God Gives us no Moral Litmus Test for President

AN ELECTION EMERGENCY ALERT

by Lynda Friesen

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY ALERT:  If you are a Christian who believes it wouldn’t be right to vote for Donald Trump, this alert is especially for you. You and those similarly-minded may well hold the fate of our nation in their hands.  #Never Trump Christians could, literally, decide this election.

My question is this:  How can you be so certain you have God all figured out on this, and He’d never approve of a vote for Donald Trump?

You might appear to believe you hold a more righteous standard than God does – because, as my pastor friend has observed:  God gives us no moral litmus test for civil leaders, only spiritual ones.  Therefore, any morality test we impose is a test of our own making.  It represents our preferred values and principles, but it is not something required by either Scripture or our Constitution.

To demand that God do things the way we would do them is presumption.  God tells us that His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.  To illustrate that fact, look at some of the leaders God chose to place over His people, which appear counter-intuitive to us:

• He used pagan kings Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar – although they certainly engaged in immoral and idolatrous practices forbidden by God.  God repeatedly called Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” (Jeremiah 25:9; 27:4-6; 43:10) even though Nebuchadnezzar was not a follower of God.
• God called King Cyrus His “shepherd” and His “anointed” to “fulfill all [His] purpose,” while acknowledging Cyrus didn’t even know God  (Isaiah 44:28; 45:11-13).
• God chose Moses and David, although AS BELIEVERS they were both murderers!  Knowing their histories, would we have voted for Moses or David?  Picture the scandal when breaking video reveals that David engaged in voyeurism as Bathsheba bathed; then had sex with her, although she was a married woman; then he plotted her husband’s murder when she became pregnant, in a conspiratorial coverup.  Imagine the reaction from God’s people!  And yet – knowing fully what David would do later in life – when God chose David to replace Saul as king, He said, “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after My heart, who will do all My will.”
• Then there’s Samson – the not-so-consecrated Nazarite and ruler-judge of Israel.  He lived a strange and ignoble life; we wouldn’t have been inclined to vote for him.  But in the end, at a critical time, he was precisely God’s man of the hour.  No one else could have done what he did.
• How about Peter, who denied the Lord three times?  He wouldn’t have gotten the Evangelical vote, either.

Yet look how God very deliberately chose to use all of these men, both Nonbelievers and Believers.

Given the record of Scripture, on what would we base an opinion that God would never choose to use a man like Donald Trump as our President, and that it would be an offense against God were we to vote for him?

Can we be so certain He does not plan to use Trump to address the many ills in our land that we have been crying out to Him about for years?  Consider Trump’s platform.  Are these not the very things we have been praying and working for, to curb our country’s headlong rush into tyranny and moral bankruptcy?

Trump’s goals as a whole are moral, anti-globalist positions which I believe are honorable before God:

• Pro-life.
• Constitutionalist/originalist judges who will uphold the law of our land.
• Honor/protect the Bill of Rights.
• Secure our borders.
• Rebuild the military.
• Take care of our veterans.
• Take care of our own people/nation first, as God ordains civil government to do.
• Rescind Obamacare.
• Reduce taxes and stimulate job creation.
• Fair trade rather than unfettered free trade.
• Protect the rights of Christians.
• Return issues like education to the states.
• Protect Israel.
• Bypass the labyrinthine Beltway impediments to getting things done and on reasonable budget.
• Reach out with real help for the Democrats’ pawns in our inner cities.
• Enforce the rule of law rather than special privilege.
• Drain the swamps of government corruption.

And so on.  (Contrast those with Hillary’s agenda, which is basically the exact opposite of Trump’s.)

So, since God provides us no moral test for civil leaders, and since He has chosen to use all sorts of flawed people in the past, how do we evaluate the candidates?  We evaluate them by their platforms and worldviews – by what they tell us they stand for and what they plan to do.  Just as Dr. John MacArthur and Dr. Wayne Grudem (theologian and seminary professor) – both esteemed, experienced Biblical thinkers – have enjoined us to do.  (As have many other Christian leaders).   Please take a moment to watch Dr. MacArthur’s short video and read Dr. Grudem’s article.  Both offer significant, wise, Biblical insights.

The reality is, both candidates are flawed, but one will surely become our next President.  While Trump’s platform honors God’s designs and purposes, Hillary Clinton’s agenda is openly, consistently God-defying and dangerous to our national security and sovereignty.

Given the record of Scripture, which of the two choices do you think would be most pleasing to God?