August 25, 2016 @ 6:00 PM
I often feel like the airline employee who was asked over the phone by a customer how long it took to fly to Boston. Needing to look up the information, the employee said, “One moment.” Immediately afterward, the customer said, “Thank you,” and hung up. I’m often saying things people misunderstand. Granted, it may be more my failure to clearly communicate than the failure of others to understand, but there are times when the words other people put in my mouth are far beyond anything I’ve ever imagined, much less ever said.
You’ve undoubtedly been warned at one time or another that you should never talk about religion or politics. Both are seen as too volatile to be considered proper subjects for polite conversation. If you really want to instigate a volcanic eruption of the highest magnitude on the “Richter Scale” of polite discourse try discussing the double-edged subject of religion in politics. I can assure you from personal experience, before you’re finished you’ll be hard pressed to find a friend anywhere around.
In the last presidential election, I wrote extensively about the role of the contemporary church in modern-day politics. As a result, I caught it from all quarters. What came as somewhat of a surprise to me was the vehement opposition and vicious outrage I instigated from evangelicals, many of whom grossly misrepresented my position and horribly misinterpreted my writings. Well, as Yogi Berra said, “It's like deja-vu, all over again.” Once again I’m soliciting the scorn of my fellow saints and the skewing of my writings for speaking out about this year’s presidential election. I’m being accused of being everything from unpatriotic to antisemitic, as well as a false prophet who preaches the forfeiture of people’s immortal souls for punching ballots at polling place.
Needless to say, I feel compelled to try to clarify my position on Christians and politics in this year’s presidential election. With my writings once again being grossly misrepresented, either intentionally by those made most uncomfortable by them or unintentionally by those who truly misunderstand them, I want to try to clarify what I’m saying, as well as explain why I’m saying it. Although I’ll apologize in advance for the length of this article, I sincerely hope you’ll take the time to carefully read it. If I didn’t believe it was well worth your time to read, I wouldn’t have wasted my time to write it.
To begin with, let me make it perfectly clear that I’ve never said, as many are making me out to say, that no true Christian could possibly vote for Donald Trump. Neither have I suggested in any way, shape, or form that the salvation of God’s elect can be lost over how they pull levers in voting booths during political elections. I WOULD NEVER SAY SUCH PREPOSTEROUS THINGS! What I have said, however, is that contrary to popular Christian opinion there is no 11th commandment―"Thou shalt vote." There is no scriptural mandate obligating a Christian to go to the polls to cast a ballot in a corrupt political system every time we have an election.
Such perceived obligatory political activism on the part of the church in America over the past few decades has been proven ineffectual by the sorry state of affairs we now find ourselves in in this country. All of our ballot punching has done absolutely nothing to prevent our nation from becoming morally bankrupt and antichrist. Why, one is forced to asks, has the church expected anything different, since the real problem in America is spiritual, not political, something the church should have certainly diagnosed. Our country's only hope for survival is revival; and our only hope for revival is the clear trumpeting of an uncompromised Gospel by the church. Therefore, the willingness of the church to compromise in order to continue its participation in a corrupt political system that sees compromise as virtue rather than vice is counterproductive rather than conducive to the saving of America.
When you add to the above the fact that we now have a judicial oligarchy, comprised of judicial despots, now reigning and ruling over our country, it becomes readily apparent that all future ballot punching in America has been reduced to nothing more than an exercise in futility. Take for example the millions of Americans whose votes and voices were easily overruled by a handful of black robed judges who struck down as unconstitutional all state bans against same-sex marriage. As much as it pains me to say it, especially since I too punched a hanging chad on this ballot, all of our rushing to the polls to prohibit our government's redefinition of the God-ordained institution of marriage to include sexual perversion was for naught.
Adding insult to injury, we must now consider, much to the chagrin of my fellow Christians, another positive proof that all future political activism on our part is destined to futility. Consider the unprecedented phenomenon in America today of a sitting president dictating policy through illegal and unconstitutional executive fiats without a single call for his impeachment from a single one of our elected representatives. If you asks me, it's high time we stopped kidding ourselves about our elected representatives. Once elected by us, they no longer represent us; instead, they only serve themselves, their corrupt political parties, and the fat cats who line their pockets with campaign funds. The proof of this pudding is easily seen in the fact that our representatives are still allowing our taxpayer pockets to be picked in order to fund Planned Parenthood, a diabolical organization that is murdering unborn children and selling their body parts for profit. By the way, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both big fans of Planned Parenthood; Trump has even publicly praised the diabolical organization for the "wonderful things" it does.
