The foundation of our nation is the Word of God.  Looking at the public square today, it is hard to believe that the Bible is the source and wisdom of all of America’s founding documents.  Frederick Douglas was a black minister who served four different presidents.  He was one of the most politically engaged individuals of his day and his accomplishments are numerous.  He said of politics,  “The best expression of it, I have found in the Bible.  This constitutes my politics-the negative and positive of my politics and the whole of my politics…I feel it my duty to do all in my power to infuse this idea into the public mind.”  What was he saying?  Everything he did in politics was based only on the Bible.  What we do in politics should be based ONLY upon the Word of God, nothing else.

 

 

How do we measure the righteousness of a nation, a state, a county or a city?  We can only measure them by their public policies and how they conform to God’s standards.  We DO NOT measure them by personalities, parties or individuals. A public policy can impact every citizen even those who disagree with it.

 

A biblical example of a whole nation being impacted by the actions of one leader is King Ahab.  King Ahab demonstrated religious persecution, eminent domain (the taking of private property) and suborning perjury (perverting the courts of justice).  He persecuted Elijah after Mt. Carmel, he killed his neighbor after Naboth refused to sell his vineyard to him and then he confiscated the vineyard.  As a result of Ahab’s sin, all of Israel suffered a 3 ½ year drought, even the righteous who did not support or agree with his actions.

 

We all know we will stand before God and be judged individually.  However, nations will not stand before God and be judged.  One of our founding fathers, George Mason, said, “As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this.  By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.”  Another founding father, Chandler Robbins, reminded the Constitutional Congress that, “The Supreme Governor of the World rewards or punishes nations and civil communities only in this life…Political bodies are but the creatures of time.  The Divine Being therefore manifests the purity of His nature…towards such societies by rewarding or punishing them here, according to their public conduct.”

 

 

 

Many of us do not realize that God instituted civil government even before He instituted the Church.  Government is a part of God’s plan and His heart.  Not having government is anarchy and anarchy is not of God.  After the Declaration of Independence was written, many of the founding fathers returned to their states and wrote new state governing documents.  They understood the Word well enough that they included in their state documents the requirement that each person who wanted to hold political office in the state must declare and profess their faith in Jesus Christ.  These requirements still stand today in the state documents even though they are not adhered to.

 

We must vote in the right kind of people who will give us righteous policies.