Does A Political Candidate’s Religious Beliefs Determine If I Should Vote For Them?

Does a political candidate's religious beliefs determine whether or not I should vote for them? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

And you can also email us with your question at questions at corechristianity.com. Well, it's hard to believe that summer is now history. We're officially in fall and we know for many of our listeners you may be starting to see some beautiful fall colors in your area. Not so much in San Diego though, Adriel, where you are, huh?

You can't even tell the difference. I tell you, the leaves on the palm trees don't ever change colors, so it's always the same. And it's actually one of the things that I wish we had that was a little bit different when I lived up in the mountains for a couple of years when I was in high school. And that was one of the most, I mean, just shocking things was to experience the fall for the first time and say, wow, this is so beautiful. So yeah, I'm envious of those of you out there who get to experience that.

Fall is my favorite time of year and we just love getting out and experiencing the colors in our part of the country. Well, let's get to our good news story of the day. And this is really a beautiful story. An 18-year-old from Connecticut is being praised for his heroic actions to save a family of four from a car fire. Justin Gavin was walking down a street in Waterbury, Connecticut when he spotted an SUV on fire. Gavin ran to the vehicle. He saw a woman inside and helped her to escape. He then noticed there were three kids inside the car, which was quickly becoming enveloped in flames.

Captain Michael DeSalva of the Waterbury Police Department said, as the flames grew larger, Justin pulled all three kids from the car, including a one-year-old baby in a car seat. Wow. Way to go, Justin, huh? Yeah, way to go. I mean, talk about bravery and just praise God for being in the right place at the right time. Such a neat story.

Love hearing about these young people who are making a difference in their communities and he's one of them. Well, let's get to our first question of the day. And Jack posted this on our website. He says, I've noticed a lot of books in the Bible are named after people who supposedly wrote them, even if the books never claimed that, like in the gospels. Or sometimes they have parts that couldn't have been written by the traditional author, like Moses writing about his own death.

I'm wondering why wouldn't this affect our trust in biblical inerrancy? Yeah, you know, sometimes you do have in the ancient manuscripts, the books attributed to a particular person, say, you know, Mark or Matthew. A lot of this also comes from the ancient church and the understanding that these particular books were written by an apostle or someone who was a part of the apostolic company. That's actually one of the the criterion that we use for what we call canonicity. How do we know what were the inspired books of the Bible, a part of the canon of scripture? Now, we don't typically use that word canon today.

I mean, unless we're talking about the thing that goes boom. But canon really refers to, and in this context, a rule, the rule of faith, the rule whereby we as Christians live. And that's what the scriptures are. And so how do we get the canon of scripture? Well, the church received certain books as divinely inspired on the basis of the fact that they were written by an apostle or someone associated with an apostle. You also had this idea of the fact that these particular books, Jack, were universally embraced by the church. So it wasn't like, you know, in the first couple of centuries, there was one church over here that said, oh, I like this book and another one over there that said, no, we don't receive that book as holy scripture. No, all of these books, these letters in particular, I'm thinking about the New Testament here, were received as inspired by God.

So you had apostolicity, universality, or sometimes called catholicity, also just antiquity. Were these books written around the time of the apostles, or did they come much later? There are some books where we don't know who wrote them 100 percent. You think about the book of Hebrews. That doesn't call into question biblical inerrancy one bit. It's not the person that made the book inspired, it's God, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I mean, you referenced the end of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 34, where you have the description of Moses's death and burial. And we believe Moses was the one that authored the first five books of the Old Testament. So how can you have Moses writing about his own death? Well, probably someone else who helped compile the writing added that piece, and we don't know who it was personally.

I think it was Joshua. Others have suggested Eliezer the priest or Ezra the scribe. But nevertheless, all of this happened under the guidance and preservation of the Holy Spirit. And so that we don't know some of the authors of particular books of the Bible doesn't call into question inerrancy. Because that's not what makes the Bible inerrant or not inerrant. We can trust the fact that God by his Spirit preserved his word for us to receive, and I think that's what you need to know. You can be confident that the words you read in your Bible are God's word to you, and so we should read it.

We should study it and grow because of it and through it. Thanks for your question, Jack. You know, Adriel, I'm wondering if you can recommend a resource for our listeners. A lot of people, when they're faced with a hard question from an atheist or agnostic, they'll claim, oh, there's all these contradictions in Scripture, and they'll let me bring some up. And I think a lot of times as believers, we sort of feel like we're backed into a corner.

