How Should I Then Vote?

Sept. 23, 2024

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest(s): Dr. Renton Rathbun

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 9/23/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Sam Rohrer:       Hello and welcome to this Monday edition of Stand In the Gap Today and another week of informative, I believe, and relevant I know programming on the key issues confronting us today. Before I announce today’s program though and the theme I’d like to give a quick look ahead to this week ahead of us tomorrow, Dr. Jamie Mitchell will be here with another very practical conversation and special guest. Don’t miss that on Wednesday, Dr. Bill Salas of prophecy depot.com as his site will be with me to discuss that growing war in the Middle East and it is growing and how Israel may well be involved in the prophesied Psalm 83 wars that refer to Tyre and Sidon and references, I think potential Hezbollah connections and we will talk about that plus all that’ll be happening at that point on Wednesday. Also, you should note that yesterday in the United Nations at around 10:00 AM yesterday morning, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus vote, the tyrannical Pact for the future, we’ve talked about it by a vote of 143 to seven was 15 abstentions and we’ve talked about it and we’ll talk about it briefly on Wednesday as well.

Sam Rohrer:       This vote in actions unfolding as we speak in that deliberative and deliberative body. I’m going to put the consolidating global power right now into the hands of an anti-God, anti-Israel Demonically led Tower of Babel consortium. That’s how I describe the United Nations, and it’s happening faster than we can imagine. We’re also going to discuss some of this as well. As I said on Wednesday when I talk with Dr. Bill SALs, now Thursday, constitutional attorney, David New and I’ll join me and Wolf talk about, well, the elections coming up from this perspective, why the electoral college that approach, why it is what it is, why it was put in place, and whether or not it should be changed to a popular vote as some are demanding. On Friday, Dr. George Barner will join me again for the latest breaking research from the Cultural Institute and it’s going to deal with the latest findings as it is touching on the matter of mental health.

Sam Rohrer:       I think it’ll be very, very applicable. Each program will be packed this week and I trust that you’ll not miss any of it. Now today let me move in to I’m glad to have back with me, Dr. Renton Rathbun, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Bob Jones University and a regular speaker for Biblical worldview instruction for BJU Press. Now on the programs I do with Dr. Rathbun, we generally discuss areas of, I’m going to call relevant American cultural or church life from a biblical worldview apologetic perspective. We’ve done a number of things. One of them we did back in July was on pragmatism and the collapse of truth. And in that one we discussed a theory of pragmatism, idea of pragmatism, consensus and the contemporary Christian concluding with in that program how to reject pragmatism and re-embrace biblical truth. And the topic I’ve selected for consideration today, I say ties in quite closely with pragmatism versus truth, the application of truth, the knowledge of truth so needed as we approach the scheduled November elections. The title I’ve chosen for today’s conversation is this, how then should I vote or How should I then Vote? Put it that way. A title that kind of hearkens back to Dr. Francis Schaeffer’s book from about 50 years ago that he entitled, how Then Should We Then Live? But with that I welcome to the program Dr. Renton Rathbun Renton, thanks for being back.

Renton Rathbun:              Thanks for having me. I’m excited about this topic.

Sam Rohrer:       Well, I am too because I have found that elections on almost like any other event are things because they occur on fixed days, they represent guaranteed change of some type. They offer both with it hope and fear. It’s driven by law, so therefore it’s going to happen. And it ends up to me, in my mind, shaping people’s thinking and choices and lives almost more than people approaching elections, trying to shape their own thinking and preparation, being ready for it. And so the result of that is people are often left in a quandary sometimes right up to the very day. Let’s deal with some of those things. Just start with this first one from a biblical worldview perspective, Renton not a political party or party platform perspective, but biblical worldview perspective, what fundamental considerations would you identify that should frame the thinking process of all people, but particularly God fearing people as we approach these times of elections?

Renton Rathbun:              Well, Matthew 5 33 through 37 is very helpful for this. At first it might sound a little strange to our ears as 21st century Americans where it’s talking about vow taking, but this is where we get that passage that everyone probably knows about where Jesus says, let your yes be yes in your no be no. Well that comes from him talking about this vow taking that people do and especially in those times people were basically on some vows that they took. They were somewhat committed to it, it was somewhat important to them, but they put their name to it but they weren’t really committed to it. Other vows they took very seriously, so they put their name to it and committed to it fully. But in the end there were many vows people were taking that they were only somewhat intending to follow through with or somewhat interested in.

