Voter Suppression or Fraud Suppression?

The ongoing debate about voter ID laws is really beginning to stretch the limits of common sense. (I know I am already into strange territory, since common sense often seems to be totally out of place in the political arena.)

 

Those who favor voter ID laws say such laws are necessary to stop voter fraud. Those who oppose the laws say they are only defending voter rights and that the laws are really designed to prevent minorities from voting.

 

The claim is often heard that any requirement to get an ID is discriminatory and is a tremendous hardship on certain groups of people. The counter-argument to that is that an ID is required to drive a car, cash a check, rent a DVD, buy alcohol, and a multitude of other things.

 

A congressman recently said during a panel discussion that the arguments in favor of voter ID laws are not valid because driving a car is not a fundamental right like voting. The congressman's argument is bogus and cannot be taken seriously. Those who claim that voting is a "fundamental right" conveniently leave off a couple of words. It would be correct to say "voting is a fundamental right of citizens." If voting is a right of citizens, then it logically follows that citizenship must be proven in some way, and a picture ID is the common sense way to accomplish this. (Again, "logic" and "common sense" are not always used in political thinking.)

 

Generally speaking, those who favor voter ID laws do so in order to insure fair elections. Do such people want to suppress the vote? In one way, the answer is "yes," because they want to suppress the votes of dead people, fictitious people, cartoon characters, non-citizens, multiple votes by the same person, etc. Such votes absolutely should be suppressed in order to prevent election fiascos such as ending up with more votes than voters and with the last few hundred ballots conveniently discovered in the trunk of someone's car during a recount.

 

While there may be some who oppose voter ID laws for what they may see as noble reasons, it is hard not to believe that the general motive is to find a way to cheat in order to win elections. Someone who truly believes in fair elections will want one vote for each eligible voter. It is interesting that often those who say, "We just want everyone to vote and every vote to be counted" are those who do everything they can to suppress the votes of our military members serving in harm's way. Maybe that is just a tad hypocritical.

 

It is a great privilege to live in a country where we are allowed to vote. So many people in this world do not have such a privilege. We need to treat our voting rights with respect and insure that only those who are truly eligible to vote do so.

 

Why do we have outright lies during campaigns and voter fraud during elections? The Scriptures answer this question for us in a very pointed way. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, NKJV).

No Political Solutions for Spiritual Problems

The presidential election is coming very soon. Every election is important, but this one seems to be of much greater significance than most, because there are two very clear directions in front of us as we go to the polls. Christians must examine the issues and party platforms, and we must be very careful not to vote for those who stand on unbiblical grounds, no matter how much we may like some small portion of what a party stands for. Self-interest must be put aside for the greater good. However things turn out, it is imperative that we not be accomplices to helping unrighteousness prevail. We only answer for what we do, not for what others may do.

 

Even though we must meet our obligations as temporary citizens here and must stand for right, we must also remember that the major problem in our nation has nothing whatsoever to do with politics. The problem with the United States is not political; it is spiritual, and there are no political solutions for spiritual problems. As a country, we have turned our collective backs on righteousness and truth. Scripture describes us well. "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man!" (Isaiah 5:20-23, NKJV).

 

No human effort, including politics, can offer a real solution to spiritual problems. Changing laws and policies can put a temporary bandage on the problem, but these things are not long-term solutions. Laws and policies, not matter how well-intentioned and how popular, can be changed back as soon as a new group of politicians gets into power. All noble-sounding human efforts to help people are doomed to fail and result in even greater problems and corruption, because they do not attack the root of the problem but only treat the symptoms.

 

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12, NKJV).

 

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5, NKJV).

 

King Nebuchadnezzar saw himself as something really important, but his judgment came on him because of his arrogance, and he was told it would last "...until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses." (Daniel 4:32, NKJV).

 

God is in control of all things, and He does what pleases Him.

 

"But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases" (Psalm 115:3, NKJV).

 

"For I know that the Lord is great, and our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places" (Psalm 135:5-6, NKJV).

