Should Christians Vote?

[missmuffet]

33 minutes ago, The_Patriot21 said:

We've had this talk before. A lot of confusion can be avoided if you read a person's entire post with the intent of understanding it. 

I did read the posts and I believe the conversation was between Alive and myself.

[The_Patriot21]

2 hours ago, missmuffet said:

I did read the posts and I believe the conversation was between Alive and myself.

Then perhaps work harder on understanding, because a cursory reading of his posts show him to not be saying what your accusing him of saying in the slightest. Not even closely.

The best case scenario is your not understanding him. I would hate to think you were intentionally twisting his words to fit an agenda. 

In any case, I just don't like seeing posts get detailed because of someones misunderstanding.

[Alive]

Duel citizenship, just as Paul did when he claimed it.

Anyway, I love my family, friends and neighbors and I wish them well.

I prefer they live safe and peaceful lives as much as is possible, whether elect or not.

Policy matters. I prefer less truly evil violent people are around them and my wife and I. On our short street of about 20 houses there are two retired pastors and one active as well as several believers. I prefer the best for them until the Lord returns or they pass on.

[chirpy]

The world is full of darkness/evil.  But we have been told by our Lord to be a light to the world. To present the world with a hope, an understanding that evil will be removed when our Lord establishes His kingdom.

To not fight the evil, to say we are to not be apart of the world would mean we would be hiding our light.  We are to maintain God's values, not the worlds values and that will make us separate and different.  But to shine our Lords light with His spirit in us, we need to be seen and heard in the world.

Maybe if, we were more involved in the world - maybe we would have better choices to vote for.... but we have to do our best, fight the evil and shine our light when and where we can for as long as we can.

[doctrox]

From the OP:

Should Christians Vote?

When elections come up, people usually choose between the “lesser of two evils.” But we have to remember that there is no such thing as the lesser of two evils. Evil is evil, and there are no degrees of evil (James 2:10). So, whoever came up with that phrase, “the lesser of two evils” is a liar. And, when you do vote, you are not voting for the lesser of two evils, they admit that you are voting for evil.

It doesn't matter what promises anybody makes, they never keep them anyway. But what spirit are they of? Are they of Christ or are they anti-Christ? That's all we have to look at.

Why is it evil to elect men? Well, it's because you are electing men to rule over you. Similarly to what happened to Israel when they went to Samuel and told him they wanted to be ruled by men, like other nations (1 Samuel 8:4), and God said to Samuel, "they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). Therefore, if we would vote to have men rule over us, when we have the offer of the Kingdom of God to rule over our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:7), we are rejecting God's rule over us.

There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). This has to do with voluntary servitude. If you turn your back on God you become servants to men. When you go out and vote, you are saying, “I am a servant of men and I want these men to rule over me.” You are putting men in the place of God, and that's a usurpation of God and it's also idolatry. And if you're looking to men, God is not sufficient.

And you know, God has already given us a King (Acts 17:7). God did not leave anyone here to rule over us. Actually, Christ refused to set up a worldly kingdom. That was one of the temptations Jesus was tempted with in the wilderness. The Devil showed him “all the kingdoms of the world” (Matthew 4:8), and that must have been one of the greatest temptations that Christ was faced with, to set up a kingdom and rule the earth. I mean, just think of all the good he could have done!

And that's the kind of temptation that men think, when they say, “if only we could get a good man into power.” But, it's never going to happen because power corrupts, and another reason is the heart of man is evil (Genesis 6:5; 8:21, Ecclesiastes 8:11, Jeremiah 17:9). And you're pretty much at their mercy once you've given them approval.

The State is set in place for dishing out privileges. They claim to serve the public, but at the same time they don't freely give anything. There's a duty attached to everything, and that's not the way that we're supposed to give. We're not going to change anything by voting the right people in government, because even if we got the right people in, it still wouldn't change the heart of the people. It's the heart of the people that needs to be changed on an individual basis. We, individually, need to turn our lives over to the King of kings. Voting is not going to do any good, and people are beginning to realize that. That's why the voter turnout is so bad, and people are fed up with the fact that they can't change anything.

And the system is so corrupt that vote scam is so blatantly out in the open, and most people know that “the people” don't vote, and politicians get elected by those behind the scenes. Prior to the Civil was, there were no secret ballots, everyone voted in the open. The word “ballot” comes from “ball lot,” they cast their lot with either a white ball or a black ball (that's where the term “blackballed” comes from). But, with secret voting, the so-called powers that be can manipulate that vote any way they like, and that's why they keep their own people in power. And of course it's even better for them now with computers. The secret ballot originally came from Australia:

Australian Ballot: A system of secret voting whereby the voter indicates his choice of the candidates who have been nominated by a mark alongside the name of the candidate thus chosen. The system originates in Australia, whence its name. Rayden's Law Dictionary, 1954.

