In God We Trust: Christian Perspectives on Our Response to the Election

Hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc. That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language.

I'm Jon, I serve as a pastor as well as a host on this show. You can always submit questions to peacechurch.cc slash questions. I'm here today with Mitch. Yeah, I'm feeling patriotic because if you're listening to this when it comes out, it's election day, November 5th, 2024. It's okay if you're listening to this afterwards, it's still going to be applicable to you.

But we are having this episode really talk about some of the things that are going on with this election and elections in general. We've already done an episode and a whole teaching video series on the topic of Christianity and politics, and I really highly suggest that you go find those videos. John did such a great job in talking and tackling those issues.

And so we're not gonna be addressing that again, but we do wanna address some theological and just some real Christian life questions that relate to the election. So for example, what do Christians do after an election, whether you're a candidate that you voted for won or lost.

How does God's sovereignty relate to that and our agency in voting? So I'm really excited for us to jump into that. So let's jump into our first question. And I got to say, it's going to be great for today on election day, but also our leaders are already telling us that we're not going to know the results for several days. So a lot of the stuff we're going to talk about is going to be applicable potentially for a few days, for a while.

And also on top of that, I would say, highly suggest that you share this with someone who you feel like this would be applicable for or who might find this episode of value. Because that's also how we get this out is mostly by word of mouth.

So we'd love for you guys to share this with someone you know. But let's jump into that first question. If God is in control, does it really matter who I vote for? Or on the flip side of that question, if voters decide, is God really in control?

So, I think this is an age-old question, really, about God's sovereignty versus human responsibility. God's in control of everything, and yet you and I think, speak, act, make decisions every day. And so, how do those two things relate, especially in an election? How does democracy itself relate to God's sovereignty? And unfortunately, I've heard a lot of people, even Christians say, you know, God's in control so I don't need to vote, you know, it doesn't matter.

But I think that's clearly not what scripture teaches. You know, one of the things that I've said many times is that, you know, I don't think you should treat that, you know, don't take that mindset to your seatbelt when you get in your car, right? And just say, well, it doesn't matter if I wear my seatbelt because God's in control, he'll control if I live or die. Well, he does control if you live or die, but he uses means for an end, right? If he's gonna save your life during a car accident, he might use the seatbelt in order to save your life. So, that's an important decision for which you have some responsibility. And the same thing is true for an election. You have a responsibility. So, I think of some classic passages when we think of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. One of the best examples is, of course, Jesus going to the cross, who's responsible for that action. You and I know that it was God's plan for Jesus to go and to die on the cross to take away our sins and to rise again. But we also know that human actors were at play.

We know that the Jews, the Romans, we know that people were involved in sending Jesus to the cross. I think of a classic passage, Acts 2.23 says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. So Peter's preaching during Pentecost, he says Jesus was delivered up according to the foreknowledge of God, and then he also says you crucified and killed him. Okay, so he's saying both things are true.

God's in control, it was God's plan, and also you human beings who sent Jesus to the cross are responsible for your actions.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was just listening to a little bit of Charles Spurgeon today. He was talking about that idea of human agency and God's sovereignty are like the two rails of a railroad track. And that they're separate, right? They're two different things and yet off in the distance they converge together.

And so he was saying, you know, how they come together, we don't know, but in eternity, we'll see that kind of touch together. And it is kind of a mystery, but we know God commands us to do certain things. And at the same time, we do know that he's sovereign.

And that can be hard, but.

Totally, we don't, yeah, there's some mystery in knowing how God's sovereignty and human responsibility come together. But we just, we have the clear teachings from the Bible that both of those things are true at the same time, even if we don't fully understand how they go together.

So yeah, you've got a responsibility, Christians, to go out today, election day, and to vote. You've got a responsibility to pray for the Lord, to bring about the outcome that is good for the United States of America, what's gonna lead to flourishing for human beings,

what's gonna lead to the furthering, the advancement of the gospel for our country. We love God and we love our neighbors, so we want to pray for what's best for them. We want to vote for what's best for them.

Yeah, absolutely. Let's jump into this next question. Will I have to give an account for how I voted? And then this, maybe the follow-up is, what if I don't know everything that someone who I voted for stands for?

What if they're some school board members, maybe that I don't know exactly what their position is on things?