Now, in light of these most disturbing, as well as incontrovertible facts, which clearly show our country's dire and desperate spiritual straits, Christians must ask themselves whether or not it is worth risking the misrepresentation of our Christian faith and Christ's Gospel in the eyes of the American public by continuing to go to the polls in an exercise in futility to vote for political candidates who've repeatedly proven, after we prostitute ourselves to them at the polls, that they will throw us away like last week's magazine as soon as they are elected to office. I say, "NO!" At the same time, I say it breaks my heart to see my fellow Christians continuing to prostitute themselves to politicians who continue to treat the church, the Bride of Christ, like their harlot.
Last presidential election, I was roundly and readily condemned by my fellow Christians for my refusal to vote for Mitt Romney, a cultist. According to the Bible, as Christians we should neither welcome into our homes nor bid God's speed to anyone who comes to our house preaching a false gospel, lest we encourage them in the propagation of their false faith and give credence to the false gospel they preach (2 John 1:10-12). To do so, the Apostle John declares, is to be seen by God as a partaker with them in the perpetration of their evil deed; namely, the deceiving of sinners into the forfeiture of their immortal souls. Well, how much more encouragement would we give to a preacher of a false gospel and how much more credence would we give to the false gospel he preaches if instead of welcoming him into our house we voted him into the White House?
Though I found myself under fire from every quarter for my firm stand against Christians voting for Mitt Romney, all I predicted would happen has now come true. First, it did nothing to help our country. Second, it gave credence to Mormonism and to the false gospel Mormons preach. For instance, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association took Mormonism off its list of cults during Romney's run for the White House. Today, Mormonism is seen more favorably in America than at any other time in its history and the vast majority of Americans see it as synonymous with Christianity because so many Christians went to the polls to vote for a Mormon to be their president. Was a vote for Romney worth it? I don't think so!
In this year's presidential election, I'm not insisting, as some have suggested I am, that Christians should only vote for perfect political candidates. If such were the case, no Christian would ever be able to cast a ballot. Christ alone is perfect, and when He returns He will not need our vote. He, as Lord of lords and King of kings, will take over and rule with a rod of iron. I’m also not arguing in this year’s presidential election, as others have suggested I am, that Christians should only vote for other Christians who serve as impeccable examples of what every Christian should be. I've personally voted for candidates in the past―when I felt like my vote actually counted for something―that were certainly not impeccable Christians. Ronald Regan is an example that readily comes to mind. However, my objection to Christians voting for Donald Trump is very similar to my objection to Christians voting for Mitt Romney last time around.
Believe it or not, I would be less vehement in my opposition to Christians voting for Donald Trump if Trump did not claim to be a Christian. To me, the greatest argument against Christians flocking to the polls to vote for Trump is his public profession of Jesus Christ, which is obviously spurious. Trump has repeatedly proven throughout his campaign for the presidency that he is a man who lacks the most basic and elementary understanding of the knowledge of salvation. Furthermore, his life is totally bereft of the fruits of repentance and righteousness that prove one has had a life-changing and personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Remember, Jesus said, "By their fruits you will know them" (Matthew 7:16). In light of all of this, I feel evangelicals rushing to the polls for Donald Trump will give credence to Trump's false and repentance-free brand of Christianity in the eyes of the American public, just as Christians rushing to the polls last time around for Mitt Romney gave credence to a Christian cult in the eyes of the American public.
Will Christians once again risk, for no good reason, the obscuring of the clear message of the Gospel in the eyes of our fellow countrymen by voting for a presidential candidate who advocates a false faith? While it may be a charlatan rather than a cultist this time around, the end result will be the same. It will do nothing to help America and be seen by the American public as the church once again giving its rubber stamp of approval to a preacher of a false gospel. Ironically, the only hope our country has, the preaching of a pure and unadulterated Gospel by the church of Jesus Christ, will be sacrificed once again in order for the church to do something that offers our country no hope at all, participate in a corrupt political process that always leaves the bride of Christ tossed to the side once she has prostituted herself to her political tricks.
Our commission from Christ is not to clean up the pond, but to fish in it. It is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone everywhere and to preserve the purity of the Gospel message for future generations. Since Christ's Gospel, and His Gospel alone, is the hope of the world, we, like the Apostle Paul, should never give an inch for an instant when it comes to compromising the Gospel message in anyway or for any reason (Galatians 2:5). As its only stewards, the Gospel's preservation and propagation is up to us alone. Therefore, I will not vote for Donald Trump, lest my fellow Americans presume my vote to be a rubber stamp of approval upon Trump's fallacious brand of Christianity. If my fellow Americans want to buy Trump's brand of suits and ties, perfumes and aftershaves, and spring water, that's one thing, but if they buy into his false faith, that's something else altogether! The cost of that will prove eternally astronomical and I don’t want to be a party in selling it to them.