False "Leaders," Falsified Scripture, False Prayer

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Last week, Franklin Graham and 300 other “Christian leaders” declared
a national day of prayer for the current president.  They cited the scriptural
command in I Timothy 2:1-4:

“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and
thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who
are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all
godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of
God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to
the knowledge of the truth.”

This command to pray is especially relevant regards the current president.
There’s never been a president that we more need to pray will use his God-
given authority to give us “…a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

And there’s never been a president that we more need to pray will “…come to
the knowledge of the truth.”

But Franklin Graham didn't urge his followers to pray those scriptural prayers.
His facebook page instead urged Christians to pray for the current president
because “[his] enemies continue to try everything to destroy him, his family,
and the presidency. In the history of our country, no president has been attacked
as he has.”

Undoubtedly the current president made thousands of “enemies” in his life-long
business career…bitter former business-partners, victims of his Trump University
scam, banks who lost billions of dollars on his defaulted loans, unpaid contractors
on his building projects.

But Franklin Graham and the other "Christian leaders" are obviously referencing
the current president’s political “enemies,” and urging Christians to pray God will
uphold the current president against them.

Everyone should read the scripture Franklin Graham cites, and see if it commands
Christians to pray what Graham says we should pray.  Everyone should read to the
end of that passage, where it says our prayers for our rulers should be "without wrath
and dissension” (v. 8)...and decide if praying against the current president's political
"enemies" is in line with scripture's command of prayer in which is no dissension . . . 
one of the "deeds of the flesh" listed in Galatians 5:20, right next to "factions."

In the meantime, all Christians who love God's word, and love the Body of Christ,
should pray fervently that Christians will not be deceived by “leaders” who falsify
scripture to mislead God’s people to destruction.

Amen.