How Can I Act as a Peacemaker During the Upcoming Election?

I have family members on both sides of the political question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook or Instagram account, or you can email us with your question at questions at corechristianity.com. Well, first up today, we wanted to share a message we received from one of our listeners in Malaysia. She says, Thank you for your insights and various issues that were brought up by listeners.

I've been learning so much. But more importantly than all the wisdom shared in these episodes, I'd like you to know that what really encourages me a lot is your pastoral heart. The way you respond to questions and the way you do it really warms my heart to see such love and gentleness coming from a pastor.

I guess I just wanted you to know that your love for God and His people has been a great encouragement to a listener here in Malaysia. Isn't that beautiful? Wow.

Yeah. Well, that's just so humbling to hear. And thank you so much for your kind comments. I hope that for you, this program continues to be a blessing. You continue to grow, to learn, and to be encouraged in your walk with the Lord. I mean, I, as a pastor, just my greatest joy to see people growing in their faith. And I think we do have to model gentleness and care as we talk about these things.

You think, Bill, of all the arguments that are happening right now in the world and the way people talk to each other, not very graciously. And so we want to model something different for the watching world, gracious speech, getting us into God's Word and helping us to grow in our faith. By the way, CORE Christianity is listener supported. We count on people just like you to keep this program on the air.

So thanks so much for your support. Our website, by the way, is core Christianity dot com forward slash radio. And let's get to an email that came in from Ryan. This has to do with a passage in the Old Testament, Adriel. He says, Can you help me understand how God's sovereignty fits into the story of King Saul? The Bible says that if he would have obeyed, then his kingdom would have been established forever. But instead, God sought another. Doesn't that seem like an argument against God's sovereignty? It looks like Saul could have gone either direction. But if I understand sovereignty right, shouldn't Saul's fall be set in stone by God's decree?

Can you recommend any resources that will help me understand this issue? Bill, I feel like we're diving into the deep end of the pool as we begin the program for today. I mean, we're talking about the mystery of the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility, something that has been debated by theologians and pastors and people for years and years and years. And the reality is both of these things are affirmed in Scripture, both God's absolute sovereignty as the King of Heaven, the Lord of all, and the responsibility of mankind before God to follow him, to believe, to obey his commandments.

So we have to affirm both. That's the first thing I want to say is you're reading through the Bible and you see these things emphasized, highlighted. We want to take the scripture at face value.

We want to embrace what the Bible teaches. And the Bible teaches that God is sovereign, but that we are, Saul was, responsible for the decisions that he made. Now, first you do have God's sovereignty. You mentioned God's eternal decree.

You think of a verse like Ephesians chapter one, verse 11, where Paul said, in him, he's speaking of Jesus here. We have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Now, all things in that verse means all things. God works all things according to the counsel of his will. Now, we as creatures here on earth don't know what God's sovereign decree is. And it hasn't been given to us to know what God's sovereign decree is. We can climb up to heaven and say, God, what have you decreed from all eternity? And he just sort of tells us that's not how it works. He's revealed to us what he wills for us through his word, his law, his gospel.

And so that's what we cling to. We cling to God's revelation. But it is the case that God has decreed all things that come to pass.

Now, this decree doesn't erase human freedom. And one of the things you said there in your question, Ryan, was, well, you know, shouldn't Saul have had to have done this, you know, like it wasn't it written in stone because of God's decree? Well, that would sort of suggest that Saul wasn't responsible. And that's something that we don't want to affirm. God is not the author of evil. Christians have always denied that. And God is not coercing our wills, if you will, to do things. So it's really important that we hold on to those two things together. Now, let me give you a word that probably you haven't heard of that theologians use to try to describe this relationship, the relationship between human actions and God's action.

It's the word concursus. Human actions and divine actions run together side by side, and somehow God is accomplishing his purposes and his sovereign decree through our free choices in such a way that he remains absolutely sovereign. And yet we're free and responsible. Now, our freedom is limited by our nature. I don't have the freedom to fly because I don't have wings. Similarly, we can't make ourselves born again. I can't save myself.

It's not in my nature. I need the work of God, the work of the Holy Spirit. But the way we understand God's sovereignty and human actions, God's actions that they run together, and somehow God is accomplishing his sovereign purposes even through our decisions, even—this is the mind-blowing thing—even through our sinful decisions. Now, the go-to verse in order to prove this, I think—it's the one that I go to over and over again when this discussion comes up or when this question comes up—is in Acts chapter 4, verse 27. The context is the disciples praying for boldness after they had been persecuted. They're crying out to the Lord, and they say, Truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. Get this, verse 28, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with boldness. See how the disciples recognized the things that happened to Jesus at the hands of the Jews, at the hands of the Gentiles, Pontius Pilate, and those things happened according to God's sovereign decree, and yet all of those people were absolutely responsible for what took place. So we have to hold those truths together, and I get that this is a mystery, and it might be difficult for us to fully grasp it, but that's okay because we're talking about the infinite God, and so we embrace what the scripture teaches, and the scripture teaches very clearly that God is sovereign, and yet we are responsible. Saul was responsible.

