Joe Biden a Christian?

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The Show Introduction and the Question of Joe Biden’s Christianity

Could Joe Biden be a Christian? 1, 2, 3!

Welcome to The Wrap Report with your host, Andrew Rapoport, where we provide biblical interpretation and application. This is a ministry of Striving for Eternity and the Christian Podcast Community. For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

All right, well, welcome. By the way, if you hear some music in the background, that is provided by my co-host here, Bud. He wanted to have some marching music for us while we talk about these issues today.

We'll see how long we keep that running. It's not quite marching to Zion, but still.

Yes, well, folks, we have a interesting show for you today, because basically what we're going to have is today we want to talk about an article that was put out in the Christian Post. Now, this is where we're going to start.

What we plan to do today is talk about Joe Biden and some of his Christian comments. Yes, that's right. We're going to talk about some people who are supporting him in this endeavor for election this week.

And then we're going to look and evaluate what they're saying and, well, compare it to Scripture. And then we'll wrap up with a view that has been put out, a radical view of how to deal with those people.

Those people have the nerve to support Trump. How to deal with them. That's right. The left is providing for us an understanding of how they plan to deal with us when Biden wins. That is coming to you right now on The Rap Report.

So I'm your host, Andrew Rapaport. Joined with me is my good friend Bud Alheim, who is struggling in the very cold, cold weather of sunny Florida.

Yes, it was like 77 when I got home from work yesterday. So I sat out in the back, I did a little Scripture reading, talk with my bride and it just bristled at the chill.

Yeah, well, I had that bristle this morning when I went out, you know, just to stand outside for a little bit and, you know, get to breathe in that cool air. You don't get that. But I am glad to see that for those who who listen to the previous episode on masks, those who are Patreons can watch and see that Bud's microphone is still masked up.

It has its mask on it saying to repent. So I'm glad that it's still wearing its mask. And we will we will be recording a another episode on masks. That was that one we did with Dr. Sevestro got a lot of feedback, a lot of both good and bad people who have strong views on masks.

We've learned that and we will be doing an episode that will probably drop next week. I'll tell you that up front with Pastor Andrew Smith dealing with the masks issue from a biblical perspective. So, you know, if if Biden wins, that's going to be a very necessary discussion because, you know, he's claiming that we're going to be wearing masks, you know, even if we're driving alone in our car.

But we'll get to that. All right. Let's get to this article. I was I was very surprised to see an article from, you know, by Joe Biden in the Christian Post. So this is a magazine geared toward Christians.

This is something that I want us to go through and examine what exactly is whoever really wrote this, because I think we both can understand that Joe Biden didn't write it. He had someone write it. He probably maybe reviewed it.

Maybe he didn't even review it. I mean, we don't he doesn't even know what state he's in.

I was going to say there are a lot of words in this and they're they're actually pretty coherent. So I think he had some help, probably.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, he doesn't know what state he's in. And I don't mean Michigan or, you know, Wyoming. I mean, he doesn't know what state he's in, like state of mind. State of mind. Yes. I mean, he doesn't know if he's running against Donald Trump or George Bush because he actually said that, you know, in one one thing.

But he doesn't know that he isn't running for reelection. He doesn't even know because I don't know if you heard this one this week, but he actually called himself the running mate of Harris. So he doesn't even know he's running for president.

He thinks he's the running mate. I mean, he's he doesn't know what state of mind he's in.

That's going to feed a whole lot of conspiracy. That comment. Well, I'm sure it will.

But I don't think it's conspiracy. I think it's maybe true. Yeah. Yeah. I think everybody knows that if Joe Biden wins, it's a Harris presidency because, you know, he look. First off, before we get this article, what does it tell you that the that the the guy's best chance of winning is hiding in his basement?

I mean, that right there should tell you something. I had a friend that sent me the the rallies for Biden. It had like 30, 36 circles with a chair in the middle and a big stage. And for him to be up there to, you know, and six of those chairs were empty, you know.

So that's not good. You know, 20 percent empty. And then you have the Trump rallies. They're packed. I mean, it was interesting. I fear which city was in where the governor limited it to 250 people. And they had like tens of thousands of people that were around where the rally was that because they weren't allowed into the rally that was outside.

And so, you know, Trump actually came out to them to greet them. That's kind of interesting. So so let's deal with this article. I want to deal with this kind of piece by piece. But overall, and I will put the links in the show notes so you can read the article.

But this is from The Christian Post, an article from Joe Biden that's titled The Greatest Commandment Has Guided My Politics. And I really want to question whether that's true. There are two underlying issues with this article.

