Church of God News

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders

COGwriter

Republican primary voters preferred Donald Trump yesterday, whereas those voting for Democratic candidates split between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

March 9, 2016

Republican front-runner Donald Trump racked up primary wins in the big prize of Michigan as well as Mississippi and Hawaii on Tuesday, brushing off a week of blistering attacks from the party’s establishment and expanding his lead in the White House nominating race.

In the Democratic contest, Bernie Sanders stunned front-runner Hillary Clinton in a narrow Michigan primary upset, giving his upstart campaign new energy. Clinton won in Mississippi, but Sanders’ victory is seen as likely to ensure a prolonged fight to pick a candidate for November’s general election.

Trump’s convincing win in Michigan restored his outsider campaign’s momentum and increased the pressure on the party’s anti-Trump forces to find a way to stop the brash billionaire’s march to the nomination ahead of several key contests next week.

The 69-year-old New Yorker built his victories in Michigan, in the heart of the industrial Midwest, and Mississippi in the Deep South with broad appeal across many demographics. He won evangelical Christians, Republicans, independents, those who wanted an outsider and those who said they were angry about how the federal government is working, according to exit polls.

Trump said in several television interviews on Wednesday he was drawing new voters to the Republican Party and the establishment figures who are resisting his campaign should save their money and focus on beating the Democrats in November.

“If this party came together… nobody could beat it,” Trump told NBC’s “Today” program.

The results were a setback for rival John Kasich, governor of Ohio, who had hoped to pull off a surprise win in neighboring Michigan, and for Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida who has become the establishment favorite but lagged badly in both Michigan and Mississippi and appeared unlikely to win delegates in either. http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election-idUSKCN0WA19Q

March 9, 2016

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders scored a surprise victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the northern state of Michigan, while Republican Donald Trump widened his lead with victories in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii.

Many polls showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heavily favored to win in Michigan, but Sanders got 50 percent of the vote. Clinton did easily win the other Democratic primary held Tuesday in the Southern state of Mississippi. http://www.voanews.com/content/sanders-gets-surprise-win-michigan-primary/3226955.html

This is the strangest presidential primary cycle I have ever seen.

Hillary Clinton should have easily beaten Bernie Sanders in Michigan, but lost.  While Bernie Sanders believes it is because of her record on trade (and that certainly was a factor), the other reality is that her email scandal makes her a risk. Consider the following:

March 8, 2016
Hillary Clinton has painted herself into a corner: The former secretary of state – who was trained to identify sensitive intelligence – now claims classified emails she composed and sent over her “home brew” server were not in violation of federal law.

Clinton told Fox News’ Brett Baier during Monday’s town hall debate from Detroit, Michigan, that she did not violate a subsection of the Espionage Act related to “gross negligence” in handling government documents as secretary of state. Her reasoning: Emails were not explicitly identified as secret, top secret, or otherwise. …

A key exchange between Baier and Clinton went as follows:

Baier: “Let me just clarify, the State Department has redacted and declared 2,101 of your work emails classified, at least at the confidential level, 44 classified as secret, 22 classified as top secret. So you said at a March press conference in 2015, quote: ‘I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material.’ So can we say definitively that that statement is not accurate?”

Clinton: “No, you can’t. Here’s what happened, the State Department has a process for determining what is or isn’t classified. If they determine it is, they mark it as classified.”

Baier: “Well, who decides –”

Clinton: “The State Department decides.” …

Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday morning and said Clinton’s “word game” was finally exposed by Baier’s questioning.

“For her to say, ‘I neither sent nor received anything classified’ is a word game because nothing is marked classified. It is marked confidential, secret or top secret,” said Napolitano, the Daily Caller reported. “[She] signed an oath her first day in office. In which she said, I understand my legal obligation is to know what is secret, whether it is marked secret or not. I also understand that the failure to recognize that could be criminal in nature. So what makes something confidential, secret or top secret is not a stamp marked on it, it’s the essence of the e-mail. […] She had a legal obligation to know that that would affect national security.”

The Washington Post reported March 5 that Clinton wrote 104 emails that she sent using her private server while secretary of state.

“In roughly three-quarters of those cases, officials have determined that material Clinton herself wrote in the body of email messages is classified,” the newspaper reported. “Clinton sometimes initiated the conversations but more often replied to aides or other officials with brief reactions to ongoing discussions.” http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/hillary-email-word-game-exposed-during-town-hall/#bf5JPpB6UJdguSkr.99

Well, Hillary Clinton as the head of the State Department should have known. This is more, in my view, than gross negligence, this was likely criminal.  Many are concerned that Hillary Clinton may be indicted for this. She is currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI, aware of the politics of this, has moved relatively slowly, meaning that I feel if she was not this big in the political world, she would have at least been indicted.

Yet despite the email matter, many believe she is likely to win the Democratic nomination and then become USA President.  A couple of days ago, I saw something on the news that said Hillary Clinton had a 69% chance of becoming the next US President and Donald Trump had a 19% chance.  That left 12% that was split almost evenly between Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz.

Many people are frustrated with the status quo, which helps explain the success of Donald Trump and to a degree Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders is considered to be enough of a revolutionary, that Democrats are endorsing him (plus, Hillary Clinton has serious integrity problems that voters are concerned about–though she still gets lots of votes).

On the Republican side, those voters dislike the status quo, in this instance meaning the Obama Administration and a Republican Congress that has not stopped aspects of Obama’s agenda, they really want change. About 2/3 of their primary voters tend to believe that outsiders are the answer (Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are both considered to be outsiders). The other 1/3 of Republican primary voters want change as well, but tend to feel that more establishment accepted candidates are more likely to win in November as well as to more effectively govern (John Kasich and Marco Rubio are both considered to be establishment candidates).

