Answering My Critics: Do Not Vote For a Mormon Part 2 (New Testament)
Last week’s article drew an unprecedented number of comments on both sides of the question. Those who agreed with me left about the same number of kudos as the disagreers left (often) long-winded corrections of my supposedly errant conclusions. Some of the kudos comments came from fairly well known religious leaders so that was a confirmation, if you will, that I am on the right track. Nobody cursed me or made vicious personal attacks which spoke well of this audience, though, the clipped phrases, the word FACT in capitals, and other gyrations certainly communicated the anger bubbling underneath that veneer of politeness.
By going to the Old Testament for doctrine and moral instruction, I drove a spike into an open nerve with many readers. Now, it was the Apostle Paul who wrote to Timothy that, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect; thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” This admonition mentions Scripture’s first use as being doctrine, which highlights the American churches’ rejection of the Old Testament for use in building doctrine. Current fad theology has told us that the Old Testament is good for history, a few surface moral lessons, and that is about it. This means that roughly two-thirds of our Scripture is essentially off limits for doctrine. That is a radical formulation and is inconsistent with the Bible’s teaching about itself. There is a large net of silly notions that has captured us. I cannot unravel the entire string of theological misconception, right here and now; so I have decided to type out a few reasons based on New Testament theology, to not vote for a Mormon.
Given that the Old Testament and the New Testament are really just one book it should not be surprising to discover a perfect consistency in moral teaching throughout. Last week I asserted that the Mormon faith denies the Christian trinity, gets the salvation message wrong, and elevates man into a god, thus marking itself as an idolatrous religion (man is his own idol, being the god that is worshipped). No commenter disagreed with these observations. What they contested was the use of the Old Testament to inform our voting in an American (New Testament era) election.
Yet, the New Testament teaches precisely the same moral content as the Old. Some people slammed me for discussing anything about kings and kingdoms, confidently pronouncing that the New Testament era has nothing to do with such things, and therefore there is nothing to glean from the Old Testament. They seem to have over-looked the words of Jesus instructing us to, “Seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness…” which is a forthright claim to both a King and kingdom. It is the preeminent kingdom in all human history. It is the kingdom we are to seek first along with righteousness. I am arguing, of course, that the righteousness we are to seek hardly includes voting for a known idolater. This theme of king and kingdom could be expanded into a long article in itself. I will not do that here, but the implications should be evident to anyone who wishes to reflect on them.
The Apostle Paul wrote:
“For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. …And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them… (Ephesians 5:5-11).
There are a few observations we may find laying on the surface here. First is that no idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Hence, it is clear, that if our first allegiance is to build the kingdom of Christ, we will not exert ourselves to set up civil rule under an enemy of Christ’s kingdom. Some will insist that there are two kingdoms; the kingdom of earth and the kingdom of heaven. This is untrue. There is one King and one kingdom. Satan is the prince of this world but the Lord is, and always will be, King. He does not have to compete for the throne over His own creation. When we vote for an idolater to rule over us, we are, by our action, attempting to establish an earthly rule set in offense to the Heavenly rule. We thus become partakers in the idolatry which we affirmed at the polls. Paul wrote, speaking of idolaters, that we are not to be deceived because the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, and that we are not to be partakers with them. I think I am not over-stating the case to say that when we try to vote in an idolater we are, in fact, being partakers with them. It is a bit difficult to imagine how we might be more flagrantly guilty. By voting for an idolater we have entirely tossed aside Biblical morality and voted for an opposing kingdom. It is an ugly thought.
At 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 we are instructed:
Be ye not unequally yoked together, with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. …Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate…
I believe it is this concept of being separate from that humanist world of idols that flummoxes us sometimes. We have no choice about being in the world but we do not have to act like the world. Our voting patterns should reflect the values of the kingdom of God not the values of unregenerate men. We fear man (in this case Obama) so we vote for a Mormon. If we feared God we would vote for neither. By voting for a Mormon we are abandoning our first principles and bringing upon ourselves further judgments from the King we have spurned. We fear man more than we fear God.