Two things biblically we have to address. One, that human beings are made in the image of God. The motto gay motto day. Sorry. The other is that we're all children of God. So I want to address this because this is something that I think we we are going to see.

He doesn't quite know his scripture or whoever wrote the article there. They're using scripture. OK, and this is something I want us to recognize that they're using scripture to undermine Christianity.

And I think this is what bothers me so much with what I'm seeing here. This and this is what the overarching theme of today's show is going to end up being. This is unbelievers who hate Christianity using God and his word to undermine God.

If I get spun up here today, if I get emotional, this is going to be the reason why. Because this is such a. I don't even can't even put the right words to it, but it's such a disrespect to the God that I love to be taking his word and his character and taking that and twisting it to try to promote the exact opposite of what his word says.

So let me start with God's word on this. Who are the children of God? He's going to. Biden's going to make the argument that we're all children of God. Is that true? No, we're not Mormonism, which teaches that we're not many other false religions, man-made religions that teach that.

What does God say on the issue? Turn in your Bibles. Well, OK, not if you're driving. If you're driving, just listen. But if you're not driving, pause, open your Bible, because I want you to see what God actually says.

And if you're driving, just go to John 1, 12 later. Not now. Later, when you're not driving, hands on the wheel. All right. So John 1, 12 and 13 says this. But as many as receive him to them, he gave the right to become children of God.

Even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Not everybody is a child of God. Only those who receive him, according to this text, have the right.

So not everyone has the right to claim they're a child of God. So as we go through this article that Biden writes, you see over and over again, he appeals to the fact that we're all children of God. No.

Only those that receive him, who believe on his name, have that right. And that doesn't come by blood. That means genealogy. It doesn't mean that, like, I was raised Jewish and believed that my Judaism was saving me.

The fact that I was born of the chosen people, that I was chosen and going to heaven. No. So if you're born Jewish, if you're born Catholic, you're not automatically going to heaven. So it's not, you know, that you're born of blood that's going to, it's not your genealogy that's going to give you this right.

It also means that just because you're part of the human race, you don't get that right. Nor does the will of flesh. So it's not just the desire that you have that you want to be a Christian, that you want to be a child of God.

Nor is it the will of man. In other words, nor is it your works. Your good works are not going to get you to be a child of God. No, the only thing that gets a person to have the right to be called a child of God is God.

But God. Well, I was going to say, that scripture from John ties directly to what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, 4. But God. You are all these things, but God. This is sovereignty. But your comment, I think, with regard to Imago Dei, certainly you see Roman Catholics, I think, promoting this notion, born out of a misunderstanding of that doctrine, of that clear teaching of scripture, that because we're all made in the image of God, we're all children of God.

And that is absolutely incorrect. And many evangelicals have adopted that misunderstanding of Imago Dei as well. Two completely distinct things. Everyone is made in the image of God, but only in Christ are we being transformed into the conformity with Christ, where we can rightly reflect that image of God that we were made in.

So we're not all children of God. You talk to the typical evangelical pew sitter now, I think they're going to adopt that understanding. Because it sounds gracious, and it sounds tolerant and noble, but it is just not biblical.

Well, and this is the thing. Let's let us first start by addressing what does it mean to be made in the image of God? Because people misunderstand this, and this is why they think they're children of God.

Because they think being made in the image of God means we're like Him in some way. You have the little God's doctrine that Word of Faith teaches, that if God were made in His image, then we're like Him in deity.

We're little gods. You have a lot of differing views. This is, theologically, the way we understand the image of God, is that we have certain attributes communicated to us that God also has. So the theologians break up, when we do a study on the attributes of God, into generally two categories, communicable and incommunicable.

It just means communicated or not communicated. So those attributes that we share with God are those communicated. Things like emotion, intelligence, justice. These are things God communicates to us. But not all of His attributes are.

His omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, those are not. We don't have those things. So there are certain attributes that are of God alone. There are certain attributes that are communicated to us as human beings.

And that is what it means to be made in the image of God. Now, I differentiate the attributes of God a little bit differently, because there are attributes that are shared not only with men, but also with angels.

And angels are not made in the image of God. Therefore, how do we distinguish them? So when I, if you do at Striving Fraternity, if you take our Striving Fraternity Academy on systematic theology, like 80 lessons on theology, have workbooks to go along with it.

Great for homeschooling, by the way. A lot of people use it. But those classes, free, by the way, on YouTube. I go through, starting with the attributes of God. Why? Because all your theology is going to be based on that.

But how do I break them down? First, I break it down by the attributes of the deity. Those attributes that are of God alone. They're not communicated or shared with angels nor humans. Then there are attributes of personality.

