Perspectives on the 2016 Presidential Elections
For many months, I have been internally wrestling with whether or not to speak out and address the numerous issues (including false prophecies) related to the current presidential elections in America. My reluctance in responding until now has nothing to do with fear of being unpopular or controversial, or even the backlash of criticism and ridicule. There have been many times when I felt the stir of righteous indignation or the compelling desire to respond to what was clearly error, but time and again I was restrained by the Holy Spirit with three very simple words: watch and wait!
UNBIBLICAL MINDSETS & WORLD VIEWS
Before we attempt to examine some of the key issues relative to the current presidential elections and the future of America, we need to identify and repent of at least three prevailing (popular) religious worldviews and/or unbiblical mindsets that are barriers or blind-spots to an accurate Kingdom perspective.
- The Republican political party is God’s party of choice. One of the most inaccurate and prevailing mindsets among religious Evangelicals and Christian conservatives in America today is that the Republican party represents God’s choice for government and is more Christian than the Democratic party. I have said it before and I will say it again: God is neither Republican nor Democrat (as one author recently pointed out, He is not even American), and any attempt to spiritualize or legitimize one above the other as a preference of heaven is carnally erroneous at best. I am tired of receiving emails from sincere—i.e. sincerely wrong—believers requesting prayer for or against their brothers or sisters in Christ who are leaning Democratic in their political choice for president. They are no more deceived or demonized than their Republican-committed brothers and sisters in Christ. The fact that one political party champions or seeks to defend the values that you believe are most important (e.g. traditional marriage, family, pro-life, Israel, etc.) does not automatically make them better than the other whose values may be no less important (e.g. the poor, widow, children, orphans, stranger [aliens/immigrants], etc.). Bottom line: As long as you continue to think and believe that God prefers one political party over another, you will always have a political bias and never an accurate Kingdom or prophetic perspective regarding America.
- Democracy is God’s system of government. In our western world, with our inherited western mindsets and world-views, it is very easy to fall into the trap of believing that democracy was created by God or is God’s preferred system of government. However, the fact is that democracy is a Greek invention that was conceived through Greek philosophy, not God’s. That doesn’t mean that democracy doesn’t have its strengths or that it is completely void of any biblical basis in principle; nevertheless, it does have its glaring weaknesses, one of which is the ungodly belief or concept it promotes that “the voice of the people (i.e. the majority) is the voice of God (Vox Populi).” The fact of the matter is that the majority can be wrong. As a matter of fact, the majority rarely ever speaks for or accurately represents the heart and mind of God. Yet, because God is sovereign, He is still able to fulfill His divine will and purpose in the earth despite the wrong choices man makes. Furthermore, God will often appoint or ordain leaders (Rom. 13:1) or governments in a nation based on the hearts of the people and the type of leader they deserve or desire—whether for good or for evil. Thus, we have examples of Saul being chosen as king based on what the people desired (1 Sam. 8) and evil foreign kings being appointed by God for Israel’s destruction (1 Kings 19:15, 17; 2 Kings 8:12). Bottom line: Our democratic system is flawed and is not representative of the Kingdom of heaven; however, God is still sovereign despite the outcome and His choice is often determined by what the people deserve or desire.
- God created government to fix our problems and correct our issues. This is perhaps the major and most destructive ungodly belief of the three. Many Christian leaders, believers and Evangelicals today make their choice of candidate based on who they believe is most willing or qualified to tackle the prevailing social issues of today. Issues like traditional marriage and abortion are at the forefront of the Evangelical agenda, and I agree that these are very important issues. However, where I strongly disagree is in our approach towards addressing and correcting these issues. Contrary to popular belief, the government never created these issues and no president or Supreme Court justice nominee is going to be able to fix them. According to the apostle Peter, the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). This means that the buck starts and stops with us. We are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the strongholds we have allowed to be established in our nation. We are hypocrites to ask God to judge a corrupt system that we ourselves have helped to perpetuate? How? I’m glad you asked. Let’s take abortion as an example. The issue with abortion is not a matter of choice; it is a matter of sin. If we had chosen to humble ourselves and confront the sin within our own hearts and communities (churches) first, we would recognize that abortion is not the real issue but simply one of the negative results or symptoms of the issue. Last I checked, more than 80% of abortions were as a result of fornication or sex outside of the legitimate boundaries of the marriage covenant. In other words, remove fornication from the equation and abortion becomes a non-issue (if you don’t have illegitimate sex, you can’t conceive an unwanted child). Yet, most Evangelicals and Christians today know that we can’t confront or speak out against this issue of sexual immorality because this same immorality exists within the church and its leadership. We not only practice the same sins, but we unashamedly endorse political candidates who do. So in our self-righteous hypocrisy, we have chosen to ignore the root cause of abortions and instead target our criticism on the one thing many of us know we will never do or ever be confronted with (as males), the issue of abortion. The same applies to traditional marriage. We quickly judge same-sex marriage as a distortion of the marriage covenant, yet blindly ignore or side-step the fact that divorce and remarriage is also a distortion of the sacred marriage covenant. As a matter of fact, God even goes so far as to label it an “abomination” (Deut. 24:1-4). Are you tracking? We are guilty of the same sins we claim to hate and we have been actively involved in erecting these strongholds. Bottom line: No government, candidate, political party or Supreme Court justice system will ever be able to correct our prevailing social issues because they are spiritual issues that are rooted in sins that we ourselves practice and perpetuate
KEY ISSUES TO CONSIDER
Now that we have identified the key unbiblical mindsets and prevailing world views that have kept us from an accurate Kingdom perspective, let us now turn our attention to some key issues relative to the American presidential elections that is currently underway.
