Christians are Helping Satan

TreasureChrist

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If I believe healthcare is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's zip code.

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When Fiorina appeared on the TV, Trump flirted, Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?

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Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she's a woman and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really folks, c'mon, are we serious?

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Prior to the 2020 presidential election, there was a raging debate in the evangelical world about who

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Christians should vote for. Democratic candidate Joe Biden, Republican candidate

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Donald Trump, or neither. In this video, we're going to focus on one question.

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Can faithful Christians vote for a Democratic candidate like Joe Biden? Before we do that, we'll just briefly say that we believe there are legitimate reasons for Christians to vote for a

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Republican candidate like Donald Trump, as well as not to vote for someone like Donald Trump.

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It's possible to vote for the policies Trump stood for, while recognizing his moral failures.

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And it's possible to believe Trump's moral failures are great enough to warrant not voting for him.

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We're not going to argue here for either of those positions. In his best -selling book,

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Fault Lines, Vodie Bauckham breaks down the debate concerning Christians voting for a

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Democratic candidate like Joe Biden. Bauckham begins by mentioning Pope Francis, who argued against single -issue voting, writing, "...fighting

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social injustice by caring for migrants and the poor is just as wholly a pursuit for Catholics as opposing abortion."

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But that's Pope Francis, whom nobody really respects, not even many Roman Catholics.

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Pope Francis was sold to us by the media as a reformer, you know, as a guy who would get in there and do things differently and clear the deck and all that stuff.

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And he is no such thing. What about evangelicals? In September of 2020, Tim Keller ignited a debate concerning single -issue voting when he tweeted along the same lines as Pope Francis.

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"...the Bible tells me that abortion is a sin and great evil. But it doesn't tell me the best way to decrease or end abortion in this country, nor which policies are most effective.

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The current political parties offer a potpourri of different positions on these and many, many other topics, most of which, as just noted, the

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Bible does not speak to directly. This means when it comes to taking political positions, voting, determining alliances and political involvement, the

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Christian has liberty of conscience. Christians cannot say to other Christians, no

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Christian can vote for...or every Christian must vote for...unless

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you can find a biblical command to that effect." In response to Keller's tweet,

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Bauckham first addresses Keller's challenge concerning finding a biblical command to that effect, writing, "...set

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aside for a moment the fact that thou shalt not kill is a pretty clear biblical command to that effect."

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Next, Bauckham addresses Keller's suggestion that "...the current political parties offer a potpourri of different positions," writing, "...first,

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let's look at the two political parties which, according to Keller, offer a potpourri of different positions on these issues.

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Remember, the primary issue Keller is addressing is abortion. Is it true that the

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Democrat and Republican platforms offer a potpourri of different positions on abortion?

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The answer is a resounding no. From the Democratic platform, Democrats believe every woman should be able to access high -quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion.

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We oppose and will fight to overturn federal and state laws that create barriers to women's reproductive health and rights, including by repealing the

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Hyde Amendment and protecting and codifying the right to reproductive freedom. From the

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Republican platform, we support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the 14th

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Amendment's protections apply to children before birth. We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion, or to fund organizations like Planned Parenthood, so long as they provide or refer for elective abortions or sell fetal body parts rather than provide health care.

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We urge all states and Congress to make it a crime to acquire, transfer, or sell fetal tissues from elective abortions for research, and we call on Congress to enact a ban of any sale of fetal body parts.

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In the meantime, we call on Congress to ban the practice of misleading women on so -called fetal harvesting consent forms, a fact revealed by a 2015 investigation.

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We will not fund or subsidize health care that includes abortion coverage. Far from being a potpourri of different positions, this is a clear -cut distinction between two competing worldviews.

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The two statements couldn't be more different. Hey, this is Michael. Yeah, the real

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Michael. If you like these videos, would you consider subscribing? It helps YouTube spread this message to more people. I'm giving away a beautiful handcrafted leather

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Bible every week, and I'm trying to pass Kenneth Copeland in subscribers to show that truth wins over false teaching.

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Bear! Roar! Thank you so much for your eyeballs and support.

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Next, Bockham examines what Pastor David Platt said in the book he released before the 2020 election titled,

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Before You Vote. Platt describes a conversation he had with a pastor who said,

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In my church, voting for a Democrat could be cause for removal from the church.

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How can a Christian vote for a candidate from a party that holds abortion as a key tenet of their platform?

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Platt responded, I considered the implications of the question. Yes, abortion is abhorrent.

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That's clear in the Bible. But is that the only issue at stake in an election?

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What about the scores of Christians, including overwhelming percentages of African -American

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Christians, who consistently vote for Democrats because of the party's record on other issues that they also deem biblically important?

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Bockham responds, Unfortunately, Platt does not enumerate these issues, but others have.

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Bockham then explains the position of pro -life evangelicals for Biden, which actually lists out some of the issues that Platt is likely referring to.

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According to pro -life evangelicals for Biden, Many things that good political decisions could change destroy persons created in the image of God and violate the sanctity of human life.

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Poverty kills millions every year. So does lack of health care and smoking.

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Racism kills. Unless we quickly make major changes. Devastating climate change will kill tens of millions.

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Poverty, lack of accessible health care services, smoking, racism, and climate change are all pro -life issues.

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Therefore, we oppose one -issue political thinking because it lacks biblical balance.

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In response, Bockham writes, The group goes on to add affordable child care and a minimum wage that lifts workers out of poverty, believing that these policies are more pro -life than, well, being pro -life, because the most common reason women give for abortion is the financial difficulty of another child.

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Next, Bockham mentions Mark Dever, founder of Nine Marks. Similar to Keller and Platt, Dever said this,

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In response to all this, Bockham writes, Note that both

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Dever and Platt ascribe altruistic motives to black Christians who vote pro -choice and a type of blindness to white

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Christians who vote single -issue. I would take issue with Dever's and Platt's characterization of African -American

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Christian voters. As noted earlier, there has been a massive shift in the black community away from the pro -life position.

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Personally, I find that I rarely encounter black Christians who are staunchly pro -life.

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The idea that most black Christians are voting Democrat in spite of their pro -life convictions is, at best, an overstatement.

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Next, Bockham discusses the objection to single -issue voting raised by the leaders we just mentioned.

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He writes, My big problem with this entire line of argumentation is that single -issue voting is a straw man.

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I am not, nor have I ever met, a single -issue voter. Issues like same -sex marriage, school choice, and religious freedom, to name a few, are all very serious issues to Christian voters, and these voters are more than narrow -minded fundamentalists being led around by the nose for the sake of a single issue.

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Moreover, this line of argumentation makes light of the vast chasm between the platforms of the two parties on major moral issues while extolling the virtues of sophisticated black voters who carefully weigh important, yet unnamed, issues that white voters apparently do not comprehend.

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I also agree that single -issue voting is irresponsible, but we all know that nobody does that.

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At the same time, Bockham points out how foundational an issue abortion is when it comes to elections, writing,

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However, even if abortion were an example of single -issue voting, I reject the idea that murdering the unborn can be subjugated in favor of social issues that are being promoted through the lens of critical social justice.

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In other words, if I were going to be a single -issue voter, that single issue would be the murder of the unborn.

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In response to the charge that being pro -life means more than just standing above abortion,

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Bockham writes, So, what's the conclusion concerning whether Christians can vote

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Democrat? At the very least, it's an enormous red flag for a Christian to vote for a candidate who supports an issue like abortion.

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At worst, it demonstrates a fundamental unfaithfulness to the teachings of Scripture.