 

Our hope is in Him, not in politicians and government. Sometimes godly leaders are in power, and a nation prospers and is blessed. Other times, ungodly leaders are used as God's judgment on a nation. Sometimes God allows people to make very poor choices and then live with the consequences. Maybe that is where the United States is headed. Obviously, we all want things to come out in a way that pleases us. That may or may not happen. However, we can rest assured that nothing happens without God's permission, and ultimately, all things do work out for the good of His people.

Hebrews 5:12-6:12

In a previous post, I mentioned a sermon our pastor preached on Hebrews 5:12-6:12. It is now online here and is very much worth your time.

He Died Because of Me

Why did our Savior die in our place? Why did the One who created heaven and earth stoop to become a man, live in poverty, and die the death of a criminal? He most certainly did not have to do that. No one compelled Him to make such a sacrifice. So why did He do it?

 

At the basic level, it is very difficult to deal with any question which has the word "why" and the name "God" in it. That is because it is impossible for us, in our limited nature, to understand the "why?" of Deity. The best possible answer to such a question is this:  "Because it pleased Him to do so."

 

Moving on from there, as concerning why He died for us, we must remember the great love of God. "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)" (Ephesians 2:4-5, NKJV). God loves us, not because we are loveable, but because it is His nature to do so.

 

Jesus Christ did not just die for me. He died because of me. He took what I deserved. Now I get what He deserves.

 

He died because of me. He died because of you. I put Him on that cross, and you put Him on that cross, just as certainly as if we had physically been there and personally driven the nails. My sin crucified Him, and because of that, I have forgiveness. "...having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14, NKJV).

The Christian and Politics

When Christians begin talking politics, there is no telling where the conversation might go. Many Bible-believing Christians believe that God is a Republican, because there is no doubt He would favor individual liberty. Others of a more liberal bent believe God most assuredly is a Democrat, because He surely would support higher taxes on the rich to support all of their social welfare programs. The truth is that God is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but His truth is most certainly either embraced or rejected by certain positions of all political parties and politicians. We need to be aware of where political parties and individual politicians stand in order to vote biblically on issues and candidates.

 

Some have said that Christians ought to stay out of politics completely, because the church has no business interfering with matters of the state. The extremists of this persuasion have frequently stated that Christians have no business taking their beliefs into the voting booth. I must take issue with that one right from the start. Every individual who is privileged to live in a country that allows the vote must vote his convictions based on who he or she is. A Christian is a Christian by conviction, and his or her vote must come from his or her core beliefs. To say a Christian must ignore conviction in the voting booth could only make sense if the same limitation were placed on atheists, agnostics, humanists, foolish people, Buddhists, etc. Somehow we never hear that. We only hear that Christians should ignore their convictions. Such a statement is patently absurd and nonsensical. I would instead submit that Christians have not only the privilege but also the responsibility to vote on all issues and candidates based on conviction.

 

The Scriptures give us many principles which we ought to bring to the ballot box. The following short list is by no means exhaustive, but it is a reasonable start.

 

How To Know How To Vote

 

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34, NKJV). Righteousness as opposed to sinfulness on the part of candidates and issues must be considered. The questions to ask ourselves are "What is right?" and "Who will do right?" Of course, it would be most helpful to have more Bible-believing, born again, Godly candidates. Failing that, we need to select the candidates and issues that most reflect Biblical principles. There are certain issues, such as the murder of the unborn, that we must reject and work to eradicate, because it is as true today as it was when it was written, that "sin is a reproach to any people."

 

Some issues are not merely political. Issues that involve normalizing sin are not political issues. Rather, they are moral and Biblical issues, and ignoring them by saying that Christians and the church should stay out of politics is at best cowardly and at worst a denial of our convictions and a great detriment to our nation.

 

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan… Scoffers set a city aflame, but wise men turn away wrath (Proverbs 29:2, 8, NKJV). We ought to rejoice greatly that we still live in a free country where we are allowed to vote. Such is a great privilege and responsibility, and we owe it to God, ourselves, and our children not to take such a responsibility lightly. When evil individuals are in office, we ought to vote wisely so as to remove them, and when foolish, unbiblical laws are enacted, we ought to make every effort to see them repealed.

