Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Who Should Christians Vote for in 08?

I think as we look at Romans 13 we see we are commanded to submit to authority. Most Christians believe this to mean that we are to obey our leaders in everything unless they tell us to sin or forbid us to do something we are required to do. But this is not so, for when we look at Acts 16, we see something very out of place with this thinking. We see magistrates commanding Paul and Silas to leave quietly because the leaders found out they had had them beaten as Roman citizens. Now, the command to leave, was that commanding them to sin? No. Forbidding them to do something required? Not on the surface. So we must rethink what Romans 13 means...when told to submit to authority, does it mean to obey the physical men who hold office OR something bigger, the law of the land? Well, the text in Acts 13 leads us to believe that indeed when submitting we are submitting to the law of the land, NOT necessarily those in office. When those in public office follow the law of the land, they are to be obeyed. When they fall from that ideal, we are to hold them to such law of the land.
What is our "law of the land" but the US Constitution of course? In light of this, which candidate reflects most consistently abiding by that constitution and thus following the command from God to submit to the authority God has put over us? The only honest answer, my friend, is Ron Paul.

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