Should Christians Vote?

Well, here we are in another of the every-four-years cycle of a presidential election. And as usual, society is an absolute uproar. There's angst and anger and arguments, and there's chaos, and there's... you turn on the news and you can't watch too much because after a while you're just banging your head against the wall. Or you read articles. Every day I try to read articles, go online from different magazines, different newspapers to keep up with what's going on.

And of course, they're all saying different things and arguing with each other and fighting with each other. There's even violence going on. Well, welcome to democracy. This is what democracy produces. Now, this is bad, and it is a crisis in terms of we don't know how this ends up in this country.

But you know it's always been... democracy's always been a mess. I mean, in the first early history of the United States, we tried one form of government. The Articles of Confederation, it actually was ending up where the states were going to war with each other. So they had to stop and create the Constitution. Of course, there were lots of people disagreeing with the Constitution. Some people thought George Washington was just the greatest savior to the country. Others who lived during his time thought he was a dictator.

Early on in the American history, two members of the government got in an argument, and they had a duel, and one of them was killed. It's been pretty messy. Go read the Congressional Record of 1860. It's... of course, at that point, the country reached the point it was headed into a civil war. Democracy has always created conflict. What is interesting about the United States is how long it has actually lasted. How long it's actually lasted. So here we are. We're faced with the craziness of this election.

Every place you go, everybody talks about it. One of my neighbors yesterday was thirsty. I was outside doing a little bit of lawn work, and he came over, and we started to talk. And of course, he knows I'm a pastor. In fact, at the feast, he mowed my grass for me. I have a couple neighbors who do that when I'm not there.

I thanked him for it, and he said, yeah, but I didn't do it on the Sabbath. I didn't do it on the Sabbath. I appreciated that. And he's been a... he has a real religious background. In fact, he's been a Lutheran, a Catholic, and now he goes to a Baptist church. And he was talking about how he just moved into Tennesse now too long ago, and how the other state that he came from, he said when he was young, everybody went to church.

He said, now almost nobody there goes to church. The churches are mostly empty. He says, you come here, and he says, most people at least are going to church. There's some kind of a biblical understanding, some kind of biblical values.

And then he started talking about the election, and he asked around, you know, people are. They want to sort of figure looking where you are in all this. And I just said, really, I'm pretty apolitical. I'm not political. So that opened up where he could tell me all what he was thinking about, and, you know, where he stood on things. But it was interesting. He talked about how it's so distressing to see how nothing in this country can get solved.

There's just no way to solve anything. And then he said, you know, he'd come to the conclusion that if God doesn't do something, there may not be much of a future for the United States of America. And I thought, how many people are thinking that way?

Because he says, I don't know what any of the solutions are. So here we are, Christians, in the midst of this circus. How should we approach the presidential election? How should we, as Christians, what should we do in participating in politics? I mean, isn't it true that if we all have the same values, wouldn't all of us vote for the same candidate? Should you vote?

Who would Jesus vote for? Now, these are questions that, and if you've been in the Church of God very long, whether it's the United Church of God way back into the Worldwide Church of God, back in the Radio Church of God, these things were talked about quite often. I'm not sure we've talked about it quite as much over the last few years. What should be our approach to participating in this election? And you talk to different people, you know, I have neighbors who think that it's their moral duty.

If they don't vote, they're actually disobeying God. So what it is, or what is our actions? What is it we should be doing? How we answer these questions, they go, okay, we're just going to talk about some political issues. No. How we answer these questions is based upon our Christian worldview and our Christian value system. So this is a very important question. How should we participate in the politics of this national election?

What should we be doing? We're going to tackle this by talking about some principles. And then I literally want to get down into, we're going to look at four major political platforms and say, how would a Christian deal with this? I'm not dealing with parties here. I'm going to deal with persons or politicians. We're going to look at something. We're going to look at how would a Christian answer these issues? What should help us understand where we should stand and who we are as Christians in terms of this political process that we were born into a country with this political process? First of all, let's go to the heart of the conflict. Why so much political conflict? Why is it that there's always been political conflict in this country? Always? From the very beginning, why is it? Why is it that it's so dysfunctional? Why is it that people are always polarized? And the bigger the country gets, and the more there is access to information, some of it true, some of it not true, the worse this gets to the reaches of point where no one even knows really most of the time what's true and what's not true, what's real and what's not real. Well, let's go to the heart of the problem. Ephesians 6.

