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Christian Voting
A Blessing and a Responsibility
We are living in a country where we can choose those who will rule over us. That right has been bought and paid for by the blood of those who have fought for our freedoms. Yet there are many in the United States that take it for granted. That includes many Christians. Recent studies show that 2 of every 5 Christians took that right for granted and did not vote. About 1 in 5 eligible Christians are not even registered to vote at all.
Also, there are some Christians who say that we shouldn't vote. They reason that government is part of the world system ruled by Satan and we mustn't participate. These people would further say that it is a myth that we can bring peace, prosperity and happiness to the world by voting. They tell us you can't fix the world, or even improve it.
The truth is that Christians will never usher in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ by progressively making it better. That will only happen when Jesus returns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the world system is indeed ruled by Satan, who is called the "prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). However, that doesn't mean that we are not to have anything to do with government. And if Christians can't make this world better by participating in society, then we wouldn't be called to be salt and light in this world. Salt is a preservative, and light dispels the darkness of sin. Thus, we can improve things, in some way, just by being here and doing something (Matthew 5:13-16).
I. Government is Ordained by God
Scripture, far from telling us to have nothing to do with government, tells us to submit to it. Our Lord, when asked if it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, said this: "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21).
And Paul takes it even farther in Romans 13 when he says this:
"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are ordained by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgement on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due; taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor" (1-7).
The apostle Peter has something similar to say in his epistle. He tells us:
"Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good" (I Peter 2:13,14).
The only exception that is given in Scripture for obedience to government, is when obedience to it would cause us to disobey God. In this case we are to obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29).
II. Christians are to Pray for Their Government
Paul tells Christians that prayers should be made for all men. Then he gets more specific. Prayers are to be made:
"for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peacable life in all godliness and reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior..." (I Timothy 2:2,3).
From this, it would appear that those who are in authority can make life more peaceful for all of us, thus improving our lives.
III. Democracy is Government by the People
From what we've stated, it is obvious that God is pro-government. He intended it to maintain the peace, promote good, and punish evil. Today, we are living in a special type of government where the people have control. The definition of a democracy is "A government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives." In a real sense, we govern ourselves. This means that rendering unto Caesar would include participating in the government by electing those who would lead us.
And as we stated earlier, we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It is our duty to be a positive influence in the society in which we live. And that influence brings glory to our Father in Heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Conclusion
We have truly been blessed in this society in which we live. God has allowed us to create a government in which we can promote God's will through our votes. Christians in some other countries are oppressed by the governments in which they live. Their leaders hate their faith and try to silence their voices. Those who would preach the gospel, do so at the risk of their very lives. The sad thing is that this could happen in the United States as well. But it hasn't yet. We still have a voice.
Today, in a real sense, there are those who want to drive the name of Jesus Christ totally out of our society. Voting gives us the ability to keep these people from winning and allows us to preserve and protect the freedoms that we have been given by Almighty God.
It has been said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. May we be ever vigilant and protect the voice that God has given us in our government. In doing this, it will allow us to continue to "lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence" (I Timothy 2:1,2). And ultimately, it will permit us the freedom to continue to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ unhindered, both in this society and throughout the world.
Comments
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Thank you drmiddlebrook. I hope it encourages people to participate in this government given to us by Almighty God.
Great Hub. Love the way you handled this. Respectful, encouraging, inspirational. Voted up.
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Thanks for the encouragement Faith Reaper. God bless!
I second kellyteam's Bravo! What an amazing hub of His truths dear one. Prayer is an essential part of the Christian's life, as it is our direct and most personal and intimate relationship with our Lord God. We must pray in every aspect of our lives and for our nation especially in these dire times. Voted Way Up, except funny. God bless you. In His Love, Faith Reaper
- Author
I have already quoted, not one but many Scriptures that tell us to obey government, that they are ordained of God, that they are here for the punishment of evil and for the praise of them that do good, that we are to be obedient to the government, unless it tells us to compromise our Christian principles etc. You are right. We cannot agree, when I have plainly quoted what we are told to do, and you say that these Scriputures somehow aren't right. And how can taking these Scriptures literally be coming from a natural mind? That is clearly what God tells us.
