David Lipscomb and Voting

As election day draws closer I hear political hacks on the radio, television, newspaper and across the Internet.  Everyone says their stance is the one to believe.  That without this one or that one in power, we will all suffer a fate no one will hold up under.  In fact, all the same rhetoric coming from the left two years ago is the same coming from the right today.  Well, I have news for all of them: nothing in my life that matters has changed.  I have a little less walking around money for certain, but as far as the things that make me human, that make me a child of the King, nothing has changed.  To listen to the endless barrage of politicos, I should believe that two weeks from tonight is the most important election of my lifetime.  That's what they said in November of 2008.  Life in the spirit is unchanged.  While the politics of Washington, and even the politics of religion may be in upheaval, the politics of God are the same as they always have been: love Him and love your neighbors.  Unfortunately I have seen very limited campaigning for those causes.  My interests cannot and will not be torn between God and His promises and the empty promises of those in office who cannot deliver what we search for as believers: peace, unity, an end to poverty, love for eachother, and an end to the brokenness of the human condition that can only be healed by My Redeemer, Jesus.

Here is an excerpt from 1913 by David Lipscomb, a man who was far ahead of his time (unless you count, of course, Jesus) when it came to political thought...

“To the claim that a Christian is bound to vote, when he has the privilege, for that which promotes morality, and to fail to vote for the restriction and suppression of evil is to vote for it, we have determined that, to vote or use the civil power is to use force and carnal weapons. Christians cannot use these. To do so is to do evil that good may come. This is specially forbidden to Christians. To do so is to fight God’s battles with the weapons of the evil one. To do so is to distrust God. The effective way for Christians to promote morality in a community, is, to stand aloof from the political strifes and conflicts, and maintain a pure and true faith in God, which is the only basis of true morality, and is as a leaven in society, to keep alive an active sense of right. To go into political strife is to admit the leaven of evil into the church. For the church to remain in the world and yet keep itself free from the spirit of the world, is to keep alive an active leaven of morality in the world. If that leaven loses its leaven, wherewith shall the world be leavened? or if the salt lose its savor wherewith shall the earth be salted or saved? God has told his children to use the spiritual weapons, has warned them against appealing to the sword or force to maintain his kingdom or to promote the honor of God and the good of man. When they do as he directs them, and use his appointments, he is with them to fight their battles for them and to give them the victory. When they turn from his appointments to the human kingdoms and their weapons, they turn from God, reject his help, drive him out of the conflict and fight the battles for man’s deliverance with their own strength and by their own wisdom. Human government is the sum of human wisdom and the aggregation of human strength. God’s kingdom is the consummation of Divine wisdom and in it dwells the power of God.”

Lipscomb calls us to hold but one affiliation: the Kingdom of God.  We are to trust none other than God himself to tend to the politics of this world.  We are simply to follow His leadership.  If we are just part of the masses struggling to find meaning in this life through the legislation of the powers and principalities of the world, we may be part of the problem as we attempt to be part of the solution.  It's something to consider.

I approve this message.

Peace

Quoted from: THE ORIGIN, MISSION, AND DESTINY OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT, AND THE CHRISTIAN’S RELATION TO IT by David Lipscomb