And this is part of something that Paul is dealing with the church in Ephesus. He's dealing with what they were coming out of. They're Greeks. They're coming out of a Greek political system. I mean, Greece is where democracy started. Now, we're happen to be a democratic republic. So we are a republic. It's not a pure democracy, but it's as close as you can get with 320 million people. No one ever imagined a republic with 320 million people. No one even knows how that's supposed to work, because there's never been concepts on how that works. The original founding fathers never considered something that big. They never considered media the way it is. In other words, we're in a world that is so different, that it's been evolving since the time this country was founded, that we're living in a world that no one even knows how to define what the problems are. But here's the base of our problems. He... no, I'm sorry, not Hebrews, but Ephesians chapter 6 verse 11.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. His point he's making here is that Satan affects the world, and in effect, he affects us. And so we have to be prepared with God's Spirit and this armor of God to be able to withstand Satan's influence on us. Verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. What Paul understood is when he looked at the world, he saw that this was not the kingdom of God. Now, he was looking at the Roma world, and he said, this is the kingdom of God. 13. We look at the world through American eyes, but this is not the kingdom of God.

You know, wherever you live, you have a bias on how things should be done. I mean, I've been to Italy, and they think the Italian way is a good way. You go to France, know the French way is the best way. You go to Germany, know the German way is the best way. Right? You come here, we have a worldview, and it's an American worldview. But let's understand that an American worldview is not the kingdom of God worldview. Those are not the same things. They're not the same things at all. 14. That underlying the United States is the fact that Satan has been allowed to rule this world since Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden. Now, that doesn't mean certain governments aren't better than other governments. I would rather live here than anyplace else in the world.

There's actually certain components here that are here because of a certain understanding, certain little bits and pieces of the knowledge of the Bible. So, certain little bits and pieces of the knowledge of the Bible.

But it doesn't mean it's the kingdom of God.

Look at it this way. The laws of God are built into the fabric of the human condition. So, let's take a man who's an agnostic. He's not even sure there is a God. But he never commits adultery. He stayed married to the same woman his whole life, and they have a good marriage. He applied a principle of God by trying to be a good husband. He applied a principle of God by not committing adultery, and he was blessed.

Does that make him a Christian? No. But he received the blessing of doing something God's way. This nation has received a number of blessings from God. Sometimes we didn't, not because we deserved it, and sometimes it was just because of a certain understanding of things that connected us to the Bible, that connected us to something that was right, and so we got blessings from it. But it never was the kingdom of God.

God never ruled over the United States of America. He's never ruled over any of these nations. The only place he ruled over a civil nation in history was the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, and those people didn't do it his way, and we see how that worked out. No better than our country. Even with God's way given to them, they couldn't do it, and the result was they failed. So we have to understand, our worldview is based in this concept that all the nations of the world, none of the governments of this world is God's government. In fact, let's go back a couple chapters here, chapter two. We read this all the time. These couple verses are read in, you'll hear them in Bible studies, you'll hear them in sermons, using the Bible, and sermons, usually a couple times a year, because it's so basic to how we understand the world we live in. He says, verse one, and you he made alive, he's talking to the church, he's saying, you're different than what you used to be, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. He said, all of us were just as dysfunctional and cut off from God as everybody else until God called us. Now, some of you were called very early. Some of you were brought into a relationship with God as a child. Others came in later in life. But the truth is, none of us are any different than anybody else unless God does something with us. And when God does something with us, he says that we become different than a world that's under, remember, we just read this in chapter six, this spiritual darkness. Underneath this world, that's the foundation of it, is a spiritual darkness that has affected the very core of human nature. He goes on to verse three, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and out of the mind, and whereby nature children of wrath, just as the others. He reminds Christians, he reminds those in Ephesus, that they were no different than anybody else except that God did something with them and brought them out of a world where the principalities and powers are ruled by darkness.

This is the core. This is where we start when we're going to talk about politics as Christians. That's where we start. It is that if God calls us into his kingdom to prepare us for his literal kingdom when Christ comes. Now, remember, God's kingdom still exists. He's still on his throne. Satan just rules here for a while because he lets him, not because he took it away from God. But he's going to re-establish that kingdom on this earth when Christ returns. Until then, there are rulers of darkness, and all human governments will fail. And they'll fail because of two reasons. One is because there is an influence on them. I'm not talking about everybody's demon-fossessed. There are some people in politics. There have been kings and presidents and congressmen. There have been people that have done some amazing things as they tried to do what was right over the years. But in the end, until human nature is changed, until Satan is removed, we will always end up in the same place because it's where Satan and human nature takes us. And only God has the power to remove Satan, and only God has the power to change human nature. No government will bring justice for everybody. No government will bring equality for everybody. No human government will solve diseases, will solve poverty. None of them will. None of them throughout history has. None of them throughout history has.

