Yep, Joe Biden IS My President

I wonder what you’re thinking…

Maybe you’re like, “Good for you, he’s not mine!”

Maybe you’re like, “That’s right girl, I’ve been waiting for this!”

And I’m over here like, “Gosh, that hurts to say out loud.”

I know, I know, it seems like the prime time to puff out my chest and jump on the #notmypresident bandwagon, doesn’t it? I mean, if I’m truly a Trump supporter and I don’t believe that this election was fairly won (which, I am… and I don’t), why would I pick that title?

Well, because it’s true.

Is it uncomfortable to say? Yes. Very. Is it fair? No. Not at all.

Does that mean I get to make sarcastic, bitter remarks about Joe Biden (soon to be followed by Kamala Harris) for however many years they remain in office? Does that mean I get to scream that he/she’s not my president? Does that mean that I get to dismiss them because they gained power by fraudulent means?

No. No, it doesn’t.

In my human mind, it seems like I should be able to do that. But my heart and human mind are incredibly sinful and flawed.

The heart is deceitful above all things… Jeremiah 17:9

But just to have an honest moment with you here… God forgive me, I struggle not to feel hatred and bitterness toward Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I don’t trust them. I don’t agree with just about anything they stand for. I struggle not to be anxious over what they will do to our country, our churches, our jobs, our families. I’m not naive. I truly believe that they have wicked and evil intentions. I believe them to be haters of God. To consider submitting in any fashion is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. I am fighting battles in my heart and mind as never before.

So, as always, when my heart and mind are tangled and confused, I go the gracious gift of God’s word to make sense of my messy feelings and thoughts. Maybe this will help you, too. (Keep in mind, that just like it’s painful to untangle a curly, snarled head of hair… it can hurt when the Word pulls at our hearts in the same way.)

I really did want Trump to win the presidency. And I still think he did, actually. But, right or wrong, for better or for worse, fair or not… he is no longer the one who currently holds that office. No matter how unjustly, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were legally sworn in. And that’s really hard to swallow.

That being said, I know some of you will take the stance that you will never call Biden or Harris president. And I feel your struggle. But as I said, back to the Word. Even before the constitution. Even when life is unfair. Always back to the Word.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness… (2 Timothy 3:16)

Ok, So Now What?

Let’s talk for a minute about the fact that there are multiple passages in the Bible that speak to being “subject” and “submissive” to our governing authorities.

Dictionary.com defines SUBMISSIVE as: inclined or ready to submit or yield to the authority of another; unresistingly or humbly obedient

And, oh that word, “submit”… we don’t like it, do we? Our human nature says that we want what we want and it’s a humbling and even humiliating thing to have to submit to the will or command of another… especially someone we really don’t like. Part of being human is wanting to do what you want. Submission doesn’t lend itself to that. And we don’t like it.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; (Isaiah 53:6a)

And maybe, like me sometimes, you’re thinking. Ummmmm… no. No way. Those passages had to be talking about something else. Different times, different circumstances, different rules. But I would tread carefully to look at scripture that way. There is always something to be said for learning about the culture and circumstance, but it’s vital that we never dismiss scripture for any reason. So let’s take a deeper look at the circumstances and background to these passages that command submission to authorities.

Paul’s Letter To The Romans

I know you’re seeing these verses a lot in my blogs but I’ve never felt more painfully aware of or compelled by them. Let’s look at Romans 13:1-2.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 

Now this one carries lots of controversy. I’ve heard it said many times that since Rome functioned differently than the U.S., (basically, they didn’t have our constitution), this doesn’t apply to us. But I’d venture that maybe we are just a bit more entitled than we’d like to admit and we are so used to doing our own thing that we can’t imagine living any other way. I’ve also heard, “Well, God didn’t allow this, it was stolen.” Nothing surprises God. Nothing. He uses all things, including humanities sinfulness, for his purpose.

Let’s consider how we should see this if we were to stop thinking that American rights are automatically God given rights. Let’s look at the circumstances under which Paul wrote the book of Romans. Chuck Swindoll’s Insight For Living Ministries says:

The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans from the Greek city of Corinth in AD 57, just three years after the 16-year-old Nero had ascended to the throne as Emperor of Rome. The political situation in the capital had not yet deteriorated for the Roman Christians, as Nero wouldn’t begin his persecution of them until he made them scapegoats after the great Roman fire in AD 64. Therefore, Paul wrote to a church that was experiencing a time of relative peace, but a church that he felt needed a strong dose of basic gospel doctrine.

Ok, so Paul was telling them to be subject to the authorities. The authority being Nero, who came to power in AD 54. Now for anyone sitting and saying we don’t have to obey Biden or Harris because they came to power by illegitimate and even wicked means… let’s chat about that for a fast second. I looked into the circumstances under which Nero came to power, here’s what Britannica had to say on the topic:

After poisoning her second husband, Agrippina incestuously became the wife of her uncle, the emperor Claudius, and persuaded him to favour Nero for the succession, over the rightful claim of Claudius’s own son, Britannicus, and to marry his daughter, Octavia, to Nero. Agrippina—having already helped bring about the murder of Valeria Messalina, her predecessor as the wife of Claudius, in 48, and ceaselessly pursuing her intrigues to bring Nero to power—eliminated her opponents among Claudius’s palace advisers, probably had Claudius himself poisoned in 54, and completed her work with the poisoning of Britannicus in 55. Upon the death of Claudius, she at once had Nero proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard, whose prefect, Sextus Afranius Burrus, was her partisan;

Talk about messed up. How many vile actions did it take to get that man to power? A fraudulent election does not give us the right to ignore Biblical commands written to the Christians in Rome who were well aware of how wickedly corrupt a government could be.

