It’s always hard to be on social media for the few weeks before an election. The hatred for the “other” party becomes open verbal warfare. It seems to be that there is so much hatred for President Trump that there is less emphasis on the people actually running in the mid-term elections. This is not helpful to someone who wants to only vote for the ones running whose values align with theirs. How would we ever know?
Sadly, for most Christians there are very few candidates that think in Biblical terms about what it means to be in civil government.
Even harder is to see (on social media) that many Christians seem to think if we can just get the right people in office the nation will miraculously change course and become a haven for Christians and conservatives. They make strong, guilt-ridden appeals that “if only Christians would vote, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
What? So again, God is left out of the equation in this appeal. Can we not see that electing a so-called conservative President has only landed us in worse cultural circumstances than we were in before the elections? Political candidates are not going to restore our country to a Christian nation. This is the job for Christians.
God says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21:1).
1 Chronicles 29: 11-13 King David prays, “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name.”
He is the Sovereign God of the universe. His power will put people in political positions, not our votes.
It seems apparent that we are under the judgment of God. He is going to place into our leadership whomever He wills. There will be Christians who believe that they must vote and some who believe that they cannot vote because there are no godly people running for offices. Some say it is a sin not to vote based on their own reading of Romans 13:1-4. Others will say when they give me someone who is of God, working for good, then they will vote. Some argue this is the only way to obey God’s word about who makes a good civil magistrate.
If more Christians would be willing to take firm stances based on the sovereignty of God, maybe we would be given better choices. As things stand, however, incremental abortion laws and legalizing homosexual marriage, tax laws and denying how God made male and female, all point to the fact that, as a nation, we have rejected God and His Word. It is a fearful thing to be the hands of an angry God.
Sadly, our view of God’s sovereignty is so low that we fail to fear that He will bring judgment on us. It’s so low many Christians don’t even recognize that judgment is here. The political arena is one place we see it. 70 million babies killed in their mother’s wombs are certainly another part of our judgment.
David ends his prayer from 1 Chronicles 29:11-13 with thanksgiving to God for His power and might, after acknowledging it is only the LORD who has power and might to make great and give strength. There is no salvation from politics. Will we repent of the thought that it does?
Then, will we pray with thankfulness for how God has preserved us in the midst of the current cultural decline in our nation as well as for new, godly leadership who will stand firmly on the Sovereignty of God?
