Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. Thank you for joining me for the very first time. My name is Brian Thomas, and I greet you in the name of our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And as always, we give honor to the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Bible.
Well, I have a special guest today, a show that you want to stay around to listen to. I have with me Elder James Faison, who is Elder at Upper Room Church of God in Christ. He is the author of Tackled by Faith, When Sports and the Cross Collide, Student Athlete's Guide to Success. And I want to just say I encourage you to pick up the book and read it. I have a copy of it myself.
I highly recommend it. He's also the founder of God First Campus Ministry. So, James, I want to welcome you to the program. God bless you, Brian, and God bless the viewing audiences as well, too. And just glad to be here on the show. And I also wanted to add, hey, I'm just building on another man's foundation.
The Upper Room Church of God in Christ had actually started college ministry, but I had a chance to pick it up and run with it as well, too. So just building on that foundation. Well, James, I had you come on today because a few weeks ago you started a firestorm on social media. I mean, you might as well have taken a five gallon can of gasoline and mix some kerosene in there and and some diesel fuel and just open up a blowtorch because you posted on Facebook a graphic that stated the facing family supports Trump.
And like I said, it just opened up a firestorm. I saw the comments flying in and I said, oh, man, this this is very, very interesting. Now for our listeners out there, you can't see us. Of course, we're on the radio.
But James, along with myself, we're both black. But yet he posted on Facebook that he is supporting Donald Trump. And I saw comments flying in. I saw people saying things.
I mean, they were reacting as if you had denounced Jesus Christ or something and had turned to satanic worship. They were saying, you know, pray for him and he's going to come around. This is so bad and all of this. So so let's talk about this. Let's let's in one sentence and we'll unpack it more as we go along. But in one or two sentences, tell me why is the facing family voting for Donald Trump?
Yes, sir. I'm really excited about the opportunity of supporting a president who whose views best line up with with the Bible, most importantly, and also my biblical convictions. And Donald Trump, I believe he's the best candidate as it as it relates to protecting life, sanctity of human life in the womb.
He's not in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and just all of the social justice and those things that have now become religion. And he's also I really appreciate definitely the stance that he takes on just just supporting the things of God, the things that that definitely align with the scripture as relates to marriage in between a man and a woman. And so those are the things that really stand out to me. And I set those things as the highest priority. And and I believe every Christian should set them as a as the highest priority whenever they're deciding to vote.
Yeah. Well said. Well said. So, of course, when we go out to vote, when we make these decisions, everybody has some kind of criteria that they go by.
You've already mentioned, of course, that you're looking at the word of God, what God's word says and how the candidates line up with that. But can you can you talk a little bit more as far as when you make a decision to vote, what are the top three issues that are on your priority list? Yes, sir. Indeed.
The top three. Number one, the sanctity of life and protecting life in the womb. I'm definitely in support of the Bible's definition when it comes to abortion.
And we believe that murder is definitely against the word of God. And then we believe the scripture of Jeremiah one and five before I formed in the womb. I knew you. And before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. I'm also a big, big believer of Psalms 139 and 13 through 16.
This is for you. You created my innermost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I'm not going to go all the way through the whole scripture, but you can read that on your own time. But also Isaiah 49 and 15.
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? And that really hits at the heart of just the issue when it comes to abortion. And so I'm in support because, look, I'll tell you this. If the Democratic Party changed their views on abortion and they were pro-life, I would go with them.
I would really go with them. But then also when it comes to same sex marriage, we know in Romans chapter one and 24 through 28, we know how the people had literally just turned themselves over. The men were doing evil deeds with men and the women were doing evil deeds with women.
And God just turned them over to their own pretty much to their own doing. And so we don't believe in same sex anything. And so I'm just in support of the president for that. And also the third reason is that he's not a big fan of Black Lives Matter. And I'll tell you that Black Lives Matter in the sense of, look, it matters in general.
The statement matters. But as far as the group and supporting that group and their Marxist agenda also with their agenda as far as destroying the nuclear family, he's not in support of that. And I'm not in support of it as well. And I'm always asking the question, I'm like, where's the show me the dollars? Where's the money going at with the Black Lives Matter group that has received? Because we have not seen it within our community. And that's where we should be asking, hey, I need my reparations. We need to ask Black Lives Matter. Those are excellent points.