The Issue of Candidacy: If God’s choice of candidate was determined by the general Christian/Evangelical consensus or the mainstream prophetic movement, Donald Trump would clearly be God’s man. The only problem here is that neither of these religious groups necessarily know, understand, or represent the heart and mind of God in this matter. Prophecies have been made that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. He has been likened to the ancient Persian king, Cyrus, from Scripture. And according to one very notable and recognized prophet in America, God said to “play the Trump card.” This means that if Donald Trump does not win, these prophecies and religious sentiments must be judged as false. And it will not be because Christians didn’t pray hard enough or didn’t turn out to vote; it will be because they were clearly wrong. This will not only expose the blindness and internal corruption of a prophetic movement that has clearly lost its way, but it will bring to the forefront a new divergence within the current prophetic order. Even if Donald Trump was to win, it still would not validate their incorrect position. History would prove that Donald Trump is no Cyrus and the expectations of him correcting our issues (social, economic and otherwise) toward making America great again would soon be swallowed up by reality and disappointment.
Does this mean that Hillary Clinton is God’s choice? Not necessarily. Hillary has a key role to play in the unfolding events of America, and she will be a key catalyst in a renewed women’s movement, but the fact of the matter is that neither of these candidates can fix the problems of America. No leader can, but we will get to that in a minute. The current candidates are a reflection of America. The fact that these are the two candidates chosen by America through the two leading parties should not only cause us concern, but should drive us to weep between the porch and altar in true repentance (Joel 2:12-17). They represent the best that America has to offer to the world. What does that say about us as a nation?
The best analogy I can find to describe what these two candidates represent can be found in 1 Chron. 21 when David was moved by satan to number Israel. God allowed David to choose between three areas of judgment—famine, military defeat, or plague. Similarly, God has allowed America to choose between two unfit leaders as proof and confirmation that America’s demise is imminent and cannot be undone.
The Issue of America’s Future: The rallying cry of one political candidate is “Make America great again!” It is a noble sentiment and something that every American should want, but does God desire to make America great again? If you’re blinded by a nationalistic mentality that distorts your sight of God and view of God’s prophetic timetable in the earth, you will quickly answer yes. But the truth is, America’s decline is inevitable and cannot be reversed by any leader, government or political party. This may be a very hard pill to swallow, but it is better to walk in the harsh reality of truth than live in the comfortable delusion of a lie. No amount of prayer, fasting or false repentance is going to change this. America’s destiny is set and anyone who proclaims otherwise is in error. The time is upon us when there will be no longer any doubt as to who has the true word of the Lord. Like Micah of old, it doesn’t necessarily mean the true prophetic word will be accepted, but there will be no doubt that those who speak it, speak the word of the Lord.
The Issue of Honor: Regardless of who is elected and eventually occupies the presidential seat of power, we have a biblical responsibility to honor and support that leader in everything that does not directly violate the commandment of God. The current and soon-to-be previous administration was never able to accomplish much in the White House due a partisan Republican mentality of opposing anything and everything the President sought to accomplish. This type of mentality is evil and corrupt. If it continues, it will hasten America’s demise.
One final note: I recently read a vicious and hateful rant from a Christian leader on a social networking website accusing the president (Barak Obama) and his administration of every evil imaginable in America. We would never tolerate such an outburst against a Christian leader, yet we think it is right to hurl accusations and insults against a secular leader. What would have happened if Joseph had taken such a posture in Egypt? What about if Daniel and the other three Hebrew boys being held captive had taken that posture against Nebuchadnezzar? Let us honor and support our leaders whether we voted for them or not. We may not be able to make America great again, but we can work towards making America better. And this can only happen if we all work together.
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