by Ernest Liu
about the author

  • Random Snippets
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    • 4 Thoughts on the Political Craze
    14
    Mar
    2016

    This year has been doused in fascinating politics. I’m not very political, but let’s face it–when a guy like Trump runs for office, the presidential race becomes much more interesting.

    Here are some thoughts I’ve had in regards to the political craze.

    The Who

    Who you vote for does not directly reflect your heart. Let’s face it–there is no utopian candidate. None will flawlessly reflect all of your deepest desires. A Christian who votes for a pro-abortionist candidate does not necessarily support abortion. They simply believe that their candidate is the best overall fit to lead the country. Even God chose sinful people like Samson to be a judge of Israel, and that guy was a train-wreck. The point: don’t inappropriately judge a brother simply because his candidate holds some non-Biblical values.

    voterThe How

    But how you decide to vote does reflect your heart. How has your explicit duty to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20) affected your vote? Make no mistake–our nation is not a Christian one. And while it is not our duty to convert our country into a theocracy, it is our duty to vote in light of the gospel. Our marks on the ballot should be filtered by our desire for people to know and love God.

    If your vote is mainly driven by personal or national power and wealth and honor, with no desire to spread the love of God, then your heart belongs to the world. The things you cherish most are temporal. Jesus urged us to lay up treasures in Heaven and not on Earth (Matthew 6:19-21). True evangelicals obey Jesus.

    Vote for the sake of the gospel.

    The Poor

    If you are a Christian, you are not allowed to neglect the poor. You are not even allowed to make excuses for neglecting the poor. And I know some Christians who are very good at it.

    “Where have we any command in the Bible laid down in stronger terms, and in a more peremptory urgent manner, than the command of giving to the poor?”
    –Jonathan Edwards (link)

    Edwards surfaced the importance of this obligation. If you are rich and you prioritize candidates to help you store up riches on Earth and neglect the poor, you should be afraid. Very afraid, because God unleashes His cosmic wrath on the wicked (Matthew 25:41-46).

    Yes, we need to be smart with how we help the poor, and we need to distinguish the genuinely poor from those who simply want more lavish lives and therefore labels themselves as “poor.” We also need to recognize that poverty is a complex issue amongst many others to be considered. But if genuine care for the poor has no weight on the way you vote, then be very afraid.

    The President

    “Then who should I vote for, Ernest?”

    Sorry, you gotta figure that out for yourself. I’m still figuring it out. Politics is a crazy complicated subject. But hey, at least the Bible gives us a clue about who to avoid. So I leave you with this:

    But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Vote such people into office. Avoid such people.

    –2 Timothy 3:1-5