How to Vote Biblically
As a Christian should you vote? Does God give us instructions on what kind of people to vote for? I will attempt to answer these questions in the scope of this article. Should a Christian vote?
Some Christian individuals and in fact some entire denominations believe that Christians shouldn’t vote or get involved with politics. They’ll say “well I’m waiting for Jesus to return and set up his kingdom” or “The bible says to have no part of the world” and it’s true, we document to expect Jesus to return at any time as a thief in the night, but he did give us civil duties as well as spiritual ones. We are not supposed to just bide time and wait until the Lord returns, he told us our job was to occupy until he comes (Luke 19:13).
Occupy means more than just take up space,we are to preach the gospel in the entire earth, and that should be our focus, however how will we be able to do that if our government continues getting more and more hostile towards Christianity. Already we have several states trying to ban the church from speaking against homosexuality. The government has no business in the church according to the 1st amendment. Jesus told us specifically to “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. ” (Mat 22:21). He expects us to carry out our spiritual duty but also our civil duties.
The Bible tells us that God appoints all leaders, well in the United States God has set it up so that the government depends on the people’s free will to vote. God has people that he desires to be in office , but he won’t buck the human spirit. He doesn’t buck the human will to save us even though the bible tells us it’s His will that all be saved. (2 Peter 3:9). That means that it is up to us to vote in Godly people into office, the kind of people that will stand up for righteousness. They aren’t going to make it in if we don’t vote because he has given us the power to do so.
Now that we have established the fact that Christians should vote, on what things should we base our votes? Biblically can we vote for anyone we want? I believe there are 4 major points we should consider when voting, especially for the president.
- What Kind of Judges will he/she appoint? The bible tells us in Isaiah 1:26 that judges shall restore righteousness to the city of Jerusalem. You may think that doesn’t apply to our government today but what we have to realize is that our system of government was set up by the principles laid out in the bible and the position our judges hold now is very much the same as it was then. Think of this it was our judges that deemed abortion was ok and legal, and it was our judges that mis-use the term separation of church and state which is not even in the constitution. If we had been electing righteous judges then we wouldn’t have abortions legal in America. As Christians we want judges who will uphold the constitution as it is written and not put their own interpretation onto it. These judges are called strict constructionists.
- Where does he/she stand on God’s Moral Law Why is this important, and how do I know if a particular candidate respects God’s Moral Law? That’s easy look at their position on protecting marriage as a single man + single woman couple. It is one of the main issues of the day and every candidate will deal with the topic. The bible clearly teaches homosexuality is wrong (Lev.20:13). So if they are voting for Gay Marriage or domestic partnerships they don’t respect God’s Moral Law
- Where do they stand on inalienable rights? Our founding fathers believed that we all had certain rights endowed by our creator, if we want a righteous nation we have to respect those rights and it’s very easy to see where a candidate stands on this issue as well. Look at their position on abortion. If they don’t protect life which is the first inalienable right, then they won’t protect our right to private property or any of our other rights for that matter.
- Where does he/she stand on religious liberties? This tells me if they are going to make my job (to preach the gospel around the world) more easy or more difficult. If they won’t support a persons right to voluntarily pray in a public forum it won’t ne long until they are trying to tell the pastor what he can and can’t preach.
After looking at those 4 issues plus a few more, there is only one candidate I can consider and that is Mike Huckabee, all of the other candidates seem to be supporting either abortion or same sex marriages both which are clearly against the will of help I believe that if we use the word of God as our voting guide Mike Huckabee is the only choice. Even if you disagree with me on who to vote for I would encourage you to stand up and be counted! Let your voice be heard! Vote in 2008!