Because they can't deal with the fact that there is a dark influence on human beings, and, two, human nature is already corrupted.

So even if, quote-unquote, good people are in charge, in the end we end up in the same place. This isn't a worldview. It's not, this isn't a negative worldview. It turns out, well, you know, everything's bad, everything's always going to be bad. Realizing, for one thing, we should be really, really happy for certain things that are good. I can tell you this, living in this country at this time period, in my lifetime, I realized it's about as good as it's ever been in the history of humanity. I didn't deserve that. I just, by God's grace, happen to be born now.

But all of humanity, the whole history, is a failure. And somehow, we can lock into a belief that the United States is beyond that failure. But the United States is just as the same internal flaws as any human government. And you know what it is? It's us, it's people, and it's the influence of Satan. There's something interesting Jesus says. Let's go to John 18. This is where Jesus has brought me for Pilate. Of course, Pilate's a very powerful man.

Pilate is the governor of Judea. He literally has the power of life and death over people. Now, as you see, you go through this. It's very interesting. I would guess Pilate was a typical sort of Roman governor or official who'd really bought into the idea of Pax Romata, that they were going to create a Roman peace. And the only way you could create a worldwide Roman peace was through law. So he had to do everything according to the law. Now, of course, Roman law. And, you know, it is interesting. I mentioned before, under Rome, there was a freedom of economy that was just amazing. The way goods could flow from place to place. There was no government regulations basically. Pay your taxes and you can destroy the competition any way you want except kill them. Short of that, it doesn't matter, right? You had religious freedom as long as you accepted the emperor as semi-divine. You just had to sacrifice to him. Then you'd believe whatever god you wanted. You had road systems that had never been throughout the world like that before. You had a postal system. You had a wealth that, wherever you were in the Roman Empire, there was a growth of wealth. In fact, Winston Churchill says that he looks back at the history of... or wrote that he looked back on the history of England. And he said one of the greatest periods of English history was when the Romans occupied England. Because, for one thing, they made everybody literate. I mean, you had the chance to become literate. You had the chance to learn how to read.

The Celtic peoples didn't have a written language.

And he taught them how to read. Or, I mean, the Romans taught them how to read. Of course, then the Anglo-Saxons came in and they didn't have a written language either. And within two generations after the Anglo-Saxons were there, nobody could read anymore either. So it, you know, came in at what. But he looked at it and said, you know, when you look at the architecture of the road system, the economic system, he says that was one of the greatest periods in English history. Well, you wouldn't think that, would you? But, you know, he looked at their history and said it was.

Wasn't the kingdom of God, was it? And now is coming in contact with the kingdom of God. Let's go to verse 33. Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again and called Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Now, this question is real important if you understand Roman law. He could not, he could not take Jesus and just kill him because the Jews wanted him killed. Now he could. Me, at the power of who's going to stop him. But, you know, being a true Roman, now we have to do this according to the Roman law books, you know, and I just don't want to kill him. But if he's a king, that means he's equal with Caesar, I can kill him. Okay. So are you a king? And Jesus answered him and said, Are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me? Now, that's a smart question. And Pilate automatically understands I'm dealing with a very intelligent person here. Okay. I asked him if you're a king, he can get crucified for the answer of that. And his answer is, Who told you this? Have you made this up? Where'd it come from? And of course, you can see the frustration. Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priest have delivered you to me. What have you done? I just want to know why these people hate you so much. I want me to kill you. And Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. He said, I have a kingdom and I am a king. But my kingdom is not here yet. It's not now of here. It's not here. Now, it's an interesting way of putting that because it's a philosophical argument. I mean, Pilate probably was a well-educated man. He knew philosophers would talk about the kingdom of the mind. Oh, wait, wait, wait. This guy's a philosopher. He's talking about some kind of non-earthly kingdom, which Romans could care less about or could not care less about. Right? We don't care about heavenly stuff. All we want to know is about Rome and the power of Rome. That's all that mattered. And Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king? Jesus answered, But you say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And of course, Pilate said, What's truth? You talk to me about truth. He walks out and he says, I can't find anything wrong with this guy. He's just some babbling philosopher. He's not against the state.

He's not another Jewish messiah come to run because they were dealing with that all the time. Some Jewish messiah would get a couple hundred men together and try to overthrow the Roman Empire. You know, he's not this kind of guy. And he said, I don't have anything wrong with him.

