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Continuing our discussion from part two, while I have now shared with you my views regarding what I believe the Lord teaches us concerning the practice of praying for worldly leaders, our Scriptural picture is not yet complete. As we have already seen, we owe our loyalty, and our allegiance, first of all to the Kingdom of God. This is because we are the subjects of His Kingdom. In fact, as I explain in other articles, we're actually a worldwide, holy, spiritual nation of born-again Believers, which the world does not recognize. However, God does. Consider the following verses. As can be seen, even the Lord Himself made mention of His invisible nation of spiritual children, which the unbelieving Jews could not understand:

"Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."


"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."


"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:"


While our spiritual nation is ruled from on high by the Lord Himself in the Heavens, similar to worldly countries which maintain governments in order to achieve cohesiveness and unity amongst their peoples, God has also seen fit to set up a loose structure for His children here on Earth, in order to maintain a certain degree of spiritual unity amongst the Body of Christ. I am referring to the leaders, or spiritual elders, which the Lord has raised up for the edification of His Body, the Church. The Apostles Peter, James and Paul make mention of these leaders in the following verses which are found in their various Epistles:

"Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you . . . Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you."


"Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine."


"For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:"


"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:"


"The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:"


As I more fully explain in the series entitled "Where Are the First Century Churches?", when Paul talks about obeying "them that have the rule over you", he is NOT talking about worldly leaders and their governments. While Paul does talk about obeying secular rulers in other verses -- such as in Romans 13 -- in the previous verses, he is really referring to the bishops, deacons, and other elders which were set up over the local congregations. I would like to emphasize that these were local situations.

Stated more clearly, unlike today, in which we see powerful global religious hierarchies that are overseen or shepherded by one individual or perhaps by a small group of individuals such as occurs with the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the jurisdiction of these First Century Church leaders was limited to a small defined area. Usually to one city.

In case you were not aware of it, the churches of the First Century were autonomous, indigenous units, bonded together by love, and by their common doctrine of Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. They were not held together by an overbearing, powerful, central hierarchy. This unity was strengthened by occasional visits from travelling elders such as Paul, Timothy, Titus, and other elders who had been given training by the Apostles themselves. Likewise, as we know, the Epistles written by Peter, James, John and Paul also helped maintain common doctrine between the churches. Please refer to the aforementioned article for more details.

The point I would like to stress here, is that it is to these leaders of the local fellowships, to whom Christians are to submit themselves first of all. In so doing, we are indirectly submitting ourselves to the Lord. Of course, in even saying this, I am making the assumption that you have honest, humble God-fearing leaders in your local fellowship who are truly worthy of receiving such honour. Sadly, that is not always the case. I discuss dictatorial pastors in other Bill's Bible Basics articles.

Why does the Apostle Paul mention that Christians should bestow double honour on church elders? Because "they watch for your souls, as they that must give account". In other words, your local church elders must give an account to God for your spiritual wellbeing, and as you can imagine, that is a very serious responsibility to accept for anyone.

In stark contrast, ungodly, secular, political leaders most certainly do not do this. As we have already seen, most of them are primarily concerned with lining their pockets with money, and staying in power for as long as they possibly can by whatever means possible, even if it requires engaging in such vile tactics as employing secret police, engaging in bribery, holding rigged popular votes, assassinating their political enemies, etc. There is nothing godly about them whatsoever, because many are not His children. Otherwise, they would not do such things.

Thus far, we have seen that we have our own Kingdom, our own global invisible nation, and our own local leadership. That being the case, I believe that one of our top priorities as Christians -- aside from being a witness of our faith to others -- is not only to submit ourselves to the spiritual elders in our lives, but also to fervently pray for them as well. As the "spiritual elder" of my particular ministry, I can certainly tell you that I need all of the prayers I can get. Satan obviously doesn't like what I'm doing by sharing the straight truth of God's Word with you. He really hates it, and he tries to slow me down in the flesh as much as he possibly can.

If the truth be told, with my advancing age -- I am now in my seventies -- and slowly deteriorating health, sometimes it is indeed a real struggle for me to finish writing a new article or series, or to accomplish other ministry-related tasks. It can take days, or even weeks or longer. In fact, I have quite a few half-completed articles which have been sitting on my hard drive for literally years now.

At any rate, the main point I wish to emphasize here is that these local church elders are the real leaders for whom we Christians ought to be praying, and not for those ungodly, secular, political leaders, many of whom do not retain God in their thoughts as we read in Psalm 10:4 in part two. In fact, on a number of occasions, the Apostle Paul requested prayer for himself and for his companions in various of his Epistles. Consider the following group of Bible verses:

"Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;"


"Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:"


"Brethren, pray for us."


