BodEquip Ministries - Equipping the Body of Christ to Live Abundantly.

2020 Post-Election Presidential Transition

(By Christopher Long, BodEquip Ministries)

When I last wrote an article regarding the U.S. political realm, it was on election day before the results were in. In that, I encouraged all that regardless of winner, that as Christians our calling is to live from the eternal Kingdom of God and not be looking to any man as our "savior" for this country, and that we need to correctly be identifying what our role as Christians is. That article is I believe needed now more than ever and is available here.

Prior to the election I had already written quite substantially in another article regarding my own feelings on Donald Trump so I will not reitterate those now. Since election day, I am aware that many people that voted for Donald Trump, which includes many Christians, in line with what Donald Trump himself told them have felt that there was major widespread fraud and election irregularities and that the election was "stolen". It has come out that there were some "oddities" in certain locales that have been provable such as when they found thousands of votes in Georgia that were never counted and so forth, and I think one would have to be completely blind to not realize that there were some very questionable election practices going on with the way some states ran their elections and recently changed election laws.

With that said...

I am really concerned right now because I have seen more than one Christian that in my view has gone absolutely "off the deep end" into a web of conspiracies. People that are otherwise wonderful people and dear Christians. Just today I saw Christians sharing that President Trump was hunkered up in Cheyenne mountain and had signed an Insurrection act. Without stating it, the implication of course being that he's preparing and encouraging the true "patriots" to fight for our country in a physical way. None of that is true.

There was an election and 75 million people voted for Donald Trump over Joe Biden. That IS a lot of people and IS more than voted for him in 2016. I know many Christian "prophets" said Donald Trump was sure-fire to have a 2nd term. Unfortunately, most Christians have no understanding (or wrong understanding) of prophecy or of God's sovereignty as it relates to these things. They just think that if God sovereignly wills a president for us that that is what will happen. That is a complete wrong view of God's sovereignty!! I addressed this much more completely in chapter 2 of my book, but just as a bottom-line: GOD DIDN'T VOTE! WE DID! Americans did. God gave people choice and He's not forcing them to vote a certain way. Whether you think there was widespread fraud or not, you'd have to have been living under a rock the last 4 years to not know that half the country can't stand Donald Trump. Lots of people voted for Donald Trump. But lots of people also voted for Joe Biden. I know Christians that voted for Trump and I know Christians that voted for Biden. Even if Donald Trump technically "won" because there was fraud, I just don't see how it's possible that he won by the "landslide" he claims.

Donald Trump has had 2 months to prove widespread election fraud. That didn't happen. I know the arguments on the other side that courts didn't hear the arguments etc. That may be true. But there have been MANY courts that have considered whether to hear or in some cases have heard things and they chose not to act on it. This was based on what was filed! The courts are the branch of government to remedy any election fraud. The courts they went to were not just ones overseen by democratic appointees, but republican ones as well. The courts did not rule in Donald Trump's favor. And it has been widely reported that much of what Donald Trump has actually SAID regarding fraud has not lined up with what was actually filed in court...

But Donald Trump didn't give up. He then tried to get Congress to nullify certain states' official certified results. At the same time, he tries to get his own Vice President, Mike Pence, to intervene and unilaterally act to not allow certification of certain states. Forget Donald Trump and this election for a second here. Do you realize how dangerous that is politcally as an American? If states send certified election results and the Vice President has the power to unilaterally not allow the votes from those states to count? Mike Pence, a man who I have respected these last 4 years as my brother in the Lord and have very much appreciated his calm and Christ-like demeanor (in stark opposition to the President's own demeanor on many an occasion), refused to intervene in what as far as I am aware is the only time he has not publicly backed the President. And the President goes after him just as he has with everyone else that has ever disagreed with him...

Then the President goes and gives a fiery speech on the morning of January 6th in front of lots of his supporters and encourages them to go to the Capitol building. He tells them again that this election has been stolen and that "we will never concede" and that "we will stop the steal." He did NOT tell them to commit violence or to storm inside the capitol building and deface it etc and indeed even specifically said that those gathered would gather at the Capitol "peacefully". But he also used very strong language and rhetoric that it is not hard at all to see how some on the "fringe" could have interpreted as a license to literally physically storm inside the Capitol and disrupt proceedings.

Now there's nothing necessarily wrong with people protesting at the Capitol (happens all the time) and particularly given that, there are definitely VERY legitimate questions of why security was so lax there for a situation that pretty much anyone with any brains could see could easily be a major powder keg. Many people that were there at the Capitol I'm sure were appalled at the idea of some storming inside and doing what occured, but unfortunately the entire group gets tainted by the bad actors by the media (some could easily argue UNLIKE what happens on the other side - i.e. at the left-driven protests over the summer where things were painted opposite...). Whatever those people that rushed inside the Capitol thought they were doing though, they did great damage to both President Trump and the arguments of those that were there, including those legislators inside who were trying to make the legitimate arguments to look into some of the election problems.

I think there are some election questions that do need to be addressed so that all can feel that our elections are fair. That unfortunately isn't near as likely to happen now.

