Christian Election Guide from Bible Study

Old Testament

The Proverbs

Chapter 29:2, 12, 18

When the wicked rule, the people mourn—The righteous consider the cause of the poor—Where there is no vision, the people perish.

2 When the ^arighteous are in ^bauthority, the people ^crejoice: but when the ^dwicked beareth ^erule, the people ^fmourn.

12 If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.

18 Where there is no ^avision, the people ^bperish: but he that ^ckeepeth the ^dlaw, ^ehappy is he.

The First Book of Samuel

Chapter 8:4-19

Samuel’s sons take bribes and pervert judgment—The Israelites seek for a king to rule over them—Samuel rehearses the nature and evils of kingly rule—The Lord consents to give them a king.

4-6Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons ^awalk not in thy ways: now make us a ^bking to judge us like all the nations.¶But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.

7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the ^avoice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have ^brejected me9 Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet ^aprotest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the ^bking that shall ^creign over them.

10 ¶And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.

11-17 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:

• He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
•  And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ^aear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
• And he will take your daughters to be ^aconfectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
• And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
• And he will take the ^atenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
• And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, …
• He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your ^aking which ye shall have ^bchosen you; and the Lord will not ^chear you in that day.

19 ¶Nevertheless the people refused to ^aobey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;

20 That we also may be like all the ^anations;

[Who is making our nation like the socialist nations of Europe?]

The Book of Mormon:

Another Testament of Jesus Christ

The Book of Mosiah

Chapter 29:6-7, 16-17, 21-27, 35-38

6 Now I declare unto you that he to whom the kingdom doth rightly belong has declined, and will not take upon him the kingdom.

7 And now if there should be another appointed in his stead, behold I fear there would rise ^acontentions among you. And who knoweth but what my son, to whom the kingdom doth belong, should turn to be angry and ^bdraw away a part of this people after him, which would cause wars and contentions among you, which would be the cause of shedding much blood and perverting the way of the Lord, yea, and destroy the souls of many people.

16-17 Now I say unto you, that because all men are not just it is not expedient that ye should have a ^aking or kings to rule over you. For behold, how much ^ainiquity doth one ^bwicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!

21-23 And behold, now I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous ^aking save it be through much contention, and the shedding of much blood.

•  For behold, he has his ^afriends in iniquity, and he keepeth his guards about him; and he teareth up the laws of those who have reigned in righteousness before him; and he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God;
• And he enacteth laws, and sendeth them forth among his people, yea, laws after the manner of his own wickedness; and whosoever doth not obey his laws he ^acauseth to be destroyed; and whosoever doth rebel against him he will send his armies against them to war, and if he can he will destroy them; and thus an unrighteous ^bking doth pervert the ways of all righteousness.

24-25 And now behold I say unto you, it is not expedient that such abominations should come upon you. Therefore, choose you by the ^avoice of this people, judges, that ye may be ^bjudged according to the ^claws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord.

26 Now it is not common that the ^avoice of the people desireth anything ^bcontrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the ^cpeople to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.

27 And ^aif the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.

35 And he also unfolded unto them all the disadvantages they labored under, by having an unrighteous ^aking to rule over them;

36 Yea, all ^ahis iniquities and abominations, and all the wars, and contentions, and bloodshed, and the stealing, and the plundering, and the committing of whoredoms, and all manner of iniquities which cannot be enumerated—telling them that these things ought not to be, that they were expressly repugnant to the commandments of God.

37 And now it came to pass, after king Mosiah had sent these things forth among the people they were ^aconvinced of the truth of his words.

38 Therefore they relinquished their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal ^achance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins.

The Doctrine and Covenants

Section 98

5 And that ^alaw of the land which is ^bconstitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.

6 Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the ^aconstitutional law of the land;

7 And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.

8 I, the Lord God, make you ^afree, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.

9 Nevertheless, when the ^awicked ^brule the people mourn.

10 Wherefore, ^ahonest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.

Zeniff and the Lamanites

Mosiah  9 and 10 (Book of Mormon) opens the account of Zeniff, a Nephite who felt that he saw good in the Lamanites, who were the enemy of Christians at that time. He took some followers and, after much strife, entered the Land of Nephi, (in Central America) which the Nephites had fled years before because of the murderous opposition  of the Lamanites. Zeniff wanted to make a treaty with the Lamanites, because he wanted to re-possess the land. He trusted the Lamanites, and ended up in bondage to them.

In Mosiah 10, Zeniff explains the untrue traditions that were started with Nephi’s brothers, Laman and Lemuel, and passed down to their descendants.

12 They were a ^awild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, believing in the ^btradition of their fathers, which is this—Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they were ^cwronged in the wilderness by their brethren, and they were also wronged while crossing the sea;

13 And again, that they were wronged while in the land of their ^afirst inheritance, after they had crossed the sea, and all this because that Nephi was more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord—therefore ^bhe was favored of the Lord, for the Lord heard his prayers and answered them, and he took the lead of their journey in the wilderness.

14 And his brethren were ^awroth with him because they ^bunderstood not the dealings of the Lord; they were also wroth with him upon the waters because they hardened their hearts against the Lord.

15 And again, they were ^awroth with him when they had arrived in the promised land, because they said that he had taken the ^bruling of the people out of their hands; and they sought to kill him.

16 And again, they were wroth with him because he departed into the wilderness as the Lord had commanded him, and took the ^arecords which were engraven on the plates of brass, for they said that he ^brobbed them.

17 And thus they have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi.

Dinner Talk

Election Guide from Bible Study

1. What does Doctrine and Covenants 98:5-10 (see above) teach us about the Constitution of the United States? What kind of leaders should we support?

2. Edmund Burke said, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” How does this usually apply to kings?

Zeniff and the Lamanites

3. Zeniff describes the untrue traditions that the Lamanites (unbelievers) taught for generations. What really happened was that Nephi’s family fled Jerusalem because of persecution against Christians. Nephi’s brother (Laman) wanted to rule as king over the people, but the Lord ordained Nephi to be their leader. This so infuriated Laman that he sought to kill Nephi. What ideology today promotes the concept that they are victims? What factions in our society today use lies to obtain or maintain power?

4. Like the Lamanites, generations of Americans have been taught false philosophies in schools.. Read the story of enforced priestcraft (imposing a belief system by force) in Alma 1. How is enforced priestcraft like a state religion? How has this state religion affected government, media, science, and academia  in our country? Why did the prophet Alma say that enforced priestcraft would ruin the nation? (See Epic Stories, pp.6-8)

Biblical Guide to the Book of Mormon: Learn how the Book of Mormon verifies the Bible. Easy, Dinner-Topic style. Non-doctrinal, understandable for all ages.

Click here to download Epic Stories for Character Education and learn how the Book of Mormon verifies the Bible.