Is Obama God's elected leader?

Short answer: YES.

Long answer:

First, God is in all things sovereign, therefore this certainly would not and could not have happened unless it were his will.

Second, Obama is appointed to power over this nation as the judgement this nation has richly deserved for many years, for all the reasons stated in other peoples posts on this page. And that judgement will begin in the church for our complacency in sitting on the sidelines and silently passing judgement while failing to stand up and boldly profess Christ to a lost and dying world and bring others to saving knowledge of Him for those many years.

Third, I personally believe things are shaping up as Biblical prophecies state for the end times and the soon return of Christ. Aside from God's binding hand of restraint against satan himself, the United States of America is the only truly stabilizing force on Earth. In order for Biblical prophesy to be fulfilled, the United States CANNOT exist as we have known it to date.

Obama is just the man to come into power at just the right time, to sell us out and dissolve this nation from within. He is just the man to hamstring this nation to the point where we will be unable to prevent the military moves against Israel as prophesied. Israel will be protected and saved by God, not by the U.S. If we were able to do it with our military and economic power, then it would not be a miraculous deliverence by the hand of God. Obama may well be the means God will use to render the U.S. inneffective in the world political, economic, and military clashes to come.

It's a little scary and exciting at the same time, like skydiving with a parachute you didn't pack... But go to God's word - the battle belongs to the Lord, and we know all things work to good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ our Lord.
It's time to get into Gods word, get your gospel straight, get your ministry right, win souls to the Kingdom, and look and live for the return of our Lord and King.

So from a spiritual perspective I think the election outcome is very exciting!
Although it doesn't look very good for us as the church, or for the U.S., if it was brought on us to hasten the soon return of our lord, then I say BRING IT.

I received this message from a good friend of mine, Dr. Ramesh Richards. As always, he provides exceptional insights and perpsective. He states...

"America's democratic selection of a young, non-white, appealing and gifted visionary with a non-traditional name (including a Muslim middle name) has set off layers of responses worldwide. Here is mine, from a somewhat globally exposed and theologically engaged perspective.
 
First, heartiest congratulations go to America, my adoptive homeland for living consistently with our nation's first principles. The world wondered if America's assertive global presence over the last 60 years included an actual application of its human(e) charter. Who would not have been moved by watching the post-election speeches of both concession and victory? With the opening of the nation's highest office, all men (and women) are indeed equal! Many cultures and countries turn their existential wishes into empty public slogans. Yesterday, America lived out her Constitution. In that way, our sense of exceptionalism has presented itself as...well, exceptional. There's no way for her moral authority across the globe to go except up, way, way up. 
 
More importantly, God is obviously implementing His purpose, program, and plans. On the morning of Election Day, I happened to devotionally feed on Stephen's legal defense before authorities (Acts 7). He starts out with the God of glory (v. 2) and ends up with decisive judgment upon those who opposed the Righteous One, the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (vs.  52, 55-56). The God whose essence is glory, who deserves all glory, and the God which glory itself glorifies, is working his program in history and geography, chooses nations and peoples, raises leaders and deposes them, saves believers and judges unbelievers. All according to plan!
 
God knew the outcome of the 2008 election before it happened. Like Cyrus, the Persian king, who was likely unaware of his intentional "anointing by Yahweh" to fulfill God's purposes," (Isa. 45:1, 5), our winsome and articulate President-elect, could even unwittingly implement God's plan for God's own glory. The God of glory always ends up getting glory while accomplishing His plans for the good of those who love him, for those who are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28). This grand purpose not only includes our own eternal salvation, but also our involvement in dispensing God's salvation to humanity.
 
So we look at all historical events through the grid of God's human salvation program. The election of an out-of-the-ordinary President calls on us to pray that he will turn out to be an extraordinary one. We ought to pray for all those in authority so that believers will live without disturbance and that in no way the progress of the gospel will be impeded (2 Tim. 2:1-7). We subscribe to the God who wishes all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Like the Apostle Paul, we are sworn to proclaim the message worldwide.
 