He's just a philosopher. Of course, we know what happened. We're going to come back to this. My kingdom is not of this world. We already looked at the basic Christian worldview. Every human being is under the influence of Satan. To one degree or another, every human being. And, except those who are called by God, although we still have the fighting from now on in time, and because of that, this world system is controlled by darkness. Every government.

They asked Jesus about paying taxes. Jesus said that we should pay our taxes. Paul said we should pay our taxes. Paul said that we should obey the laws of the land as long as they don't come in conflict with the laws of God. Okay? So we as Christians are to pay our taxes and we are to obey the laws of the land as long as they don't come in conflict with the laws of God. Why? Because we have a greater citizenship than the citizenship we have here.

And this comes down to where is your citizenship? Where is your citizenship? Let's look at three passages that talk about our citizenship. And then what I want to do is I want to go through some actual political platforms and look at them and say, how should we as Christians, knowing this worldview, corrupt human nature, it's Satan's world, knowing that, knowing what our citizenship is, how should we approach these things? Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. And let's start in verse 19. Now what Paul's talking here, he's talking to the, once again, we're back in Ephesians. We keep going back here because Paul's really dealing with this. When you read 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, all there are, their letters were people are having a hard time coming out of their allegiance. Most of these people are Greeks. Greeks were highly educated. Greeks knew philosophy. They knew government. They knew mathematics. These were highly educated people, considered the most educated people in the entire Roman Empire. And he's dealing with them because they're having a hard time understanding, okay, we've come in on paganism, but what exactly, how much do we have to come out of our culture? How much do we have to come out of our allegiance to our, or the world we live in? So he's telling them here, before God called you, you looked at the Jews and he started to look at the God of the Jews, saying, oh, that's the true God, but wow, they're the people of God and I'm not, right? I'm a Greek. I'm not the, I'm not the people of God. But he said something could change for them. Verse 19, now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. They are citizens. You know, it's very interesting. The word citizen or citizenship, those two words are used in a number of different places in the New Testament, but it's not always the same word. It has a very similar meaning. They're very strong words. You are patriotic. You are loyal. You are a member of this country. He says you are now citizens of the people of God. Our loyalty, who we look up to, the government we follow, this is who, where our citizenship is.

He goes on to use this analogy then. Have you been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and whom the whole building, being filled together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, and whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit? You and I are the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. We are as collectively as we are individually.

So wherever you go, you are God's representative. You are a representative of the household of God and of the kingdom of God.

Now this sort of starts to change the way we maybe should look at things. We understand the premise. We understand the world view. Now we start to see who we are. We represent a different governmental system. A governmental system that you are to be applying into your lives now in the way that you react to God as the Father, in the way you react to Jesus Christ, and in the way we react to each other in the Church. We represent something different.

What is our identity? What political party are you? Somebody asked you, what political party are you?

Oh, I'm a registered kingdom of God.

I'm a registered kingdom of God. It would change a lot of conversations. Well, what's your stance on... No, you probably wouldn't get much of that. Right? Because if they only think about the Bible, it's like, oh, you're a fanatic or something. You know, I don't have anything to do with you.

Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 verse 20. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things himself. He's going to subdue all things. One of the things that Jesus Christ does when he comes back, he dissolves all governments. The government of the United States will not survive the tribulation, and it will not survive the coming of the Messiah. No political party in this country will survive the coming of the Messiah. There will be no need for those anymore. They will no longer be acceptable forms of government. I mean, it's amazing. I think the United States government is absolutely amazing. It's genius in many ways. It's absolutely genius. But it's not the kingdom of God. And you and I were called to be something other than independent Republican or Democrat. Understand, we're called to be something other than that. Our citizenship is in heaven.

Hebrews 11. We are living examples of a different way, a different form of government, a different kingdom, a different... we don't have a president, we have a king. And it's usually different, isn't it?

Of course, in Hebrews, it's talking about Hebrews 11, all the great people of faith in the Old Testament. Verse 13 says, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were assured of them, and braced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. The more you truly embrace the values of the kingdom of God, the more you find yourself an alien in an alien land. That's what happens. The more you embrace the values of the kingdom of God, the more you find yourself an alien in an alien land.

It's hard because we live pretty good lives here, right? And compared to much of the rest of the world, even our hard times are good times. So we get used to this, we get comfortable with this, but this is not the kingdom of God. He said, for those who say such things declare that they seek a homeland. You and I seek our nation, and our nation is not this one. Our nation is not this one. It's another nation. Now, we obey the laws. We are to be good citizens in that way. We're to pay our taxes. I mean, I've covered those things in sermons before. That's not the discussion here. The discussion is, where is your heart? Where is your mind? Where is your loyalty? Where is your patriotism? He says, and truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better that is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

That's a remarkable statement. Is God ashamed to be called our God? He said, faithful people, he's not ashamed to say, I'm the God of that person. But if we are too mindful and too wrapped up in the place we came out of, we will have the opportunity to go back.

