Transcript
Speaker: You can vote all day long, but if you are not seeking the Lord's face, then you are doing it out of control and fear and anxiety or pride. Is that submitted to the Lord's direction? Are you asking him to guide you?
Speaker: hello friends and welcome to verity podcasts my name is Felicia
Speaker: of a thinking biblically series on this podcast whether you're listening in itunes spotify or watching on youtube i'm so glad you're here And in this series, our goal is to look at the historical teachings of Christianity, what scripture says, and how they guide us through some different controversial issues.
Speaker: We're going to be running this series all the way up through Advent 2026 when we pause to do an Advent series. And then we hope to bring this back next summer, 2027, since you all have resonated with it so much. So thank you for listening and engaging. And if you've missed some of the episodes, you can subscribe in iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, your favorite podcast app, and follow along for all of the episodes that I'm producing.
Speaker: So this week, we are going to be talking about elections. And when I was thinking through what to do for this particular episode, I went through several different ideations. I had several different ideas about what to talk about. First, I was going to do thinking biblically about politics, but that was just too big. And then I had a specific political issue i thought I'd address. And I thought, well, that's too niche, and I don't have enough research on it. And so then I thought, you know,
Speaker: The midterm elections are coming up. They're literally right after this episode comes out. And so let's just talk specifically about elections because I'm an an American. And so that's my setting. And when the election season comes around here, there is so much...
Speaker: infighting, so much accusation, so much anxiety for Christians and non-Christians. There's even conflict over your yard signs. And i thought, let's see what scripture says um and what American history says, for those of you who are American, to guide us in how to handle this.
Speaker: Now, you might be asking, well, why are we looking at both Scripture and history? And the reason for that is, if you are American participating in an American election, our history gives us a bit of a framework for understanding where we are today. And it also shows us something very important, and that is that there's nothing new under the sun.
Speaker: In fact, we're going to look at some quotes from America's founding fathers that give us kind of a picture of what they anticipated could happen in regard to elections in their brand new nation.
Speaker: Now, if you're watching in another country, not in America, there are still principles in this episode that you can take away for your own political climate, because I'm sure that you have the same kinds of anxiety same kinds of accusations and infighting that show up within your own political structure. And scripture gives us some principles that we can abide by and how to handle those situations. Principles we can abide by as we discern who to vote for and how to walk through these elections with an eye to the eternal.
Speaker: Because ultimately, so much of our anxiety about elections and politics comes from an unspoken belief that this is all there is. I have to fix my nation with as much power as I've been given so that...
Speaker: I can live a peaceful and quiet life so that I can take care of the people around me so that my government is just. Those are really great desires. But the Bible actually tells us there's a different way to achieve those than the way our world says we achieve them.
Speaker: And that's what we're going to look at today. So I have some points for you in regard to thinking biblically about elections, and I'm going to start with my political points, and then I'm going to move to the biblical scriptures that shed light on those points.
Speaker: So I want to look first at this political landscape and then say, how does scripture speak into that? landscape. I want to start with this quote from John Adams. So John Adams was our second president in the United States of America. He was one of the founding fathers. He was a genuine believer in Christ. He's someone that I admire very much for his convictions, but also for the fact that he actually lived by his convictions as a Christian among founding fathers who weren't all that way.
Speaker: Some of our founding fathers were deists like Thomas Jefferson, who didn't actually believe Jesus Christ was a savior or a prophet, but was more of, you know, just a good teacher, good man. Then you have Benjamin Franklin, who actually lived a rather licentious lifestyle in spite of all his wisdom that he pawned in his books and things like that. um Ben Franklin was raised in a strict Calvinist household and kind of swung the other direction and was also more of a deist. And so you have these different founding fathers who had a very um moralistic view of how one should live, but it wasn't rooted in
Speaker: true salvation. So Christian morals were underpinning the founding documents because that was the religion of the colonists, of the people who came to the United States. Those values, those understandings were underneath the the founding of America.
Speaker: But yet, many of the founding fathers were not genuinely saved, in my opinion, based on the evidence that we see. And this is actually one of my favorite eras of American history and history in general. So I've studied it a lot. I love it. I love learning about it. And this year that I'm recording this is the 250th anniversary of the founding of America. We actually got to go to Washington, D.C. this year with our kids. Our kids have been studying America's founding all year long. And so I've learned a lot along with them.