With this new U.S. reality meeting God's global purpose, I am able to be grateful, as a Christian, for the following prospects:
 
1) That the world's hardest to reach group and region may eventually soften its stance toward the gospel as a Western product. They may finally see that American Christians are not presenting the gospel as though from superior to inferior, and that evangelism is not sourced in a Western Christian agenda to dominate the rest of the world. All because America's new President carries an unfamiliar non-Western name to us and a familiar middle-name to them! Those who believe they have scored a political victory for their religion in America, in spite of the President-elect's consistent claims to have never been anything but Christian, should be a bit more open to Christians and Americans.

2) That this group and region may place behavioral expectations on the world's most powerful man to downplay two issues that are anathema to them-homosexuality and abortion. I could also add liquor sales. This expectation of the second largest religion in the world would force our new President to be more distinctively American in a back-door sort of way. If he doesn't meet their behavioral expectations, he would be considered as too secular to carry dialogical authority across the political table. And if he does tone down his acquiescence to foundational family issues by promoting homosexual and abortion-rights, then he would represent his blue-blooded Americanness after all. Either way, he would end up having to prove himself more American than his former pastor may have ever preached, and remove any doubt concerning true American convictions among a suspicious conservative segment of the U.S. population.

3) If the first job of the President is to protect the nation-a role that has been fulfilled eminently and expensively by the outgoing President, at least the new President would not be superficially accused of waging the "Christian" crusade, of continuing "Christian" vengeance, by those who do not separate religion and state, culture and state, economics and state.

4) With the apparent "set-back" and its attendant "wake-up" call, American believers-followers-proclaimers of Jesus Christ can promote repentance for the idolatrous side of their patriotism. Stephen, soon-to-be martyred, actually corrects his audience, entrenched and dripping with Jewish exceptionalism (and no other people in God's program could have made a case for that sentiment) that no place or people, notes a commentator, is "necessarily critical to God's short-term working in history." Evangelicals truly must acknowledge their new minority status in America. All delusions that America is a Christian nation or run by the Christian Right may now be discarded. Indeed, we can finally and seriously view America as a Christian mission field-the world's third largest mission-field!
 
God, then, is working His plans for America and the world in patient mercy. In the salvation sense, God is pro-American (just like He is pro-Iraqi, pro-Indian, pro-Iranian, pro-Indonesian, pro-Israeli), because He is pro-human. God is pro-salvation.
 
With increasing sensitivity to spiritual matters in the middle of a global financial meltdown and a rendering down of American financial prowess, God has yet again provided a chance for spiritual salvation in America, and coming from America, a salvation made by God Himself.
 
God is not pro-America, any more than He is pro-India, my birth-land. But He is pro-American, more precisely, pro-Americans, for the sake of human salvation. And though I was not born-in-the-USA, and thus can never occupy the President's office, I am thrilled to be pro-Americans and pro-humans. Spiritual salvation has never been in our hands, except to distribute it. A U.S. passport could now be seen as less provocative among antagonistic audiences who may be more open to receiving the gospel through American initiatives. I wonder if the election of a non-white, non-Western named U.S. President will make it slightly easier for many in spiritually unreached regions to accept Christ's good news when dispensed by the servant-hands of Christians, even American Christians."
 
                                                                                        Dallas, Texas
                                                                                  November 5, 2008
You can subscribe to Dr. Richard's excellent newsetter at: http://www.rameshrichard.com/miniMenu/newsletter.php

To argue about whether Obama is God's elect and the sovreignty of God seems to me to be a little misplaced (not that these aren't good topics) particularly when talking about Romans 13. Romans 13 is in the context of how the new creation of God, the church of both Gentiles and Jews, are to live as disciples of Jesus. Before the section on the government in ch 13, the believers are told to live free of violent retribution and return good for evil. Following the words regarding the government in ch 13, the church is again told to owe only love to those around them.
The major issue then as I see it, has to do with power. Here the Christian community is asked to give themselves to the power that unifies and is defined by the power of God that loved us while we were still enemies (Romans 5). It is my understanding that our power as believers in Jesus happens as we order our lives in keeping with our real commander-in-cheif, Jesus, thus witnessing to the power of love found in the cross. A power not defined by the powers of the world but the power of the cross.
The church has been coopted for to long in this country by the allure of worldly, political power. We seemed to have learned little from the history of Europe where the church and state were hand in glove committing all kind of atrocities, and from which the witness of the church is still suffering.
In the context of Romans 13, a nation by definition cannot be "Christian". Nations are founded on the power of the sword (and which they are given to use for the good of the people) which is a totally different power base than the cross the church is called to follow. It is this cross we are to take up daily. It is this power which we are to follow. The key question is whether or not the church is allowing itself to be defined here and now by the powers of the world or the power of the cross. Let the power of the cross be that by which we define and organize our lives. Then we will be the witness we are meant to be and will have the basis from which to share our witness to the world. My prayer is that the church will be the church reflecting the true power of the cross in its life together and its witness.