On the other side, you now have the left extremely emboldened and taking actions that very much prove the very points and concerns of millions of Trump supporters.

We already have a largely one-sided news media that has been non-stop attacking President Trump for 4 years in an objectively unfair manner. But now they are openly calling for the silencing of conservative voices under the guise of quelling "hate speech". The cries to get Fox News off the air have intensified (though strangely, and dumbly I might add, also from some on the right). Twitter has banned President Trump (who had over 80 MILLION followers!) as have Facebook and others. Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon have all banded together to effectively shutdown Parler which was an app that many conservatives fled Facebook and Twitter to go to because they felt Twitter and FB were unfairly censoring conservatives. In addition, numerous other companies have come out such as large payment processor Stripe saying they won't process donations for the Trump campaign. And other large companies are vowing to suspend political donations to those in Congress who raised concerns (objections) about the election...

So you take a situation where there's a whole VERY LARGE group of millions upon millions of people who already feel they have been labeled and judged and dismissed for years and for whom they think Donald Trump "got them" and who feel that Trump was unfairly pushed out by a corrupt system ("deep state") and by the extreme left media and what does the Left do in response? They shut down the President's 80million+ follower account and shutdown apps and media that conservatives use. How dumb can you be? Of course that's going to just further fuel feelings that the system is rigged and that conservatives are targetted to be censored and will necessarily push people even further into being likely to buy into false conspiracy theory stuff. Because let's face it: It's actually getting even objectively harder to tell now what is outright crazy conspiracy and what's the truth. When a few individuals/companies wield such incredible power that they control the societal flow of information and can effectively "erase" people they don't like from having a voice that is a very dangerous thing and everyone regardless of politics should be able to see that. There's also a problem when only one side of the political aisle trusts the so-called "fact checkers" because the other side feels they are notably biased based on the way they phrase things and because they are employed by firms that objectively seem to be biased...

There ARE major concerns right now with what we are doing as a country with censoring speech and demonizing people. President-elect Biden and the left can talk Unity all day long, but you can't do that while simultaneously calling or insinuating half the county that voted for Trump are "haters", "racists", "sexists", "fools", etc. And you really think impeaching the President or trying to invoke the 25th amendment when he has days left in office is going to help our country heal? All the democrats and big tech are doing right now is throwing much more gasoline on an already major fire. If they REALLY want to bring healing and unity, then they need to do their part by trying to understand just why it is that 75 MILLION PEOPLE in this country would vote for President Trump DESPITE his very public character deficiencies. That's not something that just "happens" - there's reasons behind it which they haven't learned in 4 years. They could start with an ASSUMPTION that it's NOT because 75 million people actually like all those character traits or that 75 million of their fellow Americans are deplorable humans who are racist haters etc.

With that said: To my fellow Christians that voted for President Trump: I'm sorry friends, but it is past time for all Christians to accept the reality that President Trump is leaving office and that Joe Biden is the next President. You may think he's illegitimate; certainly Trump thinks he is. But I don't think it's in anybody's best interest right now to be arguing that.

Ultimately as Christians, we need to be keeping the much bigger picture and perspective in mind. We also as per that article I mentioned earlier need to be representing Jesus. Christians are to be known for our love, not our division. We have WRONGLY had a problem for a long time in this country where Christianity was wrongly intertwined politically in a way that politics and politicians held "idol" type spots they shouldn't have held and that Jesus has sole claim to. We are to love Jesus AND Love people, and are supposed to represent Him to all. You don't do that by angrilly shouting at people or calling the other side horrible names or instantly unfriending people who believe differently than you. You certainly don't do that by spreading horrible gossip about people on the other side. There is a thing (which I've noted for over 20 years in ministry) where Christians tend to be REALLY gullible people and fall for stuff that we, as those that have the Truth in Jesus, should NEVER be falling for. We're supposed to Love the Truth; not be in the business of buying and spreading lies. It gives us a TERRIBLE witness!

All this fringe stuff declaring ridiculous things like that Bill Gates is behind all these sinister things and people created COVID years ago to infect people so they could profit by vaccines and that everybody on the left and in media is a pedophile (especially Hillary Clinton of course with her pizza shop ring...) and that Obama was going to declare martial law and is a muslim that wanted sharia law and now insinuating that Trump is wanting everyone to take up arms for him and all this kind of stuff HAS TO STOP NOW! I am publicly calling on every Christian to stop this nonsense now and do not share things like this unless you personally have been able to verify in a meaningful way. Particularly when it's something that is of such serious nature or is demonizing large groups of people. Part of the problem of course right now is that many on the right don't trust the "verifiers" and that is definitely largely a reaction to the left's dismissiveness and demonization of the right and the failure of journalists to actually be journalists. But regardless, we as Christians need to use MUCH MORE wisdom than we have been. You know what you have if you are a Christian? You have the Holy Spirit and part of His job is to lead us into all truth. So if nothing else, you can ask Him for wisdom and direction on something - but then you need to be willing to listen and hear Him in your spirit and not just listen for the answer you THINK you want to hear either... If what you are about to share is likely to incite anger in many others, you ESPECIALLY as a Christian need to be doing a double-check with God as to whether you should share or not.