Forsaking God is national suicide. When we read Deuteronomy 4:24-30 (I know –Old Testament) we see the seriousness of compromising with idolatry. The God of the New Testament is the same God who issued this warning. Their predicted suicide is our predicted suicide. I had one reader who said he was going to stop puzzling over the Scriptures and instead be guided by the inner voice of the Holy Spirit. Presumably, he believed that the Holy Spirit would give him a different message than the written word. Psalm 40:3 and plenty of other Scripture, lets us know that God’s will is primarily discovered in obedience to His law –to His word. To believe that casting our votes for an open idolater is God’s will, is both foolish and reckless. It is national suicide and it is the mark of a degenerate church. As the Apostle John wrote, “Little Children, keep yourselves from idols.”
For Christian Culture,
Don Schanzenbach
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Suspender Man™, Don Schanzenbach, has long been an outspoken advocate of recapturing culture for Christ. He holds a MA in applied Biblical studies and a doctorate in applied theological studies in the field of political philosophy and government from New Geneva Seminary. He has been thinking, writing and speaking on Christian culture for two decades.
Don, continue standing for truth an our King. Christians today are needing to spend a little more time with their Bibles instead of their TV’s.
By the way might I suggest a book titled “Messaih the Prince” by William Symington published by the National Reform Assosciation in your country
Proverbs 4:
23 ¶Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
Ok I see your arguments. Can you also tell us, a) How long you’ve held such convictions, and b) what your voting record has been for the last several elections?
My reason for asking is looking back I didn’t think or feel that Obama, or McCain were believers, and I really didn’t see much evidence to prove otherwise.
This conundrum is nothing new. Romney’s Mormonism just gives us a more convenient target this time around.
I have been voting third party for many years. It seems to me that our first duty is to keep our integrity. By doing so we can put pressure on the major party(s) to change. If all Christians refused to support unfit candidates the Republicans would have to accomodate our demands or lose every election. Conservative Christians are a large swing vote. The way we properly use that fact is by being true to Biblical first principles and then making the party chase us. We need to chasten the immoral leadership not cozy up to them.
Amen Don!
The last 224 years of constitutional elections has only resulted in this nation becoming more ungodly, less Christian ,and more enslaved, regardless who’s elected. After every election, Americans eventually have cause for regret (Proverbs 29:2). And yet, every four years, they march right back to the voting booths with eternal hope (or is it merely short-sightedness?) and do it all over again. It’s time we figure out that elections are nothing but a political shell game by which we are always provided the establishment’s choice. Christians need to reconsider trying to salvage our nation via non-Biblical means. America cannot elect her way out of her problems; she must repent her way out.
Unlike Yahweh’s system, which provides for the appointment of the best of the best – the Constitution compels people to (hopefully) elect the best of the worst. It also necessitates political parties that are not only unbiblical but whose platforms are invariably ungodly. Political parties are the mechanism by which Christian constituents are offered up on the altar of WE THE PEOPLE.
The Constitutional Republic’s surrogate election process is essentially no different from what occurred in Numbers 14 after the Israelites refused to go in and take possession of the land of Canaan. Verse 4 informs us that they clamored for a leader of their own choosing. Nehemiah 9:17 aptly depicts their substitute plan: “[The Israelites] refused to obey … but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage….” History has demonstrated that the Constitutional Republic’s election process has produced spiritual, political, and economic bondage for Americans. Simply put, with men’s elections we lose, and with Yahweh’s elections we win.
As subjects of the King of kings, our duty is not to elect a candidate from a political party. Our duty is to establish Yahweh’s judicial system and appoint men who fear Him and who will enforce His law rather than constitutional law. For the sake of a future generation of our progeny, we need to first recognize the futility of trying to save an ungodly system by ungodly means and look to and start working toward a time when our posterity will do it right this time. We cannot save future generations by trying to somehow salvage this generation by not only ungodly but what has proven to be futile means.
For more, see Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective” at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt5.php. Also don’t miss our Constitution Survey in the right-hand column by which you can receive a free 85-page “Primer” of the book mentioned above.
I am not voting for a spiritual leader, I only follow Christ, but our
nation needs a moral leader who will stand with Isreal, that will be the basis of my vote.