It seems that as Mr. Foran pointed out, this is an ultimate question of God's sovereignty and man's free will--how do they play out in reality? Was Barack Obama chosen by God to be the leader of America or did God simply allow him to be elected? I think the answer is "yes."

God is sovereign, without a doubt. Man has free will, without a doubt. The election of Barack Obama was both God-ordained and chosen by man. Despite the difficulty we tend to have in understanding how God's sovereignty and man's freewill work together (as they seem to be logically opposite ideas), Scripture is clear that both are present.

Ultimately, we must again return to Romans 13:1; "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" (ESV). As hard as this may be to swallow, especially in light of what Mr. Obama stands for, it is still a command that we must obey. Let us consider this: Paul said these things as one who had to deal with some men who truly showed their depravity to the highest degree--Roman Emperors such as Caligula and Nero! And there is no doubt that if we study either of these men (or many of the Roman Emperors, for that matter), we will find that Mr. Obama is nothing compared to them, even if he is the most liberal president our nation has had.

Though I am no more pleased with someone as liberal as Mr. Obama in office than many other conservative Christians are, the fact remains that we have to be subject to his authority (in all matters that do not require us to disobey Scripture)! God put Mr. Obama in office for a reason, and regardless of what that reason is (even if that reason is to persecute Christians, or the less likely role of Antichrist) we can trust Him!

I have heard this argument framed in a number of ways throughout the last several months, and I must say it is becoming quite worrisome. We have lived under a president for the last 8 years who has proven to be at the very least incompetent, and the same religous right ,who once gushed about his Christian virtues, has not learned its lesson about picking its leaders based upon one or two issues and willing to ignore all of the others. I must admit, I was one of them too-but no more.

First, Barack Obama is a moral man, and it would be out of sheer pridefulness if Christians were not to admit it. He says he is a Chrstian, but even if he weren't that should not be a lithmus test for being President. Simply being Christian does not make you qualified to lead.God has shown throught history that He has the willingness and ability to use people that do not know Him to both humble and bless the ones who do. Abraham was blessed by "godless" kings, and Joseph and David and many other pillars of our faith.

Secondly, it is not the failure of government that results in homosexuality or people wanting abortions. if failure is to be layed at the feet of anyone, it should be considered our failure as believers. All of you who are so against homosexual marriage, have you ever comforted and witnessed to the homosexual? And have you ever thought about proposing a ban on divorce for heterosexuals for reasons other than infidelity?Have you ever prayed with a 16 year old pregnant girl with no man, no money and no education? And did you put your money where your mouth was? I am not saying we should take a blind eye to sin, what I am saying is that until Christ reigns it should not be the job of government to attempt to bring about righteousness. And we are typically not nearly as graceful to others as Christ has been to us. It is not the government's job to point to Christ, it is ours. I don't like it either, but I would rather have a government that allows us to compete against the spirit of the world, than to live in a society who's executive branch picks and chooses what people should or should not want to do. I know that Christ is better than what the flesh and the world has to offer, but it is up to us to represent Him and love people with whom we disagree, and treat them with respect-all biblical principles.

And third, give the guy a break, he is a work in progress just like you are. Who knows, he may meet a brother or sister that will shed a little light at just the right time...

With the election of our new president, I feel that there is now only three things we can be assured of. The first of course is higher taxes. You cannot bail any industry out with a $700 billion check and not raise taxes on everyone. There are not enough people making the amount of money needed to offset this fiasxo. Second,ly, I believe we will Israel attack Iran within now and the inaugeration of our new president. Our new leader will not allow Israel to fly though our air space to attack Iran like our current president will. Therefore, Iran cannot "get the bomb" and they must be dealt with with force, the only language they understand. Third, the church must stay alert to the erosion of our freedoms. My father served in WWII and he did so proudly and he did so because he valued the freedom we had in America. That freedom is being encroached upon by all fronts. Vigilance and prayer plus the nerve to stand up and be heard is a necessity today as never before.

