Voting — A Privilege

~ fundyreformed

We’re all excited about voting today. But only 1 party will win, and there is bound to be disappointments for everyone.

This year’s election is touted as the most important one in a generation. But it seems to me that last time round, and the time before, and before…. They’re all”the most important”!

As Christians who care passionately about many important issues, we invest alot into the election. We follow the race, we support conservative candidates. We defend our guy against the other one. We pray. But as we do all this, far too often we are swept into the secular mindset that everything depends on our vote and this election. When the wrong guy gets in office we detach ourselves from the public arena and fret about how soon and sure God’s judgment will fall. When the right guy gets in, we defend his every policy, with Biblical zeal. Too often our hope lies in the direction our country is going in, and we forget we aren’t the only nation with a large population of Christians in it. God is interested in his church, more than he is in the direction of the various secular nations, America and Israel included.

What am I saying? I’m arguing that if we step back from today’s election and think about the bigger picture, we will be thankful for the privelege we have of voting, but we’ll put that vote in the proper context of God’s sovereignty and our identity as citizens of Heaven.

So the bigger picture is this: the vast majority of people in the world today, do not get to have any meaningful say in their government. The vast majority of people in the history of the world had no say. They just floated along trying to survive this king and that. In Bible times, Nero was the quintessential maniacal despot. And Paul said God was behind his rule and Christians should pray for him and obey governors and leaders like him.

Given this perspective, voting is a privilege.     But free societies, and having government be in the reins of the guy we want, is not some all-or-nothing, extremely important thing. Christians survived the first 1500 years after Christ without voting privileges. They survived the persecution that came even under Christian governments against other Christians. And they thrive today in some of the most totalitarian states. The kingdom of God depends not on the ballot, or the bullet, but on the power and majesty of God. He is our king. Let’s remember that no matter how today falls out.

6 thoughts on “Voting — A Privilege”

  3. Proverbs 21:1 “The King’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” In American Democracy part of the “Kings heart” is vested in the people who vote. God allows the changes that take place for his purpoeses. Which will all come in the time he has ordained.

  5. I appreciate your thoughts, Bob. Having lived in Canada for a few years, its always unsettling to me to see the extent to which politics and faith are mixed here here (back home) in the U.S.

    Even more concerning is when we allow the church to be perceived as a tool of the Republican party, effectively shutting off many opportunities to share the Gospel with people of differing political opinions. We need to be clear about issues where the Bible speaks (like abortion, caring for the poor) and silent where the Bible does not speak (like banking regulation and tax plans).

    I posted a blog entry with similar thoughts today. You might enjoy the quote from Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address.

    http://www.rbrock.typepad.com/discoveryworship

    Blessings,
    Rob Brock

  6. Well said Bob, but the election of Obama is a sign of judgment on America. We cannot whimper and hide and hope for better times. We need to stick to our beliefs and continue to do the right thing no matter what it costs us politically, commercially or financially. We must “honor the king” and obey the law, but as you said, God in Christ Jesus is a Christian’s only King.

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