Right, right, good question. So in general, a couple of passages come to mind. I think of Matthew 12, 36, where Jesus is saying that every careless word we're gonna have to give an account for. I think of passages like Romans 14 that say, each one of us will give an account of himself to God. They give it in Matthew 16, Jesus says, he will repay each person according to what he does. So scripture is pretty clear that you and I will be judged for our words and our deeds, all of them. And I think like voting very clearly falls into, it's one of our words or deeds.

It's something that we do. So we're going to give an account to God for how we used our influence, our voice, our vote, this chance to speak into who leads our country. So yeah, we will be judged. Now you brought up the interesting question of what about when we don't have all the information? I think that's where, even going back a step further, you say, well, maybe I had information, but maybe things changed, or maybe that candidate didn't do what I thought they were going to do.

You know, so there are different factors that come in.

You mean politicians sometimes don't do what they say they're going to do? That's right.

Pretty sure.

Oh my goodness.

So that's the thing, right? You know, we've got to, I think God's going to hold us responsible for, you know, the information we had, the way that we used our wisdom at the time to make the best decision that we could. I think that's true. Yeah, unfortunately I think in some of these local elections some candidates don't supply as much information as we would like. I ran into that and when I went to the polls beforehand I was looking at one of my more local races and I was trying to make a decision and two of the candidates just didn't provide any information online. So I texted a couple of friends who knew those people and I tried to gather as much information as I could, but I was voting on very little information and I was a little frustrated by that. It's hard. I mean, in your case, maybe you knew some people who knew them, but I think in a lot of cases you're just like, I don't even know who this is and what am I supposed to do with that?

Right. I had the advantage of living in the community for a long time and knowing some people who happened to know them. So I had that advantage. But yeah, for some people, they just, they had no idea. And so, yeah, I think that's the thing. I think God in his infinite wisdom and knowledge and goodness and justice, you know, knows that, you know, we are not omniscient, that we don't know everything, that we don't have access to all information. And so we've got to make the wisest decision we can with the information we have at the time.

Yeah.

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A lot of people say that persecution would help the church grow and bring us out of some sort of lazy cultural Christianity. Should voters lean into that and vote for greater persecution? Have you ever heard someone say that? I have. I've heard that many times actually. Very, very interesting perspective. So yeah, I sympathize a little bit with the feeling because, you know, throughout the history of the church, we have, I think we've spent more time than not being persecuted. I think of the worldwide church. And by God's grace, the church flourishes under persecution, which is awesome. But to say that we should go after that, I think is another thing.

We don't have any examples of that in the Bible where the church was like, hey, we think the church will do better if we're all getting persecuted, beaten and killed. So let's go get that. Let's go figure out how to make that happen.

Yeah, you're saying the disciples didn't gather around and said, let's think about a church growth strategy and let's figure out how to make the Romans angry.

Yeah, let's really get them upset.

Yeah, the church has, God's people have been persecuted a lot throughout their history. See if we can take them off so much that they kill us and our families and everyone we know.

Right, it makes me think a little bit of, you know, there's been some talk and some studies on, you know, how amazing it is, how resilient children are, even when they grow up in bad environments, you know, a violent neighborhood, a broken home, whatever it is.

You know, some of them turn out really well, and they not only survive, but they thrive.

They go through adversity, and it makes them a stronger person in their adult life. And that's great. But I don't think anybody's saying, as a result of knowing that, we should on purpose raise our children in violent neighborhoods, broken homes, bad situations.

That's not the conclusion. Just because by God's grace, human beings are adaptive and resilient and good things can come out of bad things, doesn't mean that we should make bad things happen on purpose. Yeah. So, and yeah, like I said, we don't have any example of that happening in Scripture. So, no, I don't think that we should on purpose bring about persecution.

I think it will likely in our country happen increasingly in the United States of America. We're already seeing, you know, threats on freedom of religion, freedom of speech, those kind of things. And so I think Christians are going to probably face more persecution because of our, because our worldview is so much different from what the rest of the world would say. So we're going to face that anyways. We don't need to bring it about on purpose.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Jon, are there any situations in the Bible that help us inform us in this current situation?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Actually, the first thing I thought of when you said that was that we don't have any specific parallel situations to an election, like election day, like we're in right now, because in Israel, in Judah, in Rome, God's people under Assyria, God's people under Babylon, God's people under the Roman Empire, in each of those situations they didn't get to vote in their leader. It wasn't an election.