And I agree that those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, since that is also what the Word plainly says. But it doesn't always come from the government, if the government is doing its God-ordained job. Rather I go back to I Timothy 2:2,3 which tells us to make entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, for all men:
"for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity."
Notice it says that we can lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity if the government is doing what it was intended to do.
There are many other Scriptures that tell us that God raises up Kings and pulls them down. Government was originally His idea. Although, like every other thing in this world, it has been corrupted by sin, it is still a God-given institution for the good of mankind.
I just do not agree with making this country a better place to live until Christ comes back, Clearly that is not what the bible predicts. Christ did not come to make peace but he came with a sword. If we are living in peace with society than we are compromising. Revelation is all about the fullfilment of what christ came to do. I am not over spiritulizing the word your understanding of the word is with your natural mind and the bible clearly says you can't do that. I don't want to argue and debate but I do not want to live peacful in society. I am not advocating violence either clearly if we can live peacfully we should but the truth is if we live holy and righteous lives society will become violent towards us because we exspose their unrighteous unholy living. I see this in my work place even. The early church was growing and becoming a strong influence in the earth when they were being persecuted what better witness is there than being willing to die for what you belive. All that came to a screeching halt when they compromised with Constantines peacful politicaly correct form of Christianity. It is clear that we will not agree so we will agree to disagree God bless you brother.
- Author
Timlove: I have written another Hub on government which you might read that covers more of this subject. I am not basing my ideas on a few verses at all, but my ideas of government are based upon a whole biblical understanding of society and the government's role as originally ordained by God.
Your belief that the Church is going to bring in the Kingdom without the King present comes from a lot of spiritualizing of Scripture, rather than a literal interpretation. To answer all of your contentions here requires another Hub, which I will work on. But there are many passages that say that Jesus Christ will come again and set up a literal Millennial Kingdom followed by His eternal Kingdom which will never end. Until then, there will indeed be Satan and His world system attempting to thwart God's plans for His world. And He can use government to do this. But that doesn't mean that all government is evil. And that doesn't mean that Christians should not participate in government. Throughout Scripture, there were godly and ungodly rulers. There are good governments and bad governments in this world today as well. And there are godly leaders and ungodly leaders. But they are all put there to do a job by God. Some do what they are supposed to do and some don't.
And you keep assuming that I think that the government will solve all of our problems. I am under no illusions that this is the case. I am simply looking at government from the perspective that Paul and Peter see it, which none of the other Scriptures that you've brought up contradict.
If you don't think that government has anything to do with the Christian, then try going to a country where you are persecuted for naming the name of Christ. You can be imprisoned and killed. I'm not saying that our government is necessarily a Christian government as opposed to any other, but God has sovereignly allowed this government to be put in place, just as He has done all governments. The ones who persecute us for our faith are not the ones to obey when they tell us not to follow God, but go under the injunction that we should "obey God rather than man."
And speaking of that, any time a government asks us to do anything that God tells us not to do, or not to do anything that God tells us to do, it is overstepping its authority, given to it by God. That is true of King Saul of Israel, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and it is true of the President of the United States. But other than that, we as Christians, have an obligation to obey the laws of the land.
I am not telling you to vote or not to vote. That is your right in this country. But it is interesting that if God has given us a government which allows us to make decisions for who will rule over us, why would you not want to participate in it, if you see a person who is standing for things which God stands for, or vote against them if they are advocating things which are not Scriptural? God can use our vote to make changes in our country. An example of this is our law which has made it illegal to treat someone differently because of their race. We are all created in God's image, and all should be treated equally under the law.
Will it make it a perfect government? Absolutely not! But it can make this country a better place to live until Christ returns.
Government's job is to curb evil. In doing that, it is doing what it was placed on this earth to do by God. To live without government is to live in a world in which everyone does what is right in his own eyes and where many don't care about how they harm others. This leads to anarchy. And where anarchy rules, no one has any rights and all of us will suffer. None of us wants to live in a world without government. That is why we can truly thank God for it.
