PART I:
There are those that believe both McCain and Obama are evil. There
are those who believe both are liars and murderers. What I hope to show
from Scripture is that all leaders except Jesus Christ have been evil at
some time or another but that did not stop them from having a leadership
position or being voted into power.
If both are seen as evil, is there any hope to
vote?
No one
denies that the lesser of two evils is still evil.
What is
evil?
Are you
evil?
Am I
evil?
Is the
world evil?
Evil is
the moral badness, or the deviation of a moral being from the principles
of virtue imposed by conscience, or by the will of the Supreme Being, or
by the principles of a lawful human authority; disposition to do wrong;
moral offence; wickedness; depravity. (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary)
If evil
can be taken as the moral badness or the deviation of a moral being from
the principles of virtue imposed by the will of the Supreme Being, then
all of us are evil.
“The LORD
saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every
inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the
time.” (Genesis 6:5, NIV)
"This is
the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny
overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there
is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the
dead. (Ecclesiastes 9:3, NIV)
Since the
hearts of men moreover are full of evil all the time, every choice we
make between human beings is going to be based on choosing the lesser of
the two evils.
According
to God’s standards, none of us are good! If we are not good then we are
bad. The entire human race has been run by bad people except when Jesus
walked the earth. Jesus in his humanity was the only perfect leader.
“The LORD
looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who
understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together
become corrupt;
there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:2-3, NIV)
“All have
turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who
does good, not even one." (Romans 3:12, NIV)
There is
no one who does good but yet the Lord chooses leaders for Israel and
leaders to spread the Gospel to the nations.
I decided
to look at some leaders from the Bible that God chose through direct
intervention, prophets, or his servants. God knows the hearts of mankind
and the wrongs they would do in the future and yet he chooses those
leaders.
Noah:
After the
flood, God gave Noah a Covenant reminding him that He will never destroy
the earth again through a flood. Noah must have been ecstatic after
God’s Noahic Covenant with him.
“And God
said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you
and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to
come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of
the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the
earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant
between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again
will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow
appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting
covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the
earth.’ So God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I have
established between me and all life on the earth.’” (Noah 9:12-17, NIV)
God just gave him a victory. These days
when people get a victory, many like to celebrate by drinking which is no different from what Noah did. After God
gave him the Noahic Covenant, Noah decides to plant a vineyard and gets
drunk. He got so drunk that he was naked. Two of his sons did not want
to shame him so they cover him.
“Noah, a
man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of
its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.” (Noah
9:20-21, NIV)
When God
chose Noah to build an Ark, God also knew what Noah would do in the future
and yet chose him to do God’s work. No one agrees that getting drunk is
good. If it is not good then it is bad. If something is bad it has a
degree of evil no matter how small that degree it. Noah was not perfect
and yet God chose him to be a leader. True, he was chosen as a leader
before he was drunk and yet God who knows the hearts of mankind chose
him.
"Never
again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every
inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I
destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21, NIV)
Every
inclination of man’s heart is evil from childhood and yet God chose Noah
who is part of the human race.
Abraham:
God gave
Abram a covenant that his descendants will be numerous as the stars of
heaven but Abram was no perfect leader. God chose Abram even
though God knew what evil he would do later.
Abram
was so selfish and scared for his own life when he was with the
Egyptians that
he introduced his wife as his sister to Pharaoh to save his own life. If he told
the Pharaoh the truth he felt that Pharaoh would kill him to have his
wife. He was willing to prostitute his wife so payment won’t be in money
but payment would be having his life spared. I believe God foresaw this
evil but still used Abram to accomplish his work.
“As he
was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a
beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say,
‘This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say
you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my
life will be spared because of you.’ When Abram came to Egypt, the
Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh's
officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into
his palace. He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep
and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and
camels.’” (Genesis 12:11-16, NIV)
Abram
became a selfish liar to save his own life and made Sarai into a liar
too! No one would consider being a liar to save one’s own life to be
considered good. If it is not good then it is evil. Good and evil are
used as opposites in the Garden of Eden.
“And the
LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-trees that were
pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the
garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil.” (Genesis 2:9, NIV)
Even
though Abram was a liar, God still decided to use him to be the leader
of the Jewish people.
“He took
him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if
indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your
offspring be.’ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as
righteousness.” (Genesis 15:5-6, NIV)
Right now
I looked at a drunk and a liar used by God to do His work.
Moses:
Moses was
a prince of Egypt who was in a leadership position in Egypt being a
prince. One day he finds out that he is not an Egyptian but actually a
Hebrew. As he watches the Hebrew slaves working, he murders an Egyptian
to save a Hebrew
“When
Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from
Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.”
(Exodus 2:15, NIV)
At Midian,
for 40 years he was a shepherd of a flock of sheep before God called him
to become a shepherd of the flock of Israelites, the Hebrews.
“So now,
go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of
Egypt." But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh
and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ And God said, ‘I will be with
you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you:
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on
this mountain." (Exodus 3:10-12, NIV)
Is it not possible that when McCain or Obama
decided to run for
president, they could have felt that God wanted them to run for president
to help bring changes to the nation ?
Moses was
guilty of evil for murdering an Egyptian but that did not stop God from
choosing Moses to be a leader. But it is interesting when God gave Moses
the Ten Commandments that has to do with humankind, the first of the six has to do with ‘Thou shalt not murder’. God
was reminding Moses after 40 years that murder was still wrong. The
first four of the Ten Commandments has to do with our horizontal
relationship with the Lord.
Now I
looked at a murderer who God used to do His work! So far, I have looked
at a drunk, liar, and murderer who were given leadership positions.
David:
God
appointed a shepherd boy to be king of Israel. David had faith in God
but he faltered when he saw a beautiful woman bathing. Her name was
Bathsheba and he wanted her even though he was married and she was
married. He had her brought to her and had sex with her and later found
out she was pregnant. To hide his sin, he tries to have her husband
Uriah who is in David’s army to sleep with her so when Uriah finds out
she is pregnant, he would think it is his child. Uriah decides not to
because a war was going on. David ran out of options and sent him
deliberately into the front line of battle to be killed.
“One evening David got up from his bed
and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a
woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to
find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of
Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers to
get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified
herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman
conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." (2 Samuel
2:5, NIV)
“Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel
and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are
camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink
and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a
thing!" Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I
will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the
next. At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made
him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among
his master's servants; he did not go home. In the morning David wrote a
letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the
front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he
will be struck down and die." (2 Samuel 2:11-15, NIV)
If David
was a leader of the 21st century and what David did came out,
it would be a scandalous event and people would shout to oust him from
the leadership of the kingdom. David was a deceiver who made Uriah drunk
so he would sleep with Bathsheba but it backfired. So as an adulterer he
turned into murderer to hide what he did. God was not pleased with David
and it cost him his first son with Bathsheba. What David did was
definitely evil! God sent the prophet Nathan to address David and his
sin. When Nathan shared with David a story about a ewe lamb and what
happened to it, David became furious. Later, Nathan let David see that
it is he who he was talking about.
“Why did you despise the word of the LORD
by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite
with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the
sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from
your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the
Hittite to be your own.” (2 Samuel 12:9-10, NIV)
David
does repent of his wrong doing later and his life is spared.
“Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have
sinned against the LORD.’” (2 Samuel 12:13)
King
David was seen as doing evil in the sight of the Lord but he was still
given the opportunity to rule the nation after he repented. We have seen
a drunk, lair, adulterer, and murderer have leadership positions.
Peter:
Peter
denied Jesus three times after spending three years with Jesus and
promising not to deny Him. Peter did not want to get arrested so he
denies Jesus around Jesus’ trial. Jesus knew that was going to happen
even before it happened. Jesus even told Peter what he was going to do
before he did it. Yet, after Peter does it, Jesus does not deny Peter in
the end and Peter becomes a great apostle.
“Peter declared, ‘Even if all
fall away, I will not.’ ’I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered,
‘today--yes, tonight--before the rooster crows twice you
yourself will disown me three times. But Peter insisted emphatically,
‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And all the
others said the same.” (Mark 14:29-31)
"He began to call down
curses on himself, and he swore to them, "I don't know this man you're
talking about." Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then
Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: "Before the rooster
crows twice you will disown me three times." And he broke
down and wept.” (Mark 14:71-72, NIV)
Peter denied Jesus three times but repented! We know he repented
because we have it in the Word of God. It is very possible that McCain
or Obama could
have repented of their wrongdoings too!
"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are
looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is
not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples
and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see
him, just as he told you.'"(Mark 16:6-7, NIV)
I am
amazed every time I read this verse because the angel of the Lord did
not just say, ‘But, go tell his disciples’ which would include
Peter as one of the disciples. Instead, the angel of the Lord
specifically mentions ‘and Peter’ mentioning Peter by name. The
Lord wanted Peter to know that He was being restored even though Peter
denied Jesus.
We have seen a drunk, lair, adulterer, murderer, and a denier have
leadership positions.