So in that way, this is a unique time in history, a unique place in history that we're, and in the world that we're in, and we thank God for that. We do get to have a voice. We shouldn't waste it, we should use it.

So there's that. But there are certainly similar situations where we're looking at leaders, and we're looking at good and bad options, some that go from good to bad, some that go from bad to good.

You think of the judges, you think of the kings. I think of one of the refrains in the book of Judges, Judges 21-25, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everybody did what was right in their own eyes. So when we lack...

And that's not a positive statement.

Right, that's a bad thing. That's not an anthem for expressive individualism and freedom of choice. That's not like, yeah, we all did our own thing and it was great. And it was right, you know. Sometimes I hear that and it's like, oh, maybe that almost sounds like,

people could take that as a good thing.

Yeah, don't put that on a poster and hang it on your wall. If you've ever read the book of Judges, incredibly dark example of human depravity, of human sin.

Right, right. When God's people don't have, or when people in general don't have a good, healthy leader that's leading them in the direction of God's good design for them, yeah, then things aren't going to go well. Yeah.

And so, yeah, yeah. In 2024, I've said before, I'll say it again, I wish we had some better choices for candidates. Yeah. I still think that there is a clear choice between the two parties, the two platforms, which one is advocating for things that are at least closer to a biblical worldview. One party is clearly headed away from things that are of a biblical worldview. And yet the candidates themselves, I do wish we had better options.

And I think, yeah, throughout the history of the world, I think people have faced that problem many times.

Yeah, it reminds me right now at Peace Church, we're going through a Bible study in men's, and women's Bible studies doing the same one through the book of first and second Kings, and looking at some of the different Kings, and it just looks so similar to kind of the situation that we're going through, where you see these kings rise to power, and some of them are good and some of them are bad, and it's just this kind of downward spiral when Israel looks to a man, and men can abuse power. That's part of our fallen nature, is that we typically find something that God's given us that's good, and we find a way to misuse it.

And so, you know, you know, sometimes there's good kings, sometimes there's bad kings. But the real mistake that Israel made was not having good or bad kings. It was that they weren't putting Yahweh as their true king.

Yeah. I think that brings up a really important point. So if you're, you know, whatever happens today, whatever happens over the coming days, you know, whenever we have the results of the selection of 2024, whatever happens, your vote matters. It is important.

You know, I don't want to undermine that. And I want to say whatever the outcome of the election is, God is the one who is ultimately on the throne.

Yeah.

Jesus is the king over all kings.

Yeah, I guess. So that leads me to a question. Say our candidate doesn't win, the one that maybe I'm voting for or whoever the listener's voting for, whatever. If that's something that tears me up inside, if that makes me almost lose control, what would you say to someone like me in that situation?

Well, being sad about that is appropriate. In this election, we're facing just a total two worldviews that are very different up against each other. And so, yeah, I mean, I think Christians will either be celebrating or mourning, depending on the outcome. So there's some mourning is appropriate. But like you said, to almost lose your mind or to just lose all hope or something like that would not be appropriate because of this bigger picture that we have as Christians.

That our ultimate hope is not in any man or woman and not in any human being on this earth. It's in Jesus. It's in God. He's the one who's ultimately on the throne. Book of Revelation paints a beautiful picture of God being on the throne for all

ages. We know that Jesus is going to return and make all things new and right. So as Christians, we have hope. Times might get harder. That's certainly true. We might worry about what's going to happen for our kids, our grandkids.

That's certainly true. And yet, one of the things that I think about with our kids is that sometimes I look at things going on and what could be in the future and I worry for them. But you also got to remember God designed them for exactly this time. Yeah. You know, God designed them to be lights in a dark world, whatever is going to come. Yeah. That's that's that's who they are, that's what they're going to be. You know, it's not our job as parents to just fear for them. It's our job to equip them, disciple them, prepare them to go and do God's mission in this world. Yeah, no, that's really good. How do I love my neighbor when we see the world in two opposite ways? How do I love my neighbor when they have a banner or a yard sign of a political candidate that maybe I see as doing something that's wrong? Or if they see one that I have as seeing something that's wrong.

Right. Right.

In the coming days, yeah, your neighbors might, you know, you might be celebrating or mourning and they might have the opposite result after the selection. So how do you talk to them?

