, Christian podcasts Christian websites, pastors so many lies about the election being stolen, and over and over again, no, not true, not true, not true, not true. And then when people were taking the court ensued, they produce all of the information to prove no, the election was stolen. What we were saying is true. No, they paid out millions upon millions of dollars or in some cases tearful apologies. I'm so sorry I got caught up in it. Yeah, because you're now losing your law license and you're in trouble, and now you're about beat to be sued now all of a sudd and you change your story now. Yet some of those brave you know, keyboard warriors are still on websites saying, oh it was stolen.

34:08 Yeah, talk a big game. Wait, come on. Accused specific people, and see what happens when you're getting sued all of a sudden, You'll be like. I didn't mean it. I was just I was just saying what other people said. I didn't really mean anything. I'm just a good Christian who just posts lies all over the internet. That's got it. I mean, that's just like every Christian should be able to agree with that. You know what, I'm not going to spread any false information. I'm going to be very honest and truthful and do due diligence. And due diligence isn't just listening to the I don't know the news station called Fox News that was sued for a billion dollars and paid what seven hundred and fifty seven, seven hundred and eighty seven million dollars to settle their lawsuit because of their election lies that they told many of those conservative news sites how to either issue retractions apologies, and some of them are still pending. Lawsuits are still coming on many of them. I think Fox News they had the dominion. I think they have the smartmatic. Lawsuits still coming. I just want it to be over.

35:26 But today on the sermons two point ozer app you can just see you can look at all the sermons. About voting, voting, voting, voting, voting, voting, voting, voting, voting. Now, I don't know how most of them handle it. I would hope they handle it in a very biblical way. But you can. Almost tell that the way it's going to go, whether they explicitly say it, it's going. To be clearly implied. And I've heard a lot of sermons do this like, well, we all know who we're supposed to vote for, right, And if one person raised their hand and said, no, I'm not voting like the rest of you, I think all of you are wrong. You're going to be like anathema. Kill the heathen, get rid of them. I stone them. You know, how dare you were a Trump supporting church, even if we don't say so, because it's just implied, that's the way you have to go. Now, you vote any way you want. I'm not here to even get into that because I hate the whole political system. I hate the whole thing. I wash my hands of all of it. I don't participate in your little reindeer games.

36:40 I know that whoever is put in charge is there because God put them there according to Scripture. If I believe anything about Scripture, if I believe anything, let every soul be subject under the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisted the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. God will put whoever he wants there. Our job is then to be submissive to whomever, whether we like it or not, other than in very extreme situations. And we got to even be very careful with that because sometimes the scripture we quote about resisting or not obeying governmental leaders is actually them in the Book of Acts, resisting not governmental leaders, but religious leaders.

37:39 Now, I don't know how you feel about the election comeing out. I don't know. I feel like I can't take any more of this nonsense, like I'm done with it. I wish I could offer some word of I know this, I know this. I don't know how many times I've heard that the future of America hinges on this election. This is gonna be the most you know, this is gonna be the most important election in the history of the country. The soul of America rest and the balance. If we don't vote this right, we're all going to be doomed. We're all gonna be destroyed. It's gonna be the end of Christianity. There's gonna be muscle, there's gonna be Islamic mosque everywhere. Christianity is gonna be banned. The're gonna take our Bibles, they're gonna take our guns. We're gonna be locked up in FEMA camps. This is the end, We're all going to die. I have heard that so many stinking times, and you know what, the election comes and four years late, four years later.

