You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra--which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. - 2Timothy 3:10-17 (ESV)
We are less than a month away from the presidential election and the NAR continues to step up their efforts to co-opt churchgoers into voting the way they and their masters demand. Some of these efforts are geared directly at those in the pews and others directly towards those in the pulpit. It would be far easier for the political powers that be to convince pastors who in turn can convince their sheep. While the majority of churches in America have already been corrupted by NAR dominionism, many pastors still shy away from demanding their sheep vote one way or the other. Some fear reproach either from the government or the sheep themselves. Others though realize that it is poor evangelism that starts by alienating half the congregation and if they read the bible correctly they know it is unbiblical to support the NAR in any fashion, let alone carnal politics. The link above is to a recent two-part article (this is part one) from Wayne Grudem trying to convince pastors to not stay silent on politics. Grudem is a purely carnal political operative, cut from the same cloth as James Dobson and Franklin Graham. These are wolves beloved who spend their lives fighting for the things of this world. Let us not be deceived and once more reason together.
"If you're a pastor during this election season, the easy path is to say nothing about politics.
You won't step on anybody's toes. Nobody will walk out in the middle of your sermon. You won't lose disgruntled members (and donors!). A few people might ask you to say more about politics, and they will grumble, but they won't leave the church. You're safe. But does God want you to stay silent at this time? I can't answer that for you. It's between you and God whether you preach about any political issues at all, and, if you do, which issues you decide to preach about. But I can make some observations that I think will give you a sense of permission (not from me, but from the Bible) to preach about at least some key political issues. Whether you are a Trump supporter or a Biden supporter or somewhere in between, I intend my first seven points to apply to you, because I believe a democracy is healthy when differing views are expressed thoughtfully and carefully. My last three points will be based on my own preferences in this election." - Wayne Grudem
Easy is not wrong by definition. God does not make things excessively difficult or nebulous. The bible spells out pretty clearly the roles and responsibilities of a pastor and nowhere does it say he is to adjudicate politics from the holy desk. It is interesting that Grudem admits that preaching politics in God's church will be divisive, leading to people walking out. He states this as if people walking out of the church because you tried to tell them who to vote for is a good thing. It is most certainly not. As a pastor your responsibility is for those sheep, not the carnality of this world. The rest of this opening is Wayne Grudem's attempt to sound reasonable at the start to lure people in. It is almost comical that he claims that if you preach politics it is between you and God and then spends the rest of the article trying to convince you to do so anyway. That sure doesn't sound like it is between you and God. At least he is honest in his motive. He will soft-sell you for seven points on why you should preach politics and then lay the hammer down for who you should be siding with. Wayne Grudem may claim to believe differing views make for a good democracy but he does not want a democracy. He wants a theocratic government. Remember the goal of the NAR is to conquer the mountain of government, not play nice with the heathens.
"1. Your listeners need to see that the Bible speaks to all of life, including politics. "Whether you eat or drink," says Paul, "or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31, ESV). But can we do politics to the glory of God? Of course, because politics must be included in the phrase "whatever you do." Paul also says that "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for ... training in righteousness," so that we may be "complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Surely voting in an election is part of "every good work" that God wants us to do, and that gives a reason why we should expect Scripture to be "profitable for ... training" in what kinds of candidates and policies we should support. But if a pastor goes through an entire election season and gives no teaching about the Bible's application to political questions, he will be acting as if the Bible is irrelevant to political questions. Then how will his listeners ever think that the Bible is relevant for all of life? In addition, many modern political issues were moral issues that the Bible talked about long before they became political issues in modern society--such as freedom of religion, abortion, sexuality, care for the poor and racial discrimination. Should pastors not preach about such moral issues when they have implications for politics?" - Wayne Grudem
Sigh. First of all, the world decides how politics is currently done and it is certainly not done to the glory of God. Anyone who watched the sandbox fight from the first debate this year can attest to that. Grudem's flawed assumption is that the Christian must play by the rules the world has set up. The world says there are two sides and we must pick one and demonize the other. When Jesus walked the earth there were two different sides. The oppressor known as the Roman Empire and the oppressed, His people. Did Jesus even once try to get involved in those politics? Absolutely not. His message was one of deliverance from this world, not to get overly involved and infatuated with it. Grudem's misapplication of 2Timothy 3 however needs further exploring; so I made it the key verse today and provided the needed context. After speaking about godlessness in the last days, Paul starts this section by giving the contrast - Timothy. He has followed Paul's teaching, conduct, aim in life, faith, patience, love, and steadfastness, including many persecutions. Remember these are Pastoral Epistles. Timothy will soon be pastor at Ephesus and Paul is training him. So he teaches Timothy that persecutions will come to all who follow Christ and that when it comes to those who teach falsely some are intentional deceivers while others are themselves deceived. Paul teaches Timothy to pay these things no mind! To continue in what he has learned and how from his very childhood he has studied scripture. Why? Why is Paul giving scripture as the answer to everything from faith to love and steadfastness to persecution? Why is Paul providing the answer of scripture for all evil men and imposters whether they be deceivers or deceived? Because all scripture is breathed out by God. As such it always returns a profit for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness. It is through this word that young Timothy and ourselves centuries later, can be equipped for every good work. To Wayne Grudem those good works include deciding between two evil men who best to run pagan nations and I say nonsense. That is clearly not what God is saying here. These works are ministry works. They are works for the kingdom of God. They are not for carnal candidates and policies. The bible's relevancy is to the individual believer and how they are to navigate in a world they no longer belong to.