Those attributes that are shared by both angels and human beings. And then there's attributes of morality, which only are shared with human beings. So I've chosen to break it down that way, because I think that then that shows us what it means to be made in the image of God, is that we have certain attributes that angels cannot have.

They can't share in certain moral things, because they don't have that freedom, shall we say. I want to say will, but we know that we have a will, it's just not free. Angels have a will, it's just theirs also is not free.

By the way, Bud, this is a side note.

I saw the look on your face. I didn't want to go off in that direction, I know. Yeah, I saw the look on your face.

We've got a rabbit hole here. Let me just say, I've been changing the term. I don't want to use free will, because theologically that's a problem. Free will means you have a will that is not influenced by anything outside of the will itself.

That's what it means to be theologically free. God has a free will. He isn't influenced by anything outside of his nature. We have an enslaved will. We have a will that's enslaved to sin, and it's not free.

However, as Christians, we have a free will. I am using the term human will. It's something I started using in the last month to distinguish. Instead of saying free will that people understand, I refer to it as human will.

Human will is enslaved to sin until someone is Christian. Now, let's get back on topic. Ephesians 2, because you brought up verse 4. I think what's essential to this is really starting in verse 1, because this is going to help us walk through this.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indwelling the desire of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, that's great, those two words.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love, which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, our transgressions, made us alive with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

And then the passage that so many know, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

So, not as a result of works would also mean not as a result of politics?

Yeah, politics won't save us, and now I'm going to say something shocking, politics won't save our country, our nation, either. Amen. Okay, that is the problem for many, is they think that the solution is political.

No, the politicians will follow the culture, so what we need to do is see a saved culture. But, because before, we will eventually get this article from Biden, but I want to give this as the underpinning, because this is so essential to what we're going to see.

There is a contrast here in Ephesians 2, between the way the world is, and by the way, if you saw in that, verse 3, by nature we are children of wrath, not children of God. So, when we compare this with John 1, 12, we see this distinction between the children of wrath and the children of God.

There is a very clear distinction between the two, and what we see going on for political gains is a muddying of these waters. And I want this to be clear as we go through this, so you see, these are children of wrath telling the world that they're children of God.

These are children of wrath trying to redefine what it is children of God should be believing, and practicing, and doing. And what is it that defines or characterizes these children of God? Well, the way that we used to formally walk, the lust of the flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, right?

This is what describes us. And this is the way as Christians we formally walked, which means we turn away from those things. We don't follow those things anymore. We follow Christ. That's the distinction being made here.

Exactly. I think, you know, a couple of, two, three, four times maybe, in the last half of that section, the emphasis is in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. God did this, made us alive together with Christ.

There's a clear distinction. You're a child of wrath, or you're a child of God's love and grace. You're, you know, a slave of righteousness. You're a slave of unrighteousness. And to your point earlier, the most offensive thing is, something that should be easily discerned by Christians, is when we see Scripture quoted and used for, I mean, they're pandering for the sake of temporal benefit.

We've got the eternal word of God here. It has effects and impact on our temporal obedience, what our life looks like, how we need to live, how we need to obey. But when you see it taken out of context, applied especially by a guy that does not believe anything that the entirety of Scripture teaches, when you see it applied that way, it's offensive.

There is severe judgment for mishandling or misappropriating the word of God, particularly for a temporal political purpose. You talk now, I'm sorry.

No, because there's one thing I want to say, because we're going to get to this later on, you know, on this. But in verse 2, it says that the world is walking according to the prince of the power of the air.

And he's also described as the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. So not only are we children of wrath naturally, so the natural state of man is the children of wrath. But if you're in Christ, as Bud was saying, if you're in Christ, then you have a right to be called the child of God.

These are also called sons of disobedience. Okay. So I just wanted to lay this as a groundwork, because we're going to come back to this spirit that is now working. And we're going to see this from a very surprising source later on.

So I'm just asking you to hold that thought. Let's go through this article now, Bud. This is, it starts off, he starts off by saying, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is asking, Teacher, what is the greatest commandment of the law?

To love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And he said, this is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

All the laws and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Now, we wouldn't disagree with anything there, right? Sounds good. That's Matthew 22. There you go. So right off the bat, you have this guy quoting scripture, writing in the Christian post.

And what's he then say? He then says, these abiding principles, loving God and loving others, are the very foundation of my faith. Wait, stop. Let's ask, what is his faith? His faith is Roman Catholicism.

He's a Roman Catholic. Now, why might he have written this article? Could it be? Could it be, Bud? I could be wrong. But, I mean, this came out yesterday. Could it be that the Democrats just spent several weeks bashing Catholicism because of Justice Barrett?