And that can happen at a lot of different levels. It can happen at a lot of different levels. Your calling is a whole lot greater than you realize.

It is to come out of this world and be members of the family of God and to be representatives of the kingdom of God.

Now, as I said before, I know at this point some people say, and I understand the argument. It's not a stupid argument. It's not a bad argument. I understand it. But do we not have a duty to vote and participate because we could bring good? Even in a small way, we can bring good.

I suppose if that was true, I would say yes. But is it true? Let me give you an example. Let's look at four major platforms that you will find that are in politics today. They've been in politics ever since I was a kid. I can't talk about 1890. I wasn't there. You'll have to talk to Mr. Keller. But I wasn't there.

He's sitting downstairs. I couldn't. I just can't. I couldn't. That was sort of mean.

He probably doesn't remember any politics until at least 1920. But anyways, so what do I mean by this? What do I mean by this? Well, let's look at these four things I picked. And I could have picked 20. I just picked four because they're major things people are arguing about. Okay? The LGBTQ agenda. Now, I really challenge you to find any politician—I don't care what party they belong to—that's going to stand up against that agenda. Find any politician that would get up and say, by the way, I think in our country we should make it legal for only people to be together sexually if they're married. Otherwise, it's a crime. Oh, you talk about political suicide.

Nobody's going to say that. Nobody's going to support that. And nobody's going to say anything directly against this agenda. Except you will find some that are standing against gay marriage. And there's a reason for that because to stand against them on religious grounds becomes very, very, in our country becomes very—because some people say that the right to be homosexual is a religious right. In fact, they can be a Christian. Jesus loves everybody. Jesus loves me. Therefore, I'm a Christian. So there's lots of Christian denominations, a surprising number of Christian denominations who are supporting homosexuality.

And the reason why is, well, okay, there's a religious component to this. So they come at it from this idea, well, there's a okay, there's a legal component. You can't have gay marriage. Well, you can only fight that so long. Eventually, that'll collapse. It has to. If you have the right to be homosexual, you have the right to be married.

That is a political argument. You see, this has become a political point. Now, I know some will say, why are you picking on this particular sin? Well, I can—there's lots of sins. There's lots of issues I could bring up. I brought this one up specifically because this is an actual political platform that both parties stand on. But no one's going to say this is wrong. In fact, they're promoting it as a right. It is your right. Because the political argument is that people in a free society should decide for themselves their sexual values. And there's nothing in the Constitution—I have my Constitution here. I've had one ever since I was a kid.

I keep it with me sometimes. There's nothing in the Constitution, by the way, that says that you can have sexual freedom. There's nothing that says you can't. They never expected that would be an issue. It's not in there. There's nothing in the Constitution that says you can't have sexual freedom. So, this is a platform that you find both parties standing on. Now, I don't pick this out because it's somehow the worst sin you can commit.

It's not. I mean, there's homosexuals that have turned to God, been forgiven, are fine Christians, moved beyond that. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about, though—let's use stealing. Get up there and talk about stealing, okay? But we're talking about politics. And I know of no politician who's arguing, look, I think stealing's good, and anybody who's against stealing has a real moral problem because everybody should be thieves. Everybody should accept thieves.

Nobody's saying that, okay? But everybody who is supporting this in one level or another—let's go to Romans chapter 1. Romans 1 Paul is talking about the issues. I have no problems talking about the issues. In fact, I will try to equally insult every political party in the United States by the time I get done, okay?

I have no problem talking about the issues if they're biblical. You know, we all have ideas. Someone will come up and ask me an idea on some economic issue or societal issue that's not biblical. I can give my idea, and they can give their idea. And we talk about it and don't come to a conclusion because, well, it's our ideas. You understand there's a difference between discussing our society and getting into what are the values of the kingdom of God. That's a totally different thing.

There are certain values of the kingdom of God that are not bendable. And here we have, in Romans 1, Paul's talking about society. He's talking about how the Roman society is so corrupt, and there's a whole bunch of things he talks about. And in one section of it, a couple verses, he talks about homosexuality. Then he talks about other things, too.

But I want to go down to verse 32, because this is very important. Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that's on any of these issues, all of them, I mean, this proud and boasting and greed, all these things are mixed in here. But we have this particular political platform that both parties can agree to with, and one degree, at least, or another. He says, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

Now, what's the conclusion? Now, remember, we've gone through all human nature's corrupt. We've gone through that all nations are influenced by Satan, every one of them. We've gone through that our citizenship is in the kingdom of God.