What I said does not contradict scripture. You are basing your whole theory on one scripture. God has ordained Government because he is a soverign God and nothing is not ordained by him. Satan coming into the garden to tempt Adam and Eve was ordained by God, does that mean they should have listened to him.
May I remind you of scripture, when Daniel was in Babylon he was obedient to king Nebuchadnezzar until he violated the commands of God. Even after Nebuchadernezzar made a decree that everyone would worship the God of Daniel, God still cut him down because that is not the way God desires his people to serve him. Gods perfect plan was to write his laws on our hearts and be governed by that. Even if you did get some christians to make a difference in the political system God would still cut that system down because it is not his perfect plan it has become the Babylonian system and is full of every work of evil.
Again may I remind you of scripture. God ordained saul to be king over isreal but there came a day when saul became full of himself and was more concerned with his position in the kingdom than the commands of God and God rent the kingdom from him and anointed David king over Isreal a man after his own heart. And I could go on and on the whole bible supports my position. Gods plan of the earth being filled with his glory will be done but not through the political system. Christ did not die for us to be waiting for him to come back and establish his kingdom he has already done that in our hearts the ball is in our court now. I just think we are being distracted from that by placing our faith in a political system. Vote if you want but please don't insinuate my non vote is the problem.God bless
- Author
What you have said directly contradicts Scripture. The Bible clearly says that the governments that are here are ordained by God. I've already named the Scriptures that clearly say this. If you want to go against these, that is because you choose to ignore them. I am not looking outward and don't expect man to save me. If there is peace and safety, it is ultimately the blessing from God. But there is no doubt from Scripture that He uses government to bring about a stable society that punishes the evildoer and praises the one who does well.
By the way, there are Christians in government as well. Maybe not all, or even most, but they are there and are seeking to serve God with the position that He has given them.
Government is not ordained by God. God told Isreal what would happen to them if they chose to have a man for their king. Gods perfect plan was that he would be our king. I believe God will have what he desires the day will come when he and he alone is our king. The constitution may have been ordained by God but it was only transitional it was not Gods perfect plan obvious to me any way it has not improved anything over the years it has slowly become a corrupt system of mans fleshly lustful desires a den of satan and your vote is not going to change a thing. The kingdom of God does not come with observation and yet we continualy look to outword things to make it his kingdom come. Jesus was the seed of Gods kingdom that bwas planted in the earth and we who believe are the fruit of that seed so we certainly do have a part of the kingdom coming to its full fruition in the earth Jesus has already done all he is going to do to bring the kingdom the rest is up to us. The corrupt governmentle system is part of the seed satan has sown in the earth and also is coming to its full fruition ( the wheat and the tares) in the last days that we are in the wheat and the tares are seperated. when I look around me in America I dont see where the freedom we have has caused us to be any closer to that desire of God where only he is our king in fact it has only distracted us and caused us to become a weak pleasure seeking carnal fleshly people. Unless you follow Christ all the way to the cross you don't follow him at all!
- Author
kellyteam: Thank you for reading and I apprieciate that you shared it. Hopefully, it will help more Christians to vote in the next election.
lifegate: Welcome back! I think that you're right about Christian America. Part of our problem is that we are reflecting our culture instead of doing our part to bring about change in it. Many times it is hard to tell the Christian apart from everyone else. We all need to get serious about our Christianity.
Took a bit of a breather, but I'm back. I have some catching up to do. I really do believe it's because of the Christian that America is in the shape she is in. Not because Christianity doesn't work as some would suppose, but because we have let America slip, and as you said we have taken our rights for granted.
1 in 5 Christians aren't even registered! That's 20% of the Christian vote. All I can say is shame on us.
Bravo! Bravo! It is so refreshing to see someone that is not afraid to speak the truth from the Word of God! You have done an awesome job of expressing the truth and i am sharing here and on facebook and pinterest. Thank you so very much! Keep looking up!
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