Election Thinkings (Part 2) - God Decides

Well, the election is tomorrow and I have yet to publish the second part of my "Election Thinkings." So...here it is! I don't intend to build a huge logical case, but I do have a few points that will be mentioned without much consideration for order. Last time I presented an issue. ONLY ONE! There are many issues, but I think that the issue of abortion can be used as a litmus test for the validity, and godliness of our voting standards.



1. We cannot compromise just because there is no such thing as a perfect candidate.
Obviously, we are dealing with human government. Government is flawed, but it is also God-ordained! Rom. 13:1 - "The powers that be are ordained of God." We can't have any delusions about a perfect candidate because a perfect candidate does not exist. However, as mentioned before, there are "non-negotiables." Some issues cannot be bent. To bend is to give evil a foothold in issues that only God has the right to control (i.e. abortion). I do not believe that a "pro-death" candidate can be approved by a believer.

2. We are responsible for the candidates we elect.
Christians live for more than politics. We aught not let politics keep us awake at night or effect our walks with God! We can walk with God and serve Him in America or in Communist China. To a certain extent the political environment is irrelevant to righteous living. One thing that Christians should be concerned about is responsibility. That's why Christians should care about voting, because it is a responsibility we have been given.

 Not only are we called to take care of our responsibilities, but we are responsible for the actions of people we put in office.  Christians cannot distance themselves from politician's actions.  God will hold those responsible who vote for a pro-death candidate.

3. God is sovereign over life.
God is not only sovereign over who the leaders will be (Rom. 13), but He is also sovereign over life.  Job chapter 1 makes this pretty clear.  Human beings have NO RIGHT to control life.  If one candidate is going to kill 100 babies and the other is going to kill 1,000 (those are exaggerated small numbers) then neither of them can be approved by a conscientious believer.  The temptation is to think "I should vote for the lesser of two evils because that saves 900 babies."  That is not a consistent thought process.  Let me illustrate...

Suppose there is a young couple who find out that they are going to have twins.  Everything is going along fine, and they are excited about starting a family.  One day there are some complications with the pregnancy and the husband rushes his wife to the hospital.  After an agonizing wait the Dr. come out and addresses the husband. "I'm sorry" the Dr. says "There is no way that I can save your wife and the two babies." 

The husband is crushed, but the Dr. continues,  "However, I can save your wife and one of the babies if we terminate one of the fetuses."

All of the sudden the husband is faced with a choice.  Does he choose to kill one person to save two others?  At least only one person dies instead of three! 

NOOOOO!!!  Human beings do not have the right to make that call.  We cannot decide who lives and who dies.  God controls the death of sparrows (Matt. 10:29) and He certainly controls the death of people.  In this case, the morally right thing to do is step out in faith and trust God for the life of all three people.  Yes, the situation is impossible!  Yes, it's a hard decision to make!  Perhaps God will be gracious and save the mother and both the babies.  Maybe all three of them will die.  Whatever happens is in God's hands.  From a human perspective this seems like a horrible gamble.  The Husbands DUTY is to make a decision that leaves God in control of life.

Back to politics.  Blow that example up 1,000 or 1,000,000 times and consider it in terms of national policy.  One candidate stands for policies that will kill millions of babies.  The other stands for policies that will kill fewer babies.  The fact is...there ARE candidates who are completely pro-life!  Sure, humanly speaking, it is impossible for them to win.  But since when were Christians commanded to stand for something or someone that appears more likely to win?  Since when were we called to compromise Biblical principles on the alter of political expediency?  It is our DUTY to leave God in control of life.  That means there is no option to kill one baby to save two lives.  Obama is completely pro-choice.  Romney is "Pro-life with exceptions."  The view that we're saving many babies by voting for the lesser of two evils is a view that fails to trust those infant lives to the sovereignty of God.

Please, consider what is right this election, and along with everything else you do tomorrow, glorify God with your vote!

By the way, I know that there is a lot of confusion about where Romney stands on abortion, so don't take my word for it.  Here is an official campaign ad that makes it pretty clear.


Agree or disagree?  Is anyone voting outside of the media dictated box this year?