I mean, you're just given the word of God, the foundation of the word of God. And I say to myself again, how can people who claim to be Christians yet go and support a party that advocates for the killing of the unborn? It just it just blows my mind. And we're going to talk about that a little bit more coming up. But I'm glad you did highlight Black Lives Matter. I did a show a few weeks ago in which I was highlighting the fact that this Black Lives Matter movement, just like you said, it's a Marxist socialist anti-Christian movement and it is rooted in witchcraft.
All this stuff. Say her name, say his name is nothing but conjuring spirits of the dead. And these are demonic spirits that people are calling on. And this is happening in our streets. And you see churches that have these signs in the in the yard and even inside of the buildings. Black Lives Matter.
Say her name, say his name. And I'm trying to tell people you as a church, you are going along with witchcraft. You are siding with things that are of the enemy, the devil. So I'm so glad you mentioned that because people need to be aware of what it is that they're supporting.
And you're right, Bron. And I'll tell you this is something that I was talking to a family member of mine. This was almost three years ago. And this was whenever, whenever, whenever same sex marriage and things like that came on.
We're in this discussion that was in the spotlight a lot and probably even longer than three years ago. But I was talking to a family member and they were in support of a candidate who was in, he was a preacher who was in support of same sex marriage. And I asked and I asked, I asked my, I asked my family member, I asked him, I said, so why are you supporting this person? They don't support what the Bible supports.
And this is what he told me. And it makes clear sense now why the world is moving in the way that they're moving. He said, I don't support them because they support same sex marriage or any of those other things, or they are in support of abortion. I support them for their social justice issues. And so now we have made social justice the new religion. No longer Christianity, but it's social justice. Yeah.
Yeah. You're so right. You're so right. The social justice gospel.
That's, that's number one in so many churches now. And it's sad indeed. So as we continue, here's the thing, you know, as you're talking, I was thinking about the fact that Joe Biden, you know, Joe Biden said that if you don't vote for him, you're not black. So, so I don't know if you notice James, but you're not black apparently, according to Joe Biden. But you know, when we, when we look at things, I don't know why it is, but for some reason with, with our ethnic group, there's this tribal mentality that everybody has to go along with the same thing. We all have to think alike and do do things alike. And we're the only group within this nation that is that way.
And I just don't understand it. So I did a little research though, when it comes to elections and politics and according to pure research.org, 87 percent of black voters identify with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic compared with just 7 percent who identify as Republican or lean Republican. So why is it that you think the majority of blacks in the general population and even in the church, why do they side with the Democrat Party?
I would just say most, most people are uninformed. And, and, you know, we all, we grew up and we thank God, I thank God for my parents. They did an awesome job raising me and bringing me up into church and having an understanding of having a foundation in Christ.
I thank God for my mother and my father, who were definitely both in my life. But I'll just say the one, the one thing that we didn't necessarily talk about it as much was, was voting. And it was almost an understood rule of you just vote straight Democrat.
There wasn't necessarily any research that was done. It was just the norm. It's just almost like, hey, a family's favorite recipe. This is the recipe that just gets passed down. This is the same thing to everybody. Everybody cooks, maybe every Thanksgiving or maybe every Christmas, just the same thing.
It just gets passed down. But once I had a chance to really to study and compare to compare the parties and line them up with the scriptures, I mean, it became evident to me who I needed to vote for. Mm hmm. Absolutely. If you're just now joining us, my name is Brian Thomas and I have with me Elder James facing. And we are discussing the fact that a few weeks ago he created a firestorm on Facebook when he made it public that the facing family supports Donald Trump.
And I wanted to have him on to to talk about this because I do think that there is just a lot of lack of knowledge out there and people don't really understand what they're doing. And I do want to clarify, James, in which in making that statement, you are referring to your household. You're not speaking of the facing extended family as a whole, right? Definitely not. And I think on the Facebook post, they made it clear that they weren't in support of.
