Elections are the fruit, not the root, of morality...the thermometer, not the thermostat. American elections reveal the state of the human heart, but they have no power to change the human heart. What happened in this year's election is a further indicator that politics is not the ultimate answer to America's real problems. We should never abandon the political process and we should seek to elect officials that represent moral values. But, we have to be wise enough to recognize that the greater deficits we face in this land are in the realm of the spiritual rather than the financial. The moral decline of our nation is happening at a far greater pace than our monetary decline and the only biblical answer to that reality is the same one given to us in the first century...the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesse Johnson poignantly writes, "Politics are not an effective means of steering a culture’s morality. People are changed when the gospel is at work in their heart, and this is a work of the Lord. If Psalm 20 were written today, verse seven might say “Some trust in politicians, and others trust in elections, but we trust Yahweh.” If the goal is the glory of God revealed in the world, the means are evangelism and gospel faithfulness. If the goal is something more practical—such as fewer murders—the means are the same. The only tool God has given us is Spirit-empowered evangelism. I don’t mean this as a critique of Christians in government, nor as a justification for apathy. I’m thankful for those in government who recognize murder as evil, and for those who recognize that the government’s main job is to check evil. I simply mean that it is discipleship that changes lives, not voting..."
