Biased Men of God

By Pastor Joe Biased Men of God First, let me clearly state the title does not discriminate against the opposite sex because many women hold influential positions within the kingdom of God. In the last 2 to 3 weeks I have read several articles and opinions from very godly individuals on why or why not they are going to vote for one of the major political candidates for President. Throughout the Word of God, we see various times prophets would come and speak words of judgment, good or bad, over the nation of Israel and over what we would call today non-believers. Some of you will come across articles from individuals that you have enjoyed their perspective on other biblical issues, even finding help from their preaching and/or teaching, but you might find yourself disagreeing with them regarding the election. As I mentioned last week John piper is a perfect example of someone I admire yet I wholeheartedly disagree with his current position on voting for one of the major party presidential candidates. Repeating many of my observations would not be helpful in light of the direction of this week's article. I want to help people from Hawthorne Assembly, and anyone else who reads this article, to understand that it’s OK to vote the way you feel led to vote even though godly men and women disagree with you. Case in point, most of us are one-issue voters, with the sanctity of human life being so clearly defined in the Word of God, it weighs heavy upon our hearts as we enter the voting booth. It should be one of the major issues that shapes the way you vote because God‘s greatest gift to us is the ability to experience life. Please don’t confuse that statement what Jesus did for us on the cross, which is so critical for our eternal condition. Of course we need salvation but we need life first! Within the protestant interpretation of the Word of God is a concept called “first mentioned principle“. In layman‘s terms, it means whatever is mentioned first by God has great significance and should be weighted with the greatest level of importance. As we look back at the foundation of why God created man we see in some of the very first sentences of Genesis His thinking. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28 NASB1995

We can clearly see that some of the first principles are for man, who was created by Almighty God, to have dominion over everything else that was created. In the very next statement, God blessed man and He said: "be fruitful and multiply." The clear command and blessing here is for Adam and Eve to have children and for their children to have children and for this to continue, and for them to subdue the earth in a way that sustains life and more productivity. Bringing this back to our issue of voting on November 3rd, God has never set a limit on the number of inhabitants upon this planet. The 65+ million aborted babies, since 1973, have lost the opportunity to be a blessing and fulfill what God said in Genesis 1. Imagine if even half of these babies were still alive today. I was born in 1961 which means the overwhelming majority of these precious souls would be alive currently! Just ponder for a moment if they had the opportunity to vote; there would be a landslide victory for one candidate for sure. Some of you may be thinking Pastor you’re putting all your eggs in one basket. Well, the fact is, at least there are eggs in a basket since Eagle eggs are more protected than the baby in the womb. My point is since we are “biased” men and women of God, let us at least "Amen" what the Bible says about the sanctity of human life? Some level of agreement should be attainable. Our common denominator should be talking about this issue and many more, ultimately wanting to help provide Biblical values so clearly expressed in the Word. We do our duty, and then we trust in the Holy Spirit's leading to help people decide what to do in the voting booth.