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It's Saturday, October 12, 2024.

Today’s edition covers reactions to the news that many Christians plan not to vote, the story of Martin Luther’s Mrs., what Paul meant by “the ministry of reconciliation,” and much more.

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Of Christian Concern

CHRISTIANS REACT: MILLIONS OF BELIEVERS PLAN TO ABSTAIN FROM THE 2024 ELECTION

Photo: Element5 Digital (cross added)

Thirty-two million regular churchgoing Christians plan to sit out of the 2024 election, according to a study from Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center. The research, released Monday, also suggests that “an estimated five million regular churchgoers would be likely to vote” if pastors simply encouraged people to do so.

The news has gotten a lot of reactions from Christians online. Journalist Megan Basham wrote,

There have been considerable efforts from Evangelical leaders to convince Christians there is something sinful about exercising their political power through their vote. Now we see result. This is depriving nation of salt and light in the public sphere.

She also agreed with a commenting pastor, Aaron O’Kelley, who suggested,

I think that's part of the issue, but the other (maybe bigger) part is the Trump/GOP's hard court press on 1990's Democrat abortion talking points. If Trump loses, it may be entirely because of that.

Christian scholar Nancy Pearcey weighed in on the news:

Christians are called to live out God's truth in every area of life, including politics. A pastor who refuses to talk about politics is failing to disciple his congregation.

Author and podcaster Eric Metaxas wrote,

Christians who think not voting is an acceptable option have believed a satanic lie. NOT TO VOTE IS TO VOTE. In your petulant and pietistic inaction you will help evil to harm those God has commanded you to love. The devil owns the fence you are sitting on. Do not be deceived.

The Babylon Bee managing editor Joel Berry argued,

If you're a Christian and you aren't voting, you are abdicating your responsibility as a co-leader of this nation. Your vote is your share in leadership. It has been entrusted to you by God to steward. It is wrong to ignore your responsibility.

North Carolina pastor Matt Carr disagreed, replying in part,

Not voting ≠ abdication.

There are plenty of reasons one might be wise and good to choose not to vote in American elections as well.

I don’t think a vote for Donald Trump, which Berry clearly wants, is good stewardship of our leadership. “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Christian author Jack Richardson IV also addressed the issue this week:

In this season of an existential presidential election, many in the Christian community are plagued with false piety and sanctimonious attitudes, saying they will not vote. . . . Many professing Christians sacrifice the good for the nonexistent perfect.

Journalist Ben Zeisloft offered three possible reasons for “why Christian political engagement seems to have fallen this year.”

1. Some Christians are “pietistic,” believing “the crown of Christ does not impact the civil sphere.”

2. Some are “disillusioned,” having “been guilted [by “leftist money and operatives”] for caring about righteousness in our cultural and civic life.”

3. Christians are “unrepresented,” seeing “two parties that are increasingly evil and shamelessly opposed to righteousness.”

Opinions aside, the President of Arizona Christian University, Len Munsil, stated in a news release,

I see two huge take-aways from this blockbuster report. First, that Christians could be the deciding factor in a bunch of federal and state races – and are choosing not to be. And second, that they are longing for their local church to instruct them on how to think biblically about policy and politics. They don't want to be told how to vote, but they do want to know why they should vote, and how to view political issues from a biblical framework.

Also Noteworthy

Screenshot of Musk in interview with Carlson. (TCN / X)

→ Tech billionaire Elon Musk talks religion with podcaster Tucker Carlson in an interview released Monday. He attributes the rise of wokeism to the decline of religion since “most people…need something to fill that void.” So, he says, “the woke mind virus” “takes the place of religion,” and its adherents “feel it with religious fervor” and “essentially conduct, like, a holy war.”

Musk calls himself a “cultural Christian,” having been raised and baptized as an Anglican, but says, “I have trouble sort of believing all these stories, these religious stories…” He adds he is “not trying to dissuade [people] from their religious views.” Still, as for himself, he operates from a mentality of physics engineering—trying to understand reality and not believing anything absolutely but questioning things.

RELATED: To read an argument for how knowing anything proves the existence of God, go here.

→ Evangelicals have a range of beliefs about what behaviors are sins, Infinity Concepts found in a new report. The study details that at least three out of four evangelicals consider the following behaviors sinful:

• Adultery (96%)

• Racism (87%)

• Reading/watching pornography (86%)

• Homosexual activity or sex (86%)

• Antisemitism (84%)

• Using hard drugs (84%)

• Sexual thoughts about someone you are not married to (83%)

• Sex before marriage (82%)

• Having an abortion (81%)

• Gossip (78%)

• Homosexual thoughts (78%)

• Not saying anything if a cashier gives you too much change back(77%)

• Swearing or cursing (76%)

The report also found that around one-third (34%) believe failing to tithe is a sin, despite only 14% of that group coming “anywhere close” to tithing. Even fewer (30%) believe failing to attend worship services regularly is a sin, despite 36% of that group not attending weekly and 24% not attending monthly.