Speaker: And it's important as I get into reading this quote to you that I share that context around around the founding, that yes, Christian values were underpinning the founding of the United States. This this is just fact. This is how it was. Because They were coming from that perspective, that Christianity coming here to worship freely. It was to worship freely in Christianity. That was why they were coming um when they were like the pilgrims who were persecuted for their religious beliefs. They were being persecuted for their Christian religious beliefs. So this was the understanding, and yet they were not perfect, and our government's not perfect, and the founding was not perfect. And they even acknowledged that a lot of the Federalist papers, which I'm going to quote from to you, um acknowledge that like, hey, we're basically doing our best here to create a government that's distinct from everything we've seen before, yet pulling from everything we've seen before. so that we can create something that allows you to experience true liberty and have the right to vote for your representatives, to have a voice in elections. And so let's read what John Adams said here. this is in a letter to Jonathan Jackson written on October 1780.
Speaker: um It's published in a book called The Works of John Adams. He said this, There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.
Speaker: And if you're American, you might be thinking, well, John Adams is rolling over in his grave because this is where we are. This is the state of things. He says this is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution. And this actually started very early um the two-party system really started to emerge almost immediately, even under Thomas Jefferson and I believe it was the Democratic-Republicans versus the Federalists. So they're two parties. There have always been other parties, but dominant parties. And right now, if you go online,
Speaker: My feed is a mixture of both sides um and both arguing and saying why their side is the best. And um I have a lot of information in my feed about Michigan senators and, you know, governor governor candidates and um representatives, but then I also get information about other states like Texas in my feed, and everybody has an opinion, and um ultimately it's distilled down into two primary parties that are debating for whether they are the better, in my case, biblical choice. My feed on social media is mostly Christian commentators, so they're arguing, this is the better biblical choice, this is the better biblical choice,
Speaker: Now, why I want to introduce this to you with John Adams is because looking back at the founding of America and their concept for why um they wanted to build a government where we were free to have a voice in who was going to be leading us um is important. It's important to consider Because it shows us what their heart was, what their vision was, but it also shows us, I think, the fact that where we are today is a continuation of the same issues that were being seen at the founding. And so the next quote I have for you is by James Madison, also one of our presidents. He wrote this in the Federalist Papers, paper number 10, published 1787. And this one says,
Speaker: The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils have in truth been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished. They continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations.
Speaker: Let's pause here. You might be like, I don't even understand that latter part. Let's talk about the former part. He says that instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public council, so introduced into the government, is the mortal disease under which popular governments perish.
Speaker: This is where adversaries to liberty derive their declamation. So he's saying that In politics, in elections, election years, this instability, injustice, and confusion is introduced to basically distract and pull away from the heart of liberty, the heart of freedom.
Speaker: Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.
Speaker: However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no foundation, the evidence of known facts will not permit us to deny that they are in some degree true. It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests and render them all subservient to the public good.
Speaker: End quote. What Madison's saying here is that In the days of the founding, there were complaints everywhere from virtuous citizens, the people who are friends of public and private faith and public and private liberty, that the government's unstable, the public good is disregarded,
Speaker: in the conflicts of these rival parties, and that measures aren't being decide aren't being decided by justice. They're being decided by whichever party is superior. And he says, although we wish this had no foundation, the truth is that they are true and that no enlightened statesman is ever going to rescue the nation from these clashing interests and render them subservient to the public good. Essentially, he's saying this is this is the state of humanity.
Speaker: But he goes on to say, so we've set up a government in a certain way, set up a republic. You'll notice they repeatedly call a republic. I have a pet peeve when people call our nation a democracy because it's not. It's a democratic a republic. It's very important. um They set up a republic to help offset these inevitable problems.
Speaker: i This quote is important for me to start with because I think there's some Christians who think that somehow America is supposed to be this like heavenly utopia, like or that at some point it was this heavenly utopia that we never had the problems that we have. And certainly I think the sexual revolution started something very new that we are dealing with now um and actually There's a really great book that talks about the impact of the sexual revolution on where we are now morally and spiritually. It's by Carl Truman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.
Speaker: Excellent book. So there's... There's a lot there that's worth studying. But at the same time, humans have always been humans and American humans have always been American humans. And Madison and John Adams both were observing that this is human nature. And so we're creating a government to offset that, to protect against the inevitability of these issues. No statesman's going to rescue you from this. And I think going into elections, it's important to recognize that no statesman is going to rescue you from the inevitability of human nature. And what we tend to do is think like, I'm going to use my voice. I'm going to vote, which is awesome. That's great. But at the same time, you can't then be like, I'm going to blame, you know, 60% of my state for the government I ended up in and live in this constant state of anguish and anger because it's their fault I have to live in a state with these laws.
Speaker: I totally understand being frustrated. Listen, I'm in Michigan, right? And if you know anything about what's happening in Michigan, you might understand why I'm a little frustrated as someone who is a conservative Christian. And I will not apologize for being conservative because I have a lot of people on both sides who follow my podcast. If you don't have to apologize for being liberal, I don't have to apologize for being conservative. I think it's the nu particular framework that is going to lead to greater capacity for freedom for everyone.