38:37 I haven't. But men, you know, haven't been made to be a Muslim. I haven't been put in a FEMA camp. I haven't been micro chipped. I haven't been given them mark of the Beast. I haven't been you know, killed. And nobody took my Bible. No one banned my Christianity, none of the things you ever want, Colt because you know what, you're manipulated by fear. They give you fear and tell you that they're the only ones who can help you. And we talked about that in my discussion about Frankenstein. I know this that it will not be what everyone makes it out to be. It will not be that I'm not seeing. Catastrophic things may happen, but catastrophic things may happen no matter who is elected, because that's the nature of the world in which we live. Catastrophe, tragedies, disasters happen because we live in a fallen world. That's been true for go back throughout Church history. Doesn't matter who's elected, there's always tragedies and horrible things that happen, war, disease, plague, famine. Now, as Christians, if we believe God is in charge, and if we believe God is sovereign, and if we believe God is the one who decrees what's going to happen, and well, then why do we get all worked up.

39:52 God's got it all into control right now. You can go vote. You can, you know, tell everyone on social media that you voted, and you can be all proud of it, and you can let the whole world know that you did your great civic duty and you've changed the course of it. You can go, you can take it and be all. Proud about it. That's fine, you go do whatever you want to do. But please, let's get this political corruption of Christianity. Let's remove this cancer. This infection. We need less politically hijacked Christianity. We need less Christian nationalism infected Christianity. We need to get back to the Bible if Christianity matters at all.

40:46 And to be honest, even if I decided tomorrow that I'm done with Christianity, if I was finished, I'm still not gonna go get invested in politics. I keep up with it. I pay attention, I read documents, listen to beaches. I do my best at least be informed. But I am informed not so that I can participate in the entire thing, because I think the entire thing is all broken, and it's all about putting other people in power for themselves.

41:27 And you can't put party and you can't put nation above scripture if if your Christianity is really what's important. And I've seen over and over that people put party and to put nationalism, to put the American flag, they put patriotism, They put America first before scripture, and far how scripture would even scripture would not know anything of that perspective about America first, country first. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. I know what I want to happen tomorrow. What I want to happen probably wouldn't be against what most of you want to happen tomorrow.

42:21 But we can have our disagreements on that. That's the great thing. I don't care, because what we're supposed to have in common is right here scripture. My fear is. Too much of our political desires Trump no pun intended, our theology, and our scripture and we simply go to scripture and we go to theology and grab only the part that we can utilize to justify our political allegiance. When it's never that simple, is it. I just know our country is so divided, and the rhetoric and the threats and the crazy things being said. They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets, I mean, insane things being said, lying to get people so worked up about an election being stolen. No, you lost, people storming the capitol.

43:34 I mean the insanity. And it's almost like we become numb to it, no matter how crazy the rhetoric is, no matter how big the lie is, no matter how insane, we're just like, ay, whatever, whatever, we. Become numb to it. And all of it is contrary to any remote biblical perspective. It's nothing close to it. If you want to you want the biblical answer to change the world, stop looking to the politicians. Pick up a Bible. And evangelize, Call people to faith in Christ, Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

44:22 Then teach them to obey all things that God has given, and then help them understand that even in our best efforts, we're going to fall short. And our only hope is in that imputed righteousness by which we were saved. And then we try to live our Christian life out. And if you have Christians trying to live out their Christian life, and if the Christians outnumber everyone else, then without anything being done legislatively, the world begins to change because people are trying to live to follow Christ and not engaging and certain behaviors and certain things. You don't even need anything against it to a certain level. Obviously, you still have to have laws and still have to punish for breaking that. I understand that.

45:13 It's the same thing I've talked about this in regards to in many cases Islam. Right, we can fight quote unquote a war on Islam, fight a war on Islamic extremists and try. You cannot destroy an ideology with bombs the ideology and typically the more you bombit, the stronger the ideology becomes. Doesn't mean there aren't a time for war because there is. That doesn't mean there isn't a time for law because there is. Don't misinterpret We ought to see the limits. So are you voting tomorrow? If you do well, congratulations. You get to exercise the right and a freedom you have as a citizen of the United States of America to vote in this election. I'm glad you're exercising that freedom and exercising that right.