Get the full and fascinating report here.

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content of Christian interest.*

Screenshot from Jonny Ardavanis’s sermon clip. (@jonnyardavanis / Instagram)

→ Pastoral Perspective On Politics: In a viral clip from a recent sermon, Pastor Jonny Ardavanis of Stonebridge Bible Church in Brentwood, TN, lays out his advice in what one social media influencer labeled “the boldest and clearest guidance I’ve heard on this election season.” (Clip)

→ What Democrats NEED to realize about abortion: Ken Ham evaluates the Democrats’ position on abortion in this Instagram Reel. (Video)

→ What Christians NEED to know about IVF: Virgil Walker from G3 Ministries dives into the ethical perils of in vitro fertilization. (Video)

→ Secret History of Islam EXPOSED: Brandon McGuire from Daily Dose of Wisdom highlights a video clip in which Brigitte Gabriel relates 1400 years of Islamic history in 12 minutes. (Video)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

Church History Tidbit

Mrs. Martin Luther

Lucas Cranach the Elder’s portraits of Martin and Katharina Luther, 1528 and 1526, respectively. (Public Domain)

After Worms

After Martin Luther’s appearance at the Diet of Worms of 1521, the Church and civil authorities declared him an outlaw and a heretic. He was saved from arrest and probable execution thanks to the sympathetic Frederick III, a powerful local nobleman who had sent soldiers disguised as highwaymen to abduct him on his journey from Worms. Frederick kept Luther in hiding “for the better part of a year,” during which time he began translating the Bible into German.

The next few years saw the rise of other reformers, a peasant revolt in Germany inspired by Luther’s teachings, and a splintering of the Reformation movement over theological issues.

Introducing Katharina

In 1523, a nun named Katharina von Bora (1499-1552) sent Luther a letter petitioning help for her and fellow nuns who had become convinced by his teachings to leave the monastic life. Helping a nun leave the monastic life was a criminal offense, so there was a risk. However, the law was only enforceable in the region where it occurred. So, Luther organized an escape by way of a merchant and a cartful of barrels in which the women hid, brought them to Wittenberg, and began marrying them off as he was able.

By 1525, only one remained: Katharina. She said she would only be willing to marry either Luther’s friend Nikolaus von Amsdorf or Luther himself, but preferred Luther. After some consideration and for a number of reasons, Luther married her.

A Power Couple

Author Nancy Pearcey writes the following about this 16th-century power couple.

Martin and Katharina Luther had six children, and raised four orphans as well. They lived in a three-story former monastery building, which they turned into a boarding house for students and [professors]. . . .

The couple invested the income from their boarders into a large farm with livestock, multiple gardens, fish ponds, fruit orchards, and even a brewery . . . In times of widespread illness, their home was turned into a hospital.

And who ran all these productive economic enterprises, while Martin taught and wrote? Katharina did. At the same time, she contributed intellectually to Martin’s theological work. He had such great respect for her theological learning . . . that people jokingly referred to her as “Doctorissa” and implied that he got some of his ideas from her.

Which might well be true.

Learn more about Katharina here.

The Bible, Briefly

The Solution to Racism (Part 3)

Photo: Diva Plavalaguna

If you missed parts 1 and 2, read them here and here.

Racial Reconciliation?

Often, Christians discussing a need for “racial reconciliation” bring up 2 Corinthians 5:18, where Paul writes that Christ “gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” This verse is sometimes used as a springboard for some policy proposal—monetary reparations, for instance—that will supposedly bring about a greater unity between people of different skin colors. The problem is that Paul clearly defines what he means by “the ministry of reconciliation,” and it’s not some newfangled policy. Here’s the complete sentence, which comes right after the famous line about how anyone in Christ is a new creation, and the old is gone, and the new has come:

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

So, the ministry of reconciliation is not to run off and try to reconcile people with methods of our own invention. It’s simply to proclaim that God has reconciled us to Himself in Christ. It’s literally the opposite of trying to come up with our own ways of being reconciled. Instead, it’s recognizing that we can do nothing to be reconciled; we’re already reconciled. There’s nothing more to do.

The Only Obstacle

That means the only obstacle to realizing this reconciliation in practice is our lack of understanding and faith that Christ has already accomplished it. It’s part of the gospel. It’s a benefit—a privilege—given to every follower of Christ: whoever rests in Him finds that they have been born again into a diverse family, in which those diversities do not divide us in the slightest.

Some wonder how we will bridge our racial divides, and others have abandoned any attempt or desire to do so, but in the Church, there are no racial divides because there are no “races.” In the Church, there’s only one race—and it’s not just “the human race.” We’ll identify that race next week in this series’s fourth and final part.

To be concluded…

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Why "18:15"? The name Project 18:15 is based on Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The aim is for this weekly email—a Christian news briefing, a Bible study, and a Church history lesson rolled into one—to be one way you keep abreast of current events and acquire knowledge you might not acquire elsewhere.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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