The below is not my blog. It is from Steve Deace. I thought that it was interesting and deserved a repost.
The podcast is here:
http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/DESMOINES-IA/WHO-AM/emails%20102108%20podcast.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=DESMOINES-IA&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&SITE_ID=1165&STATION_ID=WHO-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Steve_Deace&PCAST_CAT=Talk_Radio&PCAST_TITLE=Deace_in_the_Afternoon
Deace’s Daily Diary: October 22nd, 2008
Tuesday 10-21-2008 9:11pm CT
I don’t normally post transcripts of shows for two reasons: legal and logistical (so don’t get used to it). However, I am making a special exception here this week and next because lately I have been literally deluged with emails from hundreds of Christians/conservatives in the audience wanting to know answers to these four questions:
1) Why won’t I vote for John McCain?
2) Why won’t I vote for the lesser of two evils?
3) By not voting for one of the major party candidates am I throwing my vote away?
4) How should I vote?
In response, below is the first of a two-part response that was broadcast on Tuesday night (the podcast is available for download if you would like to hear it). The second part will be broadcast next Thursday, October 30th, and posted here accordingly. Part two next week will deal with the lesser of two evils argument, and take a unique look at that pragmatic, subjective standard by applying it to issues that I believe are Biblically important.
Part one below describes the core of my worldview that I try my best to communicate on the show each day, and how I apply it to the election. Please understand this: I am not trying to convince likeminded people not to vote for John McCain (or Barack Obama for that matter).
I am simply sharing my own convictions based on the principles of God’s Word. My goal is not to alter your decision, but to get us to critically think through the proces so that we don’t fall prey and eventually get fooled by the same empty propoganda again. In fact, just today I received an email from a listener who did an excellent job critically thinking through his vote for McCain and offered up several specifics that were well-reasoned, and I was so impressed I applauded him for that.
That’s not to say that in the past I haven’t, nor in the future I again won’t, try to persuade you in one direction or the other. But in those matters, or the ones to come, it will be because I believe on the authority of God’s Word the truth and its application are so crystal clear in those instances that those of us who have a Christian conscience and believe in Biblical virtues must be of one mind.
Part 1 is below. Consider this an answer to the hundreds of emails I’ve received just in the last three weeks, and the hundreds more I will likely receive between now and election day.
Isaiah 61
Dear Listener,
Thank you for listening to the show and for your comments/questions regarding the election. I have allowed these emails pile up the past few weeks, all asking the same questions, because I wasn’t sure if I could come up with a way to answer them that wasn’t explicitly Biblically.
For fear of sounding overtly preachy, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks wondering if I could make my point without delivering what amounts to a sermon. Yet the more I searched for another way, the more it became obvious there wasn’t one.
I’m a Bible guy. It’s the foundation of my worldview. So, if you find this offensive there are other blogs to read. If, however, you’re one of the multitude in my audience asking me questions you wished your church would answer, this is for you.
I am not trying to replace your pastor, but nature abhors a vacuum. I’m simply someone who saw a need, and is attempting to fill it. In doing so I will sort of strip my soul bare and give you an earnest look at not just what I believe, but why I believe it. In that attempt, we will be stretching the boundaries of secular radio, even by my show’s standards.
So, here is my most earnest attempt to communicate a Biblical worldview, as I understand it, as it pertains to this or any election.
Scripture says the following:
· That God is sovereign over all creation, including the choice of our leaders. (Daniel 2:21 & Romans 13:1)
· That we are to occupy until He returns. (Luke 19)
· That we are saved to produce fruit but can only produce fruit when we’re in Christ. (John 15)
· That we are not to be conformed to the thoughts and patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Romans 12:2)
· That we should fear God more than men. (Psalm 76, Proverbs 1:7, Matthew 10:28, & Acts 4)
· That one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ alone is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11)
· That God has determined the exact places where men will live and for how long. (Acts 17:24-28)
· That each of us, believer and unbeliever alike, will one day give account for himself before almighty God. (Romans 14:10)
· That there is a way that seems right to us, but leads only to death. That the best way is God’s way, but His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Proverbs 14:12 & Isaiah 55:8-11)
· That we should practice prudent judgment in our moral assessments. In other words, be careful not to judge ourselves or our side by a different standard than we judge others, for it is by that uneven standard we will also be judged. (Matthew 7:1-2)
· That Christ is the Amen (final word), the faithful and true witness (of who God is), and the ruler of God’s creation. (Revelation 3:14)
· That the Bible tells us to “fear not” 365 times, or one encouragement to have no fear for every day of the year.
· That all things, both good and tragic, work together for the glory of God. (Romans 8:28-39)
I believe that I, as a Christian, am called to live my life as a testimony to the truths cited above from God’s Word, or the Bible. That may come off as self-righteous to some, but it’s not. Obviously I acknowledge freely up front and understand that I am a sinner in need of grace, but it’s not living the way God has called me to live by my own strength — which I can’t — that provides me grace. That would be my own striving, herein lies self-righteousness.
Instead, it is God’s grace that mercifully provides me the ability and means to live the way God has called me to live because it is now no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Founding Father John Adams was a devout believer. He summed up the teachings in the Scriptures cited above with these words: “Duty is ours, outcomes belong to God.”
Our duty as THE CHURCH, in all things here on Earth until Christ returns, is quite simple. It can be summed up in these three simple words: Soli Deo Gloria!