God's sovereignty didn't remove his responsibility, and that's why he was judged severely because of his sins. Thanks for your question, Ryan. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question for us, here's the number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. My name is Jean, and I've been a Christian for about 32 years now. My question is, what is Christiandom? I ran across that word, and as I hear that word and see that word, I study my Bible, and I just want to learn.

I want to know what's going on before Jesus comes back. So thank you very much. Jean, thank you for calling us, and can I just say, God bless you. 32 years walking with Jesus, I praise the Lord for that, and after 32 years of walking with Jesus, saying, I just want to learn. May the Lord give us all hearts like that, and may the Lord continue to fill you with the knowledge of Himself and of His Son, Jesus, as you keep walking with Him. So I just want to say praise God.

That was just really encouraging for me to hear, Jean. Christiandom can be used to refer to the whole of the Christian world. It's not really a word that we use as much anymore. I think it's more associated with the medieval church and the broad political power that the church had and wielded for many years during that time. You think of the church as this sort of political empire, Christiandom. Now, you have to ask yourself the question, is that what the church is supposed to be? A political empire? Are we supposed to take over the political institutions of the world and transform the culture in that way?

Well, I don't think so. You know, there's this amazing prophecy in the book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 2, where King Nebuchadnezzar had received this vision of this great big statue, and Daniel's interpreting the vision for him. And at the end of the interpretation, Daniel says in Daniel 2, verse 44, In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all the kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God is made known to the king what shall be after this.

The dream is certain and its interpretation is sure. Daniel has this vision of the kingdom of God covering the face of the earth and replacing all the kingdoms of this world. Now, how does the kingdom of God expand today? Well, you look at the book of Acts. As the word of the gospel spreads, the church grows, people, souls are saved through the preaching of the message of the cross.

It doesn't grow like the kingdoms of this world through political might and the use of the sword. It grows mysteriously through the suffering of the church and the proclamation of the gospel. There's this old saying that was given by the church fathers. It's the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. They recognize that the church continued to grow even as it suffered in the world. It wasn't that the church had all this power and might and that that's how the church was advancing.

It was through the humble advancement of the gospel, through the proclamation of the message of salvation, even at the cost of our own comfort, of our own lives. That's how the church and the kingdom of God continues to grow. Now, there is coming a day where the kingdom of God is going to fully and finally replace all the kingdoms of the earth.

We call that the consummation, the very end. When Jesus comes back and he judges the nations and his kingdom, the new Jerusalem, comes down from heaven onto earth and covers the face of the whole world, it's something we look forward to. But it isn't that the church is this political powerhouse advancing through coercion or the sword. No, the church advances through the proclamation of the Bible, the message of Jesus.

So there's a little bit of a difference there between how people oftentimes think of Christendom as the church as this sort of political, great big institution that's sort of taking over the systems of this world and the church as the body of Christ on earth advancing through suffering and the message of salvation that reaches the ends of the earth. Thank you for your question and may the Lord continue to bless you, Gene. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and today we have a great offer for you. You know, a lot of times Christians are looking for something kind of supernatural in their walk with Christ, and yet most of the time our Christian experience is pretty ordinary.

And there's a book from Dr. Michael Horton that explains why that's the case. Yeah, I find over and over again as a pastor that one of the most exhausting things for Christians is chasing after experience. You know, we're looking for this extraordinary experience, the mountaintop spiritual high, and we want that to be the ordinary Christian life, the everyday Christian life.

And one, chasing that can be exhausting, but two, realizing that that's just not what we experience every single day can be disillusioning. It's important that we understand what the Christian life does look like. That's why we want to offer you this book, Ordinary. It focuses on the essential Christian beliefs, and it shows why they matter for our lives today. Basically, this book is going to help you study who God is and what He's done for you and why you can rest in that and live the ordinary Christian life of being a part of a solid church where the gospel is preached, being a good neighbor, being a good father, a good mother, a good friend.

Check out this resource. Go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers or give us a call at 833-THE-CORE. And on behalf of the whole team here at Core Christianity, thanks so much for listening and go request your copy today.

Once again, the book is called Ordinary. We'd love to hear from you. Our number 833-843-2673.

You can call us for that or any one of our offers. Let's get to another question, Adriel. This one came through our website at corechristianity.com slash radio.

It's from Matt. He says, hi, Bill and Adriel. I wanted to ask a preemptive question for you both. I'm worried about conflict between family, friends, and church members after the election, especially since it's already been a stressful year. I know that Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers in the Sermon on the Mount. How can I prepare myself to be a peacemaker? I think we, or many of us, at least I know I certainly am thinking about this very question, Matt.

We've got Thanksgiving coming around the corner, and you imagine sitting around the dinner table with friends and family. And I don't know about you, but at least in my family, you know, there are differences of opinion on these kinds of things, and there can be some argument. And so we want to think as believers, as followers of Jesus, how can we engage in these kinds of discussions in a way that's fruitful, in a way that's encouraging, in a way that brings peace, as Jesus said? You know, one of the reasons that tensions are so high is because people put so much hope in this process, the next political candidate, you know, so much hope, in fact, that if things don't go their way, they're absolutely devastated.