Renton Rathbun:              But pragmatically they just put their name by it. And what Jesus was saying was that was and what he is, that’s of the devil, that’s of the evil one when you are using your name that way. And so let your yes be yes and your no be no. And what I think the basic principle we’re getting from that is that as a Christian we always need to be thinking in terms of our own personal integrity before God because we are not living in a pragmatic world, we’re living in God’s world. And so therefore even something that we might think has very little obligation to us putting your name to it and saying, this is my yes means something much greater than we think. And this even goes especially for what the Lord says, let your yes be yes because this is a reflection of how you are reflecting me.

Sam Rohrer:       Alright? Okay, I don’t have time to get into it. I’m going to follow up just a briefly, ladies and gentlemen, stay with us on it because we’re going to talk in the next segment. We’re going to start off talking about well single issue voting, which kind of comes down to what do I believe, how does it carry itself out? And we will put some of that together. But back on that just briefly, Renton, why is yay, yay, nay, nay. That would indicate consistency would indicate a number of things. But why is a person’s name their integrity and yes, yes or no. No. Why is that so important?

Renton Rathbun:              Well, it’s important particularly because in our, what God commands us to do is to reflect who he is. He says be holy for I am holy. He wants us to reflect him. And in reflecting God, we are not living in a world where we have the opportunity to be halfway on anything. We have to say, this is God’s name as he’s represented in me that I’m placing before me when I am committing myself to something, even when it comes to something that we might think is as small as voting.

Sam Rohrer:       Alright, and ladies and gentlemen, voting is not small. Actually, can I suggest that very little decision making of any type is unquote small? Stay with us, we’ll come back and we’ll talk about single issue voting and then morality and constitutionality. Well if you’re just joining us today, thank you for being on board today. We’re talking about an issue. I know my guess is if I were to ask for a show of hands from all out there listening across America, just about every hand would go up. And that is, do you know how to approach voting? Now we’re all being confronted with the fact we got to vote, we have an opportunity to vote, we have a duty to vote, we have a citizen’s duty, we have a privilege to vote, we vote alright, and we have a scheduled election that’s coming up, okay? We’re well aware of that and everybody is being pressured from all sides.

Sam Rohrer:       Vote my way. No, vote my way, no vote for this reason, no vote for this reason. And the result is a great deal of, I’m going to say lack of clarity can emerge and I think has emerged over a long period of time. So I’ve entitled the program today, how should I then vote? And Dr. Renton Wrath, Bunn, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Bob Jones University is with me again today. And we’re trying to, in a concise way, walk through some basic principles governing this very important action of which we all will make a decision. It’s just one of those things. We will make a decision. We’re going to vote yes, we’re going to vote. No, we’re not going to vote, we’re going to make, that’s the point we’re trying to deal with here now. So stay with us as we walk through some more things.

Sam Rohrer:       Renton in our nation we have a highest of human laws called the Constitution. On this program we talk about dealing with things from a constitutional perspective. That’s one. And from a biblical perspective, we’re going to do both today. But until the US Supreme Court ordered their removal from classroom walls and therefore the basis for all judicial and legislative comparison, we really did officially embrace God’s definition of moral law. And that was built within the framework of came out of the 10 Commandments, which at one point hung behind every judge in the nation and formed the basis of our judicial system, also used to hang in our classrooms too, public school classrooms. But as a result of the Supreme Court and the action of that which built in every person who took and still takes an oath of office when they serve in government a civil government, they take an oath to do what support and protect that constitution, which is based on God’s moral law.

Sam Rohrer:       And they do so until fairly recently and I did many times left hand on the Bible, right hand lifted to God. And for many states that oath will conclude by saying, so help me God. So with very clearly tied together so that being the case written as a God-fearing American citizen. Here’s a broad question. To what extent should God’s moral law, the 10 commandments and his God’s expectations for a human civilization, which we find in the word of God remain? Does it still apply and how should it apply and work as a criterion for measuring a potential candidate’s character or projected policies or if they’ve been in office before their past decisions and past votes and therefore help to answer this question of how should I then vote?

