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    How Should Christians Vote?
    How Should Christians Vote?
    How Should Christians Vote?
    Ebook85 pages1 hour

    How Should Christians Vote?

    By Tony Evans

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    About this ebook

    Christians are a large and influential voting block today. But as each governmental election approaches, an increasing polarity occurs within those claiming the Christian faith. This comes as a result of party-voting rather than voting according to Biblical mandates and authority. To refocus correctly, Dr. Tony Evans goes back to the basics and teaches on how God established government as a divine institution whose tasks include promoting the well-being of those within its realm and protection from evil.

    Scripture trumps all political alliances making the voting decision a critical opportunity for Christians to promote God's Word and His values through whom they elect. In the face of increasing emotions the Christians representing God's kingdom values should communicate His truths in a manner reflective of the King - in a gracious and strategic way. Dr. Evans also looks at the necessary qualities in a good candidate which include intellect, education, competency, skill and spiritual beliefs - whether certain issues are non-negotiables, and how a responsible citizen is to research a candidates' position in order to evaluate it against God's Word.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMoody Publishers
    Release dateMay 1, 2012
    ISBN9780802483638
    Author

    Tony Evans

    Dr. Tony Evans is founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, and author of The Power of God’s Names, Victory in Spiritual Warfare, and many other books. Dr. Evans is the first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, as well as the first African American to author both a study Bible and full Bible commentary. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 2,000 US outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Learn more at TonyEvans.org.

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    • 5/5
      Rated: ADr. Evans makes a strong case that we are not on the Democrat's team or the Republican team. We are on God's team and need to vote in a way that honors Him. Character counts.>Many people want "God bless America" today. They just don't want "One nation under God.">We want God to sign off on our decisions rather than us following His.>The captain of the host of the Lord made it clear that he hadn't come to take sides. He had come to take over.
    • 2/5
      There is a certain strand of politicized Christianity running through the church, and while it has lessened in the last decade or so, it is still pervasive and problematic. It actually comes from two sides -- Dispensationalism on the Right, and Emergent on the Left. Evans is a case of the former, and this book is a really bad example of what a problem Dispensationalism creates when trying to accurately interpret the Bible.That problem is when the text is disconnected from what it actually means and attached to whatever goal the reader is trying to achieve (in this case, a political result). The Scriptures in this book is a wax nose to be twisted into whatever shape it needs to be to make it seem like God's Word is with Evans.In some cases it's the fear of Dispensational eschatology that causes Evans to interpret things the way he does. He believes that the anti-Christ is centralized government, and that fear causes him to label any centralized government as idolatrous (chapter 2). One wonders what he thought of David's centralized reign.In other times he is just desperate to make his own preferences a matter of theology. He likes division of power in the government. Me too. But in chapter 1, he states that the nature of the Trinity requires division of power in secular governments. Really?Or when he claims God divinely ordained the Republic form of government to be the right one in Exodus.These are goofy, but the saddest part of this book is the conclusion he comes to -- which is to follow your conscience in voting alone, and that we should not tell others that their vote is wrong. He does say that abortion is wrong (thankfully), but he allows for people to vote for abortion if their consciences tell them to.One of the jobs of a pastor is to guide his congregation in righteousness. To fail to make it clear in a book about Christian voting that voting for abortion is an outright sin and must be condemned is a horrible failing.In short, Evans takes things that are not commanded in Scripture (form of government, etc) and says that God has commanded these things, but then he takes something that is commanded in Scripture (that we mustn't murder) and refuses to affirm them.

    Book preview

    How Should Christians Vote? - Tony Evans

    Alternative

    GOD’S SYSTEM OF CIVIL

    GOVERNMENT

    Many, if not most, Christians begin with the wrong question of who they should vote for rather than the more important question of how they should vote . Asking the correct question is fundamental to knowing how to arrive at the correct answer.

    If you were to come to me with your personal life in shambles and you didn’t know which way to turn, and you said, Tony Evans, help me, I would open up my Bible, identify the cause of your personal dilemma, and speak God’s truth about your situation—giving you God’s resolution for whatever it is that you are facing.