But definitely my household. All right. All right. Well, you know, I do think eyes are opening as we look around. We look at what is happening when this year, I mean, 2020 has been it's just been a very strange year. And when I look at stuff that is happening with the violence in the streets, the rioting, the protesting. And it's very clear in where the parties are siding the Democratic Party, for the most part, is not is not speaking against this stuff. Matter of fact, there are even those on record who in high positions of leadership that are encouraging it, whereas you see the Republican Party that are going against it. And I do think it's hurting the Democrat Party because I think a lot of people are saying we are to be a people, a nation of law and order. And when people see that their property can get destroyed with with no consequences in a party is going along with that.
They say, why? Because when you look at all these major cities like Portland, when you look at Seattle across the nation, these were Democratic. These are Democratic run cities in which these people are out destroying people's properties, their businesses. And the leaders, the officials of the area are saying, just just sit back and let it happen. You're absolutely right about that.
And it's it's really important to understand even with what's what's going on that. Look, I mean, we can't just like African-American community is doing now, you can't have group thinking. It's almost like the media, the media is just there. If you literally say anything, if you say anything against Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter has become the new protected class. And it's almost like, look, the churches were being attacked, for pastors being attacked, for having services in their churches, even though they were socially distancing and keeping everything, keeping everybody safe, they're being under attack. But nothing has been said against Black Lives Matter. Whenever whenever people are out rioting and covid-19 numbers are going up, you never heard the media say that the numbers could possibly be going up because of the protesting and the rioting. It's always just, all right, we've got to keep it keep the churches closed.
We can let the Walmarts and everything else stay open, but let's keep the churches closed. And that's a whole other subject that I kind of wanted to bring up as well, too. It is just as far as just how the media is portraying things. Yeah, you're so right. Yeah, you're right. Is the churches, they're pointing the finger at churches about covid-19 and churches gathering.
Like you said, the abortion clinics can stay open when it comes to Black Lives Matter out there gathering and rioting. Nothing is said. You know, it's just complete silence. Yeah, you're you're definitely speaking the truth. If you are just now joining us.
My name is Brian Thomas. Again, I am talking with James facing on the fact that his family is supporting Donald Trump. So don't go away. We're going to come back with more on the other side of the break.
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If you are just now joining us, I have with me elder James facing and we're discussing the upcoming election and his support for Donald Trump. If you would like to contact us to hear more programs, you can visit our Web site, God first dot org. That's G.O.D. the number one S.T.
dot org. You can also write us at God First Bible Fellowship P.O. Box two six six night deal.
North Carolina two seven five four five. All right, James, I want to as we go into the final part of this message, I do I do want to talk a little bit more about the topic of abortion because you mentioned that. And I heard a lady giving a testimony not too long ago and she was speaking of a vision that she had and she was stating in how she went to heaven. And there's debate, of course, as to whether this lady really went to heaven in return.
There's debate about that. But the thing that she said that really I thought he at home was she said that she went to a location in heaven and there was Jesus. And Jesus had all these little children around him. I mean, just as far as she could see, there were these little children. And she asked him, who were these? And Jesus said, these are all the children that were murdered in the mother's womb. And it just broke her heart.
It just broke her heart. And we've killed millions of babies. And so how is it that when we say that we are Christians, but yet we go in and vote for a party that is advocating for that? You know, how how how do people reconcile? Because, of course, I know that you don't take that approach or that stance. But but do you think is lack of conviction or do you think is lack of knowledge? We've already talked about we know how you're as blacks, you're born into the Democratic Party. It's just like you said, a recipe is handed down.
You're supposed to go that route. But let's speak to that for a moment as far as how people are supporting politicians that are advocating abortion. I think one of the biggest things that people really need to do and and and I actually I had this is part of the reason why I had even made the post as well, because what I want people to really do is to get from behind their social media platforms and just making posts and actually get out in the community and make a difference. And and I'll just say that is one of the things that our church has done with Upper Room Church of God in Christ. And I thank God for my pastor as well, Bishop Patrick Elwood and Sr. But we have been at the abortion clinic and and there's a group that goes out every Saturday morning and they're out there. And they're telling telling the people that look there and most of the people that are showing up, you know who they are. They're us.