Renton Rathbun:              And when we’re talking about this, I often hear people say, well we’re not voting for a pastor and so this person doesn’t have to be perfect and all those sort of things. And I truly do understand that that is certainly true. However, one thing that we do need to think about when we’re considering the character of the person we are voting for is found in Proverbs 1434. It says, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. And so what we see here is God is expressing his position, which is this clear cut idea that righteousness will exalt, but sin is a disgrace. And do we hate sin as much as God hates sin? It’s a sobering statement because otherwise we tend to make excuses for sin. And again, not everyone’s perfect, but there are things we can look for, things that I call creation norms.

Renton Rathbun:              So even unbelievers might have creation norms, things that are normal as God has created them to be. So creation norms are those image bearing reflections of God that we see in all humans who have God’s law written on their heart, who have not suppressed those things. So we see an unbelieving men respect for and honor for human life. You can see in them a life of chastity, a life of honesty, a life of respecting the family and respecting his own family. And those are things that you can look for even in unbelieving men and women that we would think of voting for to decide what kind of character this person has. Because in a world like this, and I want to be sure people understand this, I understand we live in a world where America has such incredible grotesque sin in it from politicians who are anti-Semitic from politicians who wish to murder babies with giddiness and joy, politicians that celebrate homosexuality and gender bending in a way that they are spitting on the face of God. And in that context we become quite desperate and it becomes very easy for us to not look on someone that might help us against that fight to think, to not consider as much the character of who they are and to give more excuse for it.

Sam Rohrer:       Alright, I’m just going to let that sit there. Lemme come back and build on that just a little bit more. Then you mentioned about not voting for a pastor and I think people understand that, but here’s a phrase that I hear so often it goes something like this, well, I don’t really like either candidate, but all know there is no perfect candidate. So I guess I’ll just have to hold my nose and vote for the lesser of two evils. Now I have a response to that that I have given people rent. But I’d like to know from your perspective, here’s my question. When a person says this, what is really being said and how does God’s word speak to this dilemma? And because God’s word speaks to every issue, there is always a biblical resolution. So how is that dilemma biblically resolved?

Renton Rathbun:              Yes, here we have to be so careful because I think what people want to mean by that phrase is they have these two people and they don’t want to solve the problem exactly the way I think they should solve it, but I’ll choose the better, the two of the two on that. But it doesn’t really come to that all the time. It’s not that there’s just two different pathways and one is better than the other. Oftentimes what we’re really getting down to is that we find that people are responding to a glaring evil on one side and that the side and that side is absolutely evil like I spoke about before. But we want to combat it. We want combat as a response to this evil, but one must ask what combat should look like and in what way we go about that combat when we’re combating the evil on one side.

Renton Rathbun:              In other words, when someone says I need to pick the lesser of the two evils, are we saying that I need to pick a person that still violates God’s law but does it in less degrees than the other person? And then we start really need to be careful at that point because what we become interested in is God’s law in degrees and we start choosing our candidates who is best on what degree we believe God’s law can be violated as opposed to looking for someone that actually is in coherence or that coalesces with God’s law.

Sam Rohrer:       Alright, so it begins a slippery slope. God’s word being fixed, God’s standard being fixed, whether it is marriage, there’s only one way male female living together without committing adultery, not the other ways, telling the truth. Well, not lying a little bit bribery, covetousness, not a little bit worship of God. Well a little bit. So what you’re saying once we say well a little bit is okay, we’re on a slope that is very, very difficult and therefore it becomes an issue. Now don’t have much time here, but how does this from a believing perspective, when God’s standards are fixed and we enter decision-making voting or anything, how do we correlate God’s fixed standard, the type of latitude, a little bit of lying, a little bit of adultery. How do we correlate that and allow that to shape our voting?

Renton Rathbun:              Well, what we have to do, and a lot of this comes down to a problem that I see and I’ll try and make this as quick as I can. We intend to try and make biblical decisions by filling our head with political talk shows and political radio and political books we’re reading and Fox News and we fill and fill and fill our mind with all this political stuff and we visit our Bible and then we expect to know how to apply God’s word to these major decisions. And what we’ve done is we have gotten it backwards. We should visit politics but delve into God’s word daily. And I think we haven’t prepared in many cases we haven’t prepared ourselves for good decision making through scripture.

