I had posted a friendly “Remember to Vote Your Values!” type reminder on a Christian Facebook group, and was surprised to be confronted by the argument that Christian shouldn’t vote  – that to do so would be to “compromise with sinners” (Romans 3:8) and that God will ultimately prevail regardless of who is voted into office if we remain faithful as a church. (Romans 1:16)

Now, I don’t usually bring Facebook conversations to my blog space, but I ended up writing a mini novel in comments, and it seemed a shame not to put it in a blog post. So here we go!

Should Christians Vote Their Values?

There are four laws outlined in Scripture. The Ceremonial Law, the Moral Law, the Judicial Law and Social Compact Laws. As Christians we are no longer bound by the Ceremonial Laws (thank you Jesus Christ!) but we ARE bound by the Moral Law, and it is our job as God’s saints in this sinful world to uphold the Moral Law within the framework of our governmental Judicial and Social Compact Laws.

Without Christians fulfilling this mandate, society is sinful and WILL degenerate into ungodly tyranny and religious persecution the likes of what our founding fathers fled from England to escape. To NOT be an active and holy voice in our society is to abandon our nation spiritually, and we will never be one nation under God if all believers take to a philosophy of legislative anarchy and leave the polls open to people that think homeschooling is child abuse and bloody chunks of babies in abortionists bowls is a “beautiful choice”.

The fact of the matter is, God has called us to govern in four areas of life, and He has given specific instructions for each. There is: 1) The Individual, 2) The Family, 3) Civil Government and 4) The Church.

First, God deals directly with us through the Holy Spirit and our relationship with Christ (our pride, our sin, our desires, etc.). Second, God instructs us on our roles, duties and obligations in our family (heterosexual marriage, how to treat our children, etc.). Third, as families grew and increased and began to form cities, God delivered specific instructions on how to conduct ourselves in civil government in a sinful world, living in and among sinful people. (Electing Godly leaders, upholding moral laws, etc.) Fourth, God has given specific instructions to those who call on His name, giving rules for the conduct and purpose of the church.

Some mandates in the Scriptures are directed to all four of the jurisdictions (individual, family, government and church) and some pertain to only one and not the other three. For instance, the Scriptural directive to “raise up a child in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4) is pointed at the family – not the government. It is NOT the government’s job to raise our children.

By ignoring all of the very clear and eloquent exhortations in the Bible on our role as Christians in being active and holy voices in our civil government, focusing on random bits of Scripture like Romans 3:8 to the exclusion of all other Scriptures is an extremely dangerous rendering and misinterpretation of God’s words. Because the fact is, Romans 3:8 is not dealing with our obligations as citizens and our duty within our government at all – it is dealing with the individual and our representation to unbelievers as a church!

When read in context, Romans 3:8 is Paul’s answer to a popular argument among the Jews. The argument: If we sin, we give God an opportunity to show that he is right. We are doing God a favor, so he shouldn’t punish us. It’s a silly argument, but Paul deals with it. Is God unjust? “Certainly not!” he says in verse 6. “If that were so, how could God judge the world?” God said he would judge the world, and he is right in doing so.

Paul paraphrases the argument a little in verse 7: “Someone might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?’” If my sin shows how good God is, why should he punish me? In verse 8 (the one quoted as the basis to not vote and to passively let evil men dictate who is put into positions of power and what life destroying laws go into effect) Paul gives another version of the argument: “Why not say — as some slanderously claim that we say — ‘Let us do evil that good may result’”? At this point, Paul stops dealing with the argument and just repeats his conclusion by saying, “Their condemnation is just!” These arguments are wrong. When God judges us as sinners, he is right. The gospel does not give any permission to sin. End of story.

So again… does this ONE Scripture that is not pertaining to our duty within our civil government, and taken out of context, justify ignoring the DOZENS of others that directly and vehemently outline our duty to stand for God in our sinful society? No!

The argument that we should only vote for someone unless they are perfect Christians, matching every single criteria on their political platform MIGHT have some weight to if we were in a totalitarian government, with a highly centralized government calling the shots. But we are not electing dictators, czars, sultans or emperors. It might even fly if we were an oligarchy, aristocracy, plutocracy or feudal tribal government (where power resides in the hands of a small elite group). And I would say it would be even more relevant if we were a theocracy, where the government is run by immediate representatives of God. But we are not. We are not choosing between David and Saul.