And I'll tell you this from years past, I even remember almost seven years ago, even more than that. But there's been Catholics normally that have been going out and and going out there and praying for black mothers to keep their babies. We don't see Black Lives Matter out protesting and standing for life in that manner. But but the point I want to bring home is that it's sad. And I encourage the people that have made some of the posts on my own on Facebook.
I encourage them. I said, look, come out to the abortion clinic. Come out there and see the atmosphere, be in the atmosphere. Have a chance to get cussed out by somebody who's escorting. Escorting a black mother into the abortion clinic.
Somebody who who doesn't care about life. Come out there and just see. And I believe it had changed the heart of a lot of people if they had opportunity to get out there and see exactly the work that was being done. And not only are we out there not not protesting, we're out there out there saving babies. And I wish I was doing it every Saturday.
I'm not out there every Saturday. But the time that I have been and I've actually taken my son out there to see it as well, too. I mean, it is one of the it is it is a the environment I'm telling you is you can just feel the presence of God, even as the saints are praying. But then you can feel just even how the enemy is just out there just trying to attack. And literally people have become desensitized to to it now. It doesn't bother them anymore.
It's almost like in the Bible says where your conscience has become seared as with a hot iron and conscious of becomes seared as it as it relates to abortion. Yeah, it doesn't bother them anymore. Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't harm them. Or they'll say, well, that's not that's not they're not a part of my family. I'm not worried about them, but we still have to bring bring it back around.
If black lives really matter, then those babies in the womb, their lives should matter as well. Yeah, exactly. And folks, the day of judgment is coming. We're going to have the answer for it. And people may say, well, I'm not participating in it.
It doesn't involve me. But we know the scripture tells us very clearly that for those who just sit by and do nothing and they know that it's going on, you, too, are going to have the answer for that. And and we always like to say anyone that has had an abortion, if you repent, don't don't allow the devil to eat you up with guilt. The blood of Jesus Christ can can wash that sin away, just like any other sin.
So you're free. But but be an advocate now to keep others from going out and making the same mistake. And, you know, James, when I saw your post, I was not surprised at all because I've known you for a number of years. I know your church. I know what you all stand for. So I was definitely not surprised the least bit. But we've already talked about this to a point. And I think I know the answer to this question. But has there ever been a time in your life in which you were a Democratic only voter?
Most definitely. I mean, that's that almost goes without being said, because it was just like I said, that was just how you were brought up. You were just told to vote straight Democrat. I mean, to no fault of my parents or anything like that. I mean, they they taught me what they knew. That's what they were taught. And so, yes. And I'll say this. I was even at a point my wife had encouraged me to actually even to vote more because I was I was ignorant for a long time.
I'll say even almost 10 years ago, my wife, she she really encouraged me. She was just like, look, you really need to start exercising your right to vote because I was one of those. And that's another sad statistic, because there's still quite a few African-Americans that are not even both. Yeah. They're not even letting their voice be heard. But but it was just the norm for me just to vote straight Democrat. Yeah.
Yeah. Same with me. Like you said, I was born into it. It was just the way it was. It was like that what Joe Biden said, if you if you don't vote for me, you ain't black. That was if you if you were a black person, you were a Democrat.
That was just how it was. And I went along with it. But then the time came and it was in the early 2000s when I started getting more involved in politics. And when I was looking at what I'm reading in my Bible and I was a born again believer in Christ had been for a number of years.
And I'm thinking I'm saying to myself, this is what the Bible says. But when I go in and cast that ballot with the Democrat Party, that platform says the opposite. And I started studying that platform. And not only that, it was around that same time period when they decided to vote God out of the platform. And there was a bit of controversy. And then they, you know, kind of slid it back in. But the party is definitely going further and further left as time goes on.
And we're trying to get people to wake up to it. And so that's what really opened my eyes. And so is it the same with you as far as you grew in Christ? Your biblical convictions is what caused you to change. Because for me, I made the switch. I was a registered Democrat. I changed and I became simply unaffiliated. And I decided I'm just voting the Bible. But I can tell you that since I made that change, I have voted Republican every single time. Because every time the Republican platform is lining up closest with the Bible. Yes, sir. I agree with you, Brian.
