Why Its Important You Vote!

There is a major election coming up November 5. The candidates represent two very different futures for America. It is absolutely vital that Christians get out and vote to make their voices heard, so that the country we love and cherish is safe-guarded, and able to move forward into the future, affording the same blessings and freedom that we enjoyed while growing up.

There were 40 million Christians that did not vote in the last general election. The party and people in power now won by a small margin. What if a significant percentage of those Christians had gone to the voting booth? The results may have been different!

Conditions in our cities, state, and nation suffer when we don’t show up at every election.

Did you know?

• Many city elections are decided by just a few votes.
• Most Congressional races are decided in the party primaries not in the general election.
• In two round elections where runoffs can occur, winners can be decided by less than 60% of first round voters.
• In Texas and other states, constitutional amendment elections can change key elements in state government.
• Midterms and Presidential general elections are critical for our whole nation. They can set the policy agenda for decades.
• Americans who call themselves born again Christians only vote on average 2% more than the general public. We have to do better.

As Christians, we cannot be silent any longer. Exercise your right to vote, so that Godly people are elected to government, and the nation flourishes again the way it was intended.

Things to Consider when Voting

Vote using your mind, not your emotions.

Don’t allow yourself to fall victim to mass media campaigns that reply on slogans, branding, twisting the facts to fit their agenda.

Analyze the party platform of the candidate – what do they stand for? How do these policies square with biblical principals, and what the bible says about the issues?

• Republican Party platform: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-republican-party-platform
• Democratic Party platform: https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/
• Independent Party (RFK Jr.) platform: https://www.kennedy24.com/policies

Consider the principles, policies of the candidate. Do not vote because you like the person, or want to vote for someone else because you don’t like aspects of the person’s personality. Vote for them because of the principles they stand for, and the policies they plan to implement. Do their principles align with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness America has always stood for? Do they support our Constitution and Bill of Rights?

Consider the track record of the candidate and their party. What have they accomplished over the past 4 years? How likely is it that they will be able to accomplish their promises? Have their actions matched their words? Are they likely to be able to stand up to other world leaders?

Pay Attention to What Gods Word Says About Key Issues

Righteousness in policy and leaders

Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” The word righteousness in this passage is not referring to an individual’s right standing with God but to a nation that adheres to God’s righteous standards as found in His moral law. Examine the policies of the party and the candidate. Do their policies align with God has set down in His Word, the Bible?

Concern for the poor, widows, and orphans

In the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, God speaks about how He loves and has a heart for the poor, the orphans, and widows.

• Proverbs 19:17 – Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
• Proverbs 14:31 – Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
• Deuteronomy 15:11 – For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
• Acts 20:35 – In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Does the candidate and their policies demonstrate care for the poor, the orphans, and the widow? The marginalized?

Protecting the sanctity of life

Gods Word makes it very clear that a baby in the womb is not a “thing”, but a pre-born living child. This is clear from both the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament: Psalm 139 states that God is the author of a pre-born child’s life in the womb:

• For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.
• I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.
• My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
• Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

Luke 1:41 describes the “child” in Elizabeth’s womb, and how it leapt within her. The pre-born baby is not described as a “thing”, but as a pre-born baby or child: “At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Therefore, it is our duty as Christians to protect life, as it is God who is ultimately the giver and taker of all life.

Protecting the sanctity of marriage

Does the candidate and their party espouse and protect the sanctity of marriage as a union between one man and one wife? The Bible from the very start describes how God made mankind in two parts, “male and female”, and that they were to be joined as one:

• Gen 2:24 – “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
• Gen 5:2 – “He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.”

Its also important to realize that marriage just isn’t some informal arrangement, or even a contract (that can be broken). Its is a covenant according to be Bible, and sacred:

• In Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus quotes Genesis 2:24, saying, “For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”. Jesus then adds, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate“. 
• This quote implies that marriage is a spiritual covenant, not just a human agreement

God-created gender identity

Does the candidate affirm the fact that there are only two genders? Or do they promote gender confusion in their platform and statements”

According to God’s Word the Bible, there are only two genders: make and female. This fact is further supported by science – that there are dozens of “hard-wired” differences between a man and a woman. The reality is that men and women are designed to be different, and for good reason. For more, see https://evidencetobelieve.com/male-and-female-are-different-by-design/

• ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
• ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
      in the image of God he created them;
      male and female he created them.
• ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Its sad that our society today has introduced the notion into schools, that there are dozens of “genders”, and that they should choose the gender they “feel” like being. Fact is, except in the case of malformity at birth, each of us was designed and created to be either a male or female. Why? Because that was from the beginning God’s design. The two are designed to complement one another. Together they can procreate and continue the human race, The two together eventually form “one flesh”, made in the image of God. Choosing to be something you are not, and were never designed and formed to be, sadly ends up in mixed up, confused children and young adults. Stand up for God’s truth!

Commitment to Israel

God’s lays out His plan for His chosen people Israel in the Bible, starting with Abraham, and continuing on with the history of Israel. Gen 12:1-3 records: “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. ² “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

• God promises to bless those who bless Israel, and curse those that curse His chosen people
• Jesus was Jewish, an Israelite. All of the early church were Israelites, forming the first church in Jerusalem.
• Whether Jew or Gentile (non-Jew), we are all members of Christ’s spiritual body on the earth, if indeed we believer and follow Hi.

When the proper time had come, God brought Jesus – His one and only Son – into the world to live a sinless life, and laydown His life for the sins of the world – becoming the ultimate sacrifice to make a way for fallen humanity to be redeemed, and return to their Creator. With Jesus, the church was born, composed of both Jews and Gentiles – all of God’s people united in one spiritual body, whose head is Christ. So God has a plan for the nation of Israel, which He is working out through history. And He has a plan for the church as well. And the two shall eventually be united as one church under Christ.

Freedom of religion and free speech

The Bible tells us that it is God’s that we His creatures be free people, and enslaved to any ideology, government or dictator:

• “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,” (Isaiah 61:1)
• “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)
• “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” (1 Pet 2:1`6)

Our Founding g Fathers believe strongly in freedom. That is why the 1st Amendment to the Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Racial equality

The Bible declares that we are all equal in the sight of God. Gal 3:28-29 reads: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Even modern science supports this fact: that under the skin, people at all basically the same.

• “People cling to the belief that people of different skin colors are inherently different from one another,
• even though scientists have been telling us for years that race is a distinction that we invent in our minds, and that there isn’t much actual difference in the genetic makeup of humans of various hues.

When voting, ask yourself, is this candidate and party promoting one race over another? Or are they dedicated to the principle that all person “are created equal”, and entitled to the same rights, privileges’ and opportunities.

Law and Order

Our God is a God of order, and of Law. He allows certain governments to take control in His time, and when He decides, sets in motion the decline of certain governments when their time is up. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility as citizens to do our part – not only to exercise our right to vote, but to support the government that does us right, and object to a government when it no longer serves us.

• Rom 13:1-3: “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
• Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 
• For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.”

Check the candidates principles and policies, as well as their party platform, and track record. Have they presided over a government that upholds the law? Or do they stand by and watch lawless abound?

Sources:

Christians Engaged – https://christiansengaged.org/vote?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw59q2BhBOEiwAKc0ijSNC4_KDsYK-rY5U5pIEAzSMsuKi_5o2NNQEuRecuBqZTOWND4ip2xoCdIMQAvD_BwE

How Stuff Works: “Study Illuminates Genetic Origins of Skin Color Diversity” – https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/genetic-origin-human-skin-color-pigmentation-study.htm

Crossline Church: https://www.crosslinechurch.com/