Dear Ted, You really must look up the definition of Christian. A Christian would NOT pas the gay marriage act. I am sorry, but that is the worst thing God hates. He destroyed sodom and gomorrah over this. To say that obama "practices" Christianity is way out of line. I am surprised that anyone on here would even think such things.
Hi masmpg,
You don't seem to understand how our government works. President Obama didn't pass the gay marriage act. The legislature did. Personally, I don't know what President Obama's personal feelings about gay marriage are, but I do know that he didn't pass any act concerning it. Before the gay agenda came up before the legislature, several states had already made them legal. Is it, therefore, your understanding that no one in the governments of those states are christians either? Who do you hold personally responsible for abortions being legal in our land? Have you thoroughly vilified the President that was in office at that time also.
I don't understand, well, that's really not being truthful, I do think I understand the cause of the phenomenon, but this idea that we, as christians, are supposed to run the government or impress our will, that we believe to be in line with the Scriptures, upon the governments of men. Have you not read the Scriptures?
Jesus lived and taught in Israel. A land that was under Roman occupation at the time and the Romans, overall, were a fairly bellicose and sexually perverse people. History is replete with tales of Roman orgies and the many, many wars they instigated and were a part of. Yet, Jesus never once said or did anything like what you are trying to do. Jesus understood that His Father's salvation was not about us making them obey the laws of God. It's about each one of us who so chooses to follow the laws of God, to follow them. Each one of us individually. I may be saved, my son may not be. My wife may be saved and I may not be. I can tell them what I understand as the truth, but I can't make them born again. Even if we, as christians, are somehow able to make the laws of the land to agree with God's laws, not one single soul will be added to the kingdom of God~! But, I've read the Scriptures through several times and I've never been impressed that they teach that we are to strive to make our governments teach or act according to the laws of God.
So, I don't really worry about whether or not abortion or gay marriage is legal according to the laws of the land. I know that I'm called as an individual to accept and be subservient to a different law. If someone asks me what I think about abortion or gay marriage, I'll tell them that I believe that such things are an abomination in the sight of God. That I believe an individual should not have an abortion or be joined with someone as the same sex in a 'marriage' relationship. But, I also believe that it's a choice that each individual will have to make for themselves no matter what the laws of man say. God calls me to have mercy on them! To forgive each and every sin that somehow effects me done by another, because in that same way will my Father forgive me.
I also fully understand what the Scriptures say about the future. That as we move inexorably nearer to the day of God's judgment, the people of the earth are going to fall more and more into evil and wickedness. I have no delusions that somehow my being a strong christian and preaching at the world to not go that way, that it's going to create any change in what I know God has told me about the way of the people of the earth. Now, maybe such an idea seems just too pragmatic to you, but I have no delusions that my faith is going to change the world.
I expect these laws to come! I know that they are going to come! But I am not going to dishonor God's commands to me, because I just can't accept what's coming. God tells me that I am to respect those in authority over me, and I'm going to do that as is within my ability to do so. If I'm asked to vote on abortion or gay marriage, I'll vote against them. If I'm asked to vote on the legalization of gambling or prostitution, I'll vote against them. But, I also realize that the majority of our nation is filled with people who practice a false faith, if they practice any faith at all. I don't expect to win many of those votes. I expect that the majority of the people in our nation and in the world in general are lost to God. I, therefore, don't expect them to follow any commands of a God that they don't even know or believe in, in establishing governance.
Even our constitution says that the founders of our nation believed that men were endowed with certain inalienable rights. None of those rights that they then mention can be found as something that God has said in the Scriptures that He expects mankind to enjoy. Pursuit of happiness? I look at the life of the first apostles and disciples and I don't see their lives reflecting such a pursuit or that God filled their life with any such thing. Paul was beaten and imprisoned repeatedly. He had peace about what the future holds and, just as our Lord, was able to withstand the onslaught against him, but pursuit of happiness? I don't think so. Life? God created life, but He sure didn't give His very own Son long life on this earth. You see, those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, much like Abraham, understood that the life God promises is not the one we are living now on this earth. Liberty? Friend, liberty is just another word for 'national pride'. God laid down a law and no, He hasn't ever given us the liberty to do just whatever we want. Liberty is one of those amorphous concepts that generally means someone has the freedom to pretty much do what they want. Yes, our government has allowed us the liberty, individually, to pretty much do whatever we want, but how we then use that liberty generally isn't in accordance with what God asks of us.
All men are liars, myself included. Every heart is wicked, my own included. That's the rule.
So, I say again, understanding all that I've written above, President Obama has been a reasonably good president. We have never had a particularly christian president, and even when we have had a president that we thought might have been, everything that was done while that man was in the office of the President, wasn't always in alignment with God's will.
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted
