Christian Election Guide from Bible Study

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.

 11-17 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:

·         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;

 7 And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.

 8 I, the Lord God, make you ^afree, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.

 9 Nevertheless, when the ^awicked ^brule the people mourn.

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

1. What does Doctrine and Covenants 98:5-10 teach us about the Constitution of the United States? What kind of leaders should we support?

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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Bible Study: Traditions and Dinner Topics

Bible Study and Dinner Talk Question: 

Selling the Birthright- Matthew Stomer

Free Download: Dinner Topics collection, on September 23, 24, 25 in honor of National Family Day


How might our heritage of liberty compare to the “birthright” of American families? Worth noting is this lesson from forgotten history—the ancient example of Biblical parent Rebekah, who guided her son Jacob to rescue the sacred birthright from destruction.

Isaac told his son Esau to bring him venison, and then he would give his son a blessing. Isaac, aged, blind, and dying, prepared to extend the birthright blessing to the eldest son, as was the tradition. Rebekah, however, arranged that Jacob, the younger brother, ended up receiving the birthright blessing. Rebekah’s motives might appear on the surface to be unjustified. But she had reasons, and there have been numerous instances since, in which the eldest did not receive the birthright, because of unworthiness.

A study of this Bible story in Genesis reveals some sensible reasons behind Rebekah’s actions. First, the Lord had told Rebekah that Jacob was to be the birthright son. Second, many years before Isaac was to bestow this great, eternal blessing on one of his sons, Esau had shown contempt for it by selling it to Jacob for a hot meal of pottage. Dallin H. Oaks observed, “Many Esaus have given up something of eternal value in order to satisfy a momentary hunger for the things of this world.” Third, Esau married girls who were unbelievers, in direct disobedience to his parents. Fourth, Esau persisted in wickedness, without remorse.

Surely, over the years, Isaac and Rebekah had sorrowed together a great deal over Esau’s unworthy behavior. Lest we judge Rebekah too harshly, she had not forgotten that the Lord had revealed to her the destiny of the righteous Jacob. As parents do, she must have spent sleepless nights wondering how this would come to pass, especially as time paced inexorably toward the appointed moment. Perhaps by some miraculous means, the Lord would have brought about the prophecy, if Rebekah had had more faith. But at length, the moment of decision came. Isaac was dying, and perhaps he himself saw no way to change the tradition, knowing of no precedent. Nevertheless, once Isaac discovered that he had blessed the younger son, he continued to ratify the blessing. Rebekah was willing to take full responsibility for ensuring that her revelation from God was fulfilled.

In America today, our heritage of liberty might be compared to our sacred birthright. Are we losing that heritage? If so, who is taking it, and what can be done about the pottage replacing it?

What do epic heroes do? They save or rescue nations and peoples. But epic heroism can also take place in a home, within a family. In rescuing the sacred blessings of her family, Rebekah did a heroic act. Are today’s parents confident that their children and grandchildren can enjoy, unfettered, the hard-won heritage of freedom bequeathed by previous generations?

In today’s society of shifting values, most parents have serious misgivings about the future of their families. In the Biblical type-scene, the birthright blessings were in danger of falling into immoral hands. So it is today. When did the birthright begin to slip from our grasp? There is a specific event that breached the protective dike, so to speak.

In 1963 the United States Supreme Court banned prayer and Bible-reading from public schools. Trying to avoid the “establishment of religion,” the Supreme Court actually “prohibited the free exercise thereof,” and inadvertently established atheism as the state religion. Countless teachers and students have been punished for praying or reading the Bible in public schools.

When God was removed from the schools, so was accountability. Over time, as Constitutional principles have been replaced by philosophies of despotism, the slope toward the abyss of moral relativism has slickened, and slipping down it has accelerated. The destructive moral decline in our society can be traced back to the enforcement of atheism. What are the consequences of this enforced system of beliefs?

•    The theory of evolution has been taught as fact almost exclusively in the schools. Equal time to examine creation or intelligent design has been denied.
•    History is no longer taught in the schools. Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln are no longer honored by national holidays in most schools.
•    Fornication and abortion are taught as acceptable behavior. Nevertheless, sexually active girls are three times more likely to take their own lives than those who are abstinent. Boys are eight times more likely. Two thirds of teens who have committed moral transgression wish they could go back to innocence again and desperately wish they had waited.
•    Widespread abortion is considered by some government leaders to be a national cost-saver
 
So, What Is to Be Done?

In the rising generation will be found tomorrow’s leaders. They are our hope for the future. They are epic heroes in training.  That training, also known as character education, is not offered in schools, because the best training manuals, containing the word of God, are banned in the schools. Nevertheless, the pattern for our solution is found in the banned books. Biblical prophets were trained at home, by their parents, or in Samuel’s case, by a priest.

Parents can rescue their families from the onslaught of unholy influences. It is simpler than you think. It doesn’t have to be formal instruction. Think of it. Rebekah’s heroic act revolved around a meal. Just gather for dinner daily and teach with scriptural epic stories, like Jesus did.

Copyright © 2011 by Christine Davidson

Leadership topics

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Adventure, Heroes, and Heritage

A Treasury of Epic Stories: Making History Exciting and Relevant

 Dinner Topics for Tuesday

Dinner Talk Question: How do you make history exciting and relevant? We have before us the splendid adventure of exploring with our families the vast treasure trove of fascinating forgotten epic stories in our rich American heritage. The heroes and villains, as well as events put into motion by the choices of these individuals, are as thrilling as any popular fantasy of today.

 How do you make history exciting and relevant?

Recently a teacher called in to a radio talk show and informed us that history was being removed from school curricula. It seems that history is being sacrificed for political agenda. I thought, how sad. Now our kids are going to be more detached than ever from their heritage. But then, years ago, when I was in school (and I am a grandmother), the history books were boring anyway. Moreover, they were loaded with falsehoods. It is past time that we parents and grandparents reclaim our rightful role as conveyers of our heritage and values to our children, and not just the young ones. Young adults have also been deprived of facts about the epic heroes in our heritage. Most of the great epic heroes were taught privately or at home, anyway. And some very great brains were kicked out of school.

Voices from the Past Teach Us Today

So we have before us the splendid adventure of exploring with our families the vast treasure trove of fascinating forgotten epic stories in our rich American heritage. The heroes and villains, as well as the events put into motion by the choices of these individuals, are as thrilling as any popular fantasy of today. In fact, when you learn how much these voices from the past can influence your future, all the pulp fiction will be languishing in the dustbin.

Where to begin? First of all, we’ll start collecting banned books. That’s already starting to sound exciting. What kinds of books are banned by the State Religions (atheism and Islam)?

1) The Bible, the Book of Mormon, and any other forms of Judeo-Christian scripture.

2)  Accurate biographies of the Founding Fathers, because those men were (ahem) religious.

3) Any classic literature that teaches the values we cherish

These and many others did not make it past the cutting room floor of moral relativism in government schools. Let’s create an ongoing book list of the fascinating forgotten epic stories.

Epic Heroes in Training

So, Parents, as mentors of the rising generation, how do you make history relevant? As exciting as these stories are, if we don’t learn how to apply them to our day, then we can’t be the epic heroes we need to be, and rescue our sacred and endangered heritage. We’ve got to think!

Here is our strategy. Truth will be our headlight, so we can see to lead the train of rising generations down the right tracks into a future of peace and liberty. In the vast treasury of epic stories that comprise history, select and examine meaningful events or “moments” in ancient, early American, and modern times.   You will see patterns emerge.

Yes, history does repeat itself, because human choices, good and bad, have consequences.  Find the heroes (who promote liberty), and the villains (who destroy freedom). Compare the consequences of choices by individuals from each era, then do an analysis based on the causes and effects of the events given. Don’t underestimate the imagination and intelligence of young adults to connect the dots. They love a challenge and a puzzle. This is great practice in problem-solving, and builds effective leaders. Hang on, here we go!

Copyright 2011 © by Christine Davidson

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