Speaker: And you can disagree with that, but I'm glad you're here. So as someone who's observing these differences, if my election in my state goes away that I don't prefer, I can't sit there and be like living in this constant state of anguish and anger.
Speaker: and no longer living in a God-honoring way as a Christian in a state that didn't go my way. And you'll see why in a second, because we're going to look at what Scripture says about this. So let's go to another quote by James Madison. This is in Federalist Paper No. 63. says, "...the people can never willfully betray their own interests, but they may possibly be betrayed by the representatives of the people." And the danger will be evidently greater where the whole legislative trust is lodged in the hands of one body of men than where the concurrence of separate and dissimilar bodies is required in every public act. And this is him saying what I said earlier, that they're setting up a government that is diversified and has those checks and balances so that
Speaker: All the power can't fall into the hands of one party. That was the whole goal. And so i see a lot of times in my my social media, you know, people are just like, it could all be just be peaceful and we could all just get along, we could all just agree. But we can't because we're coming from two different value systems. And ultimately, we we can't achieve this kind of utopia that we think we can achieve. And these different dissimilar bodies like are an important part of achieving freedom. Like you need them in order for freedom to exist. And when there is freedom, you're going to have different and dissimilar people as well.
Speaker: That's the whole point. With these quotes in mind, with these quotes in mind, um we're going to move to Some of the political points that I draw from reading the Federalist Papers, reading our founding documents, um I'm currently reading a book on the American Revolution by Gordon Wood. um And Wood has made some comments on the source of identity for Americans. And I think it's helpful in understanding why people arrive at the conclusions that they arrive on. um But before we look at his quote, the first thing I wanted to share is that, number one, Americans or whatever your nationality, if you have the ability to vote, which is such a privilege, um Americans have the right to express their opinions through elections. And this is such an incredible privilege. In fact, Alexander Hamilton argued it was a citizen's share in the political sovereignty of the state. That's like your slice of the sovereignty of the state you get to participate in. Voting is a privilege. And I would say, especially as a woman who, you know, women came to voting late through the 19th Amendment. I got to see the 19th Amendment with my girls when we went to Washington, D.C. And I think that's really important. Just really profound. It's a huge privilege. And so I want to take advantage of that. Now, there are certain sects of Christianity, um specifically in the Anabaptist movement, so Mennonites, Quakers, Amish, who do not participate in voting.
Speaker: They're pacifists, and one of the ways they are pacifists is by not voting. And I do believe you can have that conviction. For me, Voting is a way for my voice to be heard. A government was set up with that ability, that option for me.
Speaker: And so my voice might get overwhelmed by the majority, um but I would like to have expressed my voice when I had the chance because I don't know if I will always have that chance. So while I have it, I want to take advantage of that.
Speaker: And if we look back in the early church history, so from you know Jerusalem church um after Jesus ascended all the way through the 300s until 313 when Constantine legalized Christianity and and then it was generally peaceful, those 300 years were riddled with persecution. It was really up and down, mainly because Christians were seen as a threat to Roman peace.
Speaker: For a long time, they were seen as a sect of Judaism And Judaism had protections, but once they once Rome realized the Christians were not actually part of Judaism, they were a separate thing, and they would not worship the emperor, and they would not worship the gods or offer sacrifices, then a target was on them, and they were persecuted off and on for 300 years until the legalization of Christianity. And And one of the things I often think of is imagine if they'd had a voice. Imagine if they'd been able to vote for a different leader and actually lead a peaceful and quiet life as it talks about 1 Timothy
Speaker: You know, I think it's a privilege to be able to vote for that. Now, peaceful and quiet does not mean lazy and checked out. You still need to be active. You still need to be active in your faith, active in your community, in your city, in your church. um So it's not like, oh, we're just no longer participating in the world and its troubles. That's not what 1 Timothy 2 is talking about.
Speaker: But the ability to vote for um protections of Christians, the freedom to worship, is such a privilege and something that I take very seriously, especially as a woman.
Speaker: My second point is that um Christians through the ages used the government set up by the founding fathers, so through the American ages, American um government, to plead for continued religious freedom. So an example of this is the Danbury Baptists. The Danbury Baptist wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson when he was our president, um and they asked him for protection of them. They were worried they were going to be persecuted. And it was in that letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote back to the Danbury Baptist where he said that he would build a wall of separation between the church and the state for the protection of sects like the Danbury Baptist.
