Are all Christians divinely duty bound to pray for Joe Biden's complete recovery from COVID-19? According to Franklin Graham, we are. Graham wrote to his millions of followers on social media: "We need to lift him [Biden] up in prayer. The Bible instructs us to pray for all those in authority, and that includes whether we agree with their policies and politics or not." While most contemporary Christians, as well as clergymen, would give Graham a hearty "Amen," does the Bible really teach that Christians are divinely duty bound to pray for the health and wellbeing of all of those in authority, as well as for the blessing of God to be upon them, regardless of their policies or politics?
If it does, then German Christians were bound by the Bible to pray for the health and wellbeing of Adolf Hitler. Likewise, Italian Christians were bound by the Bible to pray for the health and wellbeing of Mussolini, Russian Christians to pray for the health and wellbeing of Joseph Stalin, Chinese Christians to pray for the health and wellbeing of Mao Zedong, and Vietnamese Christians to pray for the health and wellbeing of Pol Pot. Obviously, such a belief is not just unbiblical, it's imbecilic.
It is true, as Franklin Graham says, that the Bible teaches us to pray for those in authority. However, it is not true that we are bound by the Bible to pray for their health and wellbeing, as well as for God’s blessing to be upon them. Instead, the Bible teaches us in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 to pray for those in authority to be used by God to keep our society open and free, so that we will be able to freely practice our Christian Faith and to preach Christ’s Gospel within it. In such a “quiet and peaceable” society, all men will have an opportunity “to come to the knowledge of the truth” and “be saved.” This, the Apostle Paul explains, is “good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,” who wants “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
Joe Biden boldly declared that he wanted his first official act in the Oval Office to be signing into law the Equality Act, which would for all practical purposes outlaw the practice of the Christian Faith and the preaching of Christ’s Gospel in America. This legislation, passed twice by a Democrat controlled Congress, but prevented from being signed by Biden into law by Republican opposition in the Senate, would effectively outlaw all Biblical beliefs and Christian convictions in our country that are deemed by Joe Biden and Democrats to be discriminatory toward America’s LGBTQ+ community. If President Joe Biden ever gets the opportunity to sign this pro-homosexual and anti-Christian legislation into law, as he has promised he’ll do, America’s Bible believing Christians will be stripped of their religious liberty and coerced, under threat of civil litigation or criminal prosecution, into compromising their convictions and the truths God's Word in order to conform to the beliefs of militant homosexuals.
As the above proves, along with a myriad of other examples, the politics and policies of our current president, as well as his political party, are not leading us to a “quiet and peaceable” society within which Christians are free to practice their faith and to preach the Gospel, so that all Americans will have an opportunity “to come to the knowledge of the truth” and “be saved.” Instead, Joe Biden’s policies and politics are leading us to a closed and tyrannical society within which Christians will be prohibited from practicing their faith and preaching the Gospel, so that all Americans won't have an opportunity “to come to the knowledge of the truth” and “be saved.” Therefore, 1 Timothy 2:1-4 certainly does not obligate any Christian in America to pray for the health and wellbeing of Joe Biden, as well as for God’s blessing to be upon him, while he works to thwart what God wants; namely, for “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”