Dale Partridge - Real Christianity： #117： Does the Bible Call Christians to Vote？

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity.

00:00:11.240 My name is Dale Partridge, where each week I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological

00:00:16.600 and pastoral questions.

00:00:18.400 This is a 100% listener-supported audio ministry of relearn.org.

00:00:24.180 And for those who don't know, our mission at relearn.org is to educate and equip ordinary

00:00:29.640 Christians to plant biblical, confessional, and missional house churches. For more information,

00:00:35.680 just visit relearn.org forward slash house. All right, guys, if you're an American in less than

00:00:42.600 one week, we have probably the most important election of our lifetime. And there are many

00:00:50.540 Christians who are saying, well, you can't vote for name your candidate if you're a Christian.

00:00:56.740 You can't vote for Biden if you're a Christian. You can't vote for Trump if you're a Christian.

00:01:01.220 But then we have another group of Christians who are saying, 0.82

00:01:04.700 well, both candidates are terrible, so I'm not going to vote at all.

00:01:08.380 As Christians, how are we to view the act of voting? Is this something that we are responsible

00:01:14.100 to do? What does the Bible say about voting? We're going to be discussing this and more.

00:01:20.800 But before we begin, I just want to make a quick announcement about ultimate marriage. We're

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00:03:11.520 Okay, today's question comes from Brad in Riverside, California.

00:03:16.640 And he says,

00:03:17.640 Hey, Pastor Dale, I live in Southern California, and the politics down here under our governor are getting increasingly hostile toward Christians.

00:03:25.900 In addition, the presidential election is around the corner.

00:03:28.620 As a Christian, you think it would be easy to answer this question, who should I vote for? But unfortunately, it's not. I'm so frustrated with the character of both men, I'm considering opting out. Is this right?

00:03:43.760 Okay, this is a great question, Brad.

00:03:45.500 I think you're not alone in this desire and this concern and this frustration.

00:03:53.040 And I think a lot of people right now in the church are looking for clarity.

00:03:57.180 So let me start with a few points, and this is probably going to be maybe a shorter episode,

00:04:01.200 but a few points, and then I'll move into my personal interpretation and suggestions according to Scripture.

00:04:08.500 So first off, no, you're not required to vote by Scripture, meaning that there's no passage

00:04:15.080 of Scripture that's going to be able to have jurisdiction on a command that'll say,

00:04:20.840 you must vote. Now, I want you to hold on to that truth in one hand, and in the other hand,

00:04:29.180 I want you to hold this truth. You are required as a Christian to stand up for righteousness.

00:04:36.240 Okay, so you're not required to vote, but you are required to stand up for righteousness.

00:04:40.640 Now, we're going to learn a little bit about how those might kind of overlay each other.

00:04:46.700 So let those two truths just sit in your hands for a moment, and then let me briefly offer

00:04:52.040 some foundational ground before I go further.

00:04:58.340 The current political climate here in America has two very polarizing political parties,

00:05:03.380 and that is the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They're not defining and

00:05:09.760 differentiating themselves by moderate positions. They are defining and differentiating themselves

00:05:16.820 by extreme positions. And this wasn't always the case in America. In fact,

00:05:21.880 50 to 80 years ago and back, many Christians would regularly change political parties depending on

00:05:28.080 the specific election candidates and policies. And they could do that because then both parties 0.61

00:05:34.700 were built on moderate differences on policy and minor differences on morality. Today, that's not

00:05:42.360 true. Today, we have two political parties who are built on radical differences on policy and

00:05:50.560 major differences on morality. For example, let's just look at the Liberal Party, the AKA Democratic

00:05:57.380 Party. And by its very definition, to be liberal means that you are willing to take liberty with

00:06:07.280 moral, political, and societal norms. That is, you do not have a system of thought

00:06:15.380 or a philosophy or a worldview built on objective, immovable truths. But instead,

00:06:23.600 your worldview is built on subjective interpretive truths. And this is why liberals are also called

00:06:30.540 quote, progressives. And I really believe they've hijacked that word to label their moral system

00:06:39.320 that changes, right? And they've made it seem like it's some sort of virtue because it's progressing.

00:06:46.360 I don't think that's a positive outlook.

00:06:51.060 So this is the reason why, you know, because they believe in progression and change and not immovable objective truths, this is why they're the party who supports the abortion under the guise of better health care.