And that's why, today, we have no idea whether the actual vote count is true or not. All of the voting laws stem from the Reconstruction Acts after the Civil War. They passed a Voting Act in 1865-1866. Voting is an “elective franchise” and it is a “privilege” granted by the State. The word “privilege” comes from the Latin “privus” and “legis, and that means private law. So when you receive any kind of privilege from government, you are engaging in a private law, the law of the law merchant. That's what all the government officials are for, for this corporate government, which exists for business, for the economy. And the word economy is just another word for mammon (Luke 6:9-13). So you're electing those to give you all the privileges of the wealth of the world. To a large extent it's socialistic. But when you're engaged in a private law, you're not involved in the Law of God, which is NOT private law. You turn your back on God when you look to those things.

When you look at the definition of “bribe” we always think of a bribe to a government official as the only kind of bribe there is. But what about when they make all these promises of what they're going to do for you and everything if you'll vote for them, that's really a bribe also. And I think everyone should consider that. When politicians make all kinds of promises, they're saying, “I'll do this for you if you vote for me.” That's the same thing as a bribe.
 

Bribe: “Anything of value, any gift, advantage or emolument, any price, reward or favor. Any money, goods, right in action, property, thing in value, or any preferment, advantage, privilege or emolument, or any promise or undertaking to give any asked, given or accepted, with a corrupt intent to induce or influence action, vote, or opinion, or person in any public or official capacity. It is a gift not necessarily for pecuniary value bestowed to influence the conduct of the receiver and must be of substantial value to him.” Black's Law Dictionary.

So what you see is when these politicians make all these promises, they are really bribing you for your vote.

"Bribery: A candidate for a judgeship who pledges himself, if elected, to serve at a less salary than that provided by law, virtually bribes the masses to vote for him." A Dictionary of Law, William C. Anderson, page 136.

And once the vote is cast, then they break their promises all the time. So, they're actually offering a bribe, and not necessarily coming up with it.

“Every people looks primarily to its own benefit...Every government is organized selfishness. It is constituted for the food of its constituents. The Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America embodies this explicitly as the object of its adoption. It is the embodiment of a scheme, devised by the people of the United States to form a more perfect union of states then imperfectly united, to establish justice among themselves, to insure their domestic tranquility, to provide for their own defense, to promote their general welfare and to secure the blessings of liberty, not to the world at large, but to themselves and their prosperity.” (A Yale Law Review from 8 Yale Law 159, page 165, which is from a book called The People Of The United States, Simeon E. Baldwin, 1899).

This fellow was a lawyer, so they know what government is all about, and it's all for the benefit of the people. We don't find Christ there, it's men ruling other men, giving benefits to one another. And when the natural man gives a benefit to you, there's a duty attached to it. There's no “freely” giving (Matthew 10:8) and expecting nothing in return, as scripture tells us. We are not to touch the unclean thing (2 Corinthians 6:17), and when you vote and become a beneficiary of the franchise, you are joining yourself to the unclean. And we have to take those things into consideration.

Every man believes he has a right in the outcome of the destiny of society. This is a myth. If God directs men to move in a way that's led by God, then no vote can change the Will of God. The “voter registration” is secular man's faulty reasoning that he, in and of himself, can save all, if you just give him enough power, more money, more…more…more…and still more. As soon as you put your “X” on that thing that votes for that politician, you become part of the world, you voted to be ordered around. The politician needs your consent to crack a whip over your head, make you feel like the animal that you have partaken of. You are now part of the zoo of humanity.

Bondmen of Christ cannot vote because that would be violence or force. We are not into using force, you cannot force the Kingdom of God, you cannot force people to love, you cannot force your love on others, you cannot force people to be free, because that requires violence to enforce it. And "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal" (2 Corinthians 10:4).

In the Old Testament, the people "voted" to kill Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:10). Right after they voted, God said, "...How long will this people provoke me? ...I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them," (Numbers 14:11-12), but Moses asked for mercy and God pardoned their evil ways. In the New Testament, during the trial of Christ Jesus, Pontius Pilate let the people "vote" between Barabbas and Jesus as to who they wanted set free (Matthew 27:17). The Pharisees whispered lies in the people's ears so they would vote the way they wanted them to vote. This "voting privilege" allowed Jesus to be crucified!

By receiving a privilege or benefit from the government, we are gaining the favor of rulers; but scripture says, "Many wait on the favor of rulers; but justice comes to a man from the LORD" (Proverbs 29:26). In other words, those who look to the favor of governments will not really get justice, which is one reason why many people complain there is no justice in today's courts, no matter WHO they vote for. Why? Because voting does not bring about justice, in brings about injustice! Why does in bring about injustice? Because people do not "vote" to do God's Will, they "vote" to have people do their own will, for selfish reasons, and the consequences of selfishness is always injustice.

In conclusion, voting is very unscriptural.