The following is an excerpt from the introduction of my book, With Christ in the Voting Booth: Casting Down Imaginations Before Casting Your Vote. When I started the book in late 2010, the working title was “Get it Right This Time: He’s Our Guy” and my intention was to promote the candidacy of Mike Huckabee. Things change. I was changed. Studies of the Bible and history made me realize that I believed a lot of things about America that weren’t true. More importantly, I came to realize that my priorities were not aligned with the priorities God has set forth for our lives, such as “seek ye first the Kingdom of God.”
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
II Corinthians 10:4
Knowing who to vote for doesn’t always come easy for the Christian. No unambiguous voice from heaven whispers: “This is my candidate, vote for him.” Even though almost every candidate in America claims to be a Christian, most of us know a few Christians we wouldn’t trust with a loaded BB gun, let alone access to the launch button of the world’s largest cache of nuclear weapons.
Thankfully, God has given us His Word, “the ultimate voter’s guide.” Using the Bible, With Christ in the Voting Booth provides tools to resist Government Too Small and Government Too Big, while embracing Government Just Right, not based upon false promises and “Christian” utopian fantasies, but rather the most important political success story of all: The Voter and Governor Who Please God.
I know politics isn’t everything. It isn’t even the main thing. Christians, who believe in heaven and want to escape hell, recognize that here, there is no continuing city (Heb. 13:14) and are looking for a country where the Righteous One dwells (Heb. 11:14-16). Some Christians even suggest that it is foolish to concern themselves with politics, likening it to polishing brass on a sinking ship. Yet every four years, many of those same Christians vote during the primary season, and most of them vote for president the following November. Nevertheless, they aren’t activists, they have never been to a Tea Party, and they don’t blog about government. They don’t want a bailout. They don’t want a handout. They just want to be left alone to raise their families as they see fit.
If this is you, don’t worry. I am not out to create political activists or political junkies, I only hope that together we will begin to think Biblically before we vote. It is not enough to vote Republican or support “conservative” candidates. While there may not be a specific Bible verse that directly addresses every policy decision a mayor or senator has to make, God’s Word is not silent on the whole process of governing righteously.
I do not claim to know who will be in the running for all the major political offices in 2012, let alone in the years beyond. Although I have no personal insight into the will of God, I know there is no secret ballot. God sees every box we check. Jesus goes with us into the voting booth, and God requires that whatever we do, we do to the glory of God (1Co. 10:31). I can say with confidence that He requires that if a Christian votes, he or she votes in obedience to the Word of God and in faith, leaving the results to Him. He has promised to never leave His people[1]:
But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation … if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God); he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. Deuteronomy 4:29-31
[1] I show later in the book that this promise is extended to the people of God only, not our country as a whole.