John MacArthur recently told President Trump in a phone conversation that “any real true believer is going to be on your side”. He revealed some of the content of this conversation with President Trump in an interview with Ryan Helfenbein of the Liberty University Falkirk Center.
In that interview he also made the following statements:
“He [President Trump] called me after the Sunday morning service, and he was very gracious and said, ‘I just want to thank you for taking a stand. Church is essential, and I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing.’ And then we talked a little bit about why, from certainly a biblical standpoint, Christians could not vote Democratic…
Because there’s no way that a Christian can affirm the slaughter of babies, homosexual activity, homosexual marriage, or any kind of gross immorality – no way we could stand behind a candidate who was affirming transgender behavior, which of course is really the reprobate mind of Romans 1…
I said these things aren’t even political for us, sir … these things are biblical. These things are laid down by the Word of God, and we love God. We desire to honor him, and upholding righteousness in a society is what a church is supposed to do. I said any real true believer is going to be on your side in this election, because it’s not just an individual. It’s an entire set of policies that Christians cannot in any way, affirm.”
I would agree with everything John MacArthur said to President Trump, if he had used the verb “should” instead of “could”.
MacArthur is absolutely right that from a Biblical standpoint, no Christian should be voting democratic anymore. Long gone are the days when elections were simply about differences in economic policies, but instead elections are now coming down to the moral direction of our country. Will our country embrace abortion, homosexuality, homosexual marriage and transgenderism? The answer to any Bible believing should be a resounding no. No Bible believing Christian should be able to affirm the platform of the democratic party on these moral issues.
So, if John MacArthur had said “any real true believer SHOULD be on your side in this election” instead of “is going to be on your side” to President Trump, I would have 100% agreed with his statements.
The fact of the matter is that true believing Christians are capable of all kinds of sins. King David committed adultery with a man’s wife and then had him murdered. Peter denied Christ.
The Scriptures are clear what the Gospel is and how we are saved:
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
I Corinthians 15:1-4 (KJV)
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Romans 10:9-10 (KJV)
The Gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is that if we believe that Jesus Christ as was the sinless Son of God, God in the flesh, and that he died on the cross our sins and rose again the third day we will be saved.
And yes, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. Certainly, there will be a change if we are truly believers. But it is possible for believers to have faulty views of various other doctrines in the Bible and still be saved. We are not saved by perfectly believing, understanding and applying all the doctrines of the Bible. We are saved by believing the Gospel.
And while I greatly admire John MacArthur for many of his stands on the Word of God, this is an area I disagree with him in and it really comes down to his Calvinist views. John MacArthur does not believe in the concept of carnal Christians or that true Christians can be led astray by any false doctrines.
But the truth is there are and have been since the time of the Apostles, true Christians who did believe the true Gospel, but were wrong in many other doctrines they believed. They were also wrong in how they conducted themselves as Christians at times. And we must as Christians make that distinction.
For if being saved means we must not only believe the Gospel, but must be right in our interpretation and application of every doctrine in the Bible, as well as in all our behaviors, then none of us can truly know for sure we are saved. And also, such teaching adds works to the Gospel. But the Scriptures tell us in Ephesians 5:28 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”.
This is why I have said many times on my blogs, that while I am ardent preacher of and believer in the doctrines of Biblical gender roles, I do not believe that someone has to perfectly understand or apply these doctrines to be saved. In fact, I believe it is possible for a Christian egalitarian to be saved if they believe the Gospel. At the same time, I believe we as Bible believing Christians must fervently oppose the wrong teachings of Christian egalitarians just as Paul withstood Peter “to the face” in Galatians 2:11 when Peter was in the wrong.
And finally, returning to this subject of the 2020 election. I would go even further than what MacArthur said here as to the reasons why Christians should not vote for Democrats in this election and should instead vote for Republicans. The government under Obama not only upheld false rights for homosexuals and transgenders, but it also went after Christian business owners trying to make them go against their faith. And in more recent years Christian liberty has been assaulted in the private sector through Big Tech companies as well as organizations like BLM and Antifa who use fear and intimidation get people fired from their jobs or scare local officials into conceding to their demands.
And if Biden is elected in the 2020 election, the Obama policies of Christian oppression will come back in a much worse fashion with the radical Leftist Kamala Harris as Vice President pulling Biden’s strings.
We as Bible believing Christians need to vote for Trump, because after this election he does not have to concern himself with reelection. That means he can go after those who are seeking to tear down this country with a vengeance. And I firmly believe that God has brought Trump as our leader to be “a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” as Romans 13:4 states. In other words, if Trump gets reelected, he can take the gloves off and bring an even greater fight against the Leftist forces of evil in this second American civil war in which we are now engaged.