I've been following a debate on a MB I frequent about who to vote for. No one is saying vote for Obama. The debate is between those who are voting for Chuck Baldwin and those who are voting for McCain based on the idea that they don't want to "throw away their vote."
Someone piped up and challenged us all to vote for Jesus. Write Him in. Take a stand for your convictions and vote for Jesus!
To the well meaning MB member who suggested we vote for Jesus, I'd love to, but...
He's not running.
I don't think He would if He could.
He doesn't care what the populace of this ungodly nation thinks about who should run it. Their "vote" has no bearing. He's not into popularity contests (which is what our elections have turned into). He already has His candidate hand-picked and all of the rest of them until He returns.
My Bible says something about the fact that He is Sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords. He will exercise that manifest right sometime in the future (possibly the very near future).
What matters here is not my "power to choose" and the presumptuous attitude that when I throw a switch in a voting booth, I am changing the course of history. (After all, it's all about me.) What matters is whether or not I bring the most glory to God with this opportunity to serve Him in the vote.
In order to do that, I will not choose rat poison instead of arsenic. That doesn't glorify God; it does not represent His standards. I will vote for the candidate that actually knows the Lord and has a desire to bring Him glory as well.
You say he won't win? It doesn't matter. What matters is this, "Is God glorified with my vote?" I'm voting Baldwin. He is just a sinful man, but he has an honest desire to bring Him glory. Everyone else is only promising to line my pockets with more money.
5 comments:
He's not into popularity contests (which is what our elections have turned into).
I would go one better--practically speaking, it's all our elections have ever been. Granted, at their best (George Washington comes to mind here), the person doesn't have to claw and scrape for votes. They don't have to promote themselves. Everyone just knows who the best person is for the job because of that person's prior record. It's still about popularity, but the "contest" is somewhat less.
But mostly, this is what a representative democracy does (especially when our focus is so much on the chief executive, instead of our representatives)--candidates compete for popularity with the people. It's degenerative, to be sure. In the beginning, it may have been better by degree. But the degeneration is inevitable. With each passing election, more groups find more ways to manipulate the system. More money is injected. More cut-throat campaigning means more qualified people want nothing to do with the process. And it takes even worse scum to rise to the top.
In one of the non-debates, McCain said that Obama has spent more on negative ads than any campaign in history. That's not saying much--he just had more to spend. And about the only certainty is that next time around, someone will beat that record.
The only question is--if Jesus is into monarchy, why aren't we? :-)
Trevor,
Thanks for your comment. Insightful. I think our modern elections more resemble popularity contests than in earlier years because of the influence of media. Particularly, sound bites. And the dumbing down of America.
At least in Washington's day, the voters read. Critical thinking skills were at a much higher level than they are now. And there's not much thinking going on amongst evangelicals these days about anything. They swallow whatever the evangelical talking heads tell them. If James Dobson says something, it must be true. What a crock.
I'm not sure He's into human monarchies. I seem to remember one Saul in Israel and God warned them about that one.
"I will not choose rat poison instead of arsenic."
Love it! Neither will I!!
This is my big problem with Ralph Nader. I think his vision of what it takes to make democracy work is pretty accurate--he's just too optimistic that it can actually happen. Most people don't have enough stamina to bother finding out who's running for the various offices on the ballot, let alone get involved to the level of activism that it would take to make this a true government of the people.
Im doing the wave right now! God decides who will be king and who will be a hewer of wood. He decides if we need His wrath poured out through a wretched president or monarch. Our role is only vital by proclaiming the Gospel. Only through the proclamation of the Gospel can people be saved from the wrath of God. We proclaim He saves.
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