Read part 1 - "The Lesser of Two Evils"

Found: God's Will - Book Review

This book is rather short and concise (61 pages) and it's appropriate that a review of it bear the same qualities.

Buy it, borrow it, or steal it and read it!  

There it is...short, sweet, and to the point.  Really though, this book is not anything new, but John MacArthur does an extremely good job of clarifying what the will of God for a believer's life is.  The book is built around six simple principles about revealed will of God.  All of them are very clear in Scripture and lay the foundation for answering that famous question "What is God's will for my life????"  

Principle 1 - God's wants men to be saved. (2 Peter 3:9)

Principle 2 - You must be filled/yielded to the Spirit. (Eph. 5:17-18)

Principle 3 - You must be practically pure. (1 Thess. 4:3-7)

Principle 4 - You must be submissive to authority. (1 Peter 2:13-15)

Principle 5 - You must be willing to suffer. (1 Peter 5:10, 4:19)

Principle 6 -  "Do whatever you want."  (Psalm 37:4) 

Of course, principle six assumes that the first five are true in your life and your desires are actually God's desires.  Good stuff!

Let me know your thoughts about the will of God!  What other things should be in consideration?

Call to Ministry - John Newton

Here's a little food for thought by John Newton concerning a call to ministry.  It's a little on the long side, but WORTH THE READ!  I found it quoted in Spurgeon's Lectures to my Students.

John Newton's Letters

The call to the ministry

March 7, 1765.

Dear Sir,

Your letter of February 19th came to me yesterday. I have read it with attention, and very willingly sit down to offer you my thoughts. Your case reminds me of my own—my first desires towards the ministry were attended with great uncertainties and difficulties, and the perplexity of my own mind was heightened by the various and opposite judgments of my friends. The advice I have to offer is the result of painful experience and exercise, and for this reason perhaps may not be unacceptable to you. I pray our gracious Lord to make it useful.

I was long distressed, as you are, about what was or was not a proper call to the ministry. It now seems to me an easy point to solve—but perhaps will not be so to you until the Lord shall make it clear to yourself in your own case. I have not room to say so much as I could. in brief, I think it principally includes three things:

1. A warm and earnest desire to be employed in this service. I apprehend, the man who is once moved by the Spirit of God to this work, will prefer it, if attainable, to thousands of gold and silver; so that, though he is at times intimidated by a sense of its importance and difficulty, compared with his own great insufficiency (for it is to be presumed a call of this sort, if indeed from God, will be accompanied with humility and self-abasement), yet he cannot give it up. I hold it a good rule to inquire in this point—whether the desire to preach is most fervent in our most lively and spiritual frames, and when we are most laid in the dust before the Lord? If so, it is a good sign. But if, as is sometimes the case, a person is very earnest to be a preacher to others, when he finds but little hungering and thirstiness after grace in his own soul—it is then to be feared his zeal springs rather from a selfish principle—than from the Spirit of God.

2. Besides this affectionate desire and readiness to preach, there must in due season appear some competent sufficiency as to gifts, knowledge, and utterance. Surely, if the Lord sends a man to teach others—he will furnish him with the means. I believe many have intended well in becoming preachers, who yet went beyond or before their call in so doing. The main difference between a minister and a private Christian seems to consist in these ministerial gifts, which are imparted to him, not for his own sake—but for the edification of others. But then I say, these are to appear in due season. They are not to be expected instantaneously—but gradually, in the use of proper means. They are necessary for the discharge of the ministry; but not necessary as pre-requisites to warrant our desires after it. In your case, you are young, and have time before you. Therefore, I think you need not as yet perplex yourself with inquiring if you have these gifts already. It is sufficient if your desire is fixed, and you are willing, in the way of prayer and diligence, to wait upon the Lord for them—as yet you need them not.

3. That which finally evidences a proper call—is a correspondent opening in Providence, by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the place—of actually entering upon the work of the ministry. And until this concurrence arrives, you must not expect to be always clear from hesitation in your own mind. The principal caution on this head is, not to be too hasty in catching at first appearances. If it be the Lord's will to bring you into his ministry—he has already appointed your place and service; and though you know it not at present—you shall at a proper time. If you had the talents of an angel—you could do no good with them until his hour has come—and until he leads you to the people whom he has determined to bless by your means.

