“Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, ‘Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us?’” (Judges 15:11).

You’re a “fake Christian” if you vote. That’s the opinion of a post I read on Facebook. She even posted the following meme to support her argument, such as it is: “Things Jesus Never Did: Vote.”

There are numerous problems with her argument. First, there were many things Jesus didn’t do that most of us do. He did not marry or have children (contrary to Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code). He did not have a permanent residence (Matt. 8:20). While Jesus is said to be a carpenter (Mark 6:3), there is no indication that during His public ministry that He worked at His profession.

When I pointed out this argument to her, she wrote the following:

How can you say that? The Bible supports marriage and it is a display of God. So much so, that God even uses marriage as a metaphor to show His love for His people. However, the Bible does not support voting for evil men to rule over us and steal our money in the name of “taxation,” murder innocent people in the name of “war” and throw more innocent people in jail for victimless crimes, etc.

I agree. But how does one change the status quo to stop these types of policies if people don’t vote? Should we not vote when one politician wants to steal 25 percent of our money and the other politician only wants to steal 15 percent because both are involved in stealing? If people who understand that most taxation is theft don’t vote, then the confiscatory percentages will continually go up.

If we followed her argument in 2016, we would have gotten Hillary Clinton and most likely a huge tax increase and so much more. Instead, we got Donald Trump who cut taxes and nominated a key Supreme Court justice. Is Trump perfect? Not by a long shot.

Second, at the time of the Roman occupation of Israel, no non-Roman citizen had a say in Roman politics. The apostle Paul “was born a Roman citizen” and was therefore afforded privileges that only applied to Roman citizens (Acts 22). It’s difficult, therefore, to use the New Testament as the standard for politics since Israel was a captive nation that had to go to the Roman courts for judgment (John 19:7; Lev. 24:16; Matt. 26:63-66).

Available from American Vision

Third, if we follow the claim that since Jesus never voted that Christians should not vote, then we are left with a hereditary monarchy where the king is directly chosen by God. The kings of Israel and Judah were no better than elected officials.

Fourth, so much of this type of thinking is prevalent because Donald Trump is President. Since his life has been less than moral, no Christian should ever have voted for him. Christians, if they are to vote, should only vote for someone like the biblical Joseph or Daniel. This would exclude King David who was God’s personal choice. David was an adulterer, a polygamist, and an accomplice to murder. King Solomon violated every prohibition related to being a king (1 Kings 10-11). Notice the list of “men of old” who “gained approval” from God:

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets (Heb. 11:32).

These are hardly men of stellar moral reputation. Notice that some of the really good guys are missing from the list: Job, Joshua, Hezekiah, and Josiah.

Sometimes you need a Samson to slay (metaphorically speaking) some Philistines because the people have accepted the premise that the Philistines are their true and perpetual rulers.

I’ve heard numerous justifications for non-involvement. “It won’t do any good. I’m just one voice. I’m too busy. I really don’t know enough to confront the abortion and homosexual issues.” But the most prevalent justification for non-involvement is thought to be biblical. The non-involved Christian is usually the sincere Christian who believes that the Bible says nothing about Christian involvement. For example, the Bible tells the Christian to stay out of politics because politics is dirty. We are told that Jesus didn’t get mixed up in politics. Or we should not concern ourselves with what God has already determined. The future is God’s hands.

Some have concluded that we should expect cultural decay; therefore, to attempt to change things would go against God’s plan for the ages. Maybe involvement is seen as not being spiritual. I mean, Jesus said that His “kingdom is not of this world” and the devil is said to be the “god of this world.”

Pastors might conclude that their calling is to “just preach the gospel,” to get people saved. And there are many prayer warriors who believe that prayer will change everything. We don’t need to work for change. We only need to pray for change. One of the most prevalent objections is that we as Christians should not impose our morality on others.

There probably are as many seemingly legitimate excuses as there are Christians who do not want to get involved in changing our world for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Available from American Vision

To be involved or not to be involved; that is the question. What happens when Christians retreat in the face of secularism, atheism, humanism, and just plain anti-Christian sentiment? Some other ideology comes in to fill the vacuum left by Christians. For nearly four hundred years, our nation has been operating within the context of a Christian world and life view. Retreatest Christianity (See my book The Reduction of Christianity)  has left an ideological vacuum that humanists and secularists have been eager to fill.

We’ve given up the courts to the humanists because, for the most part, Christians have not actively sought the legal profession. They’ve been taught to give themselves to “full-time Christian service.” This means the gospel ministry exclusively. For most Christians, activism stops at the doors of the church on Sunday morning. They just don’t see the necessity of storming the gates of hell. In effect, Christians have been shut out of the public arena. It’s unconstitutional to allow the Gideons to distribute Bibles on school property, but the Young Socialist Alliance has the freedom to meet and hand out its literature with few restrictions.

How can these groups get away with this type of behavior? They are convinced that Christians will not protest. They know that we will remain silent. They know our theology better than we do. We’ve shown them that we do not fight. We do not advance. Ours is a religion of retreat. The enemies of Jesus Christ will remain active as long as we sit back and do nothing. It seems that we’re willing to give the world away and the humanists are standing in line to get their share.

The time has come to share in the inheritance reserved for us in Jesus. The Bible tells us that we are “joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). Let’s begin to act like heirs and not slaves.