While it is right for Christians, indeed everyone, to take a real interest in the election of our Government for the next 5 years there is a real danger of us thinking that as long as the party we support gets in then the country will be better off. It is clear from the Bible that authorities are established by God and are therefore good for us (Romans 13, Colossians 1:16) but Psalm 146 reminds us that we would be foolish to put our trust in them to sort the country out and to enact the policies that will turn the country into something that resembles the new creation that Christians can look forward to.
Psalm 146
1 Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.
Do we "put our trust in princes", Prime Ministers, Ministers or MPs? If we do, as I am often tempted, then verse 3 reminds us that they are mere "mortal men", they will soon return to the ground and they cannot save - quite simply, we expect too much of our leaders. Whether it be Gordon Brown, David Cameron or even the fresh faced Nick Clegg, we would be foolish to put our trust in any of them. Ultimately "Their plans come to nothing". This is quite a challenge to my thinking.
Instead of us putting our hope in Gordon Brown to sort out our broken politics, David Cameron to sort out our broken society or Nick Clegg to sort out our broken economy we are to have our hope only in God v5 - it is he who brings blessing not our leaders.
After all, it is He who made the "heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them", it is he who "upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry", it is He who "gives sight to the blind", it is he who "lifts up those who are bowed down", it is He who "watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow" and it is He who "frustrates the ways of the wicked". It is He who "reigns forever". Compared to a God like this, it's pretty obvious that our hope is misplaced if it is just in our politicians.
So while our politicians "cannot save" v3, we have a God who can, who has. All mankind is in a desperate situation, we have rejected the authority of our creator God of the Universe and decided instead to put our trust in the things of this world. And yet, "Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God" v5. God gave his one and only Son to die for us so that he could do what mere mortal simply cannot, save us.
Psalm 146 is very clear, I must be careful where I put my trust.
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Who should we vote for?
So, whether we like it or not (and I must confess that I certainly do) it is election time! What does this mean for Christians? Should we vote at all? What should we look for in a political party? Who should we vote for? These are all big questions and in answer to the latter I wrote this comment on a friend's facebook status (this was in reply to other comments so not all the important issues are discussed nor are the ones discussed here given their fair weighting - but it offers some thoughts on voting):
"When we vote Christians should be looking at how we are being loving towards others (a biblical command)- God has revealed the best way for us to live for our own benefit and so we want to vote for a party which promotes those ways because we trust God that that is what's best for the people of the country.
The Lib Dems do not only have a totally flawed moral compass which should grieve us(think of ethical issues like abortion), but their whole world view is wrong, they call themselves "progressivists" ie. they want the society to 'break the shackles of the past and strive for a "better" future' - while this sounds good, it does not work. This approach is unbiblical as it suggests that 'we know best' and not God. No party is perfect on these matters but I would suggest the Lib Dems are the worst of a pretty bad bunch.
Labour will bankrupt the country (their economic policy has been awful - huge amount of wasteful spending over the years has meant that we now have a huge national debt acting as a ball and chain on the economy preventing the growth we need out of the recession - we're in a worse state than almost every other country in the world, other than Greece & Ireland), their tax and spend policies in the next few years will only create more debt - no thanks very much!
Which leaves us with the best of a bad bunch. The Conservatives seem to have a sensible economic policy which means that we have to pay off the debts soon so the economy can be released to grow. They have the best policy on ethical issues of the three parties by a long way and have a big emphasis on the family which i think is entirely biblical and should be encouraged.
Another really important thing that I didn't really mention is the importance of the government to allow Christians to speak about and express their beliefs, the Conservatives have the best record on this, lib dems have the worst record (in my opinion!) and labour have done pretty poorly over the last 13 years too - as Christians what we say and do is more restricted than ever before. Again no party is perfect on this, but who's the best of a bad bunch?"
Two essential websites are:
The Christian Institute website and The Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience - sign the declaration and email your candidates to ask them to support it and 'respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs and act according to Christian conscience’.
"When we vote Christians should be looking at how we are being loving towards others (a biblical command)- God has revealed the best way for us to live for our own benefit and so we want to vote for a party which promotes those ways because we trust God that that is what's best for the people of the country.
The Lib Dems do not only have a totally flawed moral compass which should grieve us(think of ethical issues like abortion), but their whole world view is wrong, they call themselves "progressivists" ie. they want the society to 'break the shackles of the past and strive for a "better" future' - while this sounds good, it does not work. This approach is unbiblical as it suggests that 'we know best' and not God. No party is perfect on these matters but I would suggest the Lib Dems are the worst of a pretty bad bunch.
Labour will bankrupt the country (their economic policy has been awful - huge amount of wasteful spending over the years has meant that we now have a huge national debt acting as a ball and chain on the economy preventing the growth we need out of the recession - we're in a worse state than almost every other country in the world, other than Greece & Ireland), their tax and spend policies in the next few years will only create more debt - no thanks very much!
Which leaves us with the best of a bad bunch. The Conservatives seem to have a sensible economic policy which means that we have to pay off the debts soon so the economy can be released to grow. They have the best policy on ethical issues of the three parties by a long way and have a big emphasis on the family which i think is entirely biblical and should be encouraged.
Another really important thing that I didn't really mention is the importance of the government to allow Christians to speak about and express their beliefs, the Conservatives have the best record on this, lib dems have the worst record (in my opinion!) and labour have done pretty poorly over the last 13 years too - as Christians what we say and do is more restricted than ever before. Again no party is perfect on this, but who's the best of a bad bunch?"
Two essential websites are:
The Christian Institute website and The Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience - sign the declaration and email your candidates to ask them to support it and 'respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs and act according to Christian conscience’.
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