We don't know what to say. Is there a particular resource that you'd recommend that would help people to answer some of those questions? Yeah, there are a couple, and there are some that are going to be a little bit more technical, like, you know, oftentimes people will bring up the contradictions in the Gospels, or are they historically reliable? There's a professor named Craig Blomberg. He has a, I think the book is called The Historical Reliability of the Gospels.

It's right there in the title. Another guy who's written a lot about the canon of Scripture and the sort of criteria for canonicity and how we got our Bible is a guy named Michael Krueger, and so I would recommend looking up his stuff as well. Great suggestions. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you've got a question, here's our number, 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Good morning. This is Walter from St. Louis, Missouri.

My question is about what do we do with movies that are promoted as Christian and biblical that contain things that are obviously not biblical, just outright inaccuracies according to the Scriptures. Thank you very much. I appreciate your show. God bless. Bye-bye. Hey, Walter.

Thanks for giving us a call. I mean, that's why they say the book is always better, isn't it? I mean, in the case of the Holy Scriptures, that's especially true.

A while back, there was that movie with, I think it was Russell Crowe on Noah, and I'll admit I never saw it, but I remember afterwards people saying that there was quite a bit of creative freedom that was taken in the making of the movie. I mean, I think it's entertainment. Don't get your theology from movies. Get it from God's Word and good theology books. This is a reminder for all of us that we always need to be discerning, isn't it? With the things we fill our minds with, the things we put before our eyes, media is really catechizing our children and rewiring them today, and it's rewiring us, frankly. I mean, that's why we want to be discerning.

We want to be wise with the things we fill our minds with. I don't think that means we need to boycott the movies or even these movies that are supposed to be, quote-unquote, Christian movies or raise a big stink about them. That the movie wasn't biblically 100 percent accurate. I mean, what can we expect?

Our response should be this. Know what you believe and why it is that you believe it. Devour the Scriptures every day so that when you see something that's not faithful to them, you'll be able to call it out. You'll be able to say, hey, that wasn't in the original. I mean, I think about today when I go see a movie with friends of mine, and it's based off of a book and I haven't seen the book. I just am watching the thing and thinking, oh, well, I guess this is how it was, but my friends know who've read the book.

That scene wasn't a part of the original, and actually they cut this out and they cut that out. And I'm sure it's the same with these movies that claim to be depicting these stories in the Bible. It can be misleading, and sometimes I think it's harmless and it can just be entertainment. But at the end of the day, what we need to do is know the Word. Know the Word, read the original, study it, and fall in love with God as we do so.

Thanks for your question. You know, I was just thinking back to that classic film, The Greatest Story Ever Told, which is often shown at Easter, you know, on a network or on cable, and John Wayne played the centurion at the cross. He had this line, truly this was the Son of God. Yeah, it was accurate.

That's right. It was definitely accurate, but John Wayne is the centurion. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and if you or somebody you love has been struggling during this whole COVID-19 pandemic, we have a very helpful resource we want to tell you about today. Thanks, Bill. I mean, we're offering once again Harold Sankbeil's Christ and Calamity, and I think it's a really important resource, especially right now with everything going on, COVID-19, loss of jobs, the stuff that's weighing really heavily on many of our hearts. This is one of those resources that's going to point you to Jesus, and it's going to remind you all the reasons why you can continue to trust and hope in God in the midst of everything that's happening. And so take advantage of this offer. Head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to get your hands on Harold Sankbeil's Christ and Calamity. You can reserve your copy of this book today for a donation of any amount. Just head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers, or you can call us for this or any one of our offers at 833-843-2673.

That's 833 the core. All right, Adriel, here's a question that came in through our Facebook page from Erica, and she says, in Genesis 11 we're told that God confused the language of the peoples who were trying to build the Tower of Babel up to heaven and then disperse them. Does this mean that cultural and ethnic diversity resulted from God's curse? What would this mean for heaven when God sets everything right again?

Yeah, let me start with heaven and the new creation. You know, sometimes people will point to Paul's statements that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek slave nor free male nor female in order to make the point that as Christians our ethnicities and cultural backgrounds don't matter. But that's not what Paul is trying to say there. Actually, he's quite aware of the fact that in the new church, the Jew and Gentile church, that one body that he describes in places like the book of Ephesians, there were some significant cultural differences that made worshiping together a challenge, and he encourages the Christians in those churches not to just, you know, abolish their cultural differences, but to be charitable and gracious with each other as they had those differences, and those differences aren't a bad thing. One of the beautiful things about heaven is that it is depicted as the place where all of us with our backgrounds are worshiping together.

