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We Don’t Sign Laws on Sunday. Why?

Should Christians care about voting or elections? Our citizenship is in heaven, but does that mean we are divested from involving ourselves in the town square of governing? It has been estimated that between 25 or 40 million people who identify as Christian didn’t vote in the last two elections. Estimates vary depending on who you read, but in both the last presidential election, 2020 and the last off year election, 2022, the United States had large swaths of evangelicals who didn’t go to the polls. Is not engaging in the direction of the country and community what a Christian is supposed to do?

We have another election coming up in less than a month. The direction of the country is once again at stake. If we care about our nation and our closer communities the best way to make that opinion known is to vote. Claiming to know Christ and reading the Bible are, or at least should be, your pathway to how you vote. We look to the Bible for our worldview and vote accordingly. Do you like the direction of the morals of the country? Do you like the direction of the economy? Do you like the taxation? Do you like how the infrastructure of the nation is being handled? Do you like how your tax dollars are being spent at home and overseas? The only things you really can do about it is pray and vote unless you want to enter the arena of politics yourself. The thought of being in politics isn’t for me. I’d rather take a beating. But good people need to be involved. Edmund Burke said, “All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Not voting is nothing.

What about keeping church and state separate? You never find that statement in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. It is included in a portion of a letter from Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Churches of Virginia. He was giving them assurance that the United States wouldn’t have a state church infringing on their rights to worship God as their conscience directed them. We know from Thomas Jefferson’s behavior that he didn’t mind God’s people being together as Christian even on government property. What was that behavior? Two days after he sent the letter to those Baptists in Danbury, he attended a church service in the House of Representatives room in Washington, DC. The founder’s fully intended Christians to be involved in their local and federal governments. Fifty-five of the fifty-six signers of the U.S. Constitution claimed to be Christians.

But I don’t like the candidates. Both candidates running for the highest office in the land today have a lot of baggage. A lot of baggage! That’s true, but until Jesus comes again and sets up the Millennial Kingdom, we will always have men and women with baggage. So, how do we decide who to vote for? It isn’t who has a “D” or “R” beside their name. It is the stated platform of the respective parties. What do those people running for president, or a congressional seat, say they believe about certain things and what has been their past track record while governing? That is the criteria to be used by Christians. Dr. Jordan Peterson is well known in medical and more recently cultural circles saying, “If you want to know what people will do in the future look at what they have done in the past.” That’s true unless the person has been transformed by the power of God. Do they believe in abortion? What does the Bible teach about the killing of innocent life? What if both the major candidates believe in abortion? Then you decide which has the least killing of the innocent. Nine-month abortion or 12-week abortion? Both are evil, but which one kills less? We vote for less. What about mutilating children with “gender affirming care?” In the state of Pennsylvania, the Governor, Tom Wolf (D), has spent 17 million dollars to fund sexual reassignment surgery on minors, all without legislative approval. There has been a 5000% jump in these type surgeries since 2015. These facts come from the Pennsylvania Family Institute. How should the Christian voters of Pennsylvania vote? The same way Christians should vote in Georgia, as Christians with a biblical worldview. Perhaps there aren’t enough Christians that a difference could be made, but we should at least give it a shot.

America had a biblical foundation at her conception. The Judeo-Christian under pinning’s of America can’t be denied. The most quoted book by the founder’s was the book of Deuteronomy. A majority of ideas they adhered to were biblical in their origins. Examples? I’ll give you a few.
• Exodus 18 gave them the idea of the representative form of government.
• Leviticus 19:34 & Deuteronomy 17:15 are verses concerning immigration. We are to treat immigrants with kindness the way we would like to be treated, but they are not to be in a place of authority. BTW, immigration is a huge deal in this upcoming election. Should non-citizens be voting? Should they be able to vote and give them monies from the public trough? Kindness but following the laws of the land should be the standard.
• Deuteronomy 17:6. If you are accused, the government needs to have at least two witnesses to condemn you. In America, it is supposed to be you are innocent until proven guilty. Innocence is presumed unless there is undisputable evidence against you.
• Isaiah 33:22. This verse is credited with giving the founders the idea of three co-equal branches of government.

Let me tell you something I recently learned. Did you know that President’s don’t sign, or veto bills that land on their desk on Sundays? Presidents can do three things with a bill. A fourth action can be taken by the legislature. 1. The president can sign it. 2. He or she can veto it. 3. He or she can let it languish for 10 days and it will automatically become law. Or 4. The legislature can have enough votes to override his veto. Why don’t they sign or veto bills on Sunday? It comes from Exodus 20:11. The Sabbath Day was to be a day of rest. After Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday, that day became “the” day that Christians set aside as their Sabbath Day because Jesus is their Sabbath. I checked several sources about no signings on Sunday.

The foundations of the United States were without a doubt religious. The Republic form of government was chosen because it was most compatible with the under pinning of a moral people, a Christian people. John Adams wrote, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Noah Webster (the dictionary guy) stated, "The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." Earlier I referenced a governor of PA. Let me quote a delegate PA at the beginning of the Republic when our Constitution was being written. His name was Gouverneur Morris. “I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals, and that morals are the only possible support of free governments. Therefore, education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God." He along with another delegate from PA named James Wilson are credited with including the words “We the People” in our Constitution.

We are a long way from the morals of the pilgrims, the puritans and those first citizens of the United States, but we should do our best to be salt and light. A huge part is to participate in the public square via the voting booth. We walk into the polling place; we stand behind the screen and do our civic duty. We vote like a Christian and encourage other Christians to do the same. We take our biblical worldview, make our choices, and leave the results to the Lord knowing that one day we all will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ.