Let’s Talk About Something

18 Aug Let’s Talk About Something

The purpose of this blog – the reason why I write it – is to help people “walk closer with God and live better in life.”  Usually I’m just talking to myself. That is, I’m sharing things that have been helpful to me in my spiritual journey. But I’ve found that things that are helpful to me are often helpful to others as well.

The last several blog posts have been a reflection of my own battle to try to make sense of the political and cultural upheaval we are witnessing in our nation. It has been very helpful to me to identify the ultimate cause: spiritual warfare.  I made the case for spiritual warfare in the last several posts.

However, I’m still processing things, and have decided that for the next several weeks I will continue to explore a Christian response to our present circumstances. I don’t have any intention of turning this into a political blog, but if you’re like me, understanding how to think and act in the midst of this upheaval is a very valuable part of understanding how to walk closer with God and live better in life.

So, let’s talk.

Christians and political involvement

For the next several weeks, I would like to think through the issues facing Christians in the United States in our time of political and cultural upheaval, and see if we can’t identify biblical guidance for how to walk closer with God and live better in life.

The first thing I want to settle in my own mind is whether or not Christians should be politically involved. But even as I ask that, it seems that the answer is already clear: absolutely!

While our country is not an officially Christian nation, Christians had a powerful impact and clear direction on the birth of our country.

• Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. – John Adams
• The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of  Christianity. – John Quincey Adams
• The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible. – Benjamin Rush
• It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, and not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. – Patrick Henry

Finally, at a time of impasse in the Continental Congress, Benjamin Franklin called for the delegates to stop to pray, saying that “if a sparrow cannot fall without God’s intention, is it likely that an empire could rise?” So, we see that Christians (and those shaped by Christian truth and principles) played a major role in the founding of our nation.

If our spiritual ancestors were so involved and so blessed by God in the founding of our country on a Christian foundation, how can we, their spiritual descendants, be indifferent to its maintenance?

If we are grateful for the role they played, how can we neglect playing our role?

Christians should vote!

The time of the founders is passed. So, in our day, what can we do?

At the very least, we should vote!

That is the one thing we can do, together as brothers and sisters in Christ and spiritual descendants of our country’s Christian founders, to maintain the republic they founded.

But how, for whom, should we vote?  It can be so confusing at times.

Here is what guides me.  In the Old Testament, kings were responsible to establish justice and righteousness in the land.  In the books of 1 & 2 Kings, as the history of Israel is told, the kings of Israel and Judah were judged as good kings or bad kings based on whether or not they promoted “justice and righteousness” in the land.

Over and over again, those two words, “justice and righteousness,” are used to evaluate the kings of Israel and Judah.

Now, of course, you and I are not kings or queens, nor does our nation have a king or queen. But we vote to determine the people who will make laws and rule over us. As our elected officials go, so goes the nation. Therefore, we have an obligation to vote, and to vote for those who will help establish justice and righteousness in the nation.

I believe I am obligated to vote, and I am as obligated to vote for justice and righteousness as the kings of Israel and Judah were obligated to rule for justice and righteousness.

Yet, there are millions of evangelical Christians who are not even registered to vote, let alone vote. There are so many Christians that if we all voted, we could vote into office people who would support biblical justice and righteousness. And if our political offices were held by people who support biblical justice and righteousness, we wouldn’t be facing the political and cultural upheaval that we’re facing now!

• Knowing that, how can we turn our backs on an opportunity to do good?
• Knowing that, how can we abdicate the power to help turn our nation back to a more biblical foundation?
• Knowing that, how can we ignore the opportunity to make the world a better place for children and grandchildren?

The apostle James said, “To one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”  (James 4:17)  How can Christians, knowing that if we all banded together and voted for individuals who would promote justice and righteousness in the land, and in doing so, the Lord would heal our land – how can we not do it?!?

Who should we vote for?

There are Christians who don’t vote because they don’t like either party, or they don’t like either person running for a given office. So, they don’t vote at all. This seems to me to be an abdication of divinely bestowed responsibility.

We must vote for the person who will most fully establish justice and righteousness in the land.

But, you may say, the person running for office is not a Christian… and isn’t even a very exemplary person! I understand. In situations like that, we look deeper for the basis for our vote. And it cannot be merely for how it will affect our pocketbook, as I know has been the main concern of some I’ve talked with in past elections. We must look at all policies and be guided by whether they are in support of or opposed to biblical justice and righteousness.

If you look at the political platforms (official goals) of the two national parties, there are stark and alarming differences.

Democrats values include:

• abortion (including especially egregious late-term abortion),
• homosexuality and transgenderism,
• restrictions on religious liberty,
• guidelines that would force Christians to violate their sincerely held biblical beliefs in the pursuit of unbiblical values (forcing Christian organizations to pay for abortions and hire homosexuals and transgenders, etc.,)
• eliminating the freedom Christians have to live out their faith in American society,
• restrictions to eliminate Christian influence in government,

So, if you cannot vote for a given person, then vote for the party platform.

You may not want to vote at all because you do not like a particular Republican. You think he/she’s a jerk.

Maybe so, but that jerk will generally work with other Republicans to help advance the Republican party platform, which is inherently more biblical than the Democrat platform.

By voting for someone who will further the platform of the Democrats, or not voting at all and thereby giving the Republican’s opponent the advantage, you are feeding the beast that will eventually destroy the principles on which our nation was founded and in the process, devour your freedom to live out your Christian faith.

 Is that the world you want for your children and grandchildren?

Vote for justice and righteousness

So, vote for the platform, even if you do not like the person.

• If you vote for the Democrat, or if you don’t vote at all, then you are helping Democrats win.
• You are helping advance the Democrat platform.
• You become complicit in electing people who will advance injustice and unrighteousness.

There is no command in the Bible, “Thou shalt vote!”  But we can add two and two together and come to a reasonable conclusion.  We need to be able to stand before God and say, “if it were up to me, our nation would be governed by the people who would most likely support biblical values.”

I wouldn’t want to stand before God and have Him ask me, “Why didn’t you vote for the persons most likely to establish justice and righteousness in our nation?”

What could I say?!?

So, the first truth that must guide Christians in our day of political and cultural upheaval is that we must vote!  And we must vote for those who will help establish justice and righteousness in the land.

From school boards, to mayors, to state senators, to national offices, it’s all important. Let all Christians join arms for this next election and vote for those who will most fully uphold justice and righteousness in our land.

Help spread the message, “Like” my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/maxanders.author and invite your friends to do the same. If you know someone you think may find this blog valuable, please forward it to them. I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at max@maxanders.com. I try to answer all emails, but, if not, I may address in future blogs the questions/issues you raise.

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