God Told Me To Write This. Or Did He?

The above graphic from CNN Belief really says it all, though it may be a little premature to count Perry as officially out just yet. 

There’s a tendency among Evangelicals to over-use, “Thus saith the Lord;” when the really mean, “Thus saith me;” unless of course, in their view, ‘the Lord’ = ‘me.’  There’s an equal tendency to over-use “God told me;” when in fact it merely seemed like a good idea at that time. 

Or maybe it was a desire of the heart.  There is a (conditional) promise that God will give us the desires of our heart, but it would appear that those desires begin within us. To claim external direction to run for President would make sense if it were a heavenly vision given to a man installing mufflers or a woman asking people, “Would you like fries with that?” But for many of these politicians, the aspiration to run for the (U.S.) nation’s top office has been part of a longer, lifelong process. Eventually, after all is said and done, there will only be one nominee.

Someone will want to argue that there are God-given desires; that there is no audible voice, but a want-to that is divinely implanted.  I might concede that one. In that case though, whether speaking to secularists or other believers, I would still avoid the use of ‘God told…”

You can click to join the conversation at CNN Belief. The forum needs people who will focus on the theological implications and not get hung up on the political.