Our ethnicities aren't erased, they're actually a part of what makes heaven so beautiful, the celebration of worshiping God. Listen to what John said in Revelation chapter 7 verses 9 and 10. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb.

I mean, can you just picture that? How absolutely beautiful. It's one of the things that John notices in his vision, that heaven is where you have this spectacular unity and diversity, diversity of the nations and languages united around God's throne, worshiping the king, Jesus. It's one of the things that makes heaven such a beautiful place. You know, today churches should give us a taste of heaven. I've heard it said before that Sunday is the most segregated hour and a half of our week, and I think for many churches that's true. The gospel is for everyone, not just for Jews, not just for Gentiles, it's for sinners.

That means it's for everyone, all of us. So no, I don't think that God's curse is what created ethnic diversity. The curse came as a result of human pride, and it separated the peoples in Genesis 11, but in Christ we've been regathered, and in that regathering our ethnicities and our cultural backgrounds aren't abolished or destroyed. No, they're a part of what at the end is going to make the new creation such a such a beautiful place.

I mean, God is what makes it ultimately the most beautiful place, being able to be there with him in his presence. But it's a wonder to see, as John saw there in Revelation 7, every tribe, tongue, and nation, every language around the throne of God celebrating him and singing his praises. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question, you can actually post your question on our Facebook page, our Instagram account, or our Twitter account.

And Jorge posted this on Instagram. Should my vote change depending on what a candidate's religious beliefs are? Yeah, pretty relevant question right now. Here's what I'll say. Vote according to God's word and your conscience. In politics, and I mean frankly in just life, I've noticed that this is especially true during campaign seasons. Politicians will claim to believe all sorts of things about God.

Why? To get your vote. So we have to be discerning here, Jorge, and wise, and ultimately, and I know this is hard for us to do around this season, put our hope not in man, not in these, you know, elected officials. Psalm 118 says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

I just want to say, as November approaches, I want you to ask yourself, where is my confidence, my trust? Now that doesn't mean you can't be and shouldn't be involved in these discussions, and through this pursue the good of your neighbor, right? But don't for a minute think that God's kingdom depends on who the next president is. The kingdom of God isn't that fragile. I mean, Jesus said it himself, the gates of hell are never going to prevail against the church that I am building. There really are two dangers, I think, that we have to avoid, Jorge. One is becoming so pessimistic that we just sort of shut off completely from engaging with the outside world and from engaging in our civic duties, is sort of saying, yeah, it's all going to burn anyway, let's just run for the hills and hide away until Jesus comes back.

No, no, God calls us to love our neighbors. The second danger is becoming so enthralled in all of this, though, that our joy and hope is tied to who is in office. I mean, in that scenario, we're assuming that God's kingdom advances through the adoption of Christian morals in society or something like that, and that's also wrong. No matter who is in office, Jesus Christ is on the throne, and his kingdom is going to keep taking ground through the proclamation of the gospel. And so here's my encouragement to you, be committed to that in these days. Make sure that your hope is firmly rooted in Jesus. Be engaged with your civic duty, with the stuff that's going on around us, and let the scriptures guide you, your conscience, the desire to do good for your neighbor, for all people, as the apostle Paul says. But make sure your hope is in heaven, in Jesus, and that you're recognizing that your primary identity isn't rooted in your political affiliation, it's rooted in your heavenly citizenship, in the fact that you have been baptized and that you're washed by the blood of the lamb.

You are in Christ. That's the most important thing about us, the fact that Jesus has saved us, and so let's keep our eyes fixed on that during this time. That's some great counsel. You know, Adriel, what do we do when there is a particular politician or party that seems to want to marginalize the church or do things that would cause us to not be able to worship freely as, you know, we've done in the past? What should our response be then? Well, you know, I think we weigh that too in our decision.

That's a part of what we're thinking through as we determine who it is that we're going to vote for. You know, one thing I will say, though, Bill, is I think of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who are facing real serious persecution. I hear stories from organizations like Voice of the Martyrs and you think of brothers in China and in the Middle East and in, you know, North Korea, and boy, my heart just breaks. And I think that sometimes as believers in the United States, we can have this sort of persecution complex and really think that everyone is out to get us. And so if we think that following Jesus means everybody's going to like us, we're totally confused. And are there people who are against the church?