And I'm 100 percent the same way as well. And as I've grown into things of God, it's definitely allowed me to have a biblical worldview as it relates to voting and just life in general. And I'll tell you this, what I didn't allow, I didn't allow education to take me farther away from the Lord. Because if you haven't noticed, what's happening now is that a lot of minorities, and especially young people, whenever they go into the college campus, the statistics show that the majority of college students, they end up walking away from the Lord during their college years. And it's sad because as they're getting their higher education, they're getting their learning, but they're losing their burden for Jesus Christ.
And that's that. And that's what I'm thankful to the Lord that I didn't get my education and lose Christ at the same time. But I was able to grow the more in the word.
And now that has definitely benefited me and my family throughout our life. Praise God for it, brother. Praise God. So in the final minute or two that we have here, what else do you have to say?
We've already been speaking to a lot of our black brothers and sisters on this topic already during the show. But do you have anything else to say to those who are professing Christians? They're going to church. They're lifting holy hands.
They're praising the Lord. But yet they go out and they are marching and touting the Democrat Party as the way to go. They're saying that the Republicans are racist. They're saying Donald Trump is racist. If Donald Trump is a racist, you are a black man.
You're voting for a racist. What do you have to say to those people who are deciding to go that route? I would ask that the body of Christ would really take the time to really see the face of the Lord and really pray. And in that prayer that they would really their beliefs would line up with what the scripture says. And I really want to encourage the believers as well to keep in mind that as the government is trying to limit our accesses to church, they put out and told us that churches were non-essential at one point in time and we bought into it, sadly. Thank God our church didn't buy into it, but a lot of churches bought into it. And you've got to remember what the scripture says in Hebrews 9 and 23.
I want to say this. It says it was necessary then for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. But Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven itself now to appear for us in God's presence.
And listen to this. It says the sanctuary of God is a pattern of heaven and communion with God and his sanctuary is to his people a heaven on earth, according to the Matthew Henry commentary. So we're missing out by not assembling ourselves together. We're missing out on the things of God. We're missing out on really being able to bring home the point to the Black Lives Matter group.
We're missing out on being able to bring home the point to the Democratic Party. If we're not assembling ourselves together, we're missing out big time and we're not growing in the things of the Lord. Yes, we can get it at home, but it's important that we gather ourselves together because the sanctuary is a pattern of heaven and a communion with God and his sanctuary is to his people a heaven on earth. So we've got to get back in church. We've got to get back more than just in church. We've got to grow in our personal walk with Christ. And as we grow in our personal walk with Christ, the Lord will reveal to us how we should vote. And that's my prayer for everybody that you will grow in the things of God and let the Lord reveal himself to you on how you should vote. Amen.
Amen, brother. I'm sitting here giving you an ovation because you are definitely speaking the truth. They point out his personality flaws. But I tell people we are voting for his policies, not his personality.
And I heard a lady say the other day that Trump's personality will not be impacting her children 20 years from now, but his policies will. I just want to thank you so much for coming on and sharing these great truths to the audience today. And I just commend you for the bold stand that you're taking. How can our listeners get in touch with you if they want to find out more about your ministry, find your book, your Web site?
How can they reach you? Yes. Thank you again, Brian.
Definitely. They can get they can get in contact with me at tackled by faith at Yahoo dot com. That's tackled by faith at Yahoo dot com. And also the Web site is tackled by faith. It's just tackled by faith. If you Google that where I'm on Amazon, the book is on Amazon. Thank you for mentioning the book as well. And hey, it's all about Jesus Christ and it gives all glory back back to him.
Hopefully it doesn't point back to me. That book is going back to Christ. And so I thank God for that opportunity and thank God for this opportunity as well. Amen.
Well said. Well, hey, brother, keep standing on the foundation of the word of God. God will bless you for it. Don't worry about any that turn their backs on you because Jesus Christ is with you. Keep fighting the good fight.
God is going to bless you forward and see you through. God bless you, Brian. Thank you again, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And to our listeners, please come back.
Join us again next week. Until then, we encourage you to remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Our copyright policy is available at our Web site, God first dot org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God. Thank you.
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