"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:"


"Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly."


Of course, prayer is likewise reciprocal in nature. In other words, just as Paul asked the brethren to pray for him, he likewise prayed for them, and encouraged them to pray for each other. The Apostle James also tells us that we should pray over our sick brethren. Consider the following group of Bible verses:

"For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;"


"Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;"


"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;"


"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;"


"Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God."


"We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;"


"I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;"


"I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers,"


"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."


From all of the verses I have shared thus far, it becomes rather evident that the Lord and His Apostles have left us with a clear example regarding our prayer life. We have seen that we are supposed to pray for our coming Kingdom. We are supposed to prayer for our spiritual elders. And we are also to pray for each other. In addition to this, we are to pray for those people who persecute us, in the hope that they'll turn from their wicked ways. If we pray unselfishly in this manner, the Lord will certainly hear us; for in quoting from the thirty-fourth Psalm, the Apostle Peter wrote thusly:

"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil."


"The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."


Notice that while the Lord does indeed hear the prayers of His righteous children, He turns away His ear when it comes to the wicked. In other words, believe it or not, but God doesn't even listen to their prayers. He just ignores them. In fact, as I explain in "Beholding the Evil and the Good", the Lord will even temporarily turn His face away from His very own children whenever they are overly disobedient and rebellious. Now that's a sobering thought, isn't it?

You may recall that in part one of this series, I shared the following verse where the Apostle Paul informs us that the Lord's children are to depart from iniquity. If we do this, and delight ourselves in Him, He will hear our prayers and give us the desires of our hearts. I have added several more verses to the group below for your personal consideration:

"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."


"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."


"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:"


While I have now presented a preponderance of Scriptural evidence to explain why I am personally convinced that we are under no obligation to pray for the wicked leaders of this world, there is one place in the entire New Testament, where the Apostle Paul does exhort us to pray for all men, including for the leaders of the world. More specifically, he encourages us to pray for their Salvation.

Of course, this is as it should be, because the whole reason God placed us on this Earth, is to be a witness of our faith to others. For those of you who may be interested, I discuss the full scope of God's plan of Salvation in the article "Is the Message of Salvation Meant for All Men?". In his first Epistle to Timothy, his dear son in the faith, the Apostle Paul writes the following:

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."


As I pointed out a moment ago, Paul is clearly encouraging us to pray for the Salvation of all men, regardless of their social status. Whether one is a king, or a pauper, he still requires the Lord's Salvation, because we have all sinned. As you may know, it was this burning desire in Paul's heart, which eventually led him to the heart of the Roman Empire. Paul's words go hand-in-hand with what the Apostle Peter wrote in his second Epistle, as we see by this verse:

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."


In His infinite love and mercy, God wants to give all of us a chance at Salvation, whether we will hear, or whether we will forebear. As you may already know, the fact that Paul was imprisoned in Jerusalem, taken to Rome, brought before Emperor Nero on several occasions, and was even able to be a faithful witness to Nero's household for about two years, was itself the fulfillment of a prophecy which had spoken by the Lord Himself, both in the Gospels, as well as in the Book of Acts. Consider the following group of Bible verses:

"But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them."


"Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake."


In addition to the fact that Paul says that we should pray for the Salvation of all men, why does he specifically tell us that we should pray "for kings, and for all that are in authority"? Quite simply, because in the long run, it may prove to be to our own benefit if they accept the Lord. As Paul wrote, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty".

In other words, my understanding of Paul's words is that if our prayers help to win some worldly leaders to the Lord -- in which case they would hopefully become more yielded to His Spirit -- then there is the possibility that we might be able to live quiet, peaceable lives under those authorities, with minimal persecution.

While this is indeed a wonderful thought, the truth of the matter is that we -- the Children of Light -- are unable to live a harmonious existence with the children of darkness for very long; unless of course we compromise our Christian convictions. If you doubt that this is so, have a good look at the spiritual situation which exists in the United States today. The clear rift between the Children of Light and the children of darkness could not be any more apparent. They don't even try to hide their sins and their defiance against the Lord anymore. It is right out there in the open for all to see, as many of you will already know.

At any rate, the Apostle Paul was not willing to compromise in the least. Despite knowing the potential consequences of his actions, he chose to remain bold in his witness. Thus, the crazed Roman emperor, Nero -- who not only burned Rome, but who likewise later committed suicide -- eventually had the Apostle Paul beheaded in order to silence his testimony.

