Voting Advice for Jerusalem

How to Decide Whom to Vote For

Since it is election time in New Zealand, not a few Christians are discussing how they should vote. So, we at Contra Celsum thought we should throw some concepts and principles into the ring to facilitate discussion and sanctified reflection.

We acknowledge that not a few Believers end up quite confused and troubled on these matters. Yet if we set them in a Scriptural framework, we believe that the issues become very clear.

As a starting marker we need to be very clear about the historical circumstances in which we are called to live and in which we serve our Lord. We live in times when Athens is strongly ascendant; Unbelief is both militant and pervasive. It controls the counsels of the nation, the culture of our schools, local government, business enterprises, and communities. There no longer remains a cultural consensus which could be called Christian.

Of course these conditions are not permanent. Athens will eventually be defeated; Unbelief will attenuate in time; Jerusalem will eventually become ascendant as all the enemies of our Lord are progressively brought under His feet. But in the meantime they are the conditions in which we are called to live and serve—and we must be brutally realistic and frank about the relative strength of Unbelief in our day.

Consequently, let none be in doubt that at least with regard to the relative strength of idolatry and Unbelief our historical circumstances are analogous to those of the first and second centuries of the apostolic Church. For the apostles and the early Christians, Rome was politically ascendant; Greek philosophy and idolatry was culturally dominant; Christians were a small minority, largely disregarded, and despised when regarded at all.

Therefore as we consider voting—which is a privilege and duty—we need to be clear that all of the options on offer are part of a “very bad bunch”. From the perspective of Scripture we may assess all of the political alternatives and options as follows:

They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.
The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men,
To see if there are any who understand,
Who seek after God.
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
There is no-one who does good, not even one.
Psalm 14: 1—3

This means that Jerusalem ought to consider the various political options in a decidedly and deliberately negative way. It is not a question of which political party or leader reflects most faithfully the counsel of God's Word, or which alternative has set itself resolutely to honour the Lord. It is rather a question of which alternative and option represents the lesser Athenian evil. The early Christians did not spend time debating whether Claudius or Nero were more or less Christian. But they did have a very clear and distinct view about which was the more destructive of, and dangerous to, the Church.

As we think further along these lines we call for an utter rejection of the confused notion sometimes found amongst Christian believers—that we should vote for those political parties which seem most likely to do Jerusalem's work for it. For far too long Christians have been simplistically seduced into thinking that since the Scriptures command care and sustenance for the poor Believers should support political parties which advocate increased statist social welfare, higher state benefit payouts, more state redistribution of wealth to the poor, and so on. This is a sub-Christian position. It is to act respectfully and reverently towards the idols of secular humanism.

It is utterly unacceptable to pass off our duties and responsibilities to the civil government. It is the worst kind of irresponsible dereliction of duty. Moreover, it is an endorsement of institutional theft. We can never support or endorse political ideology or government policies which make a virtue out of theft and stealing, any more than we could support a political party which advocated murder. No amount of compassion for the poor can justify breaking the Eighth Commandment, thou shalt not steal. The end does not justify the means. God will not be mocked in these matters.

It saddens us greatly that so many Believers have been seduced by the dark side at this point. They remain rightly unmoved by the emotional pleas on behalf of pregnant women who want to abort their children. They are clear (thankfully) that no circumstances, no matter how grave or dark, can justify the killing of an innocent human being. Yet, while resolute on the Sixth Commandment, they become completely pliable on the Eighth. Go figure.

As we consider which political alternatives represent the lesser of evils, we are led to consider Paul's instruction regarding the political rulers of his day. He enjoins:

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men—for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
I Timothy 2: 1,2

This is what we are to pray for with respect to our leaders—and what policies and positions we are, thereby, to approbate: we are to pray that we might be able to lead a tranquil and quiet life. We are to pray that we might be left alone, left free, to serve God quietly, out of the public eye, as it were, in all godliness and dignity. We are to petition government accordingly. We are therefore to support the political options which will leave us alone and let us go about our God-given business in peace.

In Paul's day, the spectre of state persecution of the Church was clearly lying just below the surface. The Empire was undergoing a time of particular instability, with a rapid succession of Emperors in Rome. Nero was about to seize control. A flood of terrible persecution against Christians in Rome was about to burst forth. Against this background, Paul is urging the Church to pray that political authorities would leave the Church alone and let Believers live out their lives in quietness and tranquility, without the public humiliation of having assets and loved ones stripped from them.

So, as we consider the various political options which Athens presents us with this election, here is what is important:

1.Which political parties are more likely to leave Christian believers alone, letting them get on with their lives, serving the Lord as they see fit?

2.Which political parties are less likely to intrude into family life and relationships? Which are less likely to presume to direct us how we are to raise our children, how we are to train and discipline them, how we are to educate them, feed them and care for them? Which political parties are more likely to defend the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit—which would mean of course that citizens of Jerusalem would be left alone to raise their children in the Covenant unto the Lord? Which are more likely to rein in the tyranny of CYFS currently being exercised over families?

3.Which political parties are going to reduce taxation and let us keep more of our hard-earned incomes, thereby reducing the legislatively sanctified theft of our earnings? This is important. The modern Athenian State claims prior rights over all our income. Which political parties will leave us with more of our earnings so that we can have more resources to live our lives in quietness and godliness, taking care of our families and the needy around us? Which is more likely to believe that people should be left the maximum amount of their own income as possible? Those parties are more the more likely to leave us alone.

4.Which political parties are more likely to leave Christians alone to get on with the task of educating their children Christianly? Which are more likely to respect and encourage parental choice in education?

5.Which parties are more likely to legislate and regulate out of a vain attempt to make people outwardly righteous? These parties, regardless of how well meaning they may be, are setting themselves up as competitors to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ alone can make men righteous. All other ground is sinking sand. But, in the vanity of their attempt to legislate and regulate evil out of existence, governmental intrusion into the lives of everyone increases exponentially. Paul tells us, under the inspiration of the Spirit, that this kind of government is obstructive and inimical to the interests of God's people.

6.Which parties endorse and encourage “busybodiness” where individual citizens and communities are encouraged by means of legislation and regulations to be watching over their neighbours, telling them how to live their lives, raise their children, think their thoughts, spend their money, eat their food, and organise their lives? Such things are the very opposite of what Paul commands us to pray that our governments will be.

These six questions are very helpful in thinking through which party or parties to vote for in the current election. All these issues are consistent extensions of Paul's instruction to beseech God that the government allow us to live quiet, tranquil lives in all godliness and dignity.

The City of Jerusalem is almost smothered and overwhelmed by Athens. In such circumstances, our political choices become very clear and very easy to make. Which Athenian party is more likely to leave Christians alone? If we vote for that party, we will be voting consistently with the way in which we are instructed to pray God for the governing authorities.

And we must do this! How inconceivable would it be for us, on the one hand, to pray God that He grant that the governing authorities would leave us alone to live our lives in tranquility and quietness, and then, on the other, to vote for political parties that are set to do the very opposite, seeking to intrude their humanist idolatry into every nook and cranny of our lives, claiming prior rights over our children and our families.