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Answers to a Critic Who Should Know Better
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Answers to a Critic Who Should Know Better
Copyright © April 10, 2021 Douglas W Jerving.
All Rights Reserved.
“The powers that exist are ordained by the Lord. He brings men and women to power and He
removes them. My trust is in God.”
A question from a critic who is very dear to my heart:
so,you think the Lord God appointed joe biden & ordained him,if so why do you say not my
president?? & say election was stolen?? Isn't that then going against the Most High,according
to you that He's ordained the powers at be??
My ppl are killed for lack of knowledge!! Who's the god of this world?? Trump's never going
to do anything for you!! Or me!! The powers in the government are selected by the god of this
world! Hence why the Bible says put yr trust in no man! I'm NOT saying the Most High isn't in
control, He allows things, but these politicians are puppets doing exactly what their god
orders!
Do we have about 40 years of time to analyze the theology? Those are all great questions. But I
don't give pat answers to anything that requires that kind of weight. I think you have enough
confidence in me to realize I do have good answers that suit me, and that I don’t make any
philosophical, theological or ethical decisions without deep consideration.
(The critic is someone I have known for more than 35 years. She is well aware that I began my
theological training at the age of 19; that I spent the next ten years of my life pursuing my
degrees in theology, history, ethics and Biblical languages including Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine Greek;
that I have spent much of my time over 35 years teaching and writing on Biblical theology and
history; and that I have a reference library in my own home that is the envy of many better
scholars.)
Both of those sentences were quoted from the Bible. (Referring to the first paragraph.)
With all love and respect for you, I do understand you may disagree with me. That is fine!
I am glad that you are thinking through all these things for yourself. Consider the possibility
that I, and a lot of others like me, have thought our way through this ourselves as well, and
may not have come to the same conclusions that you have. You are correct that this is simple for
those of us who have taken the time to apply Biblical principles. Unfortunately, we are living
in a post-Biblical and anti-Christian social-political society. In a very real sense, we are
now living in a social fabric that nearly equates to the pre-Christian Roman empire, wherein
Christianity has very little influence except in small pockets of the social realm as a whole.
The question about who rules this world, or who is the god of this world, and therefore, who
selects the rulers of this world, from a Biblical point of view, can only be answered by our
personal understanding of what the Bible says about those things. For the Christian, that must
be answered by what the Bible itself says.
In my first post I said, "The powers that exist are ordained by the Lord". I am quoting
Romans 13:1 which says "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power
but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." Clearly, the Apostle Paul teaches us that
God Himself is the source of all power and authority, and we see from that that even evil and
wicked rulers have the power to rule only because God Himself allows them. They have no power
that is not already allowed by God. They may be Satanic in their very nature, but Satan does not
have authority to give them that power unless God Himself allows it. The basic Christian
understanding is one that recognizes that God is sovereignly in control of all government, good or
evil, and that even the wicked rulers are allowed by Him in order to fulfill His eternal purposes.
There are way too many scriptures from the old or new testaments that confirm this than can be
discussed here. I recommend reading Arthur W Pink's The Sovereignty of God.
The second part of my post above said "He brings men and women to power and He removes them." This
is obviously a paraphrase on my part of Daniel 2:20,21: "Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the
name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the
seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge
to them that know understanding:" Whenever any ruler comes to a place of power, man or woman or
child for that matter, God Himself is the ultimate source of their coming to power. God is also
the One Who ultimately dethrones them and brings them to dust.
"Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from
the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and
setteth up another."Psalms 75:5-7. God Himself, not Satan, sets up and pulls down all the kings
and dictators of this earth.
"This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to
the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men." Daniel 4:17. Even the most
despotic and most horrible rulers only come to power because God allows them. They may be the
pawns of Satan, but they have no ability except that God allows it.
"I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and
by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me." Jeremiah 27:5.
Satan, the usurper god of this world, cannot give kingdoms to man unless God permits it. The
Kingdom does not belong to the so-called god of this world. It all belongs to, and is controlled
by the Creator God.
Based on the scriptures set forth above, I answer your question. Yes, I believe that God has
allowed Joe Biden to come to power even though he is one of the "basest of men". The fact that
he is a wicked man and his regime is wicked is not disputable. I acknowledge that God allowed him
to come to power. God has His reasons that I don't pretend to understand. However, that does not
imply that I have to accept his ungodly rule when his decrees contradict the law of God. "We must
obey God rather than man." In that case, we submit to God, resist evil, and suffer the consequences.
That is why I say my trust is in God.
I will say this! I resent that you assume I think Trump is my political savior. That is so far from
ridiculous that you should be ashamed for accusing your Mother or me for such a thing. Or your
sister R. Or your Aunt L. Or any others that you accuse, all whose hearts are just to serve God as
best we know. All any of us want is what we believe is better for our nation. We are not looking
for a political savior.
We are looking for leaders (plural) that will bring us back to a nation that fears and obeys God.
Why is that a bad thing? Why do we always get the feeling that you think we are antichrist? Have
you not read our many posts? All of us would gladly go to our deaths to serve our one and only true
king Jesus Christ, right there on the same pillory as you. It is the same death and the same life
for all of us. If we live, let us live together. If we die, we die together in the same fear and
love and grace of God.
I think Trump did some good things, but like you say, that is the past. It is time to move on.
The conservative movement in this country needs to learn from the recent past. I think too many
people were and still are looking for change to take place on a national level. That inevitably
leads to hero-worship, which was the problem of ancient Rome. The republic was easily lost to an
empire because they turned their attention to great leaders. So have we as a nation. We forget
that government is always at its best when it is local. Government starts in the human heart
first, then the family, the block, the community, the town, the city, county, state and very
last are the nation and the world. Any system of government that starts from the top down is
inherently an heretical and anti-christ system.
A biblical approach to government that is very reliable can be found in Gary Demar’s three
volume study God and Government. That is a lot of reading though. Read the book of Judges and
you see that ancient Israel had the same problems we have today. Like them, we are overly dependant
on great leaders to bring us victory rather than simply governing ourselves and our communities
according to the Law of God. Later, the prophet Samuel (in the first book) rebukes the Israelite
tribes for demanding a king. He basically says “Because you are hard-hearted, and will not obey,
God will give you a king. But you will regret it because he will steal you blind with taxes,
force wars on you, and take your children as his slaves.”
Sounds a lot like today!
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Doug Jerving is the publisher of the NewEdisonGazette.com. You may contact him at
dje@newedisongazette.com.
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