During this election year Christians must understand it is their duty to be involved in choosing those who govern them, and that they should base that choice upon Biblical qualifications. Here are a few articles to help you in this duty.
1. Fulfilling Our Biblical Duty to Choose Godly Officials
We have the privilege in America to choose those who govern us. As Christians, it is also our duty to do so.
Civil government is a divine institution of God. It exists to protect the life, liberty, and property of citizens, enabling them to more effectively advance the Kingdom of God. Civil leaders are servants of the people and of God, and are to govern under His higher authority. Rulers are to be ministers of God for good. (See Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pet. 2:13-14; Luke 22:25-26.)
For government to fulfill its divine mission, Christians must be involved in selecting good men and women to office. Ideally they would meet all the qualifications for Godly officials. When Moses told the Israelites to select from among them those who would govern them, he set forth a number of Biblical qualifications. He said: “You shall select out of all the people, able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain” (Ex. 18:21). “Choose wise and discerning and experienced men” (Deut. 1:13). He cited three general qualifications for governing officials: fear of God, Christian character, and Biblical worldview….
2. Qualifications for Godly Officials
It is very important who we choose to govern us. When the righteous rule the people will rejoice, but when the wicked govern they will groan (Proverbs 29:2). Life is like a beautiful day when those who fear God rule, as 2 Samuel 23:3-4 states:
The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, He who rules over men righteously, Who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain.
Our nation’s welfare and stability — our continuance as a nation of liberty, justice, and prosperity — will be greatly affected by whom we choose to lead us in the legislative, judicial, and executive departments of state. The qualifications of those who rule is of utmost importance. In choosing those who govern, we must compare their qualifications to those that the Bible says are of most importance….
Read this longer article
The first of the two articles “Fulfilling Our Biblical Duty to Choose Godly Officials” was also published on the NPI Publisher’s Corner, October 3, 2014. The second “Qualifications for Godly Officials” also was published on the NPI Publisher’s Corner, October 8, 2008.
Stephen McDowell is co-founder and President of the Providence Foundation, a nonprofit Christian educational organization whose mission is to spread liberty, justice, and prosperity among the nations by educating individuals in a Biblical worldview. Providential Perspective is available online with subscription at the Providence Foundation website.
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