There is another election coming up and people across the country are wondering who should be put in the office of the President of the United States. Convictions range from someone who is progressively liberal to staunch conservative to even libertarian with views of free will for everyone. Yet, very few people mention the founding documents of this country, why we declared our independence and wrote a constitution to protect our citizens from enduring tyranny (under an absolute ruler) or oligarchy (being ruled by a small group of people). Everyone in the United States of America has multiple freedoms granted to them by the historical and living documents that were the foundation of this country and, it seems most Americans don’t know what those freedoms are and what they involve in their personal life whether its paying taxes, health care plans, border control, firearms, or scanners at the airports. Most young people have never even read the documents and have no idea what rights they have and what rights they are giving up.
Here are links to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. Before you vote this year, read them, study them, teach them to your friends and family and know what it means when an elected official takes the oath of office that they ‘will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies foreign (far away) and domestic (in this country).’ Vote wisely regarding the foundation of our country and why it took delegates from the original Colonies months to create the Constitution that is like none other in the world. Vote not according to personal whims, moral bents, political games and rhetoric. These all change with each generation. Vote for statesmen who will keep America the land of the free and the home of the brave – those who were brave enough to fight for freedom from obsessive government and are still brave enough to continue to fight for the life of this country from obsessive government. Vote for a man, a woman, a white, a black, or an Hispanic, but don’t allow public opinion to make any election about bigotry, racism, or sexism, but for a person who will uphold and defend the rights granted to you in the Constitution.
You don’t have to wear a soldier’s uniform to have the courage to stand against those who daily step over their limited-government boundaries and threaten your freedoms, but you do have to know who the foreign or domestic enemy is. You do have to vote for those who would be willing to die to protect this country from anyone who would try to destroy it from within or without. An election is not about what the president wants and does through executive orders, the congress decides in bills too big to read, or the judges legislate out of their jurisdiction, but what We the People as a Constitutional Republic need to return to according to the simplicity of our being endowed with inalienable rights bestowed upon us by our Creator: the Right to Life, the Right to Liberty (the quality or state of being free from physical, arbitrary and despotic control), and the Pursuit (securing or attaining a personal quest or goal) of Happiness. None of these are to given to us by government.
As a believer in Messiah Yeshua, it is always difficult for me at this time. Though many in the country see Conservatives as ‘Christian,’ many conservative views aren’t Biblical. Libertarians, though they want Americans to be able to exercise personal freedom, we have strayed so far from an understanding of self-control that true self-governing will be more destructive than productive. Liberals have finally attained the culmination of the progressive agenda set in motion from the early 1900s and Roosevelt and Wilson, but our country doesn’t have the economics with which to sustain their social agenda. Everyone in political power, no matter which branch of government, is corrupted by sin and lawlessness.
The Bible says that “When words are many, sin is not lacking” (Proverbs 10:19) and politicians speak many meaningless words to entice citizens to vote for them. They go on television shows making the voting process a popularity contest while their lawless behavior is ignored or rationalized. Governments instituted by men, even our ‘more perfect union’ can never be ‘divine’ and will always be full of sin. Evil is evil and, in our world today, evil is considered good and good evil. Isaiah warned about these days to come in the world; we are in them. I see that my choice of leadership is between the ‘lesser of two evils’ and I can’t in good conscience vote like that.
“Therefore we are ambassadors of the Messiah; in effect, God is making his appeal through us. What we do is appeal on behalf of the Messiah, “Be reconciled to God! God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).
My faith in the God of Israel puts me in a different position than an average American citizen who looks at the world through a non-faith political eye. The Scriptures call me an ‘ambassador for the Messiah’. This makes me, according to the dictionary, an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country.” I am to be a diplomat from a foreign kingdom to the one I live in. I have been placed in this country for God’s purpose – to show forth Messiah to those around me. And, I need to seriously consider that when voting and not vote for political agendas, but for how the message of redemption can reverberate through this dying country.
“Everyone is to obey the governing authorities. For there is no authority that is not from God, and the existing authorities have been placed where they are by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities is resisting what God has instituted; and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves” (Romans 13:1-2).
Diplomats don’t generally vote, yet I am to ‘obey the governing authorities” (Romans 13). God put me in this country and I have been given the right to vote. This doesn’t change my citizenship from the Kingdom of Heaven (Philippians 2:20), it’s just that I have been given the the right represent the Messiah and his message of deliverance when I do vote – maybe even just by posting this little blog. (In some countries, there is no right to vote; in others it is required that you vote.)
“Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Messiah Yeshua. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Timothy 2:3-4).
I have used this verse many times as the reason why I do not vote. Soldiers do not worry about civilian affairs, but obey their commanding officer. Being an ambassador from another ‘kingdom’, my commanding officer is Yeshua. I am to try to please him. Yet, His Kingdom is being built here and now for the world to come. While being an ambassador, I am also soldier and there will be suffering when trying to live in this civil world.
Because we live in a sinful, fallen world, there will NEVER be a King, President, Leader who will restore righteousness, fairness, honesty, integrity, justice and whatever else we’re seeking until Messiah returns. Anyone who claims to be able to do such a thing deceives himself and everyone else who believes him. Even when Messiah returns, some of mankind’s political and economic ideals of ‘equality’ won’t be realized because each person will be rewarded according to what they have done (Revelation 22:12). When Yeshua was temped in the wilderness, he didn’t bow down for any kingdoms of this world inclusive of the United States because his kingdom is ‘not of this world’ (John 18:36). Until that kingdom comes, we are to be ambassadors of his Kingdom and fight for that Kingdom as a soldier with Yeshua as our commanding officer, taking orders from him and the Word of God.
Finally, I am to pray for my leaders. Romans 13 states that God put them in their positions and whoever resists them resists Him. It is not my desire to resist Him. His plan is ultimately to bring restoration of all things and that can’t happen through voting a man into a government office. Until this world decays into such evil that only He can restore it, we need to live according to God’s commands and that includes ‘obey the governing authorities’. Until then, Paul’s words to Timothy should be how we approach the coming elections and the future of the country in which we are ambassadors.
“First of all, then, I counsel that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all human beings, including kings and all in positions of prominence; so that we may lead quiet and peaceful lives, being godly and upright in everything. This is what God, our Deliverer, regards as good; this is what meets his approval” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
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