Sunday, November 20, 2016

Should Christians vote?

Some people spend a lot of time worrying about if Christians should vote or not. I don't know why that question is such a big thing with some people, it is very easy to answer: If you want to vote, then do it. If not, don't do it. There's nothing else to it. But some people like to be difficult and over complicate things. They say that since there is not a verse that mentions voting for elected officials then we shouldn't do it. [Of course, these same people 'vote' on things at their Baptist business meetings without a verse for that either.]

The Bible says that "the powers that be are ordained of God" and that "rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil" (Rom. 13). Therefore we NEED political powers, God has ordained human government. The way we get political powers in America is by....voting.

Paul exercised his political rights as a Roman citizen (Acts 22:25, 25:11) and the Bible never condemns doing that.

Religious people love bondage, they love to invent their own rules to enforce on other people instead of walking in the liberty that we have (Gal. 5:1).

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

Someone asked me what my view on 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 is. Here was my response:

2 Thes. 2:2-4 has nothing to do with any rapture of anyone. There is no "pre-trib" or "post-trib" rapture mentioned in any of those verses. Verse 1 is the only verse that mentions a rapture and it says nothing about the timing of it. It just says that Paul beseeched the Thessalonians by it, that they shouldn't be troubled about the Day of Christ. So I think it is silly to argue (directly) from the passage that the rapture of the BOC is "pre-trib" or "post-trib". The passage does not mention either one.

Also, the post-tribber doctrine of the "day of Christ" being the same thing as the rapture is a joke. Nobody would be "troubled" about the rapture being at hand. Paul just got through COMFORTING them by teaching about the blessed hope in 1 Thes. 4:13-18. Not to mention that Paul clearly states that the rapture is at hand (Rom. 13:11-12, Phil.3:20-4:5).

Paul does imply that the events regarding the 70th Week concern the Jews. The "falling away" is about the Jews (Dan. 11:33-38) and the temple of God is about the Jews (2 Thes. 2:4). Besides that, under grace, a Jewish temple would not be "of God" nor would it be a "holy place" (Matt. 24:15). So it is obvious that 2 Thes. 2:3-4 has nothing to do with the gentiles under grace.

Paul concludes the chapter by saying that the Thessalonians would be saved from the deception of the Man of Sin (2:13). They were "called" to this salvation by Paul's gospel (2:14) "to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" which does occur at our rapture (Phil. 2:20-21, Col. 3:4). Those in Daniel's 70th week aren't all going to obtain salvation from it because many of them will be deceived, take the mark, etc. The calling to salvation is by BELIEVING Paul's gospel (2:13-14), not by believing the gospel of the kingdom and enduring to the end (Matt. 24:13-14).

There is a lot of "pre-trib" and "post-trib" bias read into 2 Thes 2, but in reality the passage does not state when our rapture is. It also does not say directly who will be going through Daniel's 70th week, but Paul's mention of the falling away and the temple clearly imply that it will be the Jews. It really doesn't make sense for 2 Thes. 2 to be the big battle ground passage on the rapture.

Here's a post I did on 2 Thes. 2:3 and the "falling away"
http://av1611studyblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/what-is-falling-away-of-2-thes-23.html

Eli "Hoss" Caldwell