Voting For Men Who Fear God is NOT OPTIONAL

Christian Republicans are starting to look like they are in a fix. The party is always trying to decide if it wants to be socialist lite, or if it will be firmly allied with the moral right. Besides this struggle there is the question of foreign war. How many would we like to fight in the next four years, what can we afford, and what is our national ethic when it comes to generating warfare? The party is divided and Christian voters have to make some kind of choice as to whom and what they will support.

Meanwhile, the big media people seem to always be giving coverage to the Republican candidate they would most like to see in office if their favorite sitting prez fails in his re-election blitz. So, here we are feeling like the choice will be between an avowed Mormon and a practiced centralizer of all things. The choice is not alluring for conservative Christians. Many are feeling like they will hold their nose and vote for the Mormon. I am advocating a different plan.

For many of us there is a sense of desperation in the air. The current Commander in Chief clearly appears to want a much larger central government, higher taxes, and more control. The rising alternative Republican looks like a bad choice, but not as bad as his opponent. Do you ever wonder how we got to this point? What do we do now?

What we are seeing is not just the confluence of current political undertows. This is not merely bad candidates and bad timing. No, there is something historical, something larger here. We are alarmed at being sucked down the rapids, but we have been happy to doodle and splash in the darkening headwaters for several decades. We should not be surprised when the black currents begin to suck us down.

I think that when I talk about using Biblical instruction to make our voting choices more clear, that my readers often have never heard of such a thing. Our pulpit guys have never preached about that, and Sunday school always toes a careful path in avoiding conflict. Everything at church is nice when it comes to politics. Typically, niceness prevails to a point where no instruction is ever given, no sermon is ever preached, that would inform sincere Christians in how to think about political leadership. This is unfortunate since the Bible has plenty to say.

In the rare case when we hear any Bible passage relating to government expounded it is invariably Romans 13:1-7, “pay tax to whom tax is due and honor to whom honor is due.” So, since that seems to be a safe place to start, I will point out that that same Scripture refers to those government officials as ‘ministers of God’. That should not surprise us since both Old Testament and New Testament require our leaders to be men who are scrupulously honest, and who meet strong moral and spiritual standards. The Godly priest Jethro put it this way, “Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain…You shall let them judge the people at all times.” Hence, those ministers of God we are supposed to be choosing have some pretty high standards to keep, even before they take office. Just these considerations alone should inform us we cannot vote for most of the people our big parties offer up. When, might I ask, did any of them, in recent memory, meet the qualifications of being a minister? Under Moses those judges had to “fear God” as we read above. They were not just talking about any old god either. God’s law holds big penalties for those who worship false gods.

Remember how the Old Testament writers talk about the kings who worshipped idols, or even tolerated idol worship in the land?

…And he did evil in the sight of the Lord…

..but he did not remove the high places where the people burned incense to Baal…

…He did evil in the sight of the Lord…

…and the Lord said to him, because you have worshipped other gods…

Yes, I am talking about those civil servants the kings who helped lead the nation into profound judgments that eventually put them all in chains. Those ministers of God were false prophets. They were a corrupted seed that bore only evil fruit. But then, who are we to snipe at them? We, who are ready to vote for a Mormon?

I know there has been a lot of social pressure lately advocating the Mormon fantasy that their religion is Christian. It is not. The Mormon faith denies the true Deity of Christ, preaches fabricated doctrines concerning heaven and eternity, denies the Trinity, and confounds the gospel. The Mormon religion is not Christian. It is a heresy that cannot be accepted within Christian ranks. While Mormon people may be nice they do not meet the Biblical qualifications for civil service. They are not Godly men and they cannot be ministers of God because they do not know God.

The politics of the hour make us want to be expedient and vote for the lesser of two evils. Fortunately, God has set the parameters for us. We have to choose Godly men to be our ministers in civil government. As Christians we are bound to vote for Christian candidates. We cannot endorse or vote for men who fail God’s standards. Every year for decades we have compromised our core principles on this issue. Now, the enemies of our faith have no respect for anything we might say. They figured out long ago we have no spine and no real commitment to our own religious view.

My conclusion then is this. Vote for the moral, Christian candidate every time. Vote for the moral Christian candidate even when you are certain he will lose. It is the only Biblically sound choice. We have to start paddling up-stream before we go over the falls. Now would be a good time to start.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach  4-21-12

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