welcome to this episode of real Christianity my name is Dale Partridge retweet I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough the illogical and pastoral question this is 100% listener support audio Ministry of relearn. Org and for those who don't know our mission a tree learn.org is to educate and equip ordinary Christian to plant biblical confessional and missional house churches for more information just visit relearn. Org forward slash house all right guys if you're An American in less than one week we have probably the most important election of our lifetime
 and there are many Christians who are saying well you can't vote for name your candidate if you're a Christian you can't vote for Biden if you're Christian you can't vote for Trump if you're a Christian but then we have another group of Christians who are saying we'll both candidates are terrible so I'm not going to vote at all as Christians how are we to view the act of voting is this something that we are responsible to do what is the Bible say about voting to be discussing this and more but before I begin I just want to make a quick announcement about ultimate marriage were coming up here to the Christmas season and this is also a great time to Mark the beginning of working on your marriage January one is a great time to say work in a really work on our marriage this year but my wife and I have put together a beautiful 6 week program on building a
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 okay this is a great question Brad I think you're not alone in this desire and this concern in this frustration and I think a lot of people right now in the church are looking for clarity let me start with a few points and this is probably going to be a maybe a shorter episode but a few points and then I'll move into my personal interpretation and suggestions according to scripture so first off no you're not required to vote by scripture getting the there's no passage of scripture that's going to be able to you don't have jurisdiction on a command little say You must vote now I want you to hold on to that truth
 in one hand and in the other hand I want you to hold this truth you are required as a Christian to stand up for righteousness so you're not required to vote but you are required to stand up for righteousness now we're going to learn a little bit about how those my kind of overlay each other so let those two truths just in your hands for a moment and then let me brief you briefly I'm offer some foundational ground before I go further the current political climate here in America has two very polarizing political parties and that is the Democratic party and the Republican Party they're not defining and differentiating themselves by moderate positions
 they are defining and differentiating themselves by extreme positions and this wasn't always the case in American fact fifty to eighty years ago and back many Christians would regularly change political parties depending on the specific election candidates and policies and they could do that because then both parties were built on moderate differences on policy and minor differences on morality today that's not true today we have two political parties who are built on radical differences on policy in major differences on morality for example let's just look at the Liberal Party the AKA Democratic party and by its very definition to be liberal means that you are willing to take Liberty with moral political and societal Norms that that is you you you do not have a
 system of thought our philosophy or a worldview built on objective immovable truths but instead your worldview is built on subjective interpretive truths and this is why Liberals are also called quote progressives and I really believe they've hijacked that word to label their moral system that changes right and they made it seem like it's some sort of virtue because it's progressing I don't think that's a positive outlook so that this is the reason why you know because they believed his progression and change and not a movable objective truths this is why they're the party who supports the abortion under the guise of Better Health Care or the redefinition of marriage or the redesigning of the fan
 only in the shifting jurisdiction to Parenting the complete revision of gender under the banner of again love and open-mindedness this kind of again virtuous virtue signaling words there now I'm I'm I'm all about being open-minded but the only request I have is if you're going to be open-minded make sure you have an Open Bible next to it the question we have to ask ourselves as Christians is can we support a party who is built on this philosophy do we believe that as Christians Humanity can progress from God's truths in other words is morality moving is it fluid or is it static and so those are some core things to think about then on the other side you have the Republicans who are identified as generally is conservatives
 and unlike the Liberals whose main goal is to change conservative ISM their aim is to conserve moral political and societal norms and this is the reason to do the party who is trying to protect the lives of The Unborn or guard the definition of traditional in biblical order for the family family you're a gender and morality and Law & Order they're trying to conserve those things now to be clear on both sides Republicans and Democrats are secular structures and both sides are filled with people who will go to hell if they don't repent and believe in Christ so it just doesn't matter you know we've so elevated in the church conservative isn't and you know republicanism as if it's capable of saving it's not
 obviously the conservative party is more in alignment just from face value with Biblical values than a Democratic or liberal philosophy is and if you can't see this you need to go back and read your Bible some more anyone filled with the Holy Spirit should be experiencing the Deep anguish that comes with watching people operate in a manner that stands against God's truths now to get to the core question is standing for righteousness and using your American privilege right to vote connected are those two things connected is standing for righteousness cuz we are definitely called stand for righteousness throughout the scriptures and this opportunity and ability for us to go to those two connected in some capacity in other words it is not voting
 in this election an act of abandoning your call to stand for righteousness and I think there's an argument there and here's why I said earlier because this election is not differentiated by minor moral issues but by extreme moral issues a passivity in my opinion is not the correct posture for the Christian let me remind you that this election is about the most serious matters of life it's about can you legally kill your child can your seven-year-old change her gender can your children be taken from you if you don't permit gender or sexual transition will pastors have to violate their conscience and married same-sex couples will families before Stu to take vaccinations will churches be placed under strict governmental guidelines for Gathering will pedophilia become
