Brian says that if Christians didn't do what's right in voting, then the world would go to hell overnight. No, it wouldn't. God has already ordained the timeline of this world before creation. Everything will go according to His plan. To say that if a handful of people didn't vote for the right person, therefore, the country would collapse, would be the same as to say that God doesn't help people who don't help themselves. I understand that God blesses those who do the work, and I teach that, but at the same time, God comes to us in our helpless state, and He also makes the rain to fall on the just and unjust:
And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
-Acts 24:15
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
-Mat 5:45
God's blessings go out to even those who mock Him, and so to assume that if Christians don't vote for the right person, therefore, God will turn the world into hell; that's absurd, and not Scripturally sound.
Brian then goes on to say that no candidate will be perfect. I'm not saying that he's arguing against what I taught, but I've never taught that. What I taught was a list of Biblical criteria for determining if someone is sound to back with a vote. It's interesting that I don't think Brian is quite understanding the matter because even for the position of an elder in the church, which is typically considered to be a less prestigious or important position in our society, there are many qualities he must have:
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
-Titus 1:6-9
I would guarantee that most Americans, and probably Brian himself, doesn't investigate who he votes for to that degree, and that's just for an elder, let alone the "Commander and Chief of the United States Military." I'm not saying that we'll get Christians in candidacy for office, but I listed out three criteria by which leaders among God's people were chosen by Moses's command (which was given to him by God), and those three things are:
1. He/She fears God
2. He/She loves truth
3. He/She is not covetous
That's it. Outside of Chuck Baldwin and Ron Paul, both of which got dumped on and ignored by the media, there hasn't been a Presidential candidate in my lifetime that met those requirements. (Yes, that includes Donald Trump, because the man is covetous, and he doesn't fear God, because he falsely calls himself a Christian [i.e. he lies] to the public while denying his own sin--if he just didn't call himself a Christian, I would respect him more.)
For some reason, Brian is arguing against someone who would teach that a government has to be a Bible-based government. I'm not sure where he's getting that from. For instance, I've specifically pointed out that governments are a terror unto evil works, which is what Romans 13 teaches us, and if they are not a terror unto evil works, they are operating outside of the authority of God. So, for example, if they police came to an area in which you had a public right to preach the Word of God, and they bound and gagged you, and took you into prison, did you do wrong by God? Not at all. In fact, if you disobeyed that order to stop preaching the Word of God, it would be good because the government, in that instance, is being a terror unto good works instead of evil, and that is the basis on which we can refuse a government command. If someone who resisted government authority on a matter is resisting God, as it states in Romans 13, then Daniel rebelled against God, and King David rebelled against God, and Moses rebelled against God; the list goes on.
Brian does argue directly against this, claiming that when men like myself make this argument, that we are somehow claiming that a government must be Bible-based and perfect, which is not the case. Frankly, I'm losing interest in his teaching, and I'm only about halfway through; I'm not sure I'm going to finish it because there are too many Biblical fallacies going on here.
Yeah, I'm going to stop at about 23 minutes; I've had enough. Brian needs to stop doing that. He's basically saying that if you don't vote, then you're not speaking the truth. That's absurd. It is possible to vote and say nothing, and it's possible to not vote and speak out. There's a number of things he implied, and definitions that he didn't make clear, and I'm not interested in continuing it; I just wondered what some of you thought of his doctrine.
