The Strand Study Bible
PROVERBS
992
PROVERBS
* sorcery (Exo 22:18, Lev 19:26,31 & 20:6,27 and Deut 18:10-14) God never intended man to fellowship with fallen angels (evil spirits) (I Sam 28:7-10). God is greatly insulted whenever a man chooses the creation over the Creator. * willful disobedience towards God’s Laws (Num 15:30-31) * lewd behavior (Lev 18:9 & 20:17 and Deut 27:22) * promotion of unisex (Deut 22:5) * unlawful marriages (Deut 7:3-4 & 24:4) * misuse of God’s land (Exo 23:10-11 and Lev 25:1-7 & 26:2-35) * selling God’s Land to other nations (Lev 25:23) * misuse of the tithe (not taking care of the men of God monetarily who take care of you spiritually – Exo 22:29-30, Lev 27:30-33, Num 18:20-32 and Deut 12:19 & 14:22-29 & 18:1-8 & 25:4 & 26:1-14) NOTE – Justifying one’s support of a “political action” that is contrary to the Moral Laws of God just because that action happens to benefit you for the moment sets a president for selling the next generation down the tubes. Matt Friedeman in an internet article called Can you be a Christian and Democrat ? notes a conversation he had with a caller: “You’ve got to help me with a question,” said the caller. “Tell me now, can you in any way be a Christian and vote Democrat?” I have been doing talk radio for 15 years or so, smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt. Believe me when I say that, through the years, my listening audience has considered the social agenda of the Democrats and voiced the same question on the air at least a couple of hundred times. • Abortion on demand • The homosexual agenda • Slow dismantling of the Judeo-Christian tradition, not the least from left-wing judicial nominees • Public monopoly of education and a secular humanistic curricular emphasis • Welfare dependency (government is your “daddy”) This is not the stuff of Jesus, I dare say. So, can you be a Christian and vote Democrat? My question for the caller. “Hey, man, what does it mean to be a Christian – to be saved?” There was momentary silence on his end so I just continued. “We are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Period. The Republican Party cannot save, although that is news to some. The Democratic Party can’t save, and that is obvious to most. But politics or political positions cannot and will not save us. For we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus .” This columnist started paying attention to politics sometime during the Nixon years. Last time I checked, there was still a sign in the basement of our old house in Kansas that declared, “Nixon’s the One!” But it would take some pretty rose-colored glasses not to see that the GOP and its players have transgressed legally and in the realm of common sense just as much as their counterpart Dems. For those of us who thought that Republicans and Christian faith rode tandem, we of the faith have been riding on the same bike as welfare-promoting, law-breaking, greedy, pork-barrel enthusiasts who have about as many sex and financial scandals as those with polar opposite political proclivities. “The Kingdom of God doesn’t fly into our country on Air Force One!” someone once said. That is a timely reminder in an election cycle. Nor does that Kingdom fly into our states on the gubernatorial Lear jet. Or ride into our state houses in a Mercedes Benz. Political power and ideological platforms cannot save. And the Kingdom of God is bigger than our corridors of power and our political solutions. Even so, my faith, grounded hopefully in Holy Writ and an intimate relationship with God, leads me to be pro-life and to hold a strong view of heterosexual marriage and a conviction that the Judeo-Christian worldview belongs in our nation’s schools. I believe that disciplined liberty, not license, is the path to a healthy society with a hopeful future and that a dependency mentality virtually enslaves the poor and impedes them from knowing that hope. 11 1 “Quotations by Author - Edmund Burke.” Quoteland.com . (2001). 14 Jan 2008
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