While I obviously don't know the future, I do have to wonder where the situation is headed in the United States. As the children of darkness become even more wicked, and tragically, increasingly defiant against the Lord, it compels some of us Christians to speak out more strongly against them. I myself have used my writing ministry for decades now to expose what is happening in that country. But as many of my Christian brethren have likewise experienced firsthand, our voices are slowly being silenced by way of outright censorship in the news, filtered search results in Internet search engines, and intentional shadow banning on the social networks.

This brings us to another interesting point, and striking truth concerning our witness to kings, presidents, prime ministers and other government authorities. Exactly why did Jesus say that His followers would be brought before these dignitaries? Was it so that they could all accept the Lord, and so that we could all be one happy, universal Christian family?

Sadly, no, not by any means. That is not what the Lord said. What He did in fact say was "for a testimony against them". Isn't that amazing? As I stated earlier, the Lord knows the end of the story from the very beginning. He already knows the decision that we each are going to make when it comes to our chance for Salvation. As I explain in other articles, I believe that this is one of the reasons why the Lord knows those who are His, and why the Apostle Paul tells us that we are predestinated, as we can see by the following verses:

"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."


"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will . . . In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"


As we have already seen, because of His own Righteousness, and because of His Divine Love for His creations, God wants to give everyone a chance to acquire Salvation, even those wicked people who are in charge of the governments of this current world. But He already knows what they will choose. This reminds me of what I asked you in part two concerning whether or not you believe the rulers of this world would willingly surrender all of their power to Jesus Christ. Do you still have any doubts regarding what the answer is?

While Jesus was spiritually strong enough to resist Satan's temptations when he offered Him all of the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, as I mentioned in part one, like the backslider Demas who left the Apostle Paul for the ways of the world, the wicked men of this world jump at such an opportunity, preferring temporal Earthly riches, fame and power, instead of the as-yet-unseen eternal rewards of our Heavenly Kingdom. Consider the following group of verses, some of which I shared with you in part one of this series:

"And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it."


"For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia."


"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."


While I cannot conclusively prove this point, perhaps this is one of the reasons why when Jesus offered prayers to His Father in John 17, He only prayed for His followers, and not for the world, because as He said, "for they are thine". And as Paul also wrote, "The Lord knoweth them that are his".

As I mentioned in part one, the only ones who can be a part of the Lord's Kingdom, are those whom His Father has given Him. Well, based upon the previous verses, it seems that the only ones which the Father can give to Jesus, are those who are predestinated to be a part of His Kingdom. Is that easy for you to understand? If not, please read it again more slowly.

Just as Jesus already knew ahead of time that Judas would make the wrong choice and betray Him, the Lord apparently already knows where the line is drawn between the sheep and the goats, and between the wheat and the tares, even though not everyone has made their choice yet here in our physical realm of time and space. As I shared with you earlier, the Apostle Paul wrote "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate". So God definitely has foreknowledge of the events, and perhaps of the decisions we will make as well. As we also previously read in part two, the Prophet Isaiah likewise wrote "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done."

Because the score is apparently already settled in Heaven, I am inclined to believe that this may be why the Lord did not leave us with any specific instructions regarding praying for the children of the world and their ungodly leaders. It may even be possible that just as the Apostle Paul referred to the unbelieving Jews of the First Century as the children of disobedience and the children of wrath because they were destined to face God's judgments and wrath in 70 AD due to their foolish rejection of Christ, this modern generation of unbelievers and defiant mockers may face a similar situation.

In other words, if what I am suggesting is true, the Lord already knows that no matter how many times some people are witnessed to, or how long they are witnessed to, they will still not have a change of heart. They will still continue in their rebellious ways until it is too late for them. As Jesus told the unbelieving Jews who rejected Him, they will die in their sins. They are brute beasts meant to be destroyed. They are reprobate silver which will be cast off, because they've been totally rejected by the Lord. Consider this group of sobering Bible verses:

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the CHILDREN OF WRATH, even as others."


"But these, as natural brute beasts, MADE TO BE TAKEN AND DESTROYED, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall UTTERLY PERISH in their own corruption;"


"Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come . . . I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."


"They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. REPROBATE SILVER shall men call them, because THE LORD HATH REJECTED THEM."


"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God . . . For our God is a CONSUMING FIRE."


"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works . . . And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the LAKE OF FIRE."


Wow! Those verses just really hit me! They really impress upon me the seriousness of rejecting Jesus Christ. If we are foolish enough to reject His love and mercy, then He will reject us as well, and that is where we will end up!

Please go to part four for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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