    If you were to come to me with your family life in shambles with both you and your spouse seeking a divorce because of chaos in your home, and you said, Tony Evans, help me, again I would open up my Bible, identify the cause of your familial dilemma, and present to you God’s solution for whatever it is that you are facing.

    If you were a pastor of a church and you came to me with your deacons or elder board because your church was in shambles, everyone was arguing, and your congregation was confused, and you said, Tony Evans, help us, I would open the very same Bible that I used to help the individual and the family, and I would identify the cause for the chaos based on the Word of God, seeking to prescribe biblical solutions for the calamity in your church.

    In other words, Scripture would not only solve the individual and family divisions, but it would also solve the ecclesiastical confusion. This is because Scripture holds the final and authoritative answer on all of life’s concerns. In fact, every question facing us today has two answers: God’s answer and everyone else’s. And when those two differ, everyone else is wrong.

    Yet where do we often go for answers as a nation when there is chaos in our country? Where do we turn for solutions when we are experiencing moral, social, and economic decline at a rate that is able to destroy our country before our youngest generation even has a chance to grow up? What do we do when divisions, debt, and our own internal protests across our land threaten what little stability we have left?

    What most Christians do, unfortunately, is change books. When it comes to politics and elections, far too many Christians spend more time appealing to family, history and tradition, culture, racial expediency, and personal preference than they do to what the Bible teaches. While Scripture is good enough for individuals, families, and churches, it seems that somehow it has been deemed insufficient for how we respond to politics and government.

    Yet the same book that can restore a person, home, or church is the very same book that can restore and transform our nation. Friend, we don’t need to change books. In fact, it is precisely because we have changed books that the chaos in our country has gotten worse than ever before.

    GOD IS IN CHARGE,

    AND ALONE SITS AS THE ULTIMATE

    GOVERNMENT OVER HIS CREATION.

    It astounds me that in all of the talk permeating the airwaves, around watercoolers, over dinners, and among Christian friends concerning the elections, candidates, parties, and platforms—how little a biblically based theistic worldview seems to enter the equation. God may get dropped in here or there on one issue, or perhaps two. But that is not good enough. Unless God and His revealed Word is the overarching influencer and rationale over how our electoral decisions are made as believers, then we cannot expect God to be the overarching influencer in our nation. Nor can we expect God to pour out His blessings on us as a country when He has been similarly marginalized, and at times even dismissed, from the equation.

    GOD RULES

    My fellow believers, it is time to return to the Book. It is time to look to the one source that holds the answers for how our country should operate, the Bible. And to do so, I want to start with the foundational principle upon which all else should rest concerning how a Christian should vote. This principle is located in the book of Romans where we read, "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God" (Romans 13:1, emphasis added).

    God is in charge, and alone sits as the ultimate government over His creation. All other governments are then to reflect His ultimate rule. It is as straightforward, and as complex, as that. Scripture tells us clearly that there is no authority apart from God. Not only that, but we read that any governing authorities put in place have been established by God. Now that doesn’t mean that the people filling the positions within the governing authorities are intentionally serving God or that their decisions are in line with God—because many, if not most, are not. But the institution of governmental authority has been created, decreed, and established by God underneath His sovereign control.

    For this reason, God cannot be removed from believers’ involvement or representation in government because laws are made based on belief systems. Since the Christian’s belief system or worldview is to be derived from the Bible, then out of necessity it should inform our politics and therefore should inform our vote.

    A quick word on sovereignty before we move on because an accurate understanding of this principle is critical to formulating a believer’s worldview on voting. Sovereignty simply means that God is accountable to no one. All things are either caused by Him or permitted by Him. To acknowledge His sovereignty means to recognize His jurisdiction, along with the validity of His supremacy, over every area of life (Psalm 103:19; Romns 11:36).

    What humanism often does is offer an insufficient understanding of the sovereign purpose and work of God. These

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