Now, we still have obligations here, but that's not our primary citizenship. So there's only one conclusion we can come to here. We can't approve of them, which means, if you vote for a candidate who supports the LGBTQ community, you're casting a vote against the kingdom of God because you're approving of them. Think about it a minute. Oh, yes, we'll approve of them because I like this social program. I'll approve of them because I like this particular economic program. We're approving of them the right to own guns. Okay, now I'm going to pick on another group. The right to own guns. The fundamental right to own guns in this country is in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States is one of the most remarkable documents I have ever read. It has some statements in it that are so profound. And I am glad I live under a country that has those principles. But the Constitution of the United States of America is not the kingdom of God. It is not. It is the best I think human beings can make up. And it has a few elements of some biblical principles in there, but it's not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not America, and America is not the kingdom of God. Now, we talk about the right to own guns. You know, I have mentioned this before because I know over the years I've mentioned it a few times and I've had some people get very offended by it. I own two hunting rifles. One is my dad's that he hunted with for years that I don't think I've ever fired. And then I have the hunting rifle that I use. We used to hunt for meat because we were poor and that was sort of important. And actually I keep it too because at my mom and dad's first anniversary, that's what she bought him. She saved up this money for this rifle for him. And I used to hunt with it. There are many deer that live long, happy lives because I'm such a poor shot. Part of the reason why I could not stand to think of shooting a deer and not killing it.

So I wouldn't take the shot. I had to have a clear shot to take. I mean, absolutely clear shot. And a running deer just got away. But I have those. They say, well, you know, the Second Amendment guarantees you the right to do that. Nobody better should come take it away from you. Okay. What if they change that and say, by the way, you have to give up your hunting rifles? Okay, come get them. Come on. Or I'll bring them to the police station if that's what you want. Because, you know, I don't have a God-given right to own those. I have a right given to me by the U.S. Constitution, which is not my main citizenship. My citizenship is in heaven. So if they demand them and they change the law, I give them back because, well, I obey the law of the land. And what gets me… Do most people even know what that Second Amendment is? Okay, I'm going to read it to you, just in case you don't. Because I want you to understand the reason for that law. And maybe, you know, I hear sometimes Christians defend this vehemently. Okay. But you understand what the law really says. Second Amendment. Rights to keep arms. A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. The reason the Constitution says you have the right to bear arms is so that you can use it against the state. You see, go back to the time period. There was no U.S. Army. There was a U.S. Army that was created during the American Revolution. Then afterwards, everybody went back to their states. How did they have an army back then? Every town had a militia, and every town trained as a militia. And then they would create a state militia. And then the state militias would come together to create the U.S. Army. 80 years after the Constitution during the American Civil War, at the beginning of the war, it's estimated that the American Army comprised of 5,000 men. That's it. The U.S. Army was 5,000 men. There was no way they could fight a war. How did the Civil War get fought? Why is it Tennessee had soldiers fighting for the North and the South? It depended on where their county voted to go. And some of them voted to go North and fight for the Union, and some of them voted to go South and fight for the Confederacy. And where did they get their guns? Well, they were hanging up in the house. Everybody had one so everybody could be part of the militia. Understand the right to bear arms has to do with fighting a war. That's why we have that in this country. So there could be militias, not the militias we think of today, which are just sort of people banding together for whatever reasons. These were authorized militias that every county had in the United States and every state had. And until the end of the Civil War, it's what the American army was. It was militias.

So that's why they have the Second Amendment. I just bring that out, because I don't own a hunting rifle so I could fight the state.

And if they want it, they can come get it. Just pass a law and say it's not mine anymore and you can have it. Because it's not a kingdom of God right. That's why.

It's not a kingdom of God right.

That's my value system. Now, I know that, you know, that's just my value system. How about abortion? The political value is that it's a woman's body. She can do with it whatever she wants. What's the kingdom of God value? The kingdom of God value is that that unborn child is made in the image of God and is a human being.

