The General Election and Our Duty
What is our Christian duty with regard to the imminent General Election in the United Kingdom? Some professing Christians believe (as was advocated in a Christian periodical recently) that “the only proper attitude for Christians to adopt toward politics . . . is one of godly abstention” – an extreme and unscriptural view.
There could be circumstances when abstaining from voting might be appropriate, but we are to mark well that it is the duty and privilege of members of a democratic society to elect those whom they desire to govern their nation. True, it is God who, as “King of nations” (Jer 10:7), “putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Ps 75:7), and “hath ordained civil magistrates to be under Him over the people” (Westminster Confession 23:1), but also He has placed us in His providence under a democracy with its attendant freedoms and responsibilities for voters.
We grant that in recent times there is more cynicism and apathy among the electorate about politicians and the political process, and also that it is increasingly rare for candidates with Christian principles to be put forward
for election by the major parties. Nevertheless, voters are obliged to decide which candidates and parties are most likely to govern according to Christian principles and will seek to remove those existing immoral laws which are pulling the nation down more deeply into the destructive moral morass in which it is mired.
It is neither naivety nor wishful thinking, as some charge us with, to believe that God can raise up people in government whom He may use for the spiritual and moral betterment of the people. He has done so in the past and is still able to do so. How and when he will do this is His prerogative, but to Him we are bound to look.
Our duty then is not only to use aright our freedom to vote, but also to ply the throne of grace. At the very least we must pray “for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Tim 2:2), but it is also imperative at this juncture that we plead earnestly that the Most High would raise up wise rulers who would have “understanding of the times” (1 Chr 12:32), set God before their eyes and act on the fundamental principle that “righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov 14:34). NMR