Who Must Win The 2012 Election?

Everyone wonders who will win this year’s national elections. The American people must win! If they do not, a humiliating collapse of our economy, security, and stability is imminent. The words of Jeremiah will prove true, “The Lord has rejected those in whom you trust and you will not prosper with them.” It is not just some candidates, representatives, and parties God rejects. It is God, His Word, and will that has been first rejected. It is the anti-God, anti-biblical worldview leading to our demise.

“Have you not done this to yourselves by forsaking the Lord?” Yes! Our wounds are self-inflicted. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Cursed is the nation that forsakes God.” “It is evil and bitter to forsake the Lord your God.”

We find our nation where Israel was in Jeremiah’s day. They were a people God had delivered from bondage in Egypt in order to lead them into the land of promise, prosperity, and freedom. It was truly the blessed life! Having been blessed in the Promised Land, they had become arrogant and idolatrous and they faced continual attacks leading to recurring bondage and oppression imposed by anti-God nations. Their extreme difficulties were the consequences of their actions. The consequences of their actions had led to their extreme difficulties. God pointed out that although they had enemies and challenges, their wounds were self-inflicted because the people had forsaken God. While surrounded by numerous enemies and facing captivity by the Babylonians, the people were in a sense still basically wandering in the wilderness, contemplating a return to the Egyptian model of worldliness and dependence on Pharaoh – a source of hope other than God.

In the same way, many Americans have focused their attention on inappropriate, ineffective solutions. Just as Israel faced fierce enemies, we find ourselves surrounded by radical zealots who are committed to the destruction of our freedom. As a nation, we are about to make the mistake of dying by our own hands through a foolish method of spiritual suicide fulfilling Lincoln’s prediction, “If destruction be our lot, we ourselves will be its author and finisher.” Long before the Civil War he had warned that, “The silent armies of time might bloodlessly take us down because we forget who we are.” It is only by reclaiming our secure place referenced in our nation’s pledge that we will find security. Only with “One nation under God, indivisible,” can we experience “liberty and justice for all.”

Jay Richards and I have joined together to declare the necessity of returning to God and the unshakable foundation of truth necessary to restore faith, family, and freedom before it’s too late. We encourage all concerned Americans and people of faith to join with courageous compassion-filled pastors, ministers, priests, and other Christians returning to the Lord, the land of promise, and His blessings.

This year’s election is far more than a choice between candidates or parties. It is often between night and day, good and evil, a biblical worldview that puts God at the top and security that can be found only in the shelter and shadow of the Almighty or a worldview that puts man first with dependence upon an anti-God system, an ever-increasing, all-powerful federal government continually making promises that cannot be fulfilled while destroying the prosperity and blessing God offers through its uncontrolled excess and damaging entitlements. Many Americans have believed the lie that everybody can live at the expense of everybody else and pass off personal responsibility and accountability.

The general population is being encouraged to resent and even hate those who have worked hard, obviously succeeded, and are reaping the benefits and blessings true freedom makes possible to those who have lived in a land of promise. It is also a fact that when the successful become obsessed with greed and indifferent, they are repulsive and easy to despise. Christians should be praying for those who have been very successful and seem to lack gratitude for their blessings. I find myself wondering, however, why is there so little appreciation for the 10 percent who actually pay 70 percent of all income taxes which provides support for the programs their critics think are so important. Why don’t the other 30 or 40 percent who have some income want to also help provide support in some way? Why don’t all Americans join together to stop the madness of the federal government’s out of control spending that has led to debt requiring four hundred fifty billion dollars a year just to cover the interest? God help us!

In our book Indivisible, Jay and I are seeking to deliver a Joshua and Caleb type message of hope offering clear direction and necessary correction. We point out the fact that there are giants in the land, but if people who claim to trust God and love freedom will stand together, we can correct our perilous course and restore the foundation much sooner than most people think. The course correction must begin this year if we are to avoid the hidden as well as the very visible “icebergs” that are certain to devastate and sink us as surely as with the Titanic. The choice is not simply left or right, it is often right or wrong. It is God or an all-consuming, always proved to fail when not under God federal government. It is not a matter of mere preference; it is a matter of principle.