To abort that child is murder. To have governmental sanctioned abortion is for the government, which our government does, sanctifying mass murder. And I hope that sinks in what that really means. Our government sanctifies mass murder, genocide on those who can't defend themselves. Now, that's the kingdom of God value. You know what that means? I mean, just think about it. I don't care why you like a certain candidate. To vote for that candidate when they support abortion is a vote against the kingdom of God. See, I said this has to do with values. It has to do with values. It has to do with your world view. How could you vote? That'd be like saying, well, I really like the way the government has given or starting to produce these Volkswagen's and everybody gets a car. So I'm going to go in and vote for Adolf Hitler. Oh, come on, you can't compare the two. No, I'm just comparing mass murderers. That's all. How dare you say that? Do you believe an unborn child is a human being? If you don't, then what I'm saying is going to seem ridiculous to you. If you do, logically, you have no choice. Because not only does God condemn those who do that, but condemns those who what? Approve of them. Oh, boy, this is big.

We have to dig down deep here into who we really are. We have to dig down deep to what we actually believe. And you have to believe this.

Nobody else can believe something for you. You have to decide where you are on these issues.

The last one I want to talk about is war. It is the right of any nation to protect itself by waging war against another country. Oh, I understand. That's a political argument. And, you know, if you're going to be a country without God's help, my suggestion would be the biggest, be the biggest, baddest country in the world. Right? If you're going to fight other people without God's help, you better be the biggest, baddest military in the world.

What did Jesus say? We already read it.

My disciples are not of this world else, or they would fight. But they're not going to fight. You don't have to worry about people tearing down the government. We're never going to be violent people trying to overthrow the government. Just like the early Christians never tried to overthrow the Roman government. No matter how oppressive it was, or the Jewish government, no matter how oppressive it was. They never fought against it in an organized way.

How do you make choices about war?

Well, I'm going to vote for this person and hope they make good decisions about war. Let me ask you this. If you're in the military, how do you make decisions? How do you decide which village the burned down and which village not the burned down when your order is to do it? How do you decide that? How do you decide to keep the Sabbath? And they say to you, you can't keep the Sabbath. How can you have your kingdom of God values and be in the military?

You know, many people don't realize this, but it was the Mennonites, the Church of God Seventh-day and the Seventh-day Adventists, clear back in the 1860s and through the 1800s that helped get the United States to formulate the concept of conscientious objectors. People who would serve their country in many ways, but they would not serve in taking up arms and killing somebody.

I don't know if you've seen, I don't recommend Hexall Ridge because it is bloody, but it's true. I remember when I saw that movie, I thought that battle could not have been that intense because nobody would cram that many men in that small of an area. So I looked it up and got a map of Hexall Ridge, and they crammed that many men in that small area. It was just unbelievable. And there's a Seventh-day Adventist who would not fight.

Now, what the movie didn't show is he had been in many battles. That was just the battle where he saved 70 men who had been wounded. But he would not fight. But he would not fight.

At age 17, this, you know, you wonder, could just be that hard of a question or answer, but it was for me. This was a hard thing for me. At age 17, I received my draft notice.

I loved this country. I felt patriotic. I also thought, am I a coward that I am not willing? Of course, every 17-year-old is going to think that. Am I a coward that I am not willing to go fight for my country? Because I respect people. I still respect people who are willing to do that because I understand their value system. But then I had to realize, what is my value system? Not somebody else's, what is mine? I studied the Scripture. I prayed the Bible. I studied the Scripture. I prayed about it.

I applied to be a conscientious object.

Vietnam is going on at the time, which, knowing me, I wouldn't have survived. I'm too dumb. I just...

I got back that it was voted down by the draft board out of the three officers. Two to one, I have to appear before them. Now, two to one means, okay, you probably are, you may be, but we have to make sure you're not trying to just get out here. And I started to look into that and study it. You know, what are the questions they would ask somebody? Do you vote? And if you said yes, then you're not really a conscientious objector, but you're willing to participate in the government, force the government to do what you want, get what you can out of the government, but you won't fight for it. And that was a legitimate issue to me.

I don't know.

I don't know how you can have integrity and say, I'll vote, but I won't fight for it.

So?

I never voted, and I never will.

Because I had to decide where my allegiance was. And that's hard at 17.

Because I know, if I didn't have this belief system, I would have gone.

I'd have gone just like that.

I was preparing for this. I was doing something on the internet, and what popped up was something I'd... Wow, that's interesting. I clicked on it. It was three men who had been in Vietnam. They interviewed all three of them, and they were talking about what their combat experience was. And one man said that he remembered, he said, the most scared he ever was, was he said a sniper had zeroed in on him, and he heard the bullet go by. And he started to run, and he kept hearing them, just missing him. And he said it was the strangest sound in the world. He said it sounded like an electronic mosquito.

