Voting your conscience?
I must have written and deleted this initial paragraph more than ten times, looking for the right words and the proper way to express my sentiment. The words that I’m looking for have to do with the measure of the disappointment that I’ve recently suffered in a conversation I had with an elder at my church. I went looking for reason and understanding and wisdom and I was sent away labeled as intolerant and judgemental.
How Should a Christian Vote?
My question was simple: how does a Christian square his/her biblical worldview with voting for a leftist candidate?
Automatically, the conversation went to how you “must evaluate (read “judge”) a person’s character” and that you “cannot put yourself as the arbiter of another person’s faith” and so on and so forth. And then, the great reveal, from someone that I have listened to for years, valued their input and respected their opinion: “everyone votes their conscience“!
My immediate response was: “what if someone has a seared conscience“? Surely, anyone that insists on living a homosexual lifestyle even after accepting Jesus cannot be trusted to “vote conscience” and make the right decision, I thought to myself. I am not passing judgment on their salvation and it’s not the point of my questioning, but as a Believer, I am well within my rights to judge their decisions, yes?
Read: Learning How to Follow
This “do not judge” thing has slowly but surely infiltrated the Church and made itself at home in the pews as well as on the pulpits. I’ve heard more sermons on racism in the last 6 months than I’ve ever heard in my life! Why? Why this “Social Gospel” all of a sudden? I consider myself a Born-Again Believer and, as the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:
23 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”
However, “voting my conscience” is not a freedom I indulge myself in because I don’t believe that I can be trusted to make the right decision. I tell you brothers, Jiminy Cricket is a cute, yet bold-faced liar: “Always let your conscience be your guide” only works if you are totally immersed in the will of God.
I cannot trust a rapist, a pedophile, an adulterer, a thief, a liar, a cheat, a drunk, or an addict of any kind to let “their conscience be their guide” and to decide or vote to their own detriment and the benefit of others: it is not who they are. Anyone who seeks to satisfy carnal lusts is, by nature, selfish and wouldn’t think twice to, say, abort an inconvenient pregnancy, steal on the job when no one is looking, and so on.
Voting the Bible First
“Voting my conscience” is one of the biggest lies being preached in churches today! I cannot vote my conscience unless I vote the Bible first!
Of course, the comeback is, “your candidate is flawed“! This from the same people that, from the same pulpits, praise men and women like David, Solomon, Jacob, Mary Magdelene, Rahab, and the list goes on for miles! “Flawed” may be the understatement of the century, and that goes for any Self-analyzing Christian that has the intellectual honesty to call things as they are.
I can only speak of myself: I am not perfect; ask my wife, she’ll vouch for me. But to claim that “voting my conscience” is the solid ground on which you stand when you vote for “abortion on demand“, Anti-God, Anti-Family, Anti-Country candidates does nothing to cover your shame. Yes, Jesus is not on the ballot, but his Teachings surely are: His ethics, His worldview, His morality have always been on the ballot.
Another personal favorite: “God is sovereign and elevates whoever He wants“. That’s funny because I don’t recall questioning God’s sovereignty in all of this. However, talking about God’s sovereignty offers some really great cover for those of us who would like to have their cake and eat it too.
An intellectual and moral “lasseiz-faire” which allows some to say: “vote my conscience” and let God work a miracle on the ballot boxes. It appears a “miracle” is in progress as I write this: the dead have risen to life and have voted, by the thousands…. all for the same candidate! It must be God’s will if the dead even come and vote!
Soon, perhaps very soon, they’ll come for us. They’ll come and bargain and ask us to compromise our beliefs so that we can keep our tax-exempt status. And many, in an effort to be “reasonable” will give in, inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, until there’s nothing left that remotely resembles the Bride of Christ.
This will not be done, as many expect it to happen as it does in many other countries around the world, by force. No, it will be done with the tacit consent of the “Church”: let me keep my money and you can have my “conscience”. They’re testing it out as we speak.
I truly believe that the downfall of the American church is the last stand against the onslaught of the enemy. We are the richest, most giving, most missionary-minded, most influential voice for God on the planet and once that is gone, there will be nothing left. Now, for the believer that may not be such horrible news but for the billions of lost souls out there it is an eternal death sentence. It’s okay though, the consolation prize is that we got to “vote our conscience”.
Bondservant to Jesus Christ, Married to Michele, Dad to Madelyn, Claudia, and Joseph and educator by trade, apologist by calling and saved by Grace. Antonio loves to read, write, and discuss all-things-apologetics. He has many passions in life including reaching, teaching, and keeping men for Jesus Christ. Waiting on God’s big reveal: Antonio knows He has something beautiful in mind.
