Study of these passages from the Bible and other scriptures can give us a Christian Election Guide.
Old Testament
The Proverbs
Chapter 29:2, 12, 18
When the wicked rule, the people mourn—The righteous consider the cause of the poor—Where there is no vision, the people perish.2 When the arighteous are in bauthority, the people crejoice: but when the dwicked beareth erule, the people fmourn.
12 If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.
18 Where there is no avision, the people bperish: but he that ckeepeth the dlaw, ehappy is he.
The First Book of Samuel
Chapter 8:4-19
Samuel’s sons take bribes and pervert judgment—The Israelites seek for a king to rule over them—Samuel rehearses the nature and evils of kingly rule—The Lord consents to give them a king.
4-6Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves
together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said
unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons awalk not in thy
ways: now make us a bking to judge us
like all the nations.¶But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us
a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the avoice of the
people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but
they have brejected me9 Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet aprotest solemnly
unto them, and shew them the manner of the bking that shall creign over them.
10 ¶And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.
·
He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some
shall run before his chariots.
· And he will appoint
him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to aear his ground,
and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of
his chariots.
·
And he will take your daughters to be aconfectionaries,
and to be cooks, and to
be bakers.
·
And he will take your fields, and your
vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them
to his servants.
·
And he will take the atenth of your
seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
·
And he will take your menservants, and
your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, …
·
He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye
shall be his servants.
18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your aking which ye
shall have bchosen you; and
the Lord will not chear you in that
day.
19 ¶Nevertheless the people
refused to aobey the voice of
Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;
20 That
we also may be like all the anations;
[Who is making our nation like the
socialist nations of Europe?]
The Book of Mormon:
Another Testament of Jesus Christ
The Book of Mosiah
Chapter 29:6-7, 16-17, 21-27, 35-38
6 Now I declare unto you that he to whom the kingdom
doth rightly belong has declined, and will not take upon him the kingdom.
7 And now if there should be another appointed in his
stead, behold I fear there would rise acontentions
among you. And who knoweth but what my son, to whom the kingdom doth belong,
should turn to be angry and bdraw away a
part of this people after him, which would cause wars and contentions among
you, which would be the cause of shedding much blood and perverting the way of
the Lord, yea, and destroy the souls of many people.
16-17 Now I say unto you, that because all men are not
just it is not expedient that ye should have a aking or kings
to rule over you. For behold, how much ainiquity doth
one bwicked
king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!
21-23 And behold, now I say unto you,
ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous aking save it
be through much contention, and the shedding of much blood.
·
For behold, he
has his afriends in
iniquity, and he keepeth his guards about him; and he teareth up the laws of
those who have reigned in righteousness before him; and he trampleth under his
feet the commandments of God;
·
And he enacteth laws, and sendeth them forth
among his people, yea, laws after the manner of his own wickedness; and
whosoever doth not obey his laws he acauseth to be
destroyed; and whosoever doth rebel against him he will send his armies against
them to war, and if he can he will destroy them; and thus an unrighteous bking doth
pervert the ways of all righteousness.
24-25 And now behold I say unto you,
it is not expedient that such abominations should come upon you. Therefore,
choose you by the avoice of this
people, judges, that ye may be bjudged
according to the claws which
have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given
them by the hand of the Lord.
26 Now it is not common that the avoice of the
people desireth anything bcontrary to
that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the cpeople to
desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it
your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
27 And aif the time
comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that
the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit
you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.
35 And he also unfolded unto them all
the disadvantages they labored under, by having an unrighteous aking to rule
over them;
36 Yea, all ahis iniquities
and abominations, and all the wars, and contentions, and bloodshed, and the
stealing, and the plundering, and the committing of whoredoms, and all manner
of iniquities which cannot be enumerated—telling them that these things ought
not to be, that they were expressly repugnant to the commandments of God.
37 And now it came to pass, after
king Mosiah had sent these things forth among the people they were aconvinced of
the truth of his words.
38 Therefore they relinquished
their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should
have an equal achance
throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer
for his own sins.
The Doctrine and Covenants
Section 98
5 And that alaw of the
land which is bconstitutional,
supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges,
belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.
6 Therefore, I, the Lord,
justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is
the aconstitutional
law of the land;
8 I, the Lord God, make you afree,
therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.
10 Wherefore, ahonest men
and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye
should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of
evil.
Dinner Talk
Christian Election Guide from Bible and Scripture Study
2. Edmund Burke said, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” How does this usually apply to kings?
Biblical Guide to the Book of Mormon: Learn how the Book of Mormon verifies the Bible. Easy, Dinner- topic style. Non-doctrinal,
understandable for all ages.
A regrettable number of young people are losing
their faith during their high school and college education. They are taught
that the epic stories from the Bible are myths. Use this Biblical Guide to the
Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, to prove the Bible is true
and bring your children to Christ.
Epic Stories for Character Education
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