lion&lamb: Back Issue

Introduction: The Bible and Contemporary Society
Derek Poole

A Moving Experience
Ruth Hutchinson

From the Director
David Porter

Letting the Bible Speak
Graham Redding

Hagar and the God Who Sees
Fran Porter

Faith and Practice...David McClurg
Ruth Hutchinson

Wilson on Suffering
Alan Wilson

God's Prejudice Reduction Training
David Porter

How Will We Vote?
Stephen Cave

Book Reviews
Alwyn Thomson

And Finally...

< Past Issues Archive

HOW WILL WE VOTE?
In days running up to the referendum on the Belfast Agreement many Christian leaders were asked for guidance on how to vote! Folk in my own congregation mentioned to me that they hoped I would be able to tell them what was best. In my attempt to deal with the situation I looked at the issue of allegiance and used several key Bible passages to draw out some principles that I felt were important for Christians in knowing how to vote.

Sometimes Christian leaders find themselves in the position where they wish there was an eleventh commandment to help with problem solving! The referendum on the Agreement was one such issue and it would have been so much easier if somewhere it said, “You shall vote this way.” It was one of the most important issues in living memory and Christians found themselves, at best, unsure and, at worst, divided. No doubt political bigotry played a part for some but many Christians were genuinely unsure; what should the Christian response be?

Despite the fact that some people came to church actually expecting to be told what way to vote I was not able to oblige. Of course I knew what I would do and was happy enough with the stance I would take, but I could not say authoritatively what was right or wrong. It was not my place to tell my congregation how they must vote. I made clear that each of us must follow our conscience and vote for what we decided to be best. But we should vote as Christians, not as Unionists or Nationalists. I also warned them against listening to anyone who said there was only one possible Christian response. An ‘X’ on a ballot paper cannot decide our fellowship as Christians.

However, there are biblical principles and truths that do come into play as regards the Northern Ireland situation and I felt my responsibility was to teach those principles and encourage Christians to obey them. Over the course of one Sunday we looked at some of those principles, seeking to weigh up the Scripture and then be determined to act accordingly by voting righteously, taking part in the referendum and not abdicating responsibility to others. Our local MP had been criticised for his stance but we could not really complain since almost 50% of the constituency electorate had not bothered to vote in the previous general election, thereby abdicating responsibility. So, I urged Christians to vote, but in a sanctified manner, having considered God’s ways in Scripture. If we do so genuinely nothing more can be asked of us and furthermore, if we follow those principles we should be able to respect each other’s decisions, even if we disagree. The major issue we considered on the Sunday morning was allegiance – just where does our loyalty lie? We covered it under three headings. (Alliteration was not my normal practice! Honest!!)

The Principle and the Promise
Surely the guiding principle for our loyalty comes from the Sermon on the Mount, specifically 'Seek first the Kingdom of God’ (Mt.6:33). For the Christian, the supreme concern must be … ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done’. God comes first. He has first and only claim on our allegiance. God’s will is all that matters. He must be honoured above all. Our first consideration must be God.

That has been the earliest of principles for his people … ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Ex 20:3). Nothing must come between God and us; he must hold sway. Israel’s laws reflect that. God was to be given the first of the harvest, the best of the flock, perfect sacrifices. The firstborn belonged specifically to God. He was to come first and get the best whatever the cost.

All Scripture teaches that the glory of God must be the Christian’s sole aim and we are to reflect that in every aspect of our lives. Nothing of the world should hold a higher allegiance; nothing else must count for Christians than God’s ways and will. New Testament teaching should leave us in no doubt that issues of national identity should not be much of a consideration. ‘Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all’ (Col.3:11). National identity just does not count. The good news that is Jesus breaks through the boundaries of nations, and his people are drawn from all lands. So land and nationality should not be causes of conflict for those who claim the title ‘Christian’.

Further, God is neither Unionist nor Nationalist, so it has to be wrong to claim that if you follow one as opposed to the other you betray your Christian faith. Earthly kingdoms count for nothing in the eyes of the Lord. Worldly labels and national identity count for zero. If nation was important why did the early church not fight for Jerusalem and Israel? Surely the answer is from the lips of the Master. ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were my servants would fight to prevent my arrest… but my kingdom is from another place’ (John 18:36).