Sam Rohrer:       Alright ladies and gentlemen, a biblical worldview God person would have starts always with God’s word should always, and it ends there and in the middle we fill it in with the events of life. When we come back, bear this in mind, we’re going to talk about, never think about this, what’s it mean to vote? Yes if you’re just joining us, our theme today and our focus is how should I then vote? Now I will say it’s not our intent, not my intent in this program to tell you for whom to vote, but there is an approach and an understanding of what votes are and what they mean and want to broaden it just a little bit here as we go into the balance of the program. Renton in a vote, I’m going to put it this way, a yes vote. When I was in the Pennsylvania general Assembly, I soon learned very, very, very quickly early on that the powers that be, the leadership that are there, be they in Washington or any state level, they didn’t care who the person was.

Sam Rohrer:       People who get into office think that everything’s about them, it has nothing to do with them. What the system wants though is their yes vote. And I found that to be wow, that’s what they want. They want to lean on me for my yes vote because it was the yes vote that made the passage of legislation possible. It’s the majority yes vote that causes judicial rulings to impact the law. It’s the yes vote that lobbyists pay big money to get and it’s the yes nod of the head could be a vote, at least a decision when government hands out money in the form of bribe money to populists, to groups of people to get their ascent, basically getting their yes vote from blocks of people on all levels. That’s what it is that yes vote is what I determined was found out was that’s what they want. They don’t care about me, but yet when I stand before God, I’m going to give an account to God for what I said yes to and what I said no to. Now in that regard, do you think that most people understand what a yes decision or a yes vote we put it in that perspective actually means and what it expresses? Share your thoughts on that

Renton Rathbun:              Today I think we live at a time where people do not consider what their name means. And what I mean by that is we have made things that are supposed to be lofty quite common. And I think that’s where Jesus was getting at in Matthew chapter 5 33 through 37, when he says, let your yes be yes and your no be no, that your name means something when your identity is in Christ particularly. And so when you put your name by something, when you’re a yes vote, what that’s really saying is I am assigning my approval and my name to this option. And I know this is difficult because in legislation you’re putting your name in approval by a very specific act that is trying to be imposed or all that sort of thing. And now we’re trying with this kind of a vote, we’re talking about someone and all the different things they believe in and how that will affect the future and all that sort of thing. And so we tend to think it mean our vote will mean less because it’s such a huge thing to say just yes or no with something so complex. But actually this, yes vote means so much more because of that very fact. That’s why when you say yes, you’re assigning your approval and name to that particular vote.

Sam Rohrer:       Okay, now le me just take to a very difficult question because we do not in this world have any perfect candidate. We know that we’ve established that they may not. And in the past I’ve often argued a thing, well if both candidates are truly evil, meaning they both hate God and they both love to do what Romans one says not to do. If that’s the case, I’m not going to vote for either one of them. How could I vote to advance evil when they both are evil, but in reality we do not have a perfect candidate ever. So therefore we’re having to compare against the standards of God’s word, which is perfect to people who are not perfect and a system that is not perfect. So from your understanding of scripture as we apply it, how would God direct us through his word to participate in processes when decisions they do range. There are used to be people who were more God-fearing certainly than perhaps now, but bring some clarity to that because I think people are languishing probably and they’re thinking right now, how do I make sense of this?

Renton Rathbun:              What it comes down to, at least as I’ve been thinking about it, it comes down to this idea of what God expects of me when I am voting and what I think he expects of me is devotion, not devotion to a political party and not devotion even to what a kind of vengeance I want on a particular view that’s out there but a devotion to his law. Now David said, I love your law and the reason why David said he loves God’s law is because God’s law is a reflection of God’s character and his character is a reflection of what is true in this world. And what I think is as you have a devotion and a true love for God’s law, direction starts coming from that. I think people are mostly confused about voting and how does God’s word relate to it? Because they haven’t come to know God’s law, they haven’t studied God’s law, they haven’t come to love God’s law so that the wisdom will be present for them. Wisdom isn’t something you just hope for or even that you merely pray for because you want to pray for it says that in James, but there’s work that’s expected of you to search out God’s law and to understand it so that when these things come in the world you are able to relate it quickly and appropriately to those things. And that’s how wisdom develops in your heart.

