© 2022 Don Pinson | [Download]
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At election time I used to tell the church I pastored:  “Now go vote; that is a God-given privilege; but don’t get involved in politics.  That’s just a dirty business, and if you get involved with it, you’ll get dirty too.”  I learned that statement from older Pastors who had helped me start in the ministry.  Why have Pastors refused to be involved in the political realm?

We’ve bought into the lie that if we preach the Gospel everything else will be taken care of.  And, I would agree with that—if we were preaching the Gospel Jesus said to preach.  Most of us as Evangelicals have thought we were preaching the Gospel; and we were—it’s initial part.  We’ve told people that we all were sinners and needed a personal Lord and Saviour.  That is exactly right.  That’s where Christianity starts.  But it doesn’t end there, like many of us have thought.  When Jesus said in Matthew 28,

“Go ye therefore and teach all nations…”

He was not only telling us to teach them that they were sinners and needed a personal Saviour, He was telling us to,

“…[teach] them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

“Observing all things…” means that we who are Christians are to take “dominion”, like He said in Genesis 1:26 we were created to do!  We are to rule, which is what the word “dominion” means.  We’re not to leave the rulership of government to those who are ungodly.  If we do that, all we can get is ungodly government—which, in turn, will keep us from telling people they need Jesus!

Having said that, let me state plainly that we are not to leave off telling people they are sinners and that Jesus died to save them just because we are voting and working to take dominion in government.  Doing either of these works exclusively is falling into a ditch on one side of the truth or the other.  Telling people they need to be saved from their sin by Jesus Christ, and working to bring Christ as the Truth to government is simply “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”  Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator who taught America’s Founding Fathers a great deal about the Biblical view of life, wrote this about Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19-20.  Of his three comments on this passage, the third one said:

“…Thirdly, that Christianity should be twisted in with national constitutions, that the kingdoms of the world should become Christ’s kingdoms…”

(Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible)

Is that not plain enough?  Preaching the Gospel includes both the message of how to be born again and how to take dominion in civil government!

Another reason Christians don’t vote—and in every election seventy-five million Evangelicals do not vote!—is they believe Jesus is coming back to earth soon, and we ought to spend all our time working to get people saved.  But consider two things:  One, are you absolutely certain He’ll come back in your lifetime?  He Himself doesn’t know the exact time (Mark 13:32), can you be absolutely certain of it?  The Christians in Nazi Germany thought they were living in the moments just before Jesus would come; but He didn’t!  And look what their children went through!  Secondly, even if Jesus were to come back in the next few months, did He not say, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13)?  Yes, let’s keep sharing Christ with people—as we work to preserve the liberty to do that very thing by voting and working in the political realm!!!  If we lose our political liberty just how much do you think we’ll get to share Christ with people?

Will you accept, as part of Christ’s commands, voting and working for Godly civil government?

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.