Of course, despite the election results so far on the Republican side, we could still see a battle in November between Hillary Clinton and one of the establishment Republicans. A ‘contested convention’ has been suggested to try to stop Donald Trump.

So much for democracy in the USA.

Last month someone sent me a link to an NPR article laying out five similarities between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

5 similarities?

Yes.

Despite the fact that they are very different on many matters, here is some information on their similarities:

5 Ways Bernie Sanders And Donald Trump Are More Alike Than You Think

February 8, 2016

Here are five ways the candidates sound similar.

Trump and Sanders are both channeling anger from people who feel the American dream is no longer within reach:

I am angry and the American people are angry.

Bernie Sanders
Jan. 23 in Clinton, Iowa

And I can say oh I’m not angry … I am very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger.

Donald Trump
Jan. 14 Republican presidential debate (Fox Business Network)

Trump, who is funding his campaign with his own money and small-dollar contributions, decries the influence of fat-cat donors and superPACs. So does Sanders, who is funding his campaign with more than 3.5 million individual, mostly small-dollar, contributions:

I am very proud to be the only candidate up here who does not have a superPAC, who is not raising huge sums of money from Wall Street or special interests.

Bernie Sanders
Feb. 4 Democratic presidential debate (ABC News)

I don’t want their money, I’m gonna do the right thing for the American public. I don’t want their money, I don’t need their money and I’m the only one up here that can say that.

Donald Trump
Feb. 6 Republican presidential debate (MSNBC)

When it comes to policy, there are huge differences on taxes, immigration and social issues. But there are also times when these two candidates may as well be speaking from the same script:

We need to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, invest $1 trillion in our roads and our bridges and our rail system.

Bernie Sanders
Nov. 29, 2015, remarks at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Manchester, N.H.

We have infrastructure that we have to fix, we have bridges and roads and tunnels and everything’s falling apart.

Donald Trump
Sept. 3, 2015, news conference in New York City

On a handful of key issues that affect the economic security of working families, the similarities are striking. Take trade, for example:

We need trade policies that are fair for the American worker, fair for poor people around the world, and not just designed to make the CEOs of multinational corporations even richer than they are today.

Bernie Sanders
Jan. 2 in Worcester, Mass.

We need fair trade, not free trade. We need fair trade. It’s gotta be fair.

Donald Trump
June 18, 2015, on Morning Joe

And while many Republicans talk about privatizing Social Security, and some Democrats have looked at changing the way cost of living is adjusted, Sanders and Trump like it just the way it is or want to make Social Security even more generous.

What we must do is say, of course we’re not going to cut Social Security but we are going to expand Social Security benefits.

Bernie Sanders
Jan. 26 meeting with Iowa Steelworkers in Des Moines, Iowa

We’re not gonna cut your Social Security and we’re not cutting your Medicare. We’re gonna take jobs back from all these countries that are ripping us off. We’re going to become a wealthy country again we’re going to be able to save your Social Security.

Donald Trump
Dec. 11, 2015, rally in Des Moines, Iowa

Perhaps I should add here that one report I read (about 5-6 weeks ago) said that Donald Trump is the second choice for many of Bernie Sander’s supporters.

Many people are turning to ‘outsiders’ because they recognize that something is terribly wrong with the direction of the USA. Yet, the answer is not Donald Trump nor Bernie Sanders. The answer is national repentance, which is something neither of those candidates has spoken about.

Consider the following:

14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

National repentance and prayer is what the USA needs or it is biblically-doomed (cf. Habakkuk 2:6-8; Daniel 11:39). The same holds true for its Anglo-Saxon descended allies such as the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Although many sincerely believe that it is their “Christian duty” to vote (even though that “duty” is not specified in the Bible, see Should a Christian Vote? and/or watch Should Christians Vote?), some seem to have overlooked some prophecies related to political leaders in the end times:

12 As for My people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, And destroy the way of your paths.” (Isaiah 3:12)

43 The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower (Deuteronomy 28:43).

16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed (Isaiah 9:16).

It should be clear that Isaiah prophesied that there would be end time leaders that cause people to err. This is what many politicians, directly and indirectly do.

While it is true, that like the King of Ninevah (Jonah 3:5-6), political leaders could call for national repentance after enough people begin a fast, the reality is that this simply is not something that many of them ever seriously consider, let alone do. It seems that this will not happen (unless perhaps after the prophesied destruction).

God will decide who He wants in various offices:

17 ‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers, And the sentence by the word of the holy ones, In order that the living may know That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.’ (Daniel 4:17)

We are seeing many running for office that do not have godly character. And God will take steps to put in office whosoever He feels should lead the USA.

By voting, one could be voting against God’s will. God’s people do not want to be found fighting against God (Acts 5:39). Once, in the 1970s, I actually voted in an election. But for some reason, I decided not to vote for attorney general. If I would have voted for the office, I probably would have voted for the man that won–a man that later had a massive lawsuit against the Church of God I was part of in the late 1970s. Obviously, I would not have done that on purpose, but am glad that I did not accidentally assist in empowering one who was against the COG.

If Christians are not supposed to vote, what should we do about leaders?

Pray for them!

Notice what Paul wrote:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior (1 Tim 2:1-3).

Notice that we are to pray for worldly leaders and those that have authority over us so that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life. Nothing like this is said for voting that many falsely claim is their “Christian” duty–prayer for leaders is.

Those who believe that Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can save the USA are misleading themselves and overlooking a lot of what the Bible teaches. Their moral views are not consistent with what the Bible teaches.

The USA needs national repentance and the Kingdom of God.

Let me also add that, irrespective of who becomes the next president, by virtue of timing, that leader will be in a sense, apocalyptic. Meaning that steps will be taken that will lead to the end of the USA by the next president.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2016 at 8:00 am and is filed under Prophecy.

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