Sam Rohrer:       So in reality, the individual must be in their own mind saying and ask themselves. You’re saying, and I’m saying this as well, I believe it’s to be true. When I stand in front of that mirror and I say, alright, can that mirror? I have to say, Lord, am I making my decisions according to your word? Do I even know what your word said? Do I even care what your word says? And Lord, help me today to make my decisions that are honoring to you. If I don’t start there in my own heart, then why would I be concerned about my decision making or vote? So you’re making the point, God’s word starting point, God’s standards fixed and the individual must make those determinations himself first. Now here, let me bring this up and then give some comment to it. Let’s go back to that question we’ve raised at the beginning.

Sam Rohrer:       It used to be at one point not many, many years ago, frankly, when there were many people, particularly in the pro-life movement but not limited there, but would say I’m a single issue voter. Meaning that if the person, the choices that I have do not support protecting the life of the innocent unborn, they will not get my vote. That’s a single issue. It could be on other issues as well. But what about that in a person’s standard or position on matter such as life or marriage or those 10 commandments that God would have if they’re clearly linked and they’re not there as a single issue voting on such cases. Was that wrong in the past? Is it wrong today?

Renton Rathbun:              My answer to that is no, it’s not wrong. When we think about single issue voting, there has to be some wisdom that goes into that. And what I mean is some knowledge of God’s word. So let me give you an example. Pope Francis just recently came out saying that we need to vote for the lesser of the two evils because he thought that he believes that Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies and vice President Kamala Harris’s support for abortion are both bad. And so he says you need to choose one of the, let me quote them. One must choose the lesser of two evils, who is the lesser of two evils, the lady or the gentleman. And this is what Pope Francis says, I don’t know. So what we have is someone saying that the idea that there are these pathways to, for instance control immigration, both believe that immigration needs to be controlled but he doesn’t like one of the pathways is on the same playing field, same level of importance as thou shalt not murder.

Renton Rathbun:              I mean what we have is a truly a huge problem with his understanding of God’s word. God’s word is so clear thou shalt not kill. And we believe that life begins that conception and when people want to kill a baby from conception to birth, that we consider that an absolute evil. Now a pathway to try and control immigration can’t be anywhere near that. That’s not something to be a one issue voter on, but a one issue voter on thou shalt not kill is super important. So it’s very clear when God makes something very clear in his law, something as clear as abortion, we must be one issue voters at that point because that’s not just sanctity of life, that is preserving a nation from committing genocide, which we have been doing since 1973.

Sam Rohrer:       And ladies and gentlemen, we do not have time in this program to go into the Old Testament. I’ve talked about it before. When God brought judgment on the land of Israel, we’re always a couple of things. One of them was shedding innocent blood, the murder of the innocent. The other was idolatry actually worshiping, not following God’s laws across the board and worshiping other things. And together they were a deadly combination when it came to nations. So if God hates it that bad, should we not know what they are? And exercise extreme, extreme caution and fearing him and doing his will. So we’re going to talk about and conclude this in the next segment. Well Renton, we are at the end of the program. We’ve uncovered and touched on a lot of issues, raise questions, no perfect candidate, sinful world, not electing a pastor for those who are in office, those kinds of things.

Sam Rohrer:       But we’ve also raised the issue of biblical worldview. God’s word, perfect. God established the pattern, established the requirements for blessing, fear God, keep his commandments. That’s what God says all the way through. You fear me and you keep my commandments, I will bless. But that’s in the context of clearly the fact of a fallen world. So God gave those commandments to fallen people of which we all are and no one keeps them perfectly. We fail, all of us fail, but that is there as the standard nonetheless. And so that brings us to the point that we’re talking voting now because it’s an issue that’s coming up and a lot of people are saying, well then just tell me Sam, what to do, who to vote for. No, I’m not going to do that. No, I am not going to do that. But we want to bring people to a template of the things to think about.

Sam Rohrer:       And that is God does have standards. What are they? God does have criteria for blessing for national and individual. Okay, what are they? Alright, so here let me just have you reconcile a couple of things because when we got to the New Testament, Renton in particular, there’s a couple of principles there. One, I just think about this often a lot. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, a thought that each person must come to the point where they understand what they are doing, the decisions they’re making and they are fully persuaded. If there’s doubt, then generally unlike any we say, if you have a doubt, don’t do it. Well that’s one. And then there’s the other is that the principle we often forget about is that every person, not a group of people, every person’s going to stand before God one day and give an account for everything they say and do, which of course includes voting. So here it is, we come to a time, a great deal of uncertainty, a great deal of issues happening that are causing confusion. Alright, how does a godly person who fears God reckon in a matter of vote, it could be any decision making? We’re talking about voting here right now.