Well, I think teepee is probably the first option, right?

Toilet paper their house. I hear John that you're pretty good at toilet paper. Oh no. Is that a confirm or deny those rumors? They can step up from my past. Back in high school, I may or may not have partook in that activity many times.

I heard your nickname was King Teepee.

Oh boy. Well, that was for a different reason entirely.

Oh, man.

No more questions.

That's right.

So God calls us to be people of truth and love, right? So our neighbor who sees the world entirely different, who is not living in God's truth, okay? So we got to love them, and loving them doesn't mean compromising on truth. So that can be very tricky in conversations. I think, you know, oftentimes one of the first things you wanna do, especially if it's literally your neighbor, being somebody that you either, that you live near, or that you work with, or somebody that you really do see on a regular basis, not just you run into once. But you see them on a regular basis, you've got the opportunity to demonstrate that even though we disagree entirely on things, that I still treat you with respect as a human being that I still care about your well-being I can still ask How you're doing I can still ask how I can pray for you I can still I don't know bring you gifts or you know do good things for your kids or you know, whatever Yeah, you still be a good neighbor and I think then hopefully that opens the door For some respect when you bring an alternative worldview and a alternative perspective in a conversation about real issues.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's super good. I think oftentimes people can feel even ashamed of some of the positions that they hold on to, like being pro-life. I think that can be something that, no, I think internally they believe that's true, but professing that that's something that they believe to their neighbors can maybe even make them feel like, you know, uncomfortable, but I would just want to say that it feels very uncomfortable. Yeah, I just want to encourage listeners that when you hold to a biblical stance and people reject you or reject what you're saying, it's not rejecting you or somehow thinking less of you, that what you're holding to is truth. And that's something to be proud of. If we really believe true, you know, believing in biblical, having a biblical stance on a political issue isn't necessarily something that's dividing the world. It's trying to come back to the truth, and that's where people ultimately need to come back to. It's not about trying to find a middle ground.

If we're going to stand on truth, we have to stand on truth. Right, right.

Trying to compromise is not actually the way to go about it. Yeah, you know, so instead of fighting fire with fire, you want to fight fire with water. I think one of the most impressive things that Christians can do with their neighbors, you know, especially this year, there's so much emotion and passion wrapped up in people's positions. You know, especially like on the life issue, you know, if somebody comes at you who is pro-abortion, they're going to come at you usually really strong with strong emotions about how could you possibly restrict the rights of a woman, that kind of mentality.

And if you can, you know, if you can, instead of, you know, taking the bait and becoming emotional yourself, if you can stand and calmly, kindly, you know, listen and then respond by, you know, even asking a question like, well, you know, what about the rights of, you know, do you believe that the baby in the womb is a human being? Yeah. Do you think that it's possible they might have rights as well?

You know, just, you know, just kind of very kindly, calmly presenting an alternative. And they might not believe you in that conversation, and that's fine. That's not the job, but you're sowing some seeds of truth that might begin to undermine what's in their mind, you know, a false worldview. Yeah. I also think another respectful thing to say is, you know, this is what my God tells me in Scripture. And so this is something that I'm going to be obedient to him on. I know that you might disagree with me on that, but this is something that I believe, you know, what I believe is the God of the universe is telling me and how to live my life and how to operate. And I think if people can't understand that, you know, maybe it's time to find a different conversation partner. Because if they can't respect one of our most fundamental rights in America is freedom of religion. If they can't respect your right to believe in something, in a higher power, that they can't respect your holy text and what it says, even just allowing you to believe that, there's something wrong with the person you're talking to. Yeah, you can appeal to – they would claim that they have a value on tolerance, right? Now, we've talked in other episodes about kind of how the modern idea of tolerance isn't really tolerance, but you could try to at least appeal to that in them that, hey, you know, I have a different worldview here.

Can you can you accept that? Can you tolerate that? Yeah, and it's not just a different worldview because I decided I like it, right? It's a different worldview because I believe this is what the infinite God of the universe is telling me to believe, right? And that's, you know, if people can't be charitable in that circumstance, you know, right?