Speaker: So this phrase, the separation of church and state, originally was used not as a way to keep the church out of the state, but to keep the state out of the church, to keep the state from regulating the church and getting involved in the church. And of course, that goes both ways. we don't We're not looking to set up a theocracy. There are now certain sects on the conservative right, the extreme right, um who believe that we actually need to set up a Christian government.
Speaker: and that this is what God wants, that we're to be the new Israel and we're to establish, you know, seven mountains of influence. You see kind of some crossover in this between Doug Wilson's movement um and his CREC churches and their theology. You also see it coming from um what's called dominion theology or dominion post-millennialism out of charismatic churches. Certain portions of Bethel Church, for example, not the whole church. I don't think they necessarily all teach that, but there are certain portions of it that do.
Speaker: And so it's an interesting crossover of this CREC reformed theology that's then crossing over with um charismatic theology. Mark Driscoll kind of made this shift as well. um And so this idea that we need to set up this Christian theocracy, this new Israel, um is that's not what the New Testament is putting forward. But neither...
Speaker: Is the New Testament supportive of this idea that I actually see and hear Christians parroting that we should keep the church completely out of the state? No, there was an understanding among the founding fathers that there would be a virtuous moral standard for how the government should operate. It was just embedded into their understanding that there are certain things are right and certain things are wrong. And when you relinquish that, when you get rid of that moral standard, now you're no longer
Speaker: Even in alignment with what they meant by liberty and what they meant by natural rights, because that was the foundation from which they were building their argument for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We'll talk about that in a second. So when I'm voting, I'm voting for the protection of religious institutions and freedom so churches can continue to do God's work freely. I am thinking through, how does my vote allow pregnancy centers to keep operating? How does my vote allow um church food pantries to keep operating?
Speaker: How does my vote allow Christian businesses to keep operating? And is the person I'm voting for going to protect that? Or is the person I'm voting for going to infringe upon that? That is where my head is going.
Speaker: Now, why do i why would I be mainly voting for the church? Because the church is good for society. That's why. And because when i if I delegate all those things to the government, that might work for a little while until the government changes hands and decides, well, certain people are allowed to receive these benefits, certain people are not.
Speaker: And I would say even the current administration who would fall under, you know, the new conservatism or the new right has been an example of this. We've had a lot of ups and downs that where sometimes you have certain benefits available and then suddenly they're gone. And that's what happens when we delegate so much power to the government. I would i would want to be voting personally to protect institutions that can operate freely and provide these things without it all being dependent on the government.
Speaker: So obviously different opinions on that. That's just my opinion. Our founders believed in a natural right, a natural law. Our rights are given to us by our creator. They're not given to us by the government. So the government doesn't say you have a right to life because I gave you your social security number. No, we say you have a right to life because it is imbued into your very image because you are human and you are made in the image of God.
Speaker: Even the deists like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, believed this kind of thing. Like they believed you had this right to life, this right to liberty, this right to live a virtuous life, that you had this right given to you by whoever created you.
Speaker: probably not Jesus in Thomas Jefferson's view, but like a God created you and that you could access that knowledge through reason. So even as someone who who is operating in reason and not in a spiritual, renewed, you know, salvation relationship with Jesus, he's still saying like you received your rights from a higher power.
Speaker: That was that was the viewpoint. So this is why no human can take those rights from us. This is why in the whole abortion conversation, we say like, you don't have the right to kill that child. Like that child's right to life comes from a power higher than you. If you take that life, you now answer to God.
Speaker: So governments should protect those rights, not infringe upon them. So when I'm coming into an election, I'm asking what policies protect rights?
Speaker: What policies are protecting rights? And you could expand that beyond the right to life um for the unborn to the right to unnatural death in the conversations around euthanasia um and so many other topics that I'm not addressing here, even topics that people would say, fall under the progressive label.
Speaker: We have to, as Christians, be willing to say, okay, well, i tend to lean one direction, but I can't just adopt wholesale what a party says. I need to say, what does scripture say about human rights and how can I protect those rights and protect what God has provided through the policies that are available? How can I do that? Whether that's a right to food or right to care um that We need to be thinking about that.
Speaker: Now, at the heart of this conversation is like, what is the what is the right to liberty? Like we say life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Well, what is liberty? And in the view of of the founding fathers with that basic Judeo-Christian moral worldview, liberty gives you the ability to pursue what is good and right and just.
Speaker: And It should allow you to institute laws that protect you against what is evil and wrong and unjust, right? So that's what liberty is supposed to do. Your liberty, your freedom is to be used for the building of a just society.
Speaker: However, most of American society today defines liberty differently. They define it the way Justice Anthony Kennedy's statement in Planned Parenthood versus Casey defined it. Here's what he said, quote, at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life, end quote.
Speaker: Do you see the fundamental difference there? The founding fathers believed that your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was not rooted in defining your own concept of those things, but rooted in an objective concept of those things.