Renton Rathbun:              Today. I think this has become a difficult question because we haven’t enjoyed so much, so much rest from war and warfare and difficulties. And I know that some people might say, well what about Afghanistan? What’s going on in the Middle East and all these sort of things. There’s a lot of unrest, I will say that. But we have enjoyed so much freedom. We have enjoyed so much liberty. I mean, and because of that, our faith I believe has become quite weak. Our faith grows when we have to depend on it every day. Our faith grows when we have to learn how to fear our God more than to fear our circumstances and those around us. And we have become fat with liberty and fat with freedom to the point where we haven’t gotten into shape with our faith. And because of that we have learned how to fear what is around us more than we fear God, which is an act of faith.

Renton Rathbun:              We have put our faith in the world and we have stopped putting our faith in the Lord to the point where we want the Lord to conform himself to our pragmatic decisions because he understands how bad it is out here. And what we need to do is we need to be driven more by our fear of the Lord. And yes, that means respect, but it also means a genuine fear of the power and the rod of our father. When we disobey and we stop caring about his law and his character and we want vengeance, we see so much evil and it’s good. And I’ll tell you this, this is probably not too many people say this, but vengeance is good. It only becomes bad when we want it to be ours and not God is the one who gets vengeance. We always want that in our own hands.

Renton Rathbun:              So we will compromise whatever we need to see. Some of that vengeance come right out of our own hands. And what we have to do is to seek God’s work and try and stay close and faithful to God’s word and his law and to have to do things that we might even think are impractical. Heaven forbid that we do something impractical, but if it grounds our conscience in God’s word, we have to stick to those kinds of decisions. And so I do believe our conscience needs to be brought back to the Lord through faith instead of having a conscience towards how are we going to get back our vengeance here on earth.

Sam Rohrer:       And do you not believe as well Renton that, I mean I have found this to be the casing toot you think, but we need to be far more concerned about how God will say to us, why did you do this or not? And I’m saying this is a process. It’s not just the process of leading up to a vote for a person. It are decisions that we make regarding who our spouse may be or how we educate our children or whether we embark upon whatever it may be. It’s decisions of all types. It’s just that this one called voting is so critical on the calendar and it’s coming. But I find that the pressure is so much more to conform to what my neighbor may think or what somebody else may think more so than what God thinks. Even that process of changing that would make a big difference, would it not? What do you think?

Renton Rathbun:              Absolutely. When we think about how, I mean, and I’ll confess, the last thing on my mind during most of my decisions is standing before God and explaining why I have done what I have done. And that is a shame because what I haven’t done is I haven’t started small on the small things, on the things of my day-to-day practice, do I from my day-to-day practice of decision-making, have I considered how I am going to answer to God for my decisions? And I mean the small things, even the things of when your kid does something for the 100th time and now it’s time for a spanking or some kind of discipline. Am I doing this out of anger? Am I doing this because this is what’s best for them? How am I going to answer to the Lord for how I discipline my children? Or when I decide not to discipline them because it’s not convenient right now, how am I going to stand before the Lord and say, no, I didn’t discipline, I just didn’t feel like it today. Do I think about that in the small things? Because if I’m not thinking about that in the small things in my day-to-day things, when it comes to the big things, what I will do out of self-defense is I will say, this isn’t that big of a deal and I will make the big things seem like small things, even when it comes to voting. What am I putting my name on? What am I putting my yes to that is representative of who I am in.

Renton Rathbun:              If I don’t think about the small things, I’m not going to do it for the big things. And that goes under how we are approaching our voting. Are we approaching it as leaders who have to consider truth, righteousness, a solid definition of what the good is? Or we approaching voting as mere followers and we want to conform because that’s what we know might be most practical. We have to think in those terms.

Sam Rohrer:       And with that, Renton, we’re at the end of the program. Thank you so much, Dr. Renton Rathman with me today, website. He has worldview.bj.edu. But ladies and gentlemen, can I say all of us, I believe, who fear God are struggling a great deal. But how do we resolve it? God’s word holds the answer. At the end of the day, every decision that we make must be, does it glorify God? Does it measure to what he says is important? That is a matter of prayer and earnest prayer.