00:07:08.620 or the redefinition of marriage or the redesigning of the family and the shifting jurisdiction of

00:07:16.000 parenting, the complete revision of gender under the banner of, again, love and open-mindedness,

00:07:21.600 this kind of, again, virtuous, virtue signaling words there. Now, I'm all about being open-minded,

00:07:31.680 but the only request I have is if you're going to be open-minded, make sure you have an open Bible

00:07:36.660 next to it. The question we have to ask ourselves as Christians is, can we support a party who is

00:07:46.280 built on this philosophy? Do we believe that as Christians, humanity can progress from God's

00:07:57.240 truths? In other words, is morality moving? Is it fluid or is it static? And so those are some core

00:08:06.100 things to think about. Then on the other side, you have the Republicans who are identified as

00:08:11.900 generally as conservatives. And unlike the liberals whose main goal is to change

00:08:17.800 conservatism, their aim is to conserve moral, political, and societal norms. And this is the

00:08:26.280 reason that they're the party who is trying to protect the lives of the unborn or guard the

00:08:32.320 definition of traditional and biblical order for the family. Family, you know, gender and morality

00:08:39.500 and law and order. They're trying to conserve those things. Now, to be clear, both sides,

00:08:45.840 Republicans and Democrats, are secular structures, and both sides are filled with people who will go

00:08:51.880 to hell if they don't repent and believe in Christ. So it just doesn't matter. You know,

00:08:58.460 we've so elevated in the church conservatism and, you know, Republicanism as if it's capable of

00:09:07.280 saving. It's not. Obviously, the conservative party is more in alignment just from face value

00:09:17.020 with biblical values than a democratic or liberal philosophy is. And if you can't see this,

00:09:25.180 you need to go back and read your Bible some more. Anyone filled with the Holy Spirit should

00:09:31.300 be experiencing the deep anguish that comes with watching people operate in a manner that

00:09:37.900 stands against God's truths. Now, to get to the core question, is standing for righteousness

00:09:44.060 and using your American privilege and right to vote connected? Are those two things connected?

00:09:54.360 is standing for righteousness, because we are definitely called to stand for righteousness

00:09:58.880 throughout the scriptures, and this opportunity and ability for us to vote. Are those two connected

00:10:05.400 in some capacity? In other words, is not voting in this election an act of abandoning your call

00:10:14.120 to stand for righteousness? And I think there's an argument there, and here's why. As I said

00:10:20.380 earlier, because this election is not differentiated by minor moral issues, but by extreme moral

00:10:26.920 issues, passivity, in my opinion, is not the correct posture for the Christian. Let me remind

00:10:33.380 you that this election is about the most serious matters of life. It's about can you legally kill

00:10:42.660 your child? Can your seven-year-old change her gender? Can your children be taken from you if 1.00

00:10:49.520 you don't permit gender or sexual transition? Will pastors have to violate their conscience

00:10:57.260 and marry same-sex couples? Will families be forced to take vaccinations? Will churches be

00:11:04.380 placed under strict governmental guidelines for gathering? Will pedophilia become classified

00:11:10.160 merely as a sexual preference? Will police not uphold law and order, but fight crime with

00:11:17.860 therapeutics? Will religious liberty be removed? Will our right to protect ourselves and our

00:11:24.640 families be taken from us? Will the Bible be classified as hate speech? These are life-altering,

00:11:32.600 culture-changing core issues that people will and have died for historically. In other words,

00:11:39.880 these are not small matters that are up for grabs because this is the balance between two

00:11:45.120 worldviews here, objective truth and subjective truth, immovable static truths that we are trying

00:11:54.740 to conserve, or fluid changing values that change with the emotion of the day. And, you know,

00:12:06.960 these are gigantic matters. And if you want to opt out of casting your vote as a Christian 0.96

00:12:14.080 for the party or for the individual who most aligns with your biblical system,

00:12:21.760 your biblical value system, then for me, I can't see how you are failing to stand up for

00:12:29.300 righteousness. So that's my point there. I want to offer you just a few biblical principles and

00:12:36.860 two illustrations to support my position. James 4.17 offers this unique blanket truth at the end

00:12:45.420 of chapter four that sums up his previous paragraphs regarding worldly behavior and

00:12:52.300 personal convictions. He says this quote, he says, quote, so whoever knows the right thing to do

00:12:58.660 and fails to do it, for him it is sin. And this means that any person who is dealing with a

00:13:07.400 personal conviction or an opportunity to participate in righteousness, but instead

00:13:14.660 betrays their conviction and doesn't do what they know is right, this passage says that that is sin.

00:13:21.500 Now, this is also the idea of maintaining a clear conscience before God and man regarding your duty

00:13:31.120 as a follower of Christ to stand up for righteousness. Paul, in Acts 24, 16, he talks

00:13:37.360 about this. He says, in this view, or in view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a

00:13:43.840 blameless conscience, both before God and before men. So having a clear conscience is critical,

00:13:49.920 And this is a, I would say this is heavily a matter of conscience, making a decision to vote and to vote for what and to stand for what.

00:14:00.200 And we're going to continue to talk about that more.

00:14:02.480 Let me offer you another illustration here.

00:14:04.160 If you heard the cries of an infant at 40 weeks being ripped apart by forceps, and their brains were being sucked out of their skull that was cracked open with a metal tool, and you sat in the other room and listened to the screams of that baby, and you did nothing, as a Christian who knows what is right, that would be sin for you.