And now they realize, wait a minute. We need those Catholic votes. Like, let's sound like good Catholics because all of a sudden, Biden's coming out announcing he's Catholic. Pelosi came out announcing she's Catholic.

I mean, all of a sudden, all these Democrats are Catholic. They're good Catholics. So is Catholicism Christianity? That's the first question we have to ask. I think Bud is going to make me answer first.

I'll say no. All right, now. Move on. It's not. No, it's not. It's not. And, by the way, the Catholic Church says so. Remember, it was the Catholic Church that killed Christians, the Catholic Church that said, if you believe in what we just read in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, if you believe that you're saved by grace through faith apart from works, then you are damned.

You are accursed. That's the Catholic Church. And they killed Christians for that. So there's no way you could say that they would kill those of us that hold to evangelical Christianity is the same as Catholicism when they called us cursed going to hell.

So what I'm saying when I say that I believe the same about Catholics is I agree with them. We are not the same. Okay? But I could justify it and say the reason that they would be cursed and going to hell is because, as we read, their natural state is sons of wrath, children of wrath, sons of disobedience.

That's their natural state. And apart from a working of God alone, not through works, they're not a child of God. That's not me saying it. That's God. We read this earlier. So his faith that he talks about is one of his Catholic, and he ends up saying in the next paragraph, my Catholic faith drilled this into me at a core truth.

But is he really believing that? Does he really hold to love God and love your neighbor? You have to look at the platform he stands on and ask that question. Okay? Now, I will say for the record, Mike Pence, who is a genuine Christian, did write an article as well.

They both have op-ed pieces that came out. Mike Pence, I actually do know people that know him personally. I've been to the church where he used to attend. I do know people that know him and have confirmed that, yes, he is someone that has a genuine faith, genuine belief in Christ.

Joe Biden is a Roman Catholic, and therefore if he holds to Roman Catholic teachings, he would not be able to be saved because Roman Catholicism teaches that you are saved by works plus faith. That is going to be different than what we would see in Scripture.

Okay? So it's not me being mean to Catholics. I'm just stating the facts of what their church teaches compared to what Scripture teaches. All right.

They need to repent. Exactly what it says on your microphone.

That's right. Yeah. And people should be Patreons just to see that your repent has flames and all on it. So here's the thing. We have to first identify that he's writing to evangelical Christians, but about his Catholic faith.

And there's far too many people that are trying to argue that, see, he's a man of faith and Trump is not. Well, neither one of them are.

Okay. No. Exactly. I mean, you know, we happen to be recording this on Reformation Day. It cannot go without notice that even the rich ecumenical movement with evangelicals and Catholics, this is completely wrong.

This is contrary to what Scripture says, especially what we've just read in Ephesians. We need to pray for Catholics. We need to witness to Catholics. We need to share the gospel with them. But to say that Joe Biden is a Christian?

No. That's false.

Now, he goes on to say, and this is amazing, you know, sometimes it's what people say that, you know, they stumble into truth, which exposes that they know the truth. They just deny it because he says in the same creed that is at the core of our American experience and written into our founding documents that we are all created equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Is he saying that we were built on Christian values? Because that's all what they are trying to argue against. So he's right. We were. This country was founded on Christian values.

It wasn't a Christian nation. It was on Christian values. And that is why the American experiment has been so prosperous, I believe, is because of those values that we held and ways of trying to keep that.

Now, he's going to end up referring to Dr. King and, you know, argue, you know, because, you know, he's going to bring up race issues later. So you got to always throw Dr. King in. But I think that's just him giving a token.

He doesn't quote him. Just refers to him, you know. So he does say, though, that we're facing a crisis. And this I will agree with him. We are facing a crisis. However, he says the crisis is threats to the very, you know, Amigo Dei.

Are we really facing a crisis of the image of God? Well, we are, but not the way he's saying it. He says it's a battle for the nation. Now, he's going to argue that the battle is over systemic racism.

But see, you don't have people arguing that African-Americans are not human anymore. That's not an argument people are making. So that's not where we see the argument of the Amigo Dei being argued. Actually, where we see the argument that humans are not human is in Joe Biden's party that says that children in the womb are not human beings.

That's where you see that. So he wants to argue that the very fabric of our country is under crisis because the image of God is not being valued. Well, he's right, but it's not with racism. That issue has been dealt with in the past.

And we don't see people making that argument today. What we do see people making an argument is that children in the womb are not humans. That's where the battle is. There is a crisis there. But the argument that we end up seeing there is that he's on the wrong side of history.