 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord… (Psalm 33:12, NKJV). We hear a great deal of foolishness today about our country not having been founded on Biblical principles and Christian ideals. Such nonsense will continue to be stated, but repeated statements of falsehood never make a lie into the truth. We need only look at some of the statements of the founders of our country to put that foolishness to rest. I offer only a few of the huge number that are readily available.

 

"While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian" (George Washington, The Writings of Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick, editor, Vol. XI, pp. 342-343, General Orders of May 2, 1778).

 

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here" (The Trumpet Voice of Freedom, Patrick Henry of Virginia, p. 3.)

 

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ" (The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385).

 

There is no way to know how many of our founding fathers truly trusted Christ as Savior, but there can be no doubt that the vast majority had tremendous respect for God, the Bible, and Christianity, and that is sorely lacking today. Can we still say we are "a nation whose God is the Lord?"

 

The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: "He who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God" (2 Samuel 23:3, NKJV). God most certainly holds us all responsible. Citizens are responsible for obeying the laws put into place by their leaders. That is not to say that all laws are right and just, and it is also not to say that there is never a time to resist authority. The apostles certainly experienced that situation firsthand when they were ordered not to continue preaching the gospel, and they responded appropriately. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29, NKJV). This really sums up where we ought to be. It is our responsibility to obey all laws that do not violate Biblical principles. If men's laws are in violation of God's laws, we must obey God first, always remembering that there may be consequences to such an action.

 

Not only are citizens responsible to obey the just and righteous laws their leaders enact, but also those leaders must be prepared to answer to God for the manner in which they lead. They "must be just, ruling in the fear of God." That is an awesome responsibility not to be taken lightly. Politicians who accept high office only to enrich themselves or feed their own egos are setting themselves up for the judgment of God. We need humble, godly leaders who will obey the Scriptures.

 

Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness (Proverbs 25:5, NKJV). Not only must rulers lead in a righteous, Godly manner, but those who advise them must not be evil individuals. When a potentially good leader listens to ungodly advice, the results can be disastrous. I think of King Rehoboam, who unwisely listened to the wrong counselors, and the result was that he, and ultimately the nation, did evil in the sight of the Lord. Such always leads to God's judgment. You can read about King Rehoboam here.

 

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.  (Proverbs 12:22, NKJV). During this political season as the presidential election approaches, it is certainly accurate to say that we have been told numerous lies. Some of them are so blatant that even the media is starting to challenge them on both sides, probably for fear that they themselves will be exposed for their lack of honesty as they fail to point out obvious lies. God honors truth. "...those who deal truthfully are his delight." We ought to seek to elect honest politicians (Is that an oxymoron? I hope not totally.) and support honest rather than deceitful laws. Those who would seek to gain office by dishonest means are inviting judgment, because "lying lips are an abomination to the Lord," and He is not asleep.

Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens (Exodus 18:21,NKJV).

This Scripture makes it clear that good leaders are those who are capable of doing the job, who fear God, who are truthful and hate falsehood, and who are not greedy and cannot be bribed.

 

There is one final Scripture I must address relative to the political issues that face us in these days. All of us are concerned about the economy, about the national debt, about health care, and about a number of other issues that face us. However, in light of the fact that all these things are subservient to the overriding principle that "righteousness exalts a nation," we must consider an extremely important issue that helps define whether a nation is truly practicing righteousness.

 

  I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3). These are words spoken directly by God to Abraham. They are a promise to Abraham and to his descendants - the nation of Israel. This promise has never been rescinded. Otherwise God would be a liar, which by definition, God can never be.

 

This promise is very clear. If a nation wants to be judged, all it has to do is be an enemy of Israel. Nations that are blustering that Israel has no right to exist and needs to be exterminated are ripe for judgment, and while we sometimes wonder why God seems to wait so long, we can rest assured that such nations will suffer His judgment in His time. He may use Israel to bring that judgment, or He may bring it by miraculous means, but we need to rest assured that His judgment is sure.