Yes. But at the same time, I think we should, one, be thankful for the fact that God has blessed us in so many ways here in the United States. And two, remember our brothers and sisters throughout the world who are really experiencing serious persecution and pray for them. It's really easy for us. It's really easy for me to think that we're at the center of the world and that we have it worse than everyone else. No, we don't. No, in many ways, we're still very blessed. Now, that doesn't mean that we should just sort of, you know, forego whatever freedoms we do have, that we're thankful for the Lord for.

Like I said, we should be thankful for that. We want the scriptures to guide us. We want our consciences to guide us. And that's a part of what should weigh in our minds as we think about these decisions that we're making. But I just want to encourage people, one, to hope in the Lord, to not be so despairing in terms of thinking, boy, this is the worst. We have it worse than anyone else, you know.

Oh no, that's not the case. Throughout the history of the church, when you think about the days of the apostles, first few centuries, man, the church has been through some really, really hard times, but Jesus has been with her the whole time, and he's continued to advance his gospel, and he's going to keep doing that. And so, man, what an encouragement that we have to cling to him and to cling to the truth and to continue to pursue loving our neighbors, even the neighbors that we disagree with and who frustrate us and are seeking to harm us. You know, God calls us to love those people, Bill. That's what Jesus calls us to, and that's what he did. He loved his enemies, and that was who we were. Paul says it in Romans 5, and so what a hope we have through Christ, and what an example he gave to us. Amen. Well, let's get to one more question here on core Christianity.

This one comes from Maria, who posted this on our Twitter account. She says, I've heard a lot about salvation by grace that excludes our good works, but if God didn't want our good works, then why did he give us the law? In Leviticus 18 5, we read, I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am the Lord. Doesn't this mean that life comes through fulfilling the law?

Yeah, you're onto something there, Maria, and you do have that repeated phrase when it comes to the law. Do this and live. I mean, it was really what God told Adam in the garden. You know, if you obey, if you don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're going to be blessed.

You know, do this and live. It's what you heard again when God gave the 10 commandments. There were all these blessings for obedience to the law and curses for disobedience, and the ultimate blessing for obedience to the law was life.

You get it. But the problem is none of us keeps the law perfectly, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Paul said in the book of Romans. So the issue with the old covenant was not that it was imperfect. I mean, the covenant was good. The problem with the old covenant, you know what it was?

Me and you. It's that we broke it, that we failed to keep it, so that life cannot come through that. And this is one of the points, Maria, that the apostle Paul makes throughout the book of Galatians over and over and over again. And so no one can be saved, justified by obedience to the law of God, because no one perfectly obeys the law of God. But there was one Jesus, born of a woman, a virgin, born under the law, so that he might fulfill the righteous requirements of the law perfectly in his life, in his obedience, and over and over again throughout the life of Jesus. What we see in the gospels is it's as if he's walking in the very footsteps of Israel, obeying perfectly everywhere where Israel failed to obey. He came as the second Adam, to cast out the serpent.

He came as the perfect, the true Israel, to endure the temptation in the wilderness, to obey the voice of his father. Jesus, Maria, perfectly obeyed the law of God, and you know what he received? Not life, but the curse. Paul tells us in Galatians, quoting from the book of Leviticus, cursed is everyone who is hanged upon a tree. Jesus, the one who perfectly fulfilled the law, received the curse that comes from the law, death. We deserve the curse of the law, but Jesus, who had been perfectly obedient, took the curse of the law in himself, in his body, on the tree, so that he might abolish that curse and grant us eternal life. So life for us does not come through obedience to the law, it comes through faith in Jesus Christ. And when we believe in Jesus, Maria, his life flows into us.

We are credited with his perfect, righteous life lived, so that we can be what the Bible calls justified. All of our sins forgiven, counted as righteous before the eyes of a holy God, even though we haven't kept the law, because we're in Jesus, the one who perfectly kept the law. And let me just say to you listening right now, when you grasp this, it will transform your Christian life, because if you're on the sort of rat wheel of trying to earn your salvation by obedience to the law, there are days where you're going to wake up and you're going to feel real good, because you think, oh, I've done really good. And there are other days when you're going to feel terrible, because you feel like, oh man, I just know that I don't keep God's law. And it's going to be up and down, up and down this roller coaster of trying to earn God's approval that will exhaust you.

It will exhaust you. When you come to Jesus, broken, able to say, Lord, I haven't perfectly kept your law, and you can receive and rest in His perfect life, His salvific work for you, His death on the cross, you can breathe easy and say, thank you for your work for me, Jesus. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.