Remember friends: Just because you saw it on the Internet doesn't make it true... If people are going to label you as a "Christian nutjob", at least let it be because of your sharing of the Gospel and their hatred of Jesus, not because you spread some nutty political conspiracy on social media... With that said, that doesn't mean there aren't some crazy things going on behind-the-scenes (I think there are - the devil's been doing some naughty work in the darkness) but we need to be really careful. There IS a conspiracy to thwart all that is good: It's called "the devil" and he is very active in all sorts of arenas. I am well aware on a personal level that there are people out there that are doing his bidding and trying their best to destroy God's people or those that they don't like or agree with, and I acknowledge there is stuff going on right now in the U.S. by some in power positions that most of us thought only went on in Communist countries like China. But ultimately, the issues are spiritual ones - don't make the mistake of just merely seeing in the natural.

I do believe pretty strongly that our world is very much heading full headlong into end-times scenario stuff. Whether that's true or not, certainly America right now is NOT in a good place at all and there's nothing great on the immediate horizon. But to my fellow Christians who voted for Trump and who like me think a bunch of Biden's policies and the left's agenda are not in line with Biblical Christianity and will further harm our country, I say: "hope is not lost." Ultimately President Trump was NEVER the answer for the problems of our country. No matter how great you liked his policies and how great of a job he did with some things, he is NOT the ultimate answer for our country and he never was. Half the country voted against him 4 years ago, and since then our country's divisions have only deepened (and even if you loved Trump's policies you have to acknowledge he didn't help with that one bit with the way he conducted his behavior) and there's still at least half the country's population that don't like him now. We have massive division issues going on. The ONLY answer to that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's always been the only long term sustaining answer for our country. And the failure of our churches to meaningfully represent Jesus correctly is EXACTLY how we as a nation have ended up where we are....it didn't just happen...it was a LONG TIME COMING.

On the positive side, the church is waking up. My concern is that while the Sleeping Church does need to wake up, it needs to do so in a loving way. Just "standing up for truth" isn't the answer. We ARE to declare truth, but we need to do so IN LOVE. And often even before we even share truth, people need to know that we love and care about them first. I have witnessed too many Christians completely BLOWING their witness and burning bridges with everyone that disagrees with them because of politics or "standing up for truth". That is EXACTLY what the devil wants!

The Church in America (and worldwide) also needs to be willing to put aside religious traditions and be willing to Scripturally re-evaluate theological positions that have led to some of our problems (more on this from me is in my book and I intend further to be coming later).

Friends, as Christians we need to not be adding to the anger and vitriol out there. Jesus, in talking of the end-times, said this: "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved." (Mt. 24:12-13 ESV).

It is not hard to see that between all the intense division and COVID and all the social isolation and people having gotten used to being more personally isolated while simultaneously identifying with specific divided groups, how it is getting increasingly easy for love to "grow cold". We need to guard our hearts to keep that from happening to US! We need to be loving on people as a practice! Love is our central trademark. If the first thing others don't think of when they think of you is that you are loving and love them, there's probably something wrong. We all need to evaluate ourselves in this area constantly!

The Apostle Paul reminds ministry leaders to tell their peeps: "Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, ..." (Titus 3:1-5a ESV). Notice that "But" there - we WERE ones that were hated by others and hating one another BUT now we've been saved by Jesus and it goes on to tell us in verse 7 that we are "heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

We need to be representing that Eternal Kingdom and not just getting sucked into reacting carnally and seeing things only through some political lens. Again I highly recommend a read-through of this previous article: 2020 Post-Election Encouragement

As for me, I will be praying for soon-to-be President Biden and Vice-President Harris. I will be praying that they genuinely experience and hear from Jesus and respond to Him and also implement policies He would have, in line with the Bible. I will be praying that there will be genuine believers around them that will uphold the Biblical standard while also showing them the genuine love of Jesus in an irrefutable way. I will be praying that all the devil's work of darkness and corruption will continue to be exposed and at the same time I will be praying for the Church of Jesus Christ to shine brightly with the love and truth found in Jesus. I expected all American Christians, whether they voted for President Trump or not, to pray for him, and I will be doing the same now for those on the other side, whether they are "legitimately" there or not. My weapons as a Christian are not carnal, but spiritual. I encourage all believers to adopt this approach.

No matter what happens with America, I intend to be looking up, for my redemption draweth nigh...

Blessings & Love to you in Jesus! :)

Christopher Long
BodEquip Ministries

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This article is Copyright by Christopher Long 2021. All rights reserved. You may quote/reprint this article for any non-commercial purpose without obtaining permission as long as you use the entire text and that all text, including this and all following notices, is not modified or removed in any fashion. For any other usage, you must obtain written permission from the author.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This is version 1.3 of this document.
Previous versions: 1.2 (January 12, 2021), 1.1 (January 12, 2021), 1.0 (January 11, 2021)
This document is provided as a ministry outreach of BodEquip Ministries. http://www.bodequip.org

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