Speaker: That God defined whoever he was, whether he was Jesus or a deist God or some random entity, God defined life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And the pursuit of happiness wasn't just personal happiness. It was the happiness of the whole, which was pursuing what is just and good, not just what is good for you.
Speaker: But as this rampant individualism has taken over in America, we now believe, well, liberty is the right to define my concept of existence and meaning in the universe and human life. And therefore, I'm voting for my interests or what I think those personal interests, how they would best impact society, whether that's voting for um gender affirming surgeries or you whatever it is.
Speaker: So knowing that there's this fundamental difference, when I'm going into an election, personally, I'm looking for policies that protect the rights of people but lead to a just society.
Speaker: And people today... have different ideas of what a just society is. So how do I as a Christian define that? I define justice the way God has defined justice. That is looking at what is morally good and morally wrong in scripture and then voting according to that. And here's the truth. People will watch this video or any of the political things that I've written about Christian ethics and politics because theology and politics, they just they're just bound up together. And I have articles on this, including articles about the lie of sinless conservatism. I have a whole article on that. a lot of people didn't like that one. On the right. so I'm an equal opportunity offender.
Speaker: But one of the things that, you know, people often argue about here is like, well, you, you know, if you're voting, you know, conservatively, you're leaving out the hungry, you're leaving out, you know, children, you're leaving out, you know, all of these people. But then if you vote for the left, you're murdering the unborn. Listen, there's...
Speaker: Y'all got problems on both sides. Welcome to Rome. You have pagan people on both tickets. Liars, adulterers, thieves. You have both of these options.
Speaker: So choose your liar, choose your thief, choose your adulterer. Which policy is going to achieve a better, more,
Speaker: just society according to what scripture says. And I want to make one other comment on this. When you're looking at the ticket, I hear a lot of times, now the new thing is, at least where I live, is I vote for character, not for policy.
Speaker: And I'm just here to tell you that policy is a reflection of character. I find this funny because I hear it mainly from people on the left. I vote for character, not for policy. But then When they find out that I tend to lean conservative, there is this immediate reaction that, well, your party, this isn't my party, it's just I pick and choose and tend to lean in that direction.
Speaker: Your party tends to not have good policies, and therefore that's a reflection on character, but not when it's the left. Right.
Speaker: And this isn't, see, this isn't just. This isn't fair. This isn't equal if we're going to be playing that game. And that's why I say, yep, policy is a reflection of character. If you have a candidate who's nice and respectful and doesn't call names and is kind, but believes that the unborn can be murdered and believes that euthanasia is mercy and lies about Christian theology,
Speaker: and what Christians actually believe, and promotes policies that lead to child abuse in the forms of gender-affirming hair, that individual's character is now reflected by his policy. The same as our current president's policies reflect his character, as well as the things that come out of his mouth, which are corrupt and not in line with biblical values. And this is why, for me, when I sit down in that voting booth and I look at what's in front of me, I know that I am looking at two pagans, with very rare exceptions, where sometimes you'll see a genuine believer. I'm looking at two pagans. I'm looking at two lost people. And I am looking at policies and asking myself, which policy is going to lead to a more just society that is good for all?
Speaker: And that allows for the operation of feeding the hungry, taking care of the widow and the orphan, or minimizes the ways that the church is doing that. And if I can possibly do that both through the government and through the church, I want to do that. So I'm going to look at all the options of ways to do that through policy, um which means that sometimes I might be looking at more than one party, more than one um candidate in that regard.
Speaker: So we have to be honest about the ways that we talk about other candidates and other parties, because oftentimes we will hold different standards for the other party than we do for our own. And that's something that all Christians are tempted to do and make excuses for.
Speaker: um if you'd like to read my comments on this, um I have an article that we will link in the show notes that I previously mentioned. Okay, the last thing I want to um say about the the political side of things is that our founders, and you see this throughout the Federalist Papers particularly, our founders saw people as inherently sinful.
Speaker: They saw them as bending towards a chaos, and they built a government structured to withstand that chaos. So the creation of the Democratic Republic versus just a democracy was intentional for that reason. That's why Madison and Hamilton, they go to all this effort to explain like why it's structured the way it is so that they can prevent this devolving into um one party in control, specifically Federalist Papers 47 through 51.
Speaker: So when I'm thinking about this, And I'm sitting down to to go and vote. My question is, how can I preserve what the founders intended for this government and not contribute to the destruction of it?
Speaker: Okay, so that's where I'm coming from as I'm thinking through these things, as I'm looking at policies, i'm looking at people, I'm looking at character, I'm looking at the founders' intentions, how the government was set up, the natural rights that are imbued by our creator, how do I preserve those? How do i preserve religious freedom as much as I can through my vote? Where's that going to lead me?