We are in a Constitutional Republic, a government in which the power is exercised by representatives elected by the people. The representatives elected by the people are not sovereign, but are instead subject to a higher sovereign law – the written Constitution and the moral law of the Bible to be exact. The only only ONLY way that this elective representative constitutional republic can be held accountable to the “laws of nature and of nature’s God”, is if God fearing Christians do their God-given duty of holding them accountable – and that includes voting moral, upright and God-fearing men and women into positions of leadership, and voting against men and women and laws that seek to destroy God-given rights.

America is directly founded upon the directive of Exodus 18:21: “Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.” We thus elect leaders at the local, county, state, and federal levels to ensure that our government is one that protects and preserves our God-given inalienable rights, including those of life, liberty, property, self-defense, religious worship, justice in legal proceedings, etc., etc.

When our community gathers to vote on leaders, laws and regulations, if we sit on our hands while God’s law is under attack simply because the defense isn’t a Christian utopia, failing to lend our voice and our vote is akin to the man who refused the canoe, the boat, and the helicopter in the flood because “God would save him”. When he got to heaven and asks God why he wasn’t saved, God said, “I did try to save you, but you refused My help!” If we remain silent, the Bible is quite clear that silence is consent.

“But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn’t sound the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their captivity. They will die in their sins, but I will hold the watchman responsible for their deaths.” – Ezekiel 33:6

“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” – James 4:17

If we abandon and neglect our nation, leaving our government open for Satan and those of the world to move into positions of power, we have no one to blame but ourselves. God has already made it abundantly clear in Scripture what he expects of us as Christian living IN this world, but not OF it. If you are waiting for a “perfect person” who meets your every criteria before you vote against evil, you will be waiting passively as our God-given rights are slowly destroyed by tyranny and despotism.

Noah Webster said it best in 1783: “God commands us to choose for representatives just men.. if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the people will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglected the Divine commands and elected or allowed to be elected bad men to make and administer the laws.”

Laws are enacted by the consent of the governed. This means, if you do not BLOCK bad laws through the LEGAL PROCESSES then you are CONSENTING to the law! Silence is consent… legally and literally. The ONLY way to change those laws is to take to the polls. To vote. To shape our society as “the governed”. To roll over and accept the outcome, is to be the “good man doing nothing, allowing evil to prevail”.

To Sum It All Up..

I believe that neglecting ANY aspect of our duties in the realms that God has outlined for us, and then expecting God’s blessing is the realm we intentionally and willfully neglect is foolish. Let’s not put God in a box. Let’s not limit where He can and will move and work in our lives, our families, our nation and our church. Let’s not demand to only obey His directives in the church, or only obey them in our lives, or only obey them in our family, and ignore all else.. while still expecting His mighty hand and outstretched arm in our governments legal system.

In Romans 1:16, where Paul tells us why he is unashamed of the gospel and eager to preach it, not only in Rome, but everywhere he goes. EVERYWHERE. Not just to the church. Not just to congregations that gather on Sunday mornings. EVERYWHERE. He even shared the Gospel in the courtroom – yes, in the government and legal system! He did not refuse to speak to Festus and refuse to appeal to Caesar because he didn’t want to “compromise with sinners”. He followed the Divine directive to honor and serve God in his personal, family, civil and church life, because as he said in Romans 1:16, he is not ashamed of the power of God to save everyone who believes.

A good example of God working in the legal system, is in the abolition of slavery. I thank and praise God for raising up Godly abolitionists in the anti-slavery movement who understood their role as Christians and citizens and honored God in ALL realms of duty, like my personal favorite William Wilberforce, the English politician who became the voice of the abolition movement in Parliament. And could you imagine if just Christian men, not caring to vote, influence or run for positions of power in government abandoned their duties and were not in position to effect the political decisions to end slavery… no Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation (no one would have voted for him), no Frederick Douglass (no one would have supported him working closely with government), etc., etc. Can you imagine where the world would be today if these brave men and women ignored their God-given directives and completely and wholly abandoned their governments to Satan so they could focus on their churches and their churches only?

God asks us to be salt and light to the world and to share the glory of the Gospel in ALL realms of our lives. Not just one or two. All of them. This world is sinful and will always devolve further and further into sin. If Christians abandon pockets of our domain that God has appointed us to govern (like our civil government), we have no one to blame but ourselves.