And I've had that conversation even about evangelism or hell, you know, saying, you know, somebody gets frustrated with you about you sharing the gospel with them. You can kind of say, well, well, hey, just, you know, just understand it from my perspective for a minute. Yeah. I 100% believe that the Bible came from God and it tells me that if you don't believe in Jesus, you're going to hell. Yeah. So I'm not saying this to you to be mean to you. I'm saying this to you because I believe it. And if I believe it, that I would, how unloving would I be if I don't share that with you?

Yeah, absolutely. What would you say to people who say that Jesus came back not to establish an earthly kingdom to establish like a political kingdom, but he came to establish the church and that is a reason not to vote. Is there any truth in that statement?

How would you?

Well, I was tracking with you until you got to that last part. It's true. He didn't come to establish an earthly nation or kingdom. The church is transnational, it's across nations, it's not one nation.

I won't say the joke again.

So I was tracking with you until you got to the not vote part. Yeah, so it's true that the church is not one nation, a political nation, but it's also true that we as Christians are called to be good citizens. I think of many passages in scripture like Romans 13 talking about our role in relationship to the state. I think about simple summaries of the law, love God and love neighbor.

If we're going to love our neighbors, we've got to participate. When we're talking about officials and laws and things like that that's going to govern our nation, if we love our neighbor, we've got to participate. We want what's best for them. We've got the instruction manual, we've got the blueprint from the architect, from the creator. What's good for human beings? And so how could we as Christians not be involved and give a voice to that?

I think even bigger than just our nation, but some of the local elections, right? To love our neighbor, like literally our neighbor, would be to try to vote people who are going to be good people on school boards, good people for some of those local elections who are going to have maybe even a more significant direct impact to you and your community than say the President of the United States might have. Right, we give all of our attention to the President, the presidential race and it's really important. It's important. Yeah, but don't forget on the other ones and remember too that people who start as school board people or you know state representatives or things, they eventually end up in those bigger races. I mean you know you and I get a chance to have a voice on these elections that affect us on a local level. And we're talking about politicians who could have careers that lead them to different places. And so us having an influence in that is really important.

Yeah, I think it's a lot like generosity. I've heard a pastor say that he wants Christians to make the most amount of money possible, not because that's a good thing just in general, but because when Christians are the ones who hold the money, they're going to be the most generous with it and in the best way.

I think people with a biblical worldview should know best what to do with money. I think also the same is true with voting. I've heard statistics saying that about 50% of Christians aren't going to vote in this election. I think that's crazy to think that we wouldn't come with the best way to vote moving forward. And that we would allow someone else

to have that influence in our country, our state and our neighborhoods. Right, you're standing in a circle of people and you gotta make a tough decision. And one of you has the answer from God. And you're gonna say, no, I'll sit this one out while you guys decide. What a silly way to approach it. Yeah, and it's not that everything dies on elections, but why wouldn't we, if you could go back into the book of Kings, why wouldn't we want a good king?

Why wouldn't we want to have the right, a good leader for our nation or our state or our neighborhoods? So I think that this is an election that can be maybe anxiety driving for a lot of people. It can be one that can really cause a lot of concern for people. It's unsettling this election, maybe even divisive. How can we anchor our hope as Christians?

How can we anchor our hope in Christ? Yeah, well, one of the things that we have to have in mind is the big picture. God created this world good, sin made this world broken, but Jesus is not abandoning us. He is returning to rule and to reign to make all things new. So I wanna just read, this is Revelation 21, a passage I take great comfort in all the time. Here it is. The Apostle John, he's writing his vision that he sees. He says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Yeah. So there it is. That's the picture the Bible gives us is that Jesus is on the throne.

When he returns, he'll make all things new and God will finally be here fully, completely with us.

Praise God.

So that's the great hope is that that's what's coming. In the meantime, no matter what happens, you and I have a mission. We gotta remember that we're not here for our comfort, we're here for our mission. Our mission is to go there for and make disciples of Jesus. That's what we're here to do.

And so, whether times are good, times are bad, whatever's going on around us, that's what we exist for. That's what we raise our families in order to be able to do. We want to go out and share the message that Jesus lived, he died, and he rose, and that people who are living in darkness and in sin can find hope, they can find eternal life in and through Jesus. Well, hey, thanks everybody for listening.

I hope you have a great election day. Make sure you get out and vote and be praying for the Lord's will to be done, for the Lord to use his church to make disciples of Jesus no matter what happens next. You can like, subscribe, and follow us, resoundmedia.cc.

Have a great week.

Bye!