Speaker: So now let's look at what scripture says. Knowing all of this this, this is like my opinion, right? That's just my opinion. Now let's look at what scripture says. This is objective.
Speaker: Romans 13 is a text that people often turn to when it comes to talking about the government. Here's what it says. This is the ESV. let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there's no authority except from god and those that exist have been instituted by god therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what god has appointed and those who resist willcur judgment For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who's in authority?
Speaker: Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
Speaker: So all sorts of people use this passage and interpret it different ways. I want to read from the IVP contextual commentary on Romans 13, because I think this is helpful for understanding the context around this passage and why it was written.
Speaker: So it says this, when jewish people felt repressed for their ethnic and religious practices submission to civil authorities was the ultimate example of nonres resistance an attitude that they did not always achieve paul is well aware that only roughly a decade before his letter the jewish community had been expelled from rome possibly in debates over the identity of the messiah that jewish christians provoked Jewish people had to be concerned about public opinion, especially in Rome, where their maintenance of economic ties with Palestine was viewed with suspicion. Because many people viewed Christianity as a minority sect within Judaism, Christians had even more reason to be cautious. Jews and Christians publicly stressed their good citizenship against the popular slander that they were subversive.
Speaker: So this doesn't mean that they would avoid denouncing injustice, he goes on to say. But essentially, this instruction Romans 13 is reflecting this belief that non-resistance and non-violence were a way of essentially being a witness to their government, um practicing their submission to the government um and living out that, I guess you could call it pacifism in a way.
Speaker: And it doesn't mean they agreed with this government. This is a corrupt pagan government. The Jews in particular hated Rome. Rome was idolatrous. They were oppressing them. And now out of Judaism comes Christianity.
Speaker: And Christianity is now is separate from Judaism, but Rome doesn't really know that yet. And they're trying to live as good citizens. to live respectfully while also being aware that they're not going to worship the emperor and they're not going to sacrifice to idols. And this is where we end up throughout the rest of the New Testament seeing a lot of instructions along these lines, as well as some of the early church documents like the Didache, gives us an outline of how they worshipped in the first century and things like that. So what we see here in the in the first point I would have regarding Romans 13 is that
Speaker: Submission to pagan authority was seen as non-resistance or non-violence. Jews and Christians stressed their good citizenship against that popular slander that they were subversive to the government. They're like, no, we are good citizens. We are good for society. And this is the way that we're seeing kind of um the American american society turn. like Christians are not good for society. and And we're saying, no, we are good. We want the good of society. We want the good of our city and of our nation.
Speaker: But here's the thing I want to point out is that based on Romans 13, my biggest takeaway is that Christians do not celebrate, endorse, or participate in riots, destruction, or violent displays of political unrest.
Speaker: We don't make excuses for it. We don't say, oh, it's okay because bad things happened, or we don't participate in it. We don't write it off. Nonviolence and nonresistance is what's described here. So this should this should correct both the left and the right, because I see people on the right sometimes celebrating or encouraging. They're like excited about the idea of civil disobedience. And I do think there are points when we do have to walk out civil disobedience. But this idea that like we're going to take down this government, that is not what's actually seen among the early church in Romans 13 and the way that they're spoken to in Romans 13. That there was a a general understanding of non-resistance and And this is why they were hauled off and killed by the droves throughout the persecutions in the first three centuries, because they went like a lamb to the slaughter, just like their Lord and Savior.
Speaker: So this idea of like, you know, this this strong, you know, we're were the conquerors type of approach to Christian government Isn't a picture of what we see here. Now, I absolutely believe in standing up to a corrupt government. And it says this right here. It says that they would denounce injustice, but there was still that measure of emulating their Lord who was killed by Roman authorities.
Speaker: And on the left, I see a lot of excuse making when we see riots, destruction, violence, saying like, oh it's because of what happened to them or oh, because, you know, they just experienced so much loss or so much. No, you don't make excuses for it. You call it out for what it is. It's violent. It's destructive. It's antichrist. It's not good for society. And so on both sides, we need to say like, this is wrong. Like there is a way that we walk out Godly, Christian living under a pagan government, whether that's one that you voted in and you agree with or one that you didn't vote in and don't agree with, we still are called to live um set apart.
Speaker: All right, 1 Timothy 2. Actually, we read this verse in my prayer group the other day because we were praying over the election together. have seven women who gather. We pray over the election. We prayed over the leaders, the leaders who will be voted in and the ones that are currently there.