It is very difficult to restrain ourselves within the bounds of prudence here, when our zeal is warm, a sense of the love of Christ upon our hearts, and a tender compassion for perishing sinners is ready to prompt us to break out too soon—but "he who believes shall not make haste". I was about five years under this constraint. Sometimes I thought I must preach, though it was in the streets. I listened to everything that seemed plausible, and to many things that were not so. But the Lord graciously, and as it were insensibly, hedged up my way with thorns; otherwise, if I had been left to my own spirit, I would have put it quite out of my power to have been brought into such a sphere of usefulness, as he in his good time has been pleased to lead me to. And I can now see clearly, that at the time I would first have gone out, though my intention was, I hope, good in the main—yet I overrated myself, and had not that spiritual judgment and experience which are requisite for so great a service.

I wish you therefore to take time; and if you have a desire to enter into the Established Church, endeavor to keep your zeal within moderate bounds, and avoid everything that might unnecessarily clog your admission with difficulties. I would not have you hide your profession, or to be backward to speak for God; but avoid what looks like preaching, and be content with being a learner in the school of Christ for some years. The delay will not be lost time; you will be so much the more acquainted with the Gospel, with your own heart, and with human nature. The last is a necessary branch of a minister's knowledge, and can only be acquired by comparing what passes within us, and around us—with what we read in the Word of God.

I am glad to find you have a distaste both for Arminian and Antinomian doctrines—but let not the mistakes of others sit too heavy upon you. Be thankful for the grace which has made you to differ; be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear; but beware of engaging in theological disputes, without evident necessity, and some probable hope of usefulness. They tend to eat out the life and savor of religion, and to make the soul lean and dry. Where God has begun a real work of grace, incidental mistakes will be lessened by time and experience; where he has not, it is of little signification what sentiments people hold, or whether they call themselves Arminians or Calvinists.

I agree with you, that there is time enough for you to think of Oxford yet; and that if your purpose is fixed, and all circumstances render it prudent and proper to devote yourself to the ministry, you will do well to spend a year or two in private studies. It would be further helpful, in this view, to place yourself where there is Gospel preaching, and a spiritual people. If your favorable opinion of our church should induce you to come here, I shall be very ready to give you every assistance in my power. As I have trod exactly the path you seem to be setting out in, I might so far perhaps be more serviceable than those who are in other respects much better qualified to assist you. I doubt not but in this, and every other step, you will entreat the Lord's direction; and I hope you will not forget to pray for me.

Let This Mind…

Philippians 2:5-8 - Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

There are so many remarkable things about this passage.  No human mind can grasp the full weight of the fact that the God of the universe, in the Divine person of Christ, was made “a little lower than the angels” and humbled as a man.  Creators are supposed to show themselves powerful over their creations, yet Christ chose to become like His creation. 

However, the fantastic thing about Christ as seen in this passage is not simply His humility.  Humility is great, but it is never an end unto itself.  Humility is for a purpose, and that purpose is living life for another.  It is to give the glory to something else.  It is the submitting of oneself to a higher authority.  Christ, during His life on earth, was the perfect example of humility through His absolute submission to the authority of God the Father and perfect dependence on the Holy Spirit.

Christ was willing, at the will of the Father, to obey by leaving the glory of His own heavenly kingdom in exchange for a humble life on earth.  He was willing to submit Himself to the Father by becoming a man.  Not only a man, but He was humbled as a servant of His own creation.  Christ obeyed the will of the Father all the way to the point of dying on the cross to pay the sin-debt for those who were His enemies.  On the night of His death His prayer to the Father was “not my will, but thine, be done.”

So here we are with the charge to “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  What a charge!  Such a state of humility is impossible without the complete empowering of the Holy Spirit and the willingness to yield our own will to God and say “I’ll go where you want me to go…I’ll be what you want me to be…I’ll do what you want me to do.”


Credit to L.S. Chafer for the inspiration and the closing quote.