FIRST THE GOSPEL, THEN POLITICS

By Robert & Annette Stagmer

This is the byline of our friend Dr. John Rankin of Theological Education Institute. We, as Christians, have to know what we stand for before entering the debate. I have made the point that God has made it very plain for us.

“Choose this day blessing or curse.” 

What causes curse to come on a land or a nation?

The land is defiled in four ways:

1.     Idolatry – Jer.3:6-10, Jer.16:18

2.       Immorality and Fornication  - Rom.1:24-25,  Lev.18:24-25, Ezk.16:26-27  

 3.  Broken Covenants- Deut.28,  Isa.24:5-6, Heb.10:28-29

 4.  Bloodshed –Deut. 21:1-9, Num.35:33-34,  Isa.59:2-3   

The election should not be about personalities, race or age. It should be about platforms –foundations: what do these parties stand for?  What issues on each platform involve blessing or curse?

Read DEUTERONOMY 27 and 28.

These are the blessings and curses that God had the people shout back and forth from Mt. Gerizim to Mt. Ebal.

What defiles the land?

Blessing or Curse

MARK 2:1-12 (New King James Version)

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralytic

 1 And again He entered after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. 2 Immediately^[a] many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. 3 Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. 4 And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, 11 “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

He preached the word!

What did he preach?

The Word- The Torah – the Teaching (not the Law) God’s explanation of how things in the universe work.

Scientific Law is man’s best explanation of how things work. Science changes; God’s word does not. God shows us rules that govern our lives. Like science if we attempt to violate the rules bad things happen.

Have you ever heard the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” or sometimes it is framed like this: “I can’t believe in a God who lets such disasters happen.”

DEUT 29:24 All the nations will ask: "Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?"  25 And the answer will be: "It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.

Well the God that loves us and wants a deep relationship with us made it very clear what our responsibilities are and what happens when we violate them. I have formed the axiom that “Rules without relationship will be broken and Relationship with out rules will not last.” Look at the scandal magazines. Many famous and successful people have a series of broken relationships because they violate all the rules. God gave us rules so that we could have a lasting relationship with him. We don’t obey the rule because of the consequences. If that is our only reason to obey the rules we never will be able to maintain it. Rather we obey the rule because we want a relationship with God.   He provides the path to that relationship. 

I have heard people question and even reject some passage of scripture saying, ”This doesn’t make sense, it can’t be true.”  To a degree they are right if they try to take that passage in isolation. But the scriptures are a continuous revelation. That is why Jesus preached the word before any thing else. He needed to place his ministry in context. Before he could say “Your sins are forgiven you.”

God called a people out of bondage and set before them the rules of relationship with him and each other. Then to make it clear he had the people call out the blessings he would bestow on them if they did what they should, and the curses they would take upon themselves if they did not.

DEUT 11:26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse- 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. 29 When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.

The good news is that if we don’t mess up there are some serious blessings in store. The problem is that we all mess up. So God made a way for our restoration. It’s called Salvation – SOZO in the Greek : Meaning full and complete restoration in Spirit, mind and body. This comes through Jesus Christ and Him only. That is why Jesus said. “Your sins are forgiven you.” The man’s relationship was restored and then Jesus could say to him, “Rise up and walk.”

But if you repeat the sins upon the land, it will be barren and spew you out.

The land is defiled in four ways:

1.     Idolatry – Jer.3:6-10, Jer.16:18

2.      Immorality and Fornication  - Rom.1:24-25,  Lev.18:24-25, Ezk.16:26-27  

 3.  Broken Covenants- Deut.28,  Isa.24:5-6, Heb.10:28-29

 4.  Bloodshed –Deut. 21:1-9, Num.35:33-34,  Isa.59:2-3   

This is important to know in the light of the coming elections. I don’t care what the media says… The election is not about personalities. It is not about qualifications. It is not even about integrity. It really is about what these candidates believe and what they stand for. The party platforms tell us what they believe and stand for. If you are a person who believes in the GOD of the Bible and what His word says then you cannot vote for a candidate with a platform that contains defilement of the land.

The murder of innocent babies in their mother’s wombs by the tens of thousands each year in our country is one of the above 4 major ways of defiling our land. Only one party has this in their platform.

Immorality and fornication is covered under changing our laws to agree with same sex marriage. God’s word will not be mocked. It stands.

LEVITICUS 18:25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomits out her inhabitants.

If we, as God’s people, turn from our wicked ways and repent, He says He will heal our land.  The Land of Israel vomited out God’s people because they would not repent of the defilement of their land. Do we think that He will not do the same to us if we do not turn to him and repent?

It is not enough to read the Bible. We must use it to conform our lives to His will and His way.  As disciples, His Word is the platform for our lives: not just at church but at the polls.