 

On the other hand, a certain way for a nation to be blessed is to be friends in a very real sense with Israel. Our friendship with Israel may be the only thing keeping the United States of America afloat today. The other thing we still do that God will honor and bless is that our country is still a center of the worldwide missionary effort. Beyond those two things, we have very little to commend us as far as righteousness goes. If we as a nation ever turn our back on Israel, we will also be ripe for God's judgment.

 

Frankly, I am not a fan of foreign aid. I see little sensible purpose in sending money to other nations that hate us and/or Israel, God's chosen earthly people. It seems that the more we give, the more we are hated around the world. At the very least, we must stop giving any aid to Israel's enemies, and it would not disappoint me in the least if we cut off all foreign aid ... except to Israel. We must continue to support and defend Israel, because God has not forgotten and will not forget His promise to Abraham.

 

I encourage every Christian to fulfill the responsibility to vote based on Biblical convictions. We do not always get everything we want in a candidate, but if we stay home because we don't like one issue, or if we vote for a third party candidate who clearly has no chance, we may be unwittingly helping into office those who may stand for the opposite of what we believe. Some have said they cannot vote for "the lesser of two evils" because the lesser of two evils is still evil. However, "the lesser of two evils" is less evil, and we want the least amount of evil possible in our country. Failure to vote for the lesser of two evils is to help the greater of two evils to take control. That is surely not what we want.

It's Not Science - It's Magic

After an amazing science experiment, many of the students were proclaiming the teacher had done "magic." The teacher's response was, "It's not magic - it's science." This statement has been made many times by scientists and teachers in order to give an accurate and appropriate explanation for some of the amazing things we see in our created world.

However, many today have turned this statement on its head. The theory of evolution stands out as an example of scientific dogma that is based more on wishful thinking than on any real science. Often, those who accept evolution have to fall back on "just so" arguments, primarily because they dismiss any possibility of the supernatural and demand a naturalistic explanation of everything. This immediately excludes God from the argument and creates the necessity of some type of explanation, whether there is evidence or not.

Instead of really practicing the scientific method, many "scientists" come up with explanations based on their evolutionary bias and declare them to be true. They might as well say, "It's not science - it's magic." Of course, they will never say that. Instead, they hide behind a smug, arrogant position that those who wear lab coats are always unbiased, open-minded, intellectually honest, and that they only go where the evidence leads them. In many cases, nothing could be further from the truth.

Examination of the evolutionists' logic reveals a process something like this:

Observation #1 - "We are here." (Kind of obvious. Very few would doubt this one, except for those who are not in touch with reality.)

Observation #2 - "We had to have gotten here by some process." (Again, pretty obvious.)

Observation #3 - "Since God does not exist, He could not have done it, and even if He does exist, He had to use evolution to bring us into existence." (Here is where they go astray and jump off the cliff into a pit of willing ignorance and confusion, totally separated from common sense or truth. Any conclusion made on the basis of a false premise will inevitably be false.)

Conclusion - "Evolution is true, and if you disagree with Darwin, you are a scientific heretic." (Maybe kind of like Galileo and Copernicus?)

This kind of "logic" has no place in legitimate science. "Observation" #3 is nothing more and nothing less than an opinion based on wishful thinking rather that evidence. This is the same wishful thinking men have always had relative to the existence of God. "If God does not exist, I get to do as I please. I do not have to answer to an authority over me."

Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure (Psalm 2:1-5, NKJV).

Men have always tried to wish God out of existence, but what men believe does not change reality or truth. The main purpose of the whole idea of evolution is to remove God from the picture. Even though it defies common sense and is. therefore, foolish, many hold tenaciously to it.

An evolutionist physicist once wrote: "We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment to materialism … we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door." - Billions and Billions of Demons, The New York Review, January 9, 1997.

Evolutionists really hate it when creationists use Darwin's quote concerning the eye, and they go to great lengths to explain it away. Nevertheless, in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Darwin said the following:

"To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree."

