WHO WILL YOU VOTE FOR???
When people asked William MacDonald that, his reply was always: "No one, my candidate is not running." The following is an excellent article by David McKinley of Canada on the subject of Christians and voting. This and other excellent articles may be found at www.assemblytestimony.org
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The Christian And The Polling Booth
by David McKinley (Canada)
Paper 1
Paper 1
Truly separated Christians ought to have no part nor lot in the politics of this world. If we wish to please the Lord and be a clear testimony to Him in a perishing world, we steer clear of voting in the election of people to political office. Some Scriptural reasons for these statements are given below, that the godly may be fortified in their stand and that the less instructed or those recently saved may be given clear guidance as to why assemblies of Christians gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, have consistently abstained from political involvement. Why then should we abstain?
BECAUSE OF OUR SUPERIOR PRIVILEGE
"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" 1Tim. 2.1-2
By frequenting the prayer closet we exert a lot more influence than by entering the polling centre! We can understand the worldly person getting excited about voting since it is the only day available to him in four years perhaps, to try to influence the political scene to his own advantage. By contrast, the Christian can enter the immediate presence of the eternal God, on the grounds of the blood of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, many times a day, every day of the year and pray that God’s will, will be worked out in the governance of nations.
"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" 1Tim. 2.1-2
By frequenting the prayer closet we exert a lot more influence than by entering the polling centre! We can understand the worldly person getting excited about voting since it is the only day available to him in four years perhaps, to try to influence the political scene to his own advantage. By contrast, the Christian can enter the immediate presence of the eternal God, on the grounds of the blood of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, many times a day, every day of the year and pray that God’s will, will be worked out in the governance of nations.
BECAUSE OF OUR LORD’S EXAMPLE
"My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence" Jn. 18.36
Our Lord was rejected by all sectors of society. He presented all the irrefutable credentials of His Deity and Messiah-ship, but the builders of human society in that day had no place in their structure for Him or the Kingdom He represented. He was indeed "the stone which the builders rejected" Matt.22.42. He mounted no resistance to the politics of either the religious or civil leaders of His day. "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord" Matt. 10.24-25. How blessed to know that it won’t be long till we leave behind this poor world of political strife, corruption, violence and sinful pleasures to join the holy throng of the redeemed above in singing, "We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come: because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned" Rev. 11.17.
BECAUSE OF OUR CITIZENSHIP, OUR CHARACTER AND CALLING
Our Citizenship: Heavenly - "For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" Phil. 3.20.
As citizens of a heavenly land we are occupied with the concerns of our homeland, not of this world that is soon going to come under the judgment of the One they reject and disown. Can we get involved in a world system that crucified our dearest Friend? Ah, no! Our hearts are occupied with the One Who has sat down with His Father on His throne and Who is destined to assume the reins of government in this world, where He once was crucified. According to His promise "Surely I come quickly" Rev. 22.20, He will soon return. Should we then be found striving with the "potsherds of the earth" Isa. 45.9, over issues that relate only to a world which presently "lieth in wickedness"? [or "in the Wicked one"].
Our Character: Strangers and Pilgrims - "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul."1Pet. 2.11
We are not at home here, nor was our Lord, Whose own brethren didn’t believe in Him, (until after His resurrection). "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children" Ps. 69.8. We make our pilgrimage through this world, going where He has gone, to our heavenly home. Can we then turn aside from our pilgrim pathway to dabble in the affairs of a ‘foreign’ land? Abraham, that great pilgrim, said to the people among whom he moved, "I am a stranger and a sojourner with you" Gen. 23.4, but they said "Thou art a mighty prince [a prince of God] among us" Gen. 23.6. His separation enhanced his testimony, while by contrast his nephew Lot went to Sodom and became a judge in their society. Of him the men of Sodom said "This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them" Gen. 19.9. His compromise with Sodom’s affairs spoiled any testimony he had when he first arrived there. Our testimony to the poor perishing souls around us is clearest, when they see that we have a bright hope beyond this world and that we do not need to join in its politics or its other interests for our enjoyment or satisfaction.
Our Calling: Ambassadors - "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ," 2 Cor. 5.20
An ambassador represents his sovereign in a foreign land. His whole interest is to live among strangers with a single eye to the advancement of the interests of his homeland, in that alien society. He does not, indeed he cannot, vote in the land in which he lives, simply because his politics are in another land. Part of his duties may be to oversee the emigration of people from that land to his own land. He will ensure that they are suitable candidates to migrate and that they are prepared to live under the rule of his sovereign and abide by the laws of his homeland. So we represent our absent Lord here and seek to witness to others and see them own Christ as Lord. We long to see people interested in our homeland and fitted to be citizens of that "land of fadeless day" to which we will soon be called.
To be Concluded, (D.V.)
Our Citizenship: Heavenly - "For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" Phil. 3.20.
As citizens of a heavenly land we are occupied with the concerns of our homeland, not of this world that is soon going to come under the judgment of the One they reject and disown. Can we get involved in a world system that crucified our dearest Friend? Ah, no! Our hearts are occupied with the One Who has sat down with His Father on His throne and Who is destined to assume the reins of government in this world, where He once was crucified. According to His promise "Surely I come quickly" Rev. 22.20, He will soon return. Should we then be found striving with the "potsherds of the earth" Isa. 45.9, over issues that relate only to a world which presently "lieth in wickedness"? [or "in the Wicked one"].
Our Character: Strangers and Pilgrims - "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul."1Pet. 2.11
We are not at home here, nor was our Lord, Whose own brethren didn’t believe in Him, (until after His resurrection). "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children" Ps. 69.8. We make our pilgrimage through this world, going where He has gone, to our heavenly home. Can we then turn aside from our pilgrim pathway to dabble in the affairs of a ‘foreign’ land? Abraham, that great pilgrim, said to the people among whom he moved, "I am a stranger and a sojourner with you" Gen. 23.4, but they said "Thou art a mighty prince [a prince of God] among us" Gen. 23.6. His separation enhanced his testimony, while by contrast his nephew Lot went to Sodom and became a judge in their society. Of him the men of Sodom said "This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them" Gen. 19.9. His compromise with Sodom’s affairs spoiled any testimony he had when he first arrived there. Our testimony to the poor perishing souls around us is clearest, when they see that we have a bright hope beyond this world and that we do not need to join in its politics or its other interests for our enjoyment or satisfaction.
Our Calling: Ambassadors - "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ," 2 Cor. 5.20
An ambassador represents his sovereign in a foreign land. His whole interest is to live among strangers with a single eye to the advancement of the interests of his homeland, in that alien society. He does not, indeed he cannot, vote in the land in which he lives, simply because his politics are in another land. Part of his duties may be to oversee the emigration of people from that land to his own land. He will ensure that they are suitable candidates to migrate and that they are prepared to live under the rule of his sovereign and abide by the laws of his homeland. So we represent our absent Lord here and seek to witness to others and see them own Christ as Lord. We long to see people interested in our homeland and fitted to be citizens of that "land of fadeless day" to which we will soon be called.
To be Concluded, (D.V.)
Printed in Assembly Testimony magazine
http://www.assemblytestimony.org/?q=node/388#booth