 classified merely as a sexual preference will police not uphold Law and Order but fight crime with Venom Therapeutics will religious liberty be removed will our right to protect ourselves and our families be taken from us will the Bible be classified as hate speech these are life altering culture-changing core issues that people will and have died for historically another with these are not small matters that are up for grabs because this is the balance between two worldviews here objective truth and subjective truth immovable static truths that we are trying to conserve or move or at fluid changing values that change with the emotion of the day and you know these are gigantic matters and if
 if you want to opt out of casting your vote as a Christian for the party or for the individual who most aligns with your biblical system are you available value system then
 for me I can't see how you are failing to stand up for righteousness so that's my point there I want to offer you just a few biblical principles and to illustrations to support my position
 James 4:17 offers this unique blanket Truth at the end of chapter 4 that sums up his previous paragraph to regarding worldly behavior and personal convictions he says this quote he said quote so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him it is sin and this means that any person who is dealing with a personal conviction or an opportunity to participate in righteousness but instead betrays their conviction in doesn't do what they know is right this passage says that that is sent this is also the idea of maintaining a clear conscience before God and man regarding your duty as a follower of Christ to stand up for righteousness Paul and ask 2416 e talks about this he says in this View
 if you have this I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience before God and before men so having a clear conscience is critical in this is a I would say this is heavily a matter of conscience making a decision to vote and then to vote for what into stand for what and we're going to continue to talk about that more than me off you another illustration your room
 if you heard the cries of an infant at 40 weeks of being ripped apart by forceps and their brains were being sucked out of their skulls that was cracked open with a metal tool and you sat in the other room and listen to the screams of that baby and you did nothing as a Christian who knows what is right that would be sent for you and this is the sin of omission okay it's not the sin of commission you didn't kill a baby but you said idly by while it happened and this passage says it is of equal weight actually before the Lord the many Jewish Christians knew this well as they committed the sin of omission and violated the conscience of a sat in silence and watch the Jews be shipped off Slaughter systematically Before Their Eyes John Calvin once said the torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul
 I'm so having a clear conscience doing what is right is critical in other words knowing the will of God and not standing for righteousness when given the opportunity is of Greater fault or equal to then someone who is ignorant of God's Will and stands for evil I'm going to say that again because I want you guys to Grass this knowing the will of God and not standing for righteousness when given the opportunity is of Greater fault than someone who ignorant of God's will stands for evil
 this means that we are going to be held responsible for what we know and what we did the sin of omission is serious we want to call it passivity maybe but that's that's not an escape I John MacArthur actually shared a similar illustration when he said you were the only person who could make the decision whether you would want someone in power who believed in allowing the slaughtering of babies and someone who did not allow the slaughtering of babies and you were the only person to vote on the matter he says quote I think he would vote and you would vote for what is right as a Christian well in God's eyes he says you are that one person and I don't think a Christian can shirk that responsibility and quote now I know many Christians are hung up
 on all types of things especially the character of these two candidates and I get it trumps attitude and pride and arrogance are an absolute disgrace to this country Biden's dishonesty and pride and perverted outlook on morality is frightening and embarrassing but remember we're not voting for men were voting for policies and moral philosophies we're not voting for who is the more Godly person we're voting for the person who is most likely to uphold God's principles systematically legislatively in the country and our responsibility as Christians is to be advocates for righteousness okay that's our responsibilities to be advocates for righteousness we're ambassadors of the king who made a we were called to use our voice and our resources to uphold to the best of our ability the constitution of Heaven
 moral law of God we actually it's a verse in Philippians I wish I had it written down he says that our citizenship is in heaven meaning that word citizenship is the word poetry mod in the Greek and it's the idea that we are we are to fight for our citizenship there now we are not Democrats or Republicans we are not liberals or conservatives we are Christians and their people are going to always want to throw us into one side and they're going to hate the fact that we're not going to do identity politics that way I'm We Stand By no other name than Christ and so it's our job to represent the king in the way that we live in the opportunities given to us including a voting that's my position it's my opinion it's what I hope that you guys will take in consideration I'm going to close here
 with the 18th century Christian Statesman Edmund Burke's he had some famous words and you guys have probably heard that before he says and I quote the only thing necessary for the Triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
 all right guys as always I'm going to leave you with two resources that will offer further understanding of this topic and you can find them on the post page for this episode I'm realer. Org this is episode 117 does the bible call Christians to vote in the video that I want to share with you guys you guys to a hospital Inc there and it's John MacArthur and it's a title called will you're vote honor God there's also a podcast video interview with Doug Wilson titled 7 reasons Christian could vote without losing their soul and so it's a great conversation I think that'll help you think about these decisions and do them wisely make a Discerning decision it again at the end of the day this is a matter of conscience you're not required to vote you're going to stand before the Lord and answer for all things that you do and this is just a matter of what
 believe the Lord is convincing you to do according to the scripture according to the conviction of the holy spirit in your life guy's a regular listener to this podcast thank you your loyalty means a lot especially for those of you who support us financially it's a major deal to keep the show going to keep paying the stopped at the podcast into you no pay that the staff that at put these things on the website and I paying for my time so that I can spend you notes several hours right in these episodes and this is just we're just so thankful and so grateful for it if you guys want to continue to support our ministry you guys can do that always on her website suggestions. Org also a tree learn.org for donate and we would we promise to be faithful with those funds and even if you're just a regular listener would you guys consider doing $5 to $10 a month it's a small number but it actually makes a huge difference when many people make that
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