Evolutionists claim that this quote was taken out of context and that Darwin actually answered the "alleged" problem he brought up. The rest of Darwin's paragraph says, "Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself first originated; but I may remark that several facts make me suspect that any sensitive nerve may be rendered sensitive to light, and likewise to those coarser vibrations of the air which produce sound."

Notice the repeated use of the word "if," the conjectural nature of "make me suspect," and the lack of interest in how it happened and how it all began. There is no satisfactory naturalistic answer to the problem of origins, so evolutionists choose to simply ignore it or move the problem elsewhere by claiming life came from outer space. This is another of those conjectures without foundation.

So what did Darwin really say? In my own words, I believe he was actually saying, "It is absurd to believe the eye could have evolved. However, since it exists (after all we are here and God couldn't have done it), then it obviously evolved, so here are some ideas on how it could have happened. It's not science, it's magic." He most certainly did not answer the problem he brought up. All he did was offer conjecture instead of any real solution to the problem.

That reminds me of a "science" textbook I was using in a seventh grade science class. It showed a drawing of a small, furry, sort of strange looking creature. The caption under it said something like, "We believe the common ancestor of both dogs and cats may have looked like this. There is no fossil evidence of such a creature, but if it existed, it probably looked something like this." (Emphasis added.) Now there is an example of science at its finest! No evidence, but lots of belief based on wishful thinking and preconceived ideas. After all, "it's not science, it's magic."

Almost everyone has been exposed to Haeckel’s Embryos in a science class in high school or college, even though his drawings have been known to be fraudulent for a hundred years. He purposely faked the drawings to be more consistent with the theory of evolution. One of the most outspoken advocates for evolution in the United States says this, “It’s clear that Haeckel may have fudged his drawings somewhat to look more like his ideal than they actually are. Now, does that actually take away from what we know about the relationship of embryology to evolution? Not a bit. The whole Haeckel’s embryos story has been greatly blown out of significance. It is a minor footnote in the history of science. And actually it’s been known for ten or fifteen years that Haeckel’s embryos are not to be relied upon. The reason why the diagrams are reproduced is because they’re easily available – there’s no copyright on them – it’s an easy way to illustrate a point. And I would argue that the basic point that’s being illustrated by those drawings is still accurate.” (Eugenie Scott’s statement, recorded on Icons of Evolution, Randolph Productions Inc, 2002.)

How would I paraphrase that statement? "This piece of evidence is clearly wrong, but we use it anyway because it supports our position, and we don't really have anything to replace it. It's not science, it's magic."

Another prominent evolutionist says in his book that the origin of life may have been an "extremely improbable event." (Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, p. 135.) Again, his unbelieving heart forces him to conclude that no matter how improbable it may have been, we are here, and God couldn't have done it, so evolution must be true. After all, "It's not science, it's magic." God will not put up with such foolishness forever.

There are really only two options. We can believe in miracles (magic) performed by nothing and no one other than the laws of nature, or we can believe in miracles performed by a miracle-working God. I see no real choice there. The truth is obvious.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day (Exodus 20:11, NKJV).

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (Hebrews 11:3, NKJV).

Jesus Paid It All

In our evening service this past Sunday, we sang a song I had not heard in quite some time, and it brought back fond memories. The song, "Jesus Paid It All," was written in 1865 by Elvina M. Hall. Following are some excerpts:

For nothing good have I

Whereby Thy grace to claim.

I'll wash my garments white

In the blood of Calvary's Lamb.

And when before thy throne

I stand in Him complete,

"Jesus died my soul to save,"

My lips shall still repeat.

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain.

He washed it white as snow.

When I think of this marvelous truth, I am blessed. Sin left me stained beyond human remedy. I have nothing good to offer Him in order to be worthy of His grace. Jesus paid everything for me. I owe Him everything. Only by the blood of Christ can I be washed clean.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18, NKJV).

I then have to greatly rejoice in the truth expressed by the words, "Jesus died my soul to save." Why did He die? He died to save me. He didn't die just to make my salvation possible, but he died to save me.

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21, NKJV).

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11, NKJV).

Even though I have personalized this, I rejoice that all who trust Christ can take great comfort in this tremendous truth.