I have no fear for the future because I know God controls both the future and man. I do believe that any nation who seeks to omit God from their society will obtain what they wished for: a godless society. May God have mercy on us and may His grace override our luke warm churches, luke warm laity and our constitutionally reinterpreting judicial branch.

"We know that the persecuted church around the world today is in many ways much more alive and well than the American church. We have become complacent, lazy, and worldly. We have lost much of our saltiness and light. So, maybe God is just preparing us for a time of testing so that our focus may return to Him and away from our self focused lives. Maybe this is just what we need as a nation who was once strongly a Christian nation but is now slipping away fast? Maybe we need a major wakeup call to prepare us for a time of repentance and revival?

That’s today’s thoughts about life and ministry …from the Director’s Chair

Oh boy! Here we go again ... a spiritual professional blaming everyone but himself and his profession.

Are you omnipresent? Did you get this gospel truth from statistics, like the Barna Report? How can you possibly know this? There always have been and always will be "the 7000" unknown faithful who haven't bowed the knee to Baal. They live quiet obedient lives, day in and day out, year after year without fame and recognition. You don't know them. Barna will never poll them. But since God is in sovereign control, give them some credit for faithfully submitting!

And to your monopresence, how about taking some blame. How about looking at the log in your own eye. Through this particular site, you're in Christian leadership. You're in the influencing business. Your site mentions numbers - the numbers of people influenced by your materials. Is there any chance your influencing contributions have lead to the above indictment? Or, had no one been influenced and this has all been a huge waste of time over the past 10+ years?

Mac

So, your post here convicted me of the anger etc etc that I have felt towards President Elect Obama since Tuesday night. However, what if our government tells us that we must relinquish our weapons? Is that not a constitutional right, written and guaranteed to us by our forefathers? So, do we stay true to the constitution, or the current commander in chief? For our government to take our guns, I believe is wrong, wrong wrong. We do it, because they say so?

A lot of debate is possible, but, your first point is priceless: In my words, your point is,
"It IS important who is leading this country. It is equally important that in this country, we can fight against evil in high places, our Founding Fathers told us to."

However, I am not fasting and praying in a vaccuum. God reminds us, and we should tell all that will listen, "while it is important to fight the evil in our land, the MOST important thing to all is, if you die before this day ends, where will you spend eternity?"
In the last two days, like it or not people, God's wrath has started to fall, big time. I am still standing, along with many of God's children, in the gap for my country, and I am not moving. Down with evil!!

Open your eyes, listen, and God will tell you what to do.

For too long American Evangelicals (myself included) have been playing church n "acting" like Christians. Many of us think getting saved is just saying a little prayer. Churches are not interested in discipling these "babies" to grow and mature. How many churches you know are serious about teaching from the Word and teaching for transformation. We think that the command to make disciples is just a suggestion and Christ-likeness is for the "fanatics" Ya, and we enjoy listening to "watered-down" teaching too because it tickles our fancy, gives us an emotional high for about an hour or so. We think a "20-year old Christian in diapers" is kind of cute. We have so many of them in churches today. We can speak against abortion, gay marriages until we are blue in the face and no one will listen. Why? Look at ourselves.......we who call ourselves born-again believers. Divorce, adultery, teenage pregnancy, immoral living, vain talking, mammoth worship, greed, etc are just as prevalent within our 4 walls as without. Why should the unbelievers listen to our hollow message? We really are no different from the homosexuals. We are not serious about living righteously. We are not serious about God and obeying Him. Yes, we can fast and pray for His will be done but until we repent of our unfaithfulness and disobedience, He is not going to listen. We definitely got what we deserved. No more no less. Between the 2 candidates, we really did not have a choice. I am sorry.

The comments I've read are interesting.

Even though we are made in the image of God, I often wonder why we have to be mini-Gods, always trying to decide God's intent. Do we believe that He is truly Sovereign?

Blessings to our Nation!

Dave,

Thanks for your unbridled and biblical message in this blog. I appreciated hearing your teaching this morning and it helped me as I get my mind around how God could allow such a man to lead this country that was founded so strongly in His word. If there was only one issue separate from the others I disagree with that influenced my decision on election day it was that of abortion. It is reprehensible that it is going on and that our new leader believes in it at ANY stage of pregnancy regardless of when in the pregnancy it happens. God creates ALL life, not just the convenient ones.