He's arguing for the murder of millions of children, mostly black. So clearly he doesn't believe black lives matter. He only believes black lives matter at the voting booth. That's where he thinks black lives matter.

If you don't vote for him as he has said, then you're not really black. He has said that to a black man on air. If you don't vote for him, you're not black. He degrades black people. He has a low view of black people.

Blacks are there to vote for him. That's what they're there for. That seems to be his view. He doesn't care about blacks in the womb. Black lives don't matter to him in the womb. There is a crisis of the image of God.

Why? Because those in the womb are being said that they are not human beings. And therefore, the woman who owns the body can kill them. I just ask the question, what is the difference between this is my property and this is my body?

They are both ownership issues. The difference is this is my property required the owner to care for, provide for the slave. Not kill them. They were useless dead. Abortion is an ownership issue where the goal is the slaughter of another human being.

Claiming they're not human so that you can kill them. That is where the real crisis is. And he is on the wrong side of God on that crisis. God is a God of life. He's the source of life. And Biden is of the party of death.

They want to kill children in the womb. They want to support assisted suicide so you can kill your elderly. And just remember, they're the party that wants to control your health care. So if they're a party of death and you're not valuable, if you're not working, what's going to happen when you get older?

Oh, you say, hey, I don't care. That's 60 years from now. Well, when you're 60 years later, you're going to lose the argument. The argument is now that has to be made. If you don't fight for your rights now, you're not going to have them 60 years from now.

And the government is going to say, well, you're not adding to our culture. You're not adding to the government. Gone. We're not going to pay for your health care. You're going to have nowhere to turn by then.

So in this article, he says he is running for president and he's asking for our vote. Now, he's writing this to Christians because he's saying the reason is that we stand on, you know, he says we we. Sorry.

Who are we? What we stand for. And maybe and maybe the most important who we want to be as a nation are at stake. Character is at the ballot. Now, character of our nation. The core values that define this nation are on the ballot.

While I'm running as a proud Democrat, I will serve president for all Americans. Let's break that up and seize this because character, I mean, the character of a man who who lies, who says that he has nothing to do with foreign dignitaries, but proudly announces when he was vice president that he got a a prosecutor removed who is investigating a company that his son just months before became on the ballot or on the board of directors.

And we now see that there's from his son's emails that he was receiving 10 percent of these millions of dollars he was receiving from China, from Russia. This is this is character. We know two things about the character of Trump and Biden.

Trump, though his character morally, we're going to disagree with. But what we know about his character, he does what he says he's going to do. He's done that for four years. Biden, we know his character.

He is like us, a shaft thrown into the wind, just a feather thrown in the wind, whatever way the wind blows. He's going to do that. Remember, this is a guy that supported white supremacy and is now arguing for black supremacy.

Black lives. Yes. OK, chameleon. He's a chameleon, political chameleon. So he has no character. He's got no backbone. You know, he's not coherent, which is why they got to hide him away in a basement.

That's that's should be pathetic. This is the way the best way to to get a vote for Joe Biden is to keep him shut up. If he wins, can you shut him up in the White House? I mean, is that what you're going to do, Andrew?

You know, there's a basement in the White House. It happens to be, I think, where the war room is from which you can launch missiles and stuff like that. So they can put him in the basement there where he can do much more damage potentially.

Well, the point is that their goal is to keep him out of it. I mean, the best way for him to win is to not be seen or heard. That's that tells you something about his character. Yeah. OK. And that he's going to be a president for all Americans.

Really? He's going to be a president for Christians. He's writing this to Christians. What is his party? What are they're saying? And we're going to get this later. But they basically say that we churches should be shut down.

Protests, rioting, looting. That should run freely. But but church, you should not be allowed to go to church. That's their party.

You know, and that's the other thing. When he says character is on the ballot, the character of our nation. And I just you just glance around at some of the Democratic strongholds, cities that have had these these riots, these protests, all this all this Black Lives Matter, Antifa, all of these things that are driven by a Democratic worldview, a Democratic.

Is that the character of our nation that we want to move to?

Well, let's take a look at that, because we do have a clear example with this covid thing that he's going to bring up in his article. We do have a clear thing. The president let the states run their state.

That's actually the way our country is set up. And now they want to blame he's he blames two hundred and twenty thousand deaths on on Trump. Well, that is, you know, Trump has some things that he's done.

But what's clear is what were the Democrats doing when Trump was trying to deal with the this virus? They were calling him xenophobic, racist. And in that in the House, Pelosi was actually trying to create a bill at the time that he was banning travel from China.

She was trying to create a bill to limit his ability to do that. So if the Democrats had their way, there would be far more than two hundred twenty thousand deaths because it would have spread a lot more.