Mr. Schanzenbach,
Popular sovereignty means the people are analogous to the King, and the president, who is a public servant no different than a county sheriff, a dog catcher, or a postal worker, is not. If it no longer seems this way it is because things have been turned on their head or things did not turn out as they were promised to turn out. In which case the whole system is illegitimate, not just if/when it is run by a Mormon, and that, not the religion of the ruler, should be the primary (no, the only) focus.
So, unless we are willing to reclaim popular sovereignty, we should take “Seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness…” to mean “don’t get involved in politics at all”, because every other avenue, in addition to forcing us to compromise on what kind of person leads us (through the usurpations and lawlessness of the executive branch), accepts that the limited government codified in the Constitution can not be restored or should not be restored.
For the record I am not voting for Romney. His Mormonism is probably the smallest factor in my decision. I think any Mormon would be undesirable, not because it is just a strange religion, but because of the way it informs that person’s worldview* in a fundamentally utopian (e.g., we are all gods) way. The same thing could be said of a number of real Christian groups as well, while it could not necessarily be said of all non-Christian groups.
I agree with you 100% that if you are voting for a Mormon (although I would actually extend this to anyone of any religion) just because you fear Obama, that you fear man more than you fear God. But I do not think this is because of Romney’s Mormonism. I think it is because of the foolish notion that Romney is any different than Obama in terms of policy, or that any man (including oneself), especially a public servant (the lowliest job I can think of) is the answer to our current woes. No man, not even the most faithful Christian could save us. Not eternally. Not temporally. To think so or to confuse the temporal with the eternal is to reject that the problem, on both levels, is us, not who we hire to execute the law or who we choose to write the law.
*Take Ron Paul for example. I don’t know if you or any of your readers care for him, but that is not the point I am trying to make. It could be anyone, but in my case it is Ron Paul. If someone were to ask me, “Would you vote for Ron Paul is he was a Mormon, but everything else about him stayed exactly the same?” I would say “Yes.” But after pondering for a moment I would say, “But if Ron Paul were a Mormon, or at least a Mormon who knows the basic tenets of his religion, everything else about him could not possibly be the same because his entire worldview would be shifted. So much of what he stands for is rooted in orthodox Christian principles.” I would leave my answer as “Yes,” but reject the hypothetical as not even a possibility.
Don, this is probably the most intelligently-written, thoroughly Biblical article on this topic that I have ever read. You are absolutely correct in referring to the Old Testament Law as relevant for today, for our Lord and Savior Himself stated in Matthew 5:17-20: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Thus, it is hard to argue, on the basis of this clear statement that the Old Testament is irrelevant to us today.
Moreover, you clearly show in this article that the New Testament is completely in accord with the Old Testament (as it must be, for both testaments are the one, seamless Word of God) on this issue. Idolatry is to be forsaken.
You hit the nail square on the head when you said that voting for an idolator(like Romney) is a hostile act against the Kingdom of God, for it attempts to establish a rival Kingdom. There is one Kingdom and one King, Jesus Christ, whom we are bound to serve.
May God richly bless you for your labor in this article.
ODon, I’m in agreement that the OT is authoritative, and that the entire Bible has a consistent concept of morality. Why, then have you ignored the biblical precedents of King Cyrus and King Darius, which disprove your contention that God “cannot” bless us if we have a pagan king, and support the contention that it was not just a question of whether a king’s theology was pristine or not, but whether he imposed a pagan cult with the force of law, that disqualified him for a role of civil authority and brought down curses.
Overall, I am surprised that you and so many of those who leave supportive comments tout their Reformed credentials but completely disregard the doctrine of common grace. Perhaps you could speak to this and clarify your view.
I am not well versed on Mormonism but if you will read what people Mitt Romney proves to me he is by far a better man and Christian than most of us will ever think about being.He gives of his time to help others in need .He’s a loyal father and husband and he and Ann have no problems getting in front of a crowd and cameras wearing their blue jeans while Michelle thinks she’s a queen and wears her expensive dresses .That doesn’t make her any better than Ann. They are good people and Barak Obama will never be half the man that Mitt Romney is and never will be if he lives to be 150. That’s why I will vote for a honest hardworking man who understands down to earth people. God Bless America and May you have mercy on our souls if Mr O is reelected.
Thats people who know Mitt Romney