They're filled even with anger, with rage. Four years ago when this happened, we saw a lot of reactions that were frankly heartbreaking because it highlights how much hope people put in this present world and in political leaders. I think, you know, of the psalmist in Psalm 118, he says, it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, and yet it seems like all around us, people are putting confidence in man, and so there's a lot of room for disappointment. I told my church this just the other day, you know, this season reveals to us oftentimes where it is that we're placing our confidence, our hope, where others are placing their hope. Frankly, I'm troubled by the fact that Christians who are often timid about Jesus, slow to learn theology, to study the scriptures, are bold apologists and evangelists for their political candidate, whoever that candidate might be.

You know, they'll watch hours of videos and read article after article learning about why their view is right, but they don't desire to draw near to the Lord, to study the scriptures, to learn theology, to grow in their understanding of who God is. Why are we shy about Jesus, but willing to lose friends and family over politics? I mean, Jesus is really easy to defend. His record is spotless.

He's perfect. He's holy. The gospel, the good news that we've been given as Christians is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

This is good news for the whole world. The forgiveness of sins. If there's anything we should be bold about, even willing to lose friends over, it's the good news of Jesus Christ.

It's following Jesus, and yet so often we're shy about Jesus and bold, willing to fight over other things. And so how do you bring peace? Well, I think what you need to do is point to the ultimate hope.

Highlight the fact that we can all agree that the world is broken. I think everybody agrees that there are serious problems in the world today, but that our ultimate hope for restoration isn't rooted in who the next president is. And that means, and there's good news here, that means that whoever is in office come November, we know who's on the throne, Jesus Christ. And that should give us a sense of deep peace as the people of God, and the ability to engage others, even people with whom we disagree, with charity and respect, because our hope isn't rooted in the things that maybe their hope is rooted in. And so I think we want to be models of grace.

I think we need to be sensitive to the concerns that people have on different sides of the political spectrum, you know, willing to listen. I think of what the Apostle Paul said in Colossians chapter four, beginning in verse two. And this is, I think, good advice for all of us and for you, Matt. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time, and let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Boy, let's strive for that when we're around the table with friends and family. Let's point to the ultimate hope, the mystery of Christ.

Let's speak graciously. Let's speak to one another in a way that is honoring to Christ, and let's help people who are frustrated and struggling. Look to the hope that is deeper than maybe the one that they've been looking to, the hope that can only be found in Jesus. Matt, that should ground you, and it should help you as you engage with others and seek to bring that peace to them as well. God bless you, and God bless all of you who are thinking about this very question, because I know that there are so many.

God bless you. You know, Adriel, there's a great proverb that I often think about during times like these. Proverbs 15, 18, a hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. Yeah, there is a lot of wonderful wisdom in the book of Proverbs about how we should use our tongue, how we should talk, and that's just one of those verses that I think helps us in these discussions, and thank you for bringing that up. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and here's a call that came in from Robert. I have a home care worker here, and she's been talking about out-of-the-body experiences, and I'd like you to address that through God's holy word. Oh, the body experience I can relate to is when the Apostle John was taking instruction from the Holy Spirit concerning the Revelation. Thank you very much.

Bye. Yeah, thank you for that question, and yeah, my mind did go to the book of Revelation as well, where John has this vision that the Lord gives to him. I also think of Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 12, the first part of that chapter. Listen to what Paul said. 2 Corinthians 12, beginning in verse 1.

I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.

God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. It seems like right there Paul makes it clear that he knew a guy who some time ago had experienced perhaps an out-of-body experience.

It was sort of like what you see in the book of Revelation, lifted up into heaven to receive this revelation from the Lord. And so you do have this sort of scriptural warrant, I guess, for this kind of thing, but I would just say, you know, we have to be very, very careful. I've heard so many stories related to the occult about these sort of out-of-body experiences.

So I think that there's something here that, at least for me, you know, somebody talks about this kind of thing, gives me pause. You know, back to that text in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, one of the things that's really important there is that Paul says that what this individual heard in this perhaps out-of-body experience was not meant to be shared. It goes back to what we were talking about earlier, how a lot of us are looking for this extraordinary experience. We want the Christian life to be this out-of-body experience, that kind of a thing, but that's not how the Christian life really is. And even this experience that this individual had, according to the Apostle Paul, was not meant to be the focus of the Christian church, because it wasn't supposed to be shared.

Well, what is supposed to be the focus of the Christian church? Paul makes it very clear in other places, like in 1 Corinthians 15, where he talks about the message of the gospel. He says, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

This is what I received. It's of first importance, and this is what I hand on to the church. Jesus. The message of the gospel. And what concerns me is a lot of times with these sort of supernatural out-of-body experiences, the focus oftentimes is not that message.

It's on the individual. It's on some sort of secret knowledge that they discovered. I'm not saying that that's everyone, but I am saying we have to be so discerning, and at the end of the day, fix your mind and your heart on that which is of first importance, that which God has revealed to you in his word.

Even those supernatural experiences that people claim to have had in the Scriptures, like Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 12, well, that wasn't for the church. Now what is meant to be repeated is this. Jesus Christ came, died, and rose again for your justification. Rest in him and life eternal. 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.