Someone e-mailed me one of those viral forwards urging us to “refuse” to accept one of those new George Washington dollars because it doesn’t say IN GOD WE TRUST on it. The idea of the e-mail forward is that we can make the world a better place. Really? A better place? Would this not just serve as a “witness” to cashiers all over the world that all Christians are jerks and idiots? (And by “jerks” I mean it in the network-TV-censorsed Marty McFly sense—”What happens to us in the future, do we all become jerks or something?”)
The funny thing is, IN GOD WE TRUST is on the coins, but it’s placing cleverly on the outside edge, following the model of the British 2-pound coins.
I actually listened to a Q & A session from John MacArthur at the Shepherds Conference in which someone asked him a question about politics and he said something along the lines of, which singular person has the job of president of the United States for 4 or 8 years matters very little in the scheme of things. He laughed it off and moved on to the next question (in this same session he spent like 15 minutes talking about his pens). This article is about how much more important the cause of Christ is than one temporal election season. I encourage you to read it.
When the church takes a stance that emphasizes political activism and social moralizing, it always diverts energy and resources away from evangelization. Such an antagonistic position toward the established secular culture invariably leads believers to feel hostile not only to unsaved government leaders with whom they disagree, but also antagonistic toward the unsaved residents of that culture—neighbors and fellow citizens they ought to love, pray for, and share the gospel with. To me it is unthinkable that we become enemies of the very people we seek to win to Christ, our potential brothers and sisters in the Lord.
And this, from musician Shaun Groves:
I understand wanting to vote for someone under whom Christianity would flourish. I get that. Let me think about who that might be for a second. OK, well, because of what history teaches us about the conditions under which Christianity thrives you might want to vote for a guy or girl who will lock up our churches, strip us of our freedoms, imprison us for praying, and is a bit of a psychotic pyromaniac [like Nero]. That’s the kind of guy whose intolerance and brutality helped turn a Jewish cult into a major world religion.
God and His Church have never needed a president’s or Caesar’s support in order to survive.
Yes and amen! That Shaun Groves quote is right on the money. We can vote so we should vote in a manner that will bring God the most glory, but if our “candidate” does not win God’s kingdom will still flourish. Good post my friend.
I agree about our energy being wasted on some things like boycotting stores that don’t say Merry Christmas, but instead say Happy Holidays. Come on people! What is the purpose of a store? To get something sold. Don’t you think it makes the most sense to target the largest audience possible by saying Happy Holidays? Besides who made Christmas about materialism? On another note, I know the Lord has the kings heart in his hand and I trust in the sovereignty of God no matter who our political leader is, but I’d have to say the election is important because it very much illustrates and may further the decent of our country by not upholding what it was founded on (Christian moral values). It’s hard to see so many issues like abortion and gay marriage be something that is condoned. I surely don’t want to allow our land to become any more like Sodom and Gomorrah for His names sake.
Thinking about this more and some food for thought… Isn’t how we live how we evangelize? Aren’t we known as a Christian nation to foreign nations? Isn’t the election of our leader, who represents us, important? I know God has never needed a president, but His church has been banned in countries because of their leadership (not saying that will stop God in saving His people, only saying that He has given us a gift in having a voice and a nation that was founded very much on biblical principals.) I think in this election, sharing, in all humility, our convictions based on truth is evangelizing. All to the glory of God. Just as God used the small voice of Esther to change the decision of the Persian king, ultimately changing the outcome for God’s people, I think it important that we spend time and energy on the way a nation will go. “for such a time as this, I was called.”