46:24 Don't walk around. Thinking you're superior to those who don't, and don't think that you're somehow morally better off than everyone else because you voted for candidate A and they voted for candidate B. And don't think you're better because you voted and other people don't. I hope it works out for you, And whoever you voted for, I hope it works out for you. I may not agree with the you. Know who you voted for. I just feel I want to be hopeful. There's a part of it wants to be like maybe by ten o'clock, maybe by eleven o'clock it'll be over. I want the in some ways, I want the results to be so overwhelming that it's just done.

47:11 But I have a feeling that no matter how overwhelming, especially if Trump loses, it's not gonna matter. I mean, he's just. Going to declare himself the winner, and it's going to turn into just it's going to turn into anarchy. And chaos. If he wins overwhelmingly, then I'm assuming the other side, well, then I am hoping would just say acknowledge, defeat and be done and lose in a gious, gracious way and walk away and everything. Well, then whatever happens happens. I have a feeling if Trump loses, it's just going to be chaos and anarchy and insanity, and then it'll be Christians running around going it was stolen, it was stolen, because there's no way Trump could lose, no way. Well let me tell you there is a way he could lose because a lot of people you may think should vote for him aren't going to vote for him.

47:55 So it is possible. I know it's shocking to believe, but there's some of us who don't think that vote should go that way. But I'm hoping that both sides could just act like adults and say, Okay, we lost and acknowledge it and move on for the betterment. Hey, put the country before the person, put the country before your own political. Desires. And obviously, if there is some clear evidence that something improper occurred, then it should be investigated and then something should be done. No one is saying turn away from illegal activity, but yelling and screaming that things are happening that are proven to be absolutely fraudulent, and then proven to be fraudulent, and then the Christians who promoted the ideas won't come back and apologize and repent of spreading their lives.

48:51 That's the that's a church issue. That's not a political issue. That's a church issue. That's a Christian issue. American family radios read all kinds of lies about the last election. They never came back and apologized for anything, of course not. They did get rid of the one program that was doing a good portion of the promotion and deleted it so you couldn't even. Find the archives of it. That was convenient. We'll see, We'll see. I just want it to be over.

49:32 Don't you want it to be over? Can it be over? Can this nightmare come to an end? Can we get out of purgatory? Please? Can this be over? Don't you want it to be over? I wish we could get back to the days when Christians argued about I don't know, remember the worship wars and we're fighting over. What music to use in the church. Remember when we used to fight over seeker sensitive? You know versus purpose driven in all the different church models. Remember when we used to fight about that. Remember we used to fight about ooh, Calvinism versus non Calvinism. Remember when we used to fight over those kinds of philological issues. Man, along for the days.

50:14 Now. The issue is, you're. Not a Christian unless you basically could kneel and kiss the ring of Donald Trump because he's God's anointed. You must agree with his political agenda or your lost. What happened, I don't know something has happened, But you can go look upon the sermon's two point oh app Go to the discovery tabs, scroll down, look for trending, hit vote. You'll find I think there was over four hundred sermons the last I look four oh four I think was the number four oh four. Probably around five hundred. Now go find them and just start listening and just see, and you can hear other perspectives, right, other perspectives that will be wildly different than mine, And then you can decide if you're trying to figure out what to do, I'm not going to tell you what to do.

51:04 I'm definitely not telling you who to vote for. You can do whatever you want, man. Something's just wrong. Ladies and gentlemen. If you can't feel it, something is wrong. All of this being political is just leading to division and device is not making the country better. It's ripping it into shreds. It's tearing it apart. We're being played and we're not even realizing it. We got Christians have got to say time out. I'm stepping out of this. We're going to be the church. Hey, while y'all, when those cities are burning and you guys are at each other's throats and y'all just fight for your own political little mini kingdoms, how about you walk away from that, because there is a kingdom that's not in this world, and there's a truth that is above your political parties.

51:54 And how about come here while that all falls and implodes in and on itself. Thanks for listening, everyone, Have a good day. God bless