A Critically Important Biblical Message Regarding the Upcoming Elections

 Brown wrote this because there is a need. Prophecies are circulating in the prayer movement that Donald Trump has been called by God to be a modern-day Cyrus. I recall prophecies about Bill Clinton and Barack Obama being great presidents – one said Clinton would be the best President since George Washington.

Such prophecies appear in every Presidential Election cycle. Fortunately for those who make such declarations, we are not living under the Old Testament law, in which prophets who missed the mark were stoned (though reality is the good prophets got stoned and the false prophets praised). But in the New Testament era, everyone can prophecy one, by one, but the hearers are commanded to judge the prophecies. Those who spread misguided prophecies may be well-intended. But how do such prophecies influence the voting behavior of spiritually immature believers?
 
Whether Trump is elected or not, I pray that he will have a conversion experience, and be used for righteousness.
 
In the meantime, every Christian has a mandate from God to vote biblically. Christians must be faithful to Scripture, and always seek to obey God’s Word.
 
In Jeremiah’s day, there were many prophets promising peace and safety. Amid the swirling prophecies, Jeremiah gave an important message about the distinction between God’s written Word  which he called  “wheat,” versus the multitude of prophetic dreams, which he called “chaff” (read Jer 23:11-40 a couple times. It is a very strong, pertinent warning from the Lord).
 
Yes, God uses supernatural visions, dreams and prophecy. I recently talked to a Navigators Vice-President whom I met on a plane as he was returning from a ministry trip to the Middle East. I asked him how their one-on-one evangelists break the ice to share the gospel with Muslims there. He said, “We ask them if they have had any visions or dreams lately,” literally. Testimonies abound from Muslims who, like Paul on the road to Damascus, had supernatural encounters with Jesus in a dream. But in nearly 40 years of Christian ministry, I must tell you that I have heard many, many prophecies that while well intended, were off track – indeed more that were off track than were on track.
 
Thus, while God speaks to us in many ways, he calls us to “try the spirits” (1 John 4:1).  How do we try them? By seeing how they mesh with Scripture. Many people have learned the hard way, by following well-intentioned but misguided prophecies or dreams that did not sync with the Word. Many have lives have been ship-wrecked because people believed in a prophetic word, instead of taking the plain wisdom of the Word of God. Even when Paul preached the Word itself, he commended the Bereans for searching the Scripture to see if what he was teaching was true (Acts 17:11). New Testament believers are all called to judge every prophecy by the Word (1 Cor 14:29).
 
This principle applies to every spiritual preachment, prophecy, vision or dream. As we go forward in this critical election it is a time to tremble and to cry out to God for mercy for our land. It is also a time to be obedient to the Lord, searching the Scriptures, seeking him in prayer, conferring with wise men who have a thoroughly Biblical world view, and who know more about elections, politics and candidates than we do.

Remember: our liberty to vote was bought with blood. It is sacred. It is up to us to vote Biblically, to be salt and light in this pivotal Election year and to make a difference in the future of our nation. We cannot be complacent voters as far too many of us Christians have been in the past. God has called us to be salt and light – not to rush with the crowd, but to amid the crowd and declare His Truth and Wisdom.
 
We must remember that none of us will give an account to the pundits or the prophets, but the Lord Jesus Himself.  Our response, now, must be one of obedience to Him and His Word (Jn 8:30-32; Jn 12:48). The Word should be every believer’s guide when it comes to choosing their leaders. 
 
The most pertinent guidance in Scripture for choosing civil leaders is the advice Moses’ father-in-law gave him in Exodus18:21. It was advice Moses took, advice that became the political framework for the Hebrew Republic – a forebear of our own: 
 

Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens....  Exodus 18:21 NKJV

God calls us to examine those who are running for office at every level: federal, state and local, and to measure the candidates by these measures:

1) Are they capable? Do they have experience and a track record that has prepared them for the job?

2) Do they fear God? Do they have a history of faithfulness to Him? Will their leadership motivate Americans to fear God and return to Him?

3) Are they lovers of Truth? That means not just that they are honest but that they are committed to honesty and truth in our culture. They are not confused; they do not speak out of both sides of their mouth, nor make fantastic promises they cannot keep.

4) Do they hate covetousness? Are they willing to bend principle in order to make money or get what they want? Are they balanced in their approach to riches and things, preferring to do without rather than pursue dishonest gain?

This is God’s Word – His principles for choosing leaders from President to Congressman to local school board member to dogcatcher. Christians, when they vote can make a huge impact. Evangelicals have historically voted for constitutional conservatives, but over the last several decades, Christians have been all over the map.

In 1992, for instance 37 percent of those identifying as evangelicals, voted for Bill Clinton, and in 1996 an even larger percentage did so. Evangelicals gave Clinton the margins for victory – and that despite the fact that Clinton ran on a radically non-biblical platform, promising to admit practicing homosexuals into the military, advocating for abortion and a government takeover of the healthcare industry, and much more. There were misguided prophecies that magnified Clinton – despite his un-biblical policy agenda. 

Will Christians exercise biblical discernment in their choice of candidates? It is very late in the cycle, but every Christian vote counts.

I am not going to tell you who to vote for in this letter, but I will give you some objective information that you can use to compare candidates, and after considering the Scriptures outlined above, you can vote with confidence that you are voting biblically.

1)     Please take time to pray over the Primary Calendar;

2)     Study FRCAction’s Presidential Election Voter’s Guide (501c3 Compliant); and

3)     FRCAction’s Online Congressional Score Card (also 501c3 Compliant).

4)     Find voter resources from the Family Policy Councils in your state.

5)     Get more voter information at iVoteValues.org; Churches, organizations and organizers can obtain Voter Impact Toolkits HERE.

Please pass this on to your prayer network and urge the people you care about to study the candidates, compare their records, pray for the ones who best model the standards God has laid out for civil leaders and urge their friends and family to do the same.

Time is short. A swirl of spiritual confusion, misinformation and disinformation plagues American voters and a special type of confusion targets God’s people when the word politics is mentioned.

Unfortunately too many of God’s people follow the herd in their voting patterns, rather than leading by the plain teaching and wisdom of the Bible. This is no time for guessing games. The people, including a large percentage of the Christian population in Germany, rallied around Hitler’s promises to revive Germany, even though his book, Mein Kampf, outlined his demonic ideas and plans. The German people ignored all the spiritual roadsigns, and the entire world paid the price – especially the Jewish People. Martin Niemöller and Bonhoeffer took a strong Biblical stand, but the vast majority of the churches not only remained silent, but applauded what Hitler was doing.
 
Especially in the primaries, it is time for God’s people to vote Biblically. We may have to hold our noses and vote for somebody who does not meet God’s standard for public servants, choosing the better of the two party’s eventual nominees, but we should be able to stand before the Lord with a clean conscience, knowing that we obeyed his word. If we take God’s Word seriously and are obedient to Him, God could intervene and grant us a nominee who meets His standards.
 
But we must do our part.

Sources:
“Is Donald Trump a Modern-Day Cyrus?” Dr. Michael Brown