Posted on 01/21/2021 7:05:24 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The first time I heard the name, “Joe Biden,” I wanted to weep.
On December 18, 1972, struggling through Washington traffic to my office at the White House, my car radio reported the deaths of a newly elected senator’s young wife and baby daughter in Delaware in a horrific collision.
For a moment I forgot that Biden was a political opponent. Instead, as a husband and father myself, I thought of a terribly bereaved human being and choked back tears as I reflected on his grief.
Now, all these years later, the last time I heard the name, “Joe Biden,” I wanted to weep.
This time it was not merely the Senate to which he had ascended, but the White House. I wept not so much for Biden as for the babies who would die because of his expanded abortion policies, for the speed with which America’s long march to socialism would intensify, and for the men and women and children who would sometimes find their government as the major obstacle to building a traditional family.
But eventually — and above all — I must pull back and view Biden from my perspective as a conservative Christian.
Last year I wrote a book about the presidency titled, Two Men From Babylon (published by Thomas Nelson). I looked at parallels between Nebuchadnezzar, king of ancient Babylon in the age of Daniel the prophet, and Donald Trump, from the “Babylon” of New York.
Daniel’s clarity was brightening, while Nebuchadnezzar was sinking into insanity. Finally, the ruler abandons everything, and runs into the wilderness, where he lives for a long stretch like a wild animal.
But there, Nebuchadnezzar encounters the God of Daniel. “At the end of that period,” Nebuchadnezzar reported later, “I ... raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever...” (Daniel 3:34)
May Donald Trump “raise his eyes toward heaven” in his present wilderness, walking daily in the Lord’s peace and joy.
May Joe Biden see who he is, not just as a political leader, but as a man who has been entrusted with great authority for which he must give an account to the transcendent Giver of all authority at the end of his days. (Romans 13)
Daniel 2:21 reveals that it is the Lord “who changes the times and the epochs (seasons); He removes kings and establishes kings...” The intentional will of God is that which God mandates will happen. God’s permissive will He allows to happen (and makes possible our freedom). Was Trump president through God’s intentional or permissive will? And what about Biden? I do not know. I just know that God is in charge of history, and “removes kings and establishes kings” (and presidents).
As I wrote in Two Men From Babylon, the Bible shows that nations play a big role in God’s goal for history, which is the advance and global manifestation of His Kingdom of “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit “(Romans 14:17) in all the nations.
In line with that plan, God raises up through His permissive or intentional will the leadership of nations. Some of these leaders will be unlikely. We see this in Exodus 9:16, which is repeated in Romans 9:17, when the Apostle Paul reminds his readers of God’s word to Pharaoh through Moses: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”
So, did God elevate Donald Trump or Joe Biden to the presidency intentionally, or permissively? I cannot answer that. However, as a conservative Christian I must acknowledge that each is/was in the Oval Office by the will of God.
That doesn’t mean that to oppose them would be to go against the will of God. The Lord may use that opposition to bring them to His ways, and/or hold them on track. It also means that the people of God have authority to pray for them.
Amos was a mighty intercessor who also was unafraid to speak against King Jeroboam. Finally, Amaziah, the court priest, told Amos,
“Get out of here, you prophet! Go on back to the land of Judah, and earn your living by prophesying there! Don’t bother us with your prophecies here in Bethel. This is the king’s sanctuary and the national place of worship!” (Amos 7 NLT)
Amos refused to stop speaking truth in the King’s palace.
The awesomeness of the presidency and the mystique of the Oval Office cultivates sycophancy. So, I think of Richard Nixon, for whom I worked, and how he might have been saved from disaster had there been an Amos in his life. Donald Trump needed a sharp-tongued prophet, and so does Joe Biden now. But, like Amos, such individuals need to lift up these leaders to God through intercession.
A person who’s “got your back” in prayer has earned the right to also get in your face.
Therefore, as a conservative Christian my first duty toward Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is to pray for them daily. Second, as Daniel resisted Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, so I must oppose them in a godly, respectful way... third, I must stay in the flow of the big river of God’s will and see the larger perspective... fourth, I must be ready to minister to those who get wounded by a destructive socio-cultural environment, sometimes facilitated by those in leadership.
All this because, before I am an American, before I am a Republican, I am a Christian.
How can the author write such an article without quoting Daniel 4:17?
“In order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men.” Daniel 4:17
Yep. Been saying it for a while...I strongly suspect that the Lord is about to remind everyone who is really in charge around here.
What part of “It is Finished” do people not understand?
Daniel 2:20-21 (NASB)
20 Daniel said, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him.
21 “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding.
God lets humans do what they want. The permissive will idea is not valid theologically.
” . . .Therefore, as a conservative Christian my first duty toward Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is to pray for them daily. Second, as Daniel resisted Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, so I must oppose them in a godly, respectful way... third, I must stay in the flow of the big river of God’s will and see the larger perspective... fourth, I must be ready to minister to those who get wounded by a destructive socio-cultural environment, sometimes facilitated by those in leadership.
All this because, before I am an American, before I am a Republican, I am a Christian.”.
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Amen.
By what happens when people choose the dark side, yet call it light.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20-21)
Yet,
the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)
And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. (Ezekiel 9:4)
And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. (Ezekiel 9:4-6)
Which is applied spiritually in our dispensation./
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