Paul’s Letter To Titus

Let’s go a few years down the road to AD 63, while persecution was growing and Nero was coming closer to insanity. Let’s look at Titus 3:1-6:

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.  Titus 3:1-3

Y’all, read this one again. Please. Paul’s letter to Titus wasn’t just a call to being begrudgingly submissive, and it certainly wasn’t a call to live like sarcastic, angry, embittered haters of the one to whom we are to be submitting. We’ve spoken out against such actions toward President Trump over the past four years and now I think we’re tempted to pick them up ourselves (at least I know I have been). We want to scream injustice, we want to deny Biden and Harris even the name of president, we want to make sarcastic and frustrated comments on any post that ticks us off and somehow we feel vindicated about it. But, truth be told, we just can’t. Not as followers of Christ. Not as children obedient to God’s word.

Let me take a moment and make something perfectly clear. We are never to back down from truth. Meekness does not equal weakness. We must never submit to the point of going against the Word of God. We must always obey God rather than man.

But we need to discern our battles. We can’t die on every hill. We need to be sure we have biblical backup when we say no, so that it is always in obedience to God, not simply obedience to our own desires. And whether we are standing against a wicked command or humbly submitting to one that doesn’t go against conscience… we must carry out both as gently and peaceably as possible. Be bold, but always respectful.

A Word From Peter

And now moving on to 1 Peter 2:13-17

Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,  or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.  Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:13-17)

Insight For Living Ministries had this to say about the timing of Peter’s letter to the local church:

In this letter, Peter spoke much about persecution, which anticipated the persecution he and other Christians would endure in the final years of Nero’s reign. At the time he wrote, Peter had not yet been arrested, an event that would lead to his martyrdom around AD 66–68. …Based on the numerous references to suffering and persecution in this letter, Peter likely wrote in AD 64, just as the persecution of Christians under Nero was ramping up.

And if you don’t know much about Nero, here’s a glimpse of his persecution towards Christians from eyewitnesstohistory.com:

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The following account was written by the Roman historian Tacitus in his book Annals published a few years after the event. Tacitus was a young boy living in Rome during the time of the persecutions.

“Therefore, to stop the rumor [that he had set Rome on fire], he [Emperor Nero] falsely charged with guilt, and punished with the most fearful tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were [generally] hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius, but the pernicious superstition – repressed for a time, broke out yet again, not only through Judea, – where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters, as to a common receptacle, and where they are encouraged. Accordingly first those were arrested who confessed they were Christians; next on their information, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as of “hating the human race.” 

In their very deaths they were made the subjects of sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights. Nero offered his own garden players for the spectacle…

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Ok, guys, believe it or not, I’m no history buff. But when we look at scripture, we really do have to take it in context. We need to understand the culture, the circumstance and the background. I needed to look deeper to see for myself who these passages were speaking to. Well, there it is. Peter and Paul were calling the church to submission to authorities under some of the worst circumstances one could imagine.

Wrapping Up

Sorry, I know that was a crazy ride, but I felt like I needed to dig a little deeper than normal on this one.

Again, I’m not calling for complacency. I’m not encouraging bowing down to any but our Lord and Savior. I still encourage us all to stand for justice in our government and political system and to guard the weak and innocent among us. And I fully believe we need to take every legal route to fight for fair and honest elections (if we don’t, what just happened will only repeat itself.) God hates dishonest gain and we mustn’t forget it.

I’m not saying to back down from these spiritual battles we face:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

I’m not encouraging a lack of awareness or that we bury our heads in the sand… I’m just encouraging us to represent Christ well as we discern our days.

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

I’m asking any Christian who feels slighted right now, to be sure our hearts are right before God. To be sure we are God’s children first, and American Citizens second. To be sure we obey God’s Word above all, above even the rights given in our constitution. To be sure we aren’t mistaking American rights for God given rights.

To be sure we haven’t become so entitled by our lives of general ease and freedom that we’re running from sharing in Christ’s sufferings at break neck speed.

Why do I say that Joe Biden is my president? I say it because Christ is my King, and that’s where my hope lies. I say it because God is sovereign and he has allowed these days to be. It’s not because I like Biden or Harris, or trust them, or agree with anything they stand for. Why do I say that Joe Biden is my president? Because there is no fear in the plots of man. As Joseph said so long ago in Genesis 50:20..

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

I share in the struggle, sweet friends. But as we struggle to discern our days… let’s keep in mind our Lord Jesus Christ, who, (in quite opposite fashion of our current president), took a lowly position that he didn’t deserve, to save us from the death that we surely did deserve. If the King of the Kings could walk humbly and meekly among us… then we should strive with all we are to do the same.

Soli Deo Gloria (Glory To God Alone)