00:14:31.960 And this is the sin of omission. Okay, it's not the sin of commission. You didn't kill the baby,

00:14:39.060 but you sat utterly by while it happened. And this passage says it is of equal weight,

00:14:45.960 actually, before the Lord. Many Jewish Christians knew this well as they committed the sin of 1.00

00:14:51.140 omission and violated their own conscience as they sat in silence and watched the Jews be 0.87

00:14:55.920 shipped off and slaughtered systematically before their eyes. John Calvin once said,

00:15:02.000 the torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul. So having a clear conscience,

00:15:07.600 doing what is right is critical. In other words, knowing the will of God and not standing for

00:15:15.240 righteousness when given the opportunity is of greater fault or equal to than someone who is

00:15:22.920 ignorant of God's will and stands for evil. I'm going to say that again because I want you guys

00:15:27.580 to grasp this. Knowing the will of God and not standing for righteousness when given the

00:15:33.440 opportunity is of greater fault than someone who, ignorant of God's will, stands for evil.

00:15:42.180 This means that we are going to be held responsible for what we know and what we did. The sin of

00:15:47.340 omission is serious. We want to call it passivity maybe, but that's not an escape.

00:15:57.540 John MacArthur actually shared a similar illustration when he said,

00:16:01.140 if you were the only person who could make the decision whether you would want someone in power

00:16:08.680 who believed in allowing the slaughtering of babies and someone who did not allow the

00:16:15.680 slaughtering of babies, and you were the only person to vote on the matter. He says, quote,

00:16:21.500 I think you would vote, and you would vote for what is right as a Christian. Well, in God's eyes,

00:16:27.380 he says, you are that one person, and I don't think a Christian can shirk that responsibility, 0.99

00:16:34.080 end quote. Now, I know many Christians are hung up on all types of things, especially the character

00:16:42.820 of these two candidates. And I get it. Trump's attitude and pride and arrogance 0.68

00:16:49.300 are an absolute disgrace to this country. Biden's dishonesty and pride and perverted 1.00

00:16:56.160 outlook on morality is frightening and embarrassing. But remember, we're not voting

00:17:04.100 for men. We're voting for policies and moral philosophies. We're not voting for who is the

00:17:10.640 more godly person. We're voting for the person who is most likely to uphold God's principles

00:17:16.620 systematically, legislatively in the country. And our responsibility as Christians is to be

00:17:24.960 advocates for righteousness, okay? That's our responsibility, is to be advocates for

00:17:29.560 righteousness. We're ambassadors of the King who can, you know, we're called to use our voice and

00:17:34.480 our resources to uphold, to the best of our ability, the constitution of heaven, the moral

00:17:40.300 law of God. We actually, it's a verse in Philippians, I wish I had it written down. It says that our

00:17:45.380 citizenship is in heaven, meaning, and that word citizenship is the word pletjuma in the Greek.

00:17:51.820 And it's the idea that we are to fight for our citizenship there. Now, we are not Democrats or

00:18:02.580 Republicans. We are not liberals or conservatives. We are Christians. And people are going to always

00:18:10.080 want to throw us into one side, and they're going to hate the fact that we're not going to do

00:18:14.540 identity politics that way. We stand by no other name than Christ. And so it's our job to represent

00:18:23.700 the King in the way that we live, in the opportunities given to us, including voting.

00:18:30.460 That's my position.

00:18:31.760 It's my opinion.

00:18:33.540 It's what I hope that you guys will take into consideration.

00:18:36.480 I'm going to close here with the 18th century Christian statesman, Edmund Burks.

00:18:43.780 He has some famous words, and you guys have probably heard them before.

00:18:47.120 He says, and I quote,

00:18:48.620 The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

00:18:54.960 All right, guys.

00:18:55.520 As always, I'm going to leave you with two resources that will offer further understanding

00:19:00.200 of this topic, and you can find them on the post page for this episode at relearn.org.

00:19:05.920 This is episode 117, Does the Bible Call Christians to Vote?

00:19:11.280 And the video that I want to share with you guys, you guys, I'll put a link there.

00:19:15.380 It's John MacArthur, and it's a title called Will Your Vote Honor God?

00:19:22.000 There's also a podcast video interview with Doug Wilson titled Seven Reasons Christians

00:19:30.420 Could Vote Without Losing Their Soul.

00:19:34.440 And so it's a great conversation, I think, that'll help you, you know, think about these

00:19:40.020 decisions and do them wisely, make a discerning decision.

00:19:43.420 And again, at the end of the day, this is a matter of conscience.

00:19:46.580 You're not required to vote.

00:19:48.880 You're going to stand before the Lord and answer for all things that you do.

00:19:53.080 And this is just a matter of what do you believe the Lord is convicting you to do according

00:19:56.580 to the scripture, according to the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life.

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00:21:31.580 end this episode. My name is Dale Partridge, and I will see you guys next week.

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00:22:13.400 Thanks for joining us on this episode of Real Christianity.

00:22:15.980 We will see you next Wednesday.

Dale Partridge - October 28, 2020

Real Christianity： #117： Does the Bible Call Christians to Vote？

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