And I was fascinated. I had to go tell my wife, because when I was a kid, I was out in the woods, up in the mountains, there in Pennsylvania, and someone didn't see me. We were in a brush, and they fired that rifle, and it went right past my head. I heard it. And it was such a weird sound. I can never figure out what it sounded like. Yeah, it sounds like an electronic mosquito. I said, it's just a different sound. I don't know how far away it was. I don't know about ballistics. I just know that it's a real bad feeling in your pit of your stomach when you realize what just happened.

But I don't know how I got off on that. The point was, these guys were talking about it, and how it changes a man. It changes who he is.

And that's why—I understand why men do that. They go to do it to protect their country. Not some of them don't, but most of them do. But I had to decide not to do that, and that was an easy call.

You see, you can't pick your candidates and then try to determine how they're going to vote, on which war we get into and not get into, who they're going to send to die, what country they're going to bomb tomorrow. How do you as a Christian do that?

I just picked four things.

Sort of tough.

Sort of tough. I'm going to talk about Christ's return, just for a minute, because I'm going through the First Amendment. First Amendment is an amazing sentence. The First Amendment is one of the greatest sentences in the history of mankind. It really is. I am so glad I live in a country under the First Amendment.

But I want to talk about this now in the context of the Kingdom of God. Congress shall not make, or shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. When Jesus Christ comes back, this will be done away with. There will be one religion, and he will forbid the exercising of any other religion. Okay, well, that one goes away. Let's see, the rest of the Amendment. Or abridging the freedom of speech.

You and I are already living under these new Kingdom rules, aren't we? You and I can't use God's name in vain. Oh, that's sort of restricting our speech, isn't it? There are certain things you and I can't say. So that one gets greatly modified. Or the power of the press. How many, when Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords on this earth in Jerusalem, how many television stations, how many sites on the Internet is he going to allow to be the opposition party? Satan's not around, so somebody's got to pretend to be Satan and oppose him, right? How many that you think is going to happen? You think there's going to be newspapers? We're the opposition to the King newspaper. We want a new King elected. So the freedom of the press disappears. And then, of course, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a regress of grievances.

Or redress of of grievances. In other words, the right to politically assemble. I'm not sure we have a right to politically assemble when Jesus Christ comes back. You know, let's just take this part of the world and turn it into our own government and forget about that. What's going on in Jerusalem? You think that's going to happen. Suddenly, the First Amendment doesn't mean anything. The Second Amendment doesn't mean anything. And that, in fact, most of that Constitution is meaningless when Jesus Christ comes back. Put it to you this way. It's not going to be the basis of any government he uses.

So you and I have been called to be part of a different government. And I understand. I still feel at times a great patriotism and love for this country.

I don't think that's all wrong. But we always have to put it in relationship, first of all, to our greater citizenship.

We have a greater citizenship.

It's not easy to stay focused on that citizenship. My wife and I have talked about, over the last few months, how sometimes it's easy to get caught up in all this stuff going on and sort of forget. Really, I have very limited to do with this. I live in this country. I love this country. But I'm an alien in an alien land.

As much as I love it, we are aliens in an alien land, spiritually. But as Christians, that's who all Christians are. I read a case where a judge was talking to a man who was going to be registering as a conscientious objector, and he said, you have churches all over the world. He said, yes. They all believe this. He said, yes. Then none of them could take arms up against each other because you might shoot each other. Yes. In other words, none of them could serve in an army because they could end up shooting their own brothers and sisters, which of course, throughout history, Christians have killed Christians over and over by the millions they've killed each other. And wars.

He let him be a conscientious objector.

Yeah, you can't. You can't shoot each other. Okay, I understand your point.

You and I have to remember that. As difficult as it is, as much as we may love this country, we have to understand that we have a greater calling. And sometimes that greater calling demands a lot of sacrifice of us.

It demands that we don't do what we normally want to do or feel we should do. But let me conclude by just going to Psalm 146.

All of Psalm 146 is about this subject. But I'm just going to read the first few verses here.

Because this sort of summarizes, then, how we need to approach this.

Verse 1. 1. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Verse 2. While I live, I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Do not put yourself in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His Spirit departs. He returns to the earth. And that very day his plans perish. Happy as he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. I truly believe the United States is going to probably be slipping more and more into political confusion. And I don't care who is elected.

We're going to be slipping more and more into political confusion.

As we do, if our hope is in this land, we will find ourselves hopeless. And we will find that we can't actually help others. We can't encourage others. We'll be just as discouraged as everybody else. But if we put our hope in God and in his kingdom, in his rule, in the coming of Jesus Christ, then that will make a difference in who we are right now. It will also give us the courage to face every day.

Who would Jesus vote for? I have another question. Could Jesus get elected president of the United States?

Of course not.

And that's who I vote for.