There will be some people who are considered part of the left who will be saying the things that are absolutely right. There will be some who appear to be positioned on what is referred to as “the right” who will be absolutely wrong. We must have God’s wisdom to recognize the only way out of our present-day wilderness. In order for the American people to win this year and be enabled to continue living with the showers of God’s blessing which always pour freely both on the just and the unjust in nations that fear the Lord, we must take action. Those who know God who are called by His Name must turn from foolish, indifferent ways, bowing in humility and prayer, and then stand up boldly for God’s truth and the freedom He offers. We must resist all assaults on marriage between a man and a woman, and certainly join together to stop the continual destruction of the helpless, innocent unborn in the womb. It is not just reversing Roe v. Wade, it is also changing hearts that will stop this modern holocaust. The unborn must be seen as precious to the Lord and to us. We must again emphasize the importance of personal responsibility while recognizing the damaging effect of greed. We must support our free market opportunities and privileges while exposing the danger of both greed and envy. Again, changed hearts are essential. We must stand against dependence on the federal government while preaching personal responsibility.

Remember, as my friend John Andrews says in his wonderful book Restoring Responsibility, “If the church won’t shepherd its flock, Congress is quite ready to do so…. Surely you can recognize excessive government when you see it: government healthcare, government energy policy, government climate regulations, government entitlements, government bailouts, government banks, government auto makers, government handouts, government favoritism to unions, government deficit, government economic stimulus, each is a cure worse than the disease…. Some people will say, ‘Well, we all know it’s the end. In the long run we’re dead any way.’ Well, you’re wrong because responsibility has no expiration date. We must assert civic ownership, accept it and practice it.”

Believers along with defenders of faith and freedom must defend responsibility while insisting on responsible freedom and resisting excessive government. This year is the time to take a stand and vote for our nation’s founding principles in order to re-establish limited government of the people and for the people because it is by the people who care enough to make the necessary corrections. People with conviction must make wise choices, while recognizing there are no perfect candidates or voters.  We are all flawed and have all failed. The question is whether we have learned and have those seeking to be elected to a leadership role learned from their past mistakes and failures and now recognize the best course and direction we must go.

If people who claim to believe that faith, family, and freedom areimportant will stand together, we can ensurethat those who have been chosen to lead and who are serving in Washington will take the actions necessary to right the ship. If this happens, the American people will win this year! There is not one single challenge or problem we face that we cannot solve by joining our hearts, our heads, and our hands while following theguidance of Divine Providence. The challenges of the economy, security, immigration, energy, health, poverty,and national debt can be properly addressed, dealt with, and corrected. We are actually choosing between two opposing worldviews.

I believe we face the most critical election in my lifetime. America’s future and the future of freedom itself will be determined by the course we choose to take this year. Thoughts from C.S. Lewis are most appropriate at this time:

“We are now getting to the point in which different beliefs about the universe lead to different behavior [choices]. Religion involves a series of statements about facts which must be either true or false. If they are true, one set of conclusions will follow about the right sailing of the human fleet, if they are false, quite another set.”

Surely we must all agree with C.S. Lewis that we cannot remain neutral in this titanic struggle for the hearts and minds of the human race. The Old Testament prophets were not neutral when they called the nation to repentance. Elijah confronted the king and the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mount Carmel. Jesus was not neutral when He took on the Greek and Roman gods at Mount Herman. Paul was not neutral when he confronted the secular and cosmic humanists of his own day, the Stoics and Epicureans on Mars Hill. Our founders were not neutral when they opposed the violation of their rights by the British monarchy.

James Russell Lowell wrote, “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side, then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside.”

Now is not the time to stand aside! Now is the time to stand up boldly and choose wisely in order that the American people and our families may win the race God has set before us. This is the only way the American people will win in 2012.