Living in America, I find it very interesting how many Christians decide to support or not support a presidential candidate. Today, I am gong to make a few independent observations and look to 1 Samuel to shed some biblical wisdom for Christians on choosing their political leaders. Before we get started, ask that you ponder the question as to what the Bible says about choosing a human leader (President, king, Prime Minister and the like). Looking to the Bible, in 1 Samuel 10, we find God handing His people (the Israelites) what they asked for; a flawed, human king to rule them as opposed to God as King Himself being their King and Leader. God tells Samuel the prophet that the Israelites rejected Him (God) not Samuel personally in choosing a human king over King-God (1 Samuel 8:7). What really happened is that Israel chose to reject a “THEOCRACY” and instead, demanded that God give them a human king. We will look at 1 Samuel shortly, but first I want to share some of my own contemporary thoughts in relation to past and present:
FIRST: Like the Israelites, we (the church today) keep looking for a president/leader with unrealistic standards to be our earthly “king-provider” and "caretaker". To illustrate this, let’s rewind 1 Samuel, back to chapter 8 where we find the people refusing to select God himself as their King, and instead, demanding a “human” person to be their flawed, human king in 1 Samuel chapter 8, verse five to seven.
“...Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them” (1 Samuel 8:5b-7).
Zooming out in an effort to get the bigger picture we find sinful human beings (Israelites in this case) demanding flawed governmental leadership as opposed to God. But, in the 21st Century, we don’t live in a “THEOCRACY”? This begs the question in my eyes as to how we as Christians choose our leaders. It seems to me that we equate the demeander of a "statesman" with godliness. This is why many Christians would rather vote for a Mormon stateman who is relative in their morality but who denies the deity of Jesus Christ.
The answer is multi-faceted in that our sinful, human nature tends to lead us to want to be “taken care” of by their government instead of trusting God for our provision (daily bread). This is Christianity 101 in that Jesus Himself taught His disciples and all of us today how to pray, including praying to God for our daily provisions, “Give us this day our daily bread…” (Matthew 6:11). This is a big deal in that Jesus himself is telling us to live this life which is full of needs challenges with a daily dependence on God for their needs. We see the same thing in the Old Testament with God providing the Israelites their daily food.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions (Exodus 16:4).
CNN wrote on November 7th of 2023 in an article titled, “MrBeast builds 100 wells in Africa, attracting praise - and some criticism” by Issy Ronald and Stephanie Basari. Who in their right mind would criticize MrBeast (the world’s most downloaded YouTuber) for helping provide clean water to 500,000 Africans with no access clean water? The article says, “…has spotlighted the failures of the Kenyan government…”. Darn Kaba Jones, founder and CEO of FACE Africa, an organization working to improve water infrastructure and sanitation in sub-Sharan Africa, told CNN: “I’ve been doing this for 15 years, but we’ve been struggling to continue the work because funding, awareness, and advocacy all take work”. And then she added, “overnight this person comes along, who happens to be a WHITE MALE future with a huge platform, and all of a sudden, he gets all the attention. IT’s kind of frustrating, but it’s also understanding the nature of how the world is”. Aspiring KENYAN POLITICIAN Francis Gasthof criticized MrBeast (Donald’s) video, saying on X that it perpetuated the stereotype that Africa is “dependent on handouts…and philanthropic intervention”. The point is simple in that our leaders today, see themselves as gods who can dispense their favor, resources and provisions at will. Notice that the non-profit and the political leaders mentioned in this article are fairly well to do, well fed, and all have clean water themselves. A YouTube star comes in and all they can do is criticize what he did out of his own money and resources what they failed to do as their job and own responsibility. This is the flawed nature of human king over God King.
SECOND: Christians in our modern world (as was in biblical times) almost always have an unrealistic view of what a president “SHOULD”, “CAN and WILL BE”. This is the main issue for Americans in 2023 in my opinion. In REALITY, In order to reach the position of running for president, a candidate must be a person who is exceedingly cunning, shrewd, cut-throat, competitive, and willing to do things most Christians cannot stomach. While I agree that there are limits as to what a Christian ought to allow in their vote for president, the average Christian seems to support or not support a presidential candidate based on biblical standards that are unrealistic to running for the office of President; often according to their own made up likings or standards.
CASE AND POINT: The next time you sit around a table in your Bible study or with your friends in general, ask them who ought to be president and make a list as to WHY and WHY NOT. I can guarantee you that few if any will agree 100% on all points both good and bad. So, what is the standard? What is the expectation? That’s my point. It’s interesting that so many people are hung up on the fact that President Trump’s mouth disqualifies him from president. What is the clear/sharp biblical violation in how he speaks that is so egregious, that he ought not run for president? Most don’t understand that the media created that narrative as a mantra against President Trump. It’s clear to me that this is more of an emotional irritant than it is a biblical violation.
The point is that Americans in general, but Christians especially seem to have a dreamed up or unrealistic picture of who will make a good president/leader rather than what a presidential candidate’s track record. I submit that all Christians should look at a candidate’s track record and not depend on their campaign promises which are rarely if ever fulfilled properly if at all.