Speaker: Whether we agree with them or not, we've prayed for them. 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 2 says, First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
Speaker: So my second point is that prayers are for all government authorities, whether you voted for them or not. I feel like I need to say that again. Prayers are for all governing authorities, whether you voted for them or not. And I would say if you particularly find yourself hating a specific governing authority, whether that's our current president or whether that's a senator in your state or whatever it is, it' a candidate,
Speaker: Pray for that person. Pray for them to encounter Christ. Pray for them to come to the Lord. Have a radical Paul-like encounter with God. Pray for them to repent. Pray for them to turn, to have an authentic conversion. Pray for them to actually put in policies that are just and help people.
Speaker: Pray for that. And he says there's four types of prayer for these governing authorities. Supplications, which are requests. Prayers, most likely like liturgical, scripture-based prayers. Intercession, so you're interceding in the spiritual realm on their behalf. And thanksgivings.
Speaker: I'm guessing the last one will be the hardest. How can you thank God for what is happening in your state? I guarantee you that whichever of the two parties is in control, there is something you can thank God for. And this will change the game for you. If you are conservative and you live in a liberal state, you ask the Lord, show me what I can thank you for in this governmental structure. If you are a liberal in a red state, ask the Lord, what can I thank you for? How can I recognize the good that's being done here?
Speaker: You might be like, it's a struggle, man, but the Lord will show you. And the more that you thank God, the more you will recognize the ways he's at work. Because the thing that kills Christians in elections and in politics is fatalism.
Speaker: It's hopelessness. And that only happens when you start to think that the people who are elected are on the throne instead of God. You can have a lot of hope if you recognize who's actually on the throne.
Speaker: Now, there is a result of praying for your leaders. Why do we do it? He says, I urge that you pray this way. Pray for everybody in authority.
Speaker: Why? That you may lead a peaceful and quiet life. All Christians should be praying for that. and Now, we talked about this in my prayer group, actually. It was really interesting. We had kind of a discussion like, well, should we pray for a peaceful and quiet life? Because a lot of times in persecuted nations, people are stronger Christians, but in nations that aren't persecuted, then Christians are kind of lazy. So should we pray for peace if it means that like Christians would get stronger if they were persecuted? And would say 1 Timothy 2 answers this.
Speaker: Talk to any Christian in any persecuted nation. They usually celebrate, that there is a move of the Spirit and that the Lord is working, but they would love to own a Bible, to worship openly, to pray without being arrested.
Speaker: We should not wish for persecution. You should pray for peace, pray for protection for Christians, and pray for it in those nations, in North Korea. I just saw a news article. A two-year-old was arrested in North Korea, life in prison for owning a Bible.
Speaker: A two-year-old. The Nigerian Christians being slaughtered. Just last week, seven Christians killed in a church in Jordan. Murdered in the church.
Speaker: This is happening around the world. We do not pray for persecution so the church matures. We pray for peace and we do the dang discipleship work of helping people grow up so that they care about the widow and the orphan. And they do actually mobilize to do things for their community and their city. They live and they mature and they grow up and they don't just keep on drinking milk spiritually for the rest of their lives.
Speaker: It can be both. It can be that we pray for peace and we pray for maturity. Now, I do believe personally persecution will increase, at least in America. um i i do think that that's the trending direction. But the way that we counter that is first in prayer, not first in policy.
Speaker: Policies matter. Absolutely. Vote for religious protections, but prayer comes before policy. And when you pray and in your communion with God about politics, he will lead you and how you vote.
Speaker: Philippians 3.20 says that our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is my third point. Our citizenship is not here. it's It is in heaven. Our priority is there, but our faithfulness is here.
Speaker: The better our theology of heaven, the more effective we are on earth. um I think in past centuries, Christians tended to really focus on heaven. A lot of that is because life was really hard and you were just you were really just surviving a lot of times. Imagine like my grandma, she's still alive, but she was born during the Depression, lived through World War two and Korea and Vietnam and the Gulf War and 9-11 and multiple recessions and depressions all up and down through that time, a business owner during many of them.
Speaker: And I think about that and I think, no wonder they were singing about heaven. And if we were to go back to like the medieval era or the Victorian era, like no wonder they were singing about heaven.
Speaker: And now there's this tendency to say, oh, he's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good. Well, I would say, actually, you're not heavenly minded enough. And that's why you're no earthly good. Because if you actually were heavenly minded, you'd be more effective on earth because you aren't putting all your stock in the earth.
Speaker: It's only Christians who are fatalistic about heaven that lose their purpose on earth. But Christians who ignore heaven are anxious about earth, and that's the majority right now.
Speaker: Actually studying heaven and strengthening your theology of heaven will increase your security, your stability, and your trust in the Lord that what he's doing is going to bring ultimate peace and restoration. a lot of y'all are trying to accomplish peace and restoration through politics, and that's why you can't sleep at night.