Deborah:
Deborah,
a prophetess was leading Israel at a time when they were oppressed
because of the evil they had done. Sisera and his army were oppressing
them as a punishment. In their oppression, the Israelites called out to
God and the Lord rescued them. Deborah had prophesized that Sisera would
die by the hands of a woman after the Israelites cried out to the Lord.
“After
Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who
reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in
Harosheth Haggoyim. Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had
cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the
LORD for help. (Judges 4:1-3, NIV)
Deborah
speaks to the Israelites, "The LORD , the God of
Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali
and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the
commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the
Kishon River and give him into your hands.'" (Judges 4:6-7, NIV)
Sisera
did die by the hands of a woman when his army got defeated and he fled
on foot to take refuge in a tent.
I
believe God gave Saddam Hussein into the hands of the allies who went to
war in Iraq to rescue many of the oppressed Iraqis and give them
freedom. When Saddam’s army started to fall, Saddam fled and hid in a
hole but he was caught later.
As
Deborah was the leader of the Israelites, Bush has been the leader of
the U.S. to rescue the oppressed
Iraqis. As I
look at leaders from Scripture and the evil they did in the sight of the
Lord, it could be easy to think how they could be given authority to
still be leaders. Yet, the Lord used them.
As I think about McCain and Obama, I know both of them have done evil
according to Biblical standards. But in comparison, I believe Obama
supporting abortion and gay marriage is more evil than what McCain maybe accused of.
Evil is evil but there are degrees of evil. Even when leaders commit an
evil, it is not hard to think that they do not go to the Lord and repent
of it.
No one
is good and since no one is good, all are evil. As humans, no one likes
to think of themselves as evil or those they support. Yet what is evil
is not defined by humans but by the Lord. So when it comes to voting for
the lesser of evil, I choose McCain.
If the Lord used fallible humans and
those who committed evil to accomplish his work, is it not conceivable
to think that God can still use people who are thought of as evil to
accomplish his work when they repent of their wrongdoing?
Does not God want abortion to be
outlawed?
Does not God want Gay marriages to be
outlawed?
There
are other issues too but I believe these two issues as I have written in
two past articles are the core issues that will determine how this
nation will be judged. Again, this however does not mean other issues
such as care for the poor, etc mentioned in those articles are not
important or God does not care for them! Those articles will be reposted
with any updated revisions.
I
believe the Lord wants to use His children to pick the leaders who will
be for the life of the unborn and against gay marriage and other issues
will fall in place as they seek the Lord. This is the way I see it and
this is my take from studying Scripture and applying it to politics.
I believe that McCain is a Christian and does
repent of his wrongdoings. Since McCain wants to protect the unborn,
protect the sanctity of marriage, and many other things that will make
America stronger, would you join me in giving your vote to McCain?
Even
among pastors, church leaders, Christian musicians, etc God’s grace is
shown when they have sinned whether it is engaging in the evil of
pornography, having an adulterous affair, etc.
I have heard
inspirational stories of God’s grace and restoration even after what
some church leaders felt was the evil done by them. Yet, the Lord in His
mercy restored them using others to restore them back to leadership once
the leaders repented.
Should we not show mercy to our leaders
as we seek the Lord in prayer?
I believe our leaders should be shown mercy whoever it is whether it
is McCain or Obama if they have repented and want to do right. I believe
McCain wants to do right and promote a culture of life. As stated before
abortion and gay marriage are the two crucial issues for me! Obama wants
abortion to be legal and not have a Federal Marriage Amendment.
I
believe as followers of Christ, we have an obligation to choose our
leaders as we seek the Lord in prayer and give our vote. Whether they
are Democrats or Republicans, it bothers me when they are Pro-Choice and
for Gay Marriage. We should not vote on a party line but on issues
as we seek the Lord in prayer. When we vote we should have the
satisfaction we did it for the honor and glory of the Lord and not for
our selfish reasons.
We have
a presidential candidate who is against abortion and gay marriage and we have an opportunity
to put him in the White House even though he happens to be a Republican. I
don’t think along party lines but along crucial moral issues such as
abortion and gay marriage.
Will you take the vote the Lord has given
you and choose a leader for this nation?
If all
followers of Christ have the mentality that both candidates are evil and
so we should not vote for any of them, it won’t nullify the elections.
The election will still take place and we would still get a president
but it could be a president who supports the slaughter of the unborn by
his unwillingness to fight for the unborn and his indirect support of
Gay Marriage by not supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment.
That is why as I trust the Lord, I am voting for McCain among other reasons stated
in the previous articles I have solely written and editorials approved
by our editorial board.
