TUPELO, Miss. — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is calling upon Christians and their pastors to “rise up” for biblical values during the 2016 election season.

“Nothing is more important in the next 18 months than that the Body of Christ rises up and that Christians stand up—that pastors stand up and lead,” he said in a recent interview with the American Family Association during a campaign stop in Mississippi. (Watch here.)

He noted that his father, Rafael Cruz, a pastor, has been encouraging other pastors to be salt and light in the nation.

“He will tell pastors, ‘Listen, God really laid upon my heart that no one bears greater responsibility for the condition of this country today than the pastors,'” Cruz explained. “Because if the flock stumbles into a ditch, you don’t blame the sheep; you blame the shepherd.”

“And in this last election, 54 million evangelical Christians stayed home,” he said. “Is it any wonder we have the government we have, the leaders we have, if Christians stay home and leave electing our leaders to unbelievers? We get exactly what we deserve.”

Cruz said that it is vitally important for Christians to vote biblical values.

During the interview, the Republican presidential candidate further outlined his plans for the first day in office should he be elected president.

“There are five things I intend to do on January 20, 2017,” Cruz said. “Number one, rescind every unconstitutional and illegal executive action taken by President Obama. Number two, direct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood and prosecute any and all criminal conduct. Number three, direct every agency of the federal government [that] the persecution of religious liberty ends today. The federal government will defend religious liberty, not attack it.”

“Number four, I will rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal and defend this nation against the threat of a radical Islamic ayatollah with an nuclear weapon,” he continued. “And number five, on the first day in office, I intend to begin the process of moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the once eternal capital of Israel.”

As previously reported, last year, Cruz’ father, director of Purifying Fire Ministries, spoke on biblical voting during a dinner in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

“[T]he Bible talks a lot about politics,” he said. “As a matter of fact, did you know that the Bible tells you exactly who to vote for? Very, very clearly the Bible tells you who to vote for. Let me prove it to you.”

Cruz then pointed to the account of Moses’ discussion with his father-in-law Jethro, as outlined in Exodus 18, where God spoke through Jethro in regard to how leaders should be chosen among the people.

“[H]e gives four qualifications: able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness,” he outlined.

Cruz defined each qualification in detail, focusing especially on the requirement that the candidate fears God and that they be a man of truth.

“If you fear God, you obey God’s precepts,” he said. “For example, you defend the sanctity of life. But beyond the moral code, that means you live a life of integrity, honesty, hard work, individual responsibility, the rule of law, and yes, free enterprise and limited government. The Bible has a lot to say about all those.”

“Jesus said, ‘Ye shall know them by their fruit,’” Cruz stated. “Stop listening to [a candidate’s] rhetoric; look at their record. It won’t do you any good to listen to a politician that tells you, ‘Oh yes, I’m pro-life,’ and they’ve voted for abortion seventeen times.”

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