Speaker: So take a minute to reset back and recognize your citizenship is in heaven. That is where you're a citizen. Out of that heavenly citizenship, you can be a good citizen on earth because the goal is what? To live out heavenly principles on earth. And those aren't just random moral principles. Those are the things that we talked about earlier, that you have a divinely defined life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of happiness that leads to the happiness of everyone, the good of society, which is a just society, not one that's based on personal autonomy alone.
Speaker: That kind of heavenly citizenship leads to earthly citizenship that is good for the people. So recognize that. Get that straight. Because if you're all in the earthly citizenship realm, only trying to fix this earth,
Speaker: And I mean this for both the right and the left. this is This is equal. Like, I know so many conservatives who are just obsessed. They're prepping for everything. They're terrified. They're angry. They're name-calling.
Speaker: There's nothing Christlike about their conservatism. Nothing. It has become an empty an empty party. And on the left, y'all are doing the same thing.
Speaker: and just painting a veneer of moralism over top of it. So again, with what I say that you' when I look at the paper, I'm looking at two pagan parties. Both of you are putting all your stock in what earthly instead of what is heavenly. And if you seek the Lord, he will remove so much of that anxiety that you're carrying because it's not your burden to carry. Which leads me to my final point. Daniel 2.21 says, God changes times and seasons. He removes kings and he sets up kings.
Speaker: This is actually a very comforting idea. God is ultimately sovereign over every election. He gives a nation the leaders they deserve. So as someone who considers myself historically conservative, I would call it pre-Trump conservatism, actually even pre-pre-conservatism.
Speaker: Let's go 40 years back and beyond. um Founding fathers conservative. I think that and I'll be honest with you. Some of you, you all will all be mad at me for this. But I believe that President Trump is the leader that America deserved.
Speaker: And whoever we get after this will be same. That God has handed over America to leaders who reflect its values, who reflect how it's li how it lives, to reflect what the people do and what they care about.
Speaker: And of course, I think that there have been some good things that have come out of this administration and other administrations too. And there is no administration, I think, that's just fully, completely doing everything evil. Like there's sometimes good things. There's people in the cabinet or people in the um the Senate and in the House that are doing good things.
Speaker: And putting through policies that are that are helpful, even when we don't agree with a particular president that's elected. But generally speaking, I think God gives nations the leaders that they deserve, that the leaders are a reflection of where that nation is at, um where they're at with him, what they value, what they don't value.
Speaker: um But even so, in those human kingdoms, God continues to work, even when his people are in exile, like in Babylon, Assyria, Rome.
Speaker: Esther such a great example of this. She was faithful in a political environment that she was forced into. She was faithful. She prayed. She fasted. She did what she could to protect her people, to protect their religious freedom in a world that hated her and hated what she stood for. She risked her life for that.
Speaker: But she did it out of trust. She did it out of prayer. Notice Esther's first impulse was to run away. She tells Mordecai, she says, like, i'm not I'm not going to say anything. And he says, listen, don't think that you're going to escape.
Speaker: He rebukes her. Don't think that you're going to escape if They come for us. He says, you will not be protected. And she then decides to pray and fast for three days before taking the action step.
Speaker: And that's something that we can learn. Because like I said earlier, prayer comes before policy. You can vote all day long. But if you are not seeking the Lord's face,
Speaker: over that election, you're not seeking where he's leading you, then you are doing it out of control and fear and anxiety or pride or wanting particular party success.
Speaker: And you can believe that party's better for the nation than another party. But again, is that belief submitted to the Lord's direction? And are you asking him to guide you? Are you praying first? Are you praying for all the leaders? Are you praying over that election? Are you praying with other people? And are you living in a way that says, I am a good citizen of this earthly kingdom because i am first a citizen of heaven?
Speaker: My encouragement to you is um as we get closer to the elections, and maybe you're seeing this after the elections are over, but I would say even so, keep praying. um Be praying for our nation if you're American.
Speaker: If you're not American, we invite your prayers as well. We would love you to pray for us. We're a mess over here. But i I would encourage you, find some people that you can pray with. My particular prayer group of women, all different viewpoints, all different walks of life, ages. um We are praying together, and some of us are even fasting leading up to the election. I invite you to do that um so that we can be in tune to what the Lord is asking us to do. Because the Lord will lead us.
Speaker: And he will lead us in peace, not in panic. And I think that's what we all need when we're thinking biblically about elections. As always, thank you for listening. If you listened to the end, you guys are the MVPs. And especially if you listened, while in a disagreement with me, I'm always grateful that you're here and that you took the time to listen to a different perspective.
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Speaker: I will see you next time on Verity Podcast.