President Clinton had sex with his intern Monica Lewinsky and then lied about it in Federal Court. So, what is the standard of a good president? Is it Ronald Reagan? He was divorced and remarried. Ronald Reagan signed America’s first “No Fault Divorce” law in 1969 which enabled one spouse to get a divorce without the consent of-and over the objections of their partner. As a result, divorce exploded in America. That was a clear track record for all to see. To be clear, Ronald Reagan was an incredibly effective, conservative leader. He was one of the greatest leaders in America’s history and he was the first president that I voted for at 18 years of age. I didn’t know that he was for no-fault divorce at the time, but I most likely would have voted for him anyhow. Was his approach to divorce a major biblical issue? Yes. Did his approach to divorce cause me not to vote for him? No. Ronald Reagan was an imperfect man, as are all human leaders are.
Fast forward to our present time: President Trump was married twice before his current marriage-racking up being married three times. So what is the standard? Is one divorce to be allowed to vote for a person as our president? How about two divorces or even ten? Where in the Bible does it differentiate between the two, or state that being President mandates that one never have been divorced at all? Was King Solomon disqualified for having over 800 wives? Don’t get me wrong-we should hold all leaders, especially the president of the United States to biblical standards, but understand that all of them are fraud with sin. As Christians, we are left with voting for the candidate that best reflects and stand up for Christian values. President Trump ran against Hillary Clinton. Line each of them up side by side, listing the pros and cons as compared to their support of Christianity and living according to the Word of God. Neither are perfect for sure. Which one would say even supports Christianity to begin with? I will leave that for yourself to decide for yourself. Keep in mind that one’s track record on major (not minor issues) is an indicator of what a leader stands for.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama gave us some of the most liberal judges we have on the U.S. Supreme Court, Federal Benches and the like. Herbert Walker Bush gave us Justice Clarence Thomas, one of if not the most conservative Justice on the Supreme Court day. I’m not making a case for Republicans over Democrats but simply pointing the fact that their track record(s) reflect their beliefs on such major decisions. President Trump appointed a record number of conservative judges that have supported Christian rights and the U.S. Constitution. That’s a fact whether one likes or dislike President Trump. He put so many conservative Christian judges that it changed the entire make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court back to conservative after 50 years of being liberal. Was that right of him? Absolutely yes. To think it is not is to support being ruled by the atheist, Muslim, transgender and non-God fearing people of this world. Also, as a result of President Trump’s appointees, Roe v. Wade was over turned. That made a major statement. Also, President Trumpt had the U.S. Embassy in Israel moved to Jerusalem after every president in recent history promised to do so, but never did. That was another major action. His track record reflects his personal convictions and U.S. Constitution (despite his being a flawed human being).
Lastly, I am amazed by how many Christians supporter Mitt Romney who is a Mormon. If you didn’t know, Mormonism is a Christian cult that flat out DENIES Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That’s a very serious violation for any Christian to support. I can easily make multiple biblical argument using the Old and New Testaments as to why a Mormon cult member ought not be President of the United States. Mitt is a good looking, distinguished statesman, much like “Saul” in 1 Samuel. Mitt didn’t hold many if any biblical convictions at all as he is part of the political establishment as being over God judging from his track record as the Governor of the state of Massachusetts, the most liberate, godless state in the union. It’s not like he was Governor of Alabama; we are talking about Massachusetts here. Under Mitt, like any other political leader, including the late John McCain, America and Americans Christians would have faced even more persecution and anti-Christian laws with higher taxes, making the Christians and the general public servants of the state. Don’t take my word for it; go back and look at both of Mitt Romney’s and John McCain’s track record and you will see that they did not support Christian values and in many cases human values outside of those with greater means. The same was true for Israel per-Samuel’s warning.
In 1 Samuel, God warned Israel that as a result of demanding a human king, their daughters and sons would be drafted into the kings service and their field and livelihood (crops and cattle) would be taxed to the max by the king for his selfish gain (1 Samuel 8:10-18). Specific verses include (14-15, 17a). And this ladies and gentleman is where American and much of the West is at today as a result of our demanding a charasmatic king who speaks smoothly and tells us what we want to hear.
IN CLOSING: I want you to think about 1 Samuel 10:24-27 in light of how you will choose your leaders. I am not here to tell you how to vote or who to vote for. If a Democrat will show serious support for Christianity over Islam and stand firm on biblical values, I will probably vote for that person if their opponent, albeit Republican or Independent is weaker in those areas. I’m certainly not making a case for any one candidate. As believers in Jesus Christ, let’s use our minds as directed by God’s Word in choosing our leaders. It’s the best we have to work for in light of our very flawed and broken world. In the end, the choice is yours and the fate of the country has been laid at our feet by God to choose for ourselves. There is no room for mistakes here forward. I pray that we as the body of Christ and the Church in general will choose wisely.
“And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!” Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home. Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace” (1 Samuel 10:24-27)