God bless you,

Robbie Grimes
President, Higher Ground Family Ministries

Dave,

I appreciate your thoughts and have been thinking along similar lines the last few days. It has been said that God gives nations the leaders they deserve. I think that is mercifully not always true, but in due time it comes to be. Perhaps our time as a nation has come to get the leadership we truly deserve.

Daniel 2:21 tells us that God removes kings and sets up kings. As I reflected on the course of the election campaigns, it struck me that McCain had virtually eliminated Obama's lead in the polls and was in a positive trajectory when the bottom suddenly fell out of the markets. With that, McCain's standing in the polls also tumbled sharply. He started to regain lost ground after the markets seemed to stabilize, but not quickly enough in the short time that remained. The timing of the market collapse with its obvious impact upon the election seemed to me to bear the mark of divine intervention.

How reasonable is it for the most powerful nation in the history of the world to elect as its leader in a time of war a junior senator with no governing experience whatever, no military experience, no significant legislation to his credit, a clearly socialist philosophy, obvious naiveté in matters of foreign relations, and such questionable associations that he would never have obtained an FBI security clearance? It's mind boggling. All these things suggest to me that God indeed has given us our new president-elect.

I suppose what most concerns me is that so many men and women who profess to know the Lord gave their votes to such an obviously wicked man. What does that say of the condition of the church in America?

What about Mathew 24:23-27? Can Obama be considered a false prophet?

I do believe that our new president elect is by God's design for such a time as this. I believe in God's sovereignty. It is God's Sovereignty that has allowed the US survive the last eight years and the last 8 weeks. Failing banks and foreclosures, the foundations that were built are fading away, the foundation was weak and flawed. It is God's sovereignty that we as a nation did not just completely fall apart. That is Mercy -and Grace.

While I disagree with the gay marriage and abortion as you; People both christians and non-christians alike make their own decisions. We as christians are to teach the word of God; it is up to them to recieve and accept. You cannot force a nation to agree with the personal decisions of the law makers if so then it would be considered a dictatorship. Our new president left the decision's of those issues up to the individuals. You speak the truth into their hearing and allow them to decide. You cannot force the word on anyone if you do then you run the risk of rebellion.
Careful not to judge

The bible says that If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray then will I hear from Heaven..... The US has not been humble for the last 8 years in many respects. The word of God tells me that if I put my trust in man I will be cursed but if I put my trust in God I will be blessed. My trust is in God and if the President Elect humbles himself and pray, God will surely hear him and order his steps.

I happen to believe that this is not just allowed by God but His Will. The Word of God brings Hope to all and now Hope has won and is on it's way to the White House.

Mr. Foran:
I would not pretend to assert that Obama is somehow God's "chosen leader." While I certainly don't agree with abortion or same sex marriage, I think that we have not been served rightly as a nation when as have "sold out" as the church (popularly called "evangelicals") to the Grand Old Party. They have proven their total inability (at least in the 8 year debacle that is known as George W. Bush's presidency) to be able to effectively govern and care for the "least of these." The multitudes of America's working class have lost their jobs, their homes, their nest-eggs. How many of those unsaved people are going to listen to a message when they are out in the streets, destitute, "busted and disgusted?" We are mired in two wars without no visible end in sight--the economy is in disarray, etc. You are entitled to your stand and I respect you as a Brother in Christ--and let me drop this "nugget" of truth on you. America has been in need of a major wake-up call for more than most would admit--and we should always be prepared for the tests of the Master and looking unto the Hills to the same.

God Bless You and the Bible.org family!

So, is 'no' your answer to "Is Obama God's elected leader?" Is Obama a Pharaoh of sorts, "not God's desire or good and perfect will" and reason for why God should "have mercy on us all"?

With all due respect, your post seems to pay lip service to Romans 13 or to the idea that God is sovereign. God's sovereignty and appointment of authorities would, of course, be true had McCain been elected, and yet I get the feeling that your post might have then been one of thanksgiving for God's blessing, rather than a plea for God's mercy.

I find it incongruous to assert that God is sovereign and has our best interests in mind at all times, but seemingly from this post, only to thank him for those situations in which our desires are met, and when they are not, to ask for mercy.