Therefore, if we are to live for the glory of God alone, and if God alone is sovereign over the outcome, that means our duty is not in wondering who, what, when, where, or how. Those are questions God Himself answers and reveals to us as He sees fit.
In the meantime, our duty is to constantly ask ourselves why. Why are we doing what we’re doing? Why do we believe what we believe? Why do I worship God and Him only? Why should I stay faithful to my spouse? Why do I love and discipline my children? Why do I not steal and lie? Why do I not murder or rape? Why do I spend my money the way I do? And, in the case of so many emails I have received the past few months, why do I vote the way I vote?
The answer should be the same for all of those questions: for the glory of God.
Many believers act as if they’re sovereign over the outcome and they are the ones who choose their leaders, even going so far as to say they must choose the lesser of two evils. That’s not what I believe the Bible says.
Many believers act as if God has given them the free will to do what they think is right in their own eyes. If that’s true, the Bible says that’s a curse, not a blessing. It is when we trade the singular truth of who God is and His Word for a lie that God then gives us over to our own depraved minds. God giving us over to our free will is not a good place for any culture to be.
Many believers act as if God is just waiting around to see what candidate they will choose, like in a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Book, and then He’ll clean up any mess we’ve made for us afterwards. That’s not what I believe the Bible says.
Many believers act as if America is somehow special and that God bless America is in the Bible. The Bible says God is no respecter of persons or nations, and doesn’t mention us at all.
Many believers act as if this nation is owed something because of its past good deeds, might makes right, and/or prosperity. The Bible says other nations have also had similar haughty thoughts, and they were all struck down.
Besides, how much longer can a just, holy, and righteous God bless a nation that:
· Kills 4,000 babies a day.
· Allows homosexuals to adopt children and marry one another.
· Institutes no-fault easy divorce that destroys families.
· Rewards materialism by letting the swindlers not only steal more money from those they’re oppressing, but also to continue to print a fiat currency that drives down the value of the money the oppressed are actually able to hold onto. So much for honest weights and measures.
· Indoctrinates its children with anti-God and anti-Christian propaganda in its schools and colleges.
· All too infrequently holds neither its criminals nor its judges to the rule of law and balanced scales of justice.
· Not only won’t protect the unborn child, but also frequently doesn’t do enough to protect the child already born from being harmed.
· Creates a safer environment for black males in prison then they find on the streets of its major urban population centers.
· Sends its moms and young women off to war.
· Frequently and repeatedly rewards those in its popular/entertainment culture who do their best to thumb their noses at Him, suppress His truth, and blaspheme His name.
· Repeatedly demand that He stay out of its business as opposed to — as the song says –letting His grace shine on thee.
God is not an intergalactic ATM there for our needs, nor is He a cosmic Santa Claus making a list and checking it twice while trying to find out whose been naughty or nice. Those popular notions of today mock God and God will not be mocked. And we have been mocking Him openly as a people for a generation now.
The time for mocking will one day come to an end, and the time will come when His mercy will turn to wrath. I know that’s an unpopular sentiment nowadays, and I sound like the freak of the industry or a jacked-up wing nut for expressing it aloud, but that’s always been so. No civilization wants to hear about God’s judgment. That’s the human condition.
We are living in a time when every institution we once thought was sacred (family, church, money, real estate, retirement, banks, political parties, movement leaders, schools, colleges, military) has betrayed us on one level or another.
That’s not a coincidence. We are seeing our false gods, or idols, stripped naked right before our very eyes. These are the things we had more faith in and fear of than God, and I believe that God is using these times as a means of desperately trying to get our attention.
Yet continually I get emails from Christians who aren’t critically-thinking, or doing things out of fear. One is a defiance of a commandment from God, the other is a defiance of having faith in Him.
We get the very leaders we deserve. That’s the principle of sowing and reaping in action. And while it’s true that all creation groans with sin, and that we are strangers in a strange land until Christ returns to make all things new, the reality is the two men running for president perfectly represent America’s civil theology of the day.
One man is his own messiah, running because the world needs saving and he thinks he’s just the man for the job. The other man is a portrait of self-righteous resume building, all the while rationalizing it under the banner of words like duty and honor. One man is a relativist that says there isn’t just one way to God. The other man is a moralist who’s determined to make his own way.
They are the total and perfect manifestation of what’s become of us as a people. Neither of them humble themselves before the one, true God. Neither of them earnestly seek truth. But they are both idolaters.
They’re just like us.
By now you’re probably wondering if I’m going to tell you who you should vote for. The answer is no. But I will encourage you how you should vote by sharing with you how I do it.
I would encourage you to ask yourself why are you doing what you’re doing. Don’t accept propaganda from either side, especially your own because the easiest deception of all is self-deception. Hold all the kingdoms of men accountable to the Kingdom of God. Don’t just read the Word, but be the Word. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us so that He could dwell in us.
Therefore, stop asking me, or anyone else for that matter, what you should do. If you’re a Christian you now have an intimate relationship with the King of Kings so I would suggest you start asking Him.
When checking your motives pray that the answer is Soli Deo Gloria! When it’s not don’t do it, and remember that you will have to look your Lord in the eye one day and give an account. Will we be able to look Him in the eye when the talk comes to elections, or will we have to ashamedly look away?
Lest you think that I am advocating retreat from the public process, nothing could be further from the truth. Mind you, we should take part in the process, if not saturate it with salt and light, but we should realize that unless there is earnest revival in this country we are going to face even worse choices in the future than the ones we have now.
And I think that’s because God really wants us to choose Him. All other things pale in comparison.