Priorities are changed in the kingdom Jesus promotes. When church and state became mixed, the church reverted to more earthly notions, leading to debacles like the crusades – in many cases nothing more than religious murders as they tried to re-take Jerusalem.

Look at 1Peter 2:11-16 where we are reminded that we are aliens and strangers, pilgrims passing through. We have no stake here; it is not our homeland. We might be stopping off here for a while but we will be moving on any time now. There is no settling here and there ought to be nothing here to hold us back.

This truth has gone by the wayside for centuries in the church. It has been a huge problem here in Northern Ireland, so much time wasted, hurt caused, lives lost or destroyed, and energy expended in allegiance to earthly causes. And very often it has been to the detriment of our Kingdom cause. But, like it or not, neither Northern Ireland nor the United Kingdom is ‘God’s own country’. This is not the land of the eternal covenant; and so it is not to this land, or to any other, that we owe our allegiance. Obedience to the authorities – yes. Respect for rulers – yes. Prayer for them – yes. But allegiance – no! That must be given only to God and his kingdom. That is the principle by which we ought to live.

There is a promise in Matthew 6:33: ‘Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ The day-to-day things will be looked after. Get the allegiance right and leave the rest with God; he will look after it and he will do a much better job than we could! That does not mean we will understand or even agree with all he does – but that is not the issue. His ways are much higher than ours and we are called to trust our Father. Abraham got it right. ‘The Judge of all the earth will do right’ (Gen 18:25). Go God’s way and there is no need to worry. He will do what is right, he will watch over his people. We are free to go ahead and cast our vote as long as we do it in what we believe to be a God-honouring way. If we are honest and genuine in our desire to honour him he will honour us. Of course there is a danger that many ‘christians’ will not even try to do it God’s way. They say it is, but they dishonour his name, using it as a front to cover the fact that they will be voting for a much lower allegiance, either green, white and gold or red, white and blue. Both mean nothing. Only one allegiance counts – seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

People who have lived by the Principle
We get no better illustration of those who lived by the principle than the so-called ‘heroes of the faith’ covered in Hebrews 11. They have become known as heroes precisely because they lived by that principle of seeking first the kingdom of God. They refused to be sidetracked into building their own kingdoms, refused to have their eyes taken off eternal priorities.

Verse 13 sums up what they were all about: ‘All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.’ They never received earth’s glory and they did not mind for they were not looking for it! ‘Instead they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one’ (v.16).

Abraham was told he would be blessed in an amazing way but for what did he search? ‘He was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God’ (Heb.11:10). Take Moses. Verses 24-26 show us how he could have had the very best the world had to offer but he was not interested. He had set his sights higher - and not just to the Promised Land of Canaan! The rest of the chapter gives a run down of many others, and again they all lived for higher goals. They were after God’s kingdom and that is what drove them on.

Sadly we are all too often driven by earthly considerations. It might be wealth and might be power; and it can just as easily be national identity. But that should not be our driving force. It ought to be ‘Ulster for God’ and not ‘God for Ulster’.

That is also the example of Jesus himself. He could have had all the earthly glory and prestige he wanted but that is not what drove him. He came to do the will of his Father and was driven by the hope of setting up God’s kingdom. Hebrews 12 points us to him and reminds us why he was prepared to go through what he did; verse 2 shows us how he was prepared to suffer on earth for a higher loyalty. And verse 1 points us back to the previous chapter, and those heroes, and challenges us to jettison all that might hinder us, might hold us back from seeking God’s kingdom above all. And if that means national loyalties and aspirations then so be it.

The writer of Hebrews comes back to it again in 13:11-14 and leaves us with another challenge from Jesus himself. We get the picture of him despised, cursed as he was sacrificed outside the city, a place of rejection. But he was prepared to go through with it to bring reconciliation between God and man. Maybe we too are called to go outside our camps, outside the tribal camps, the camps marked out by earthly allegiance – to pursue the higher goal. It is fair to say that, if we choose that path, some will also reject us, abuse and verbally ‘crucify’ us, but we will be serving a higher authority. Like those who have gone before we must be looking for the city that is to come and ought not to get caught up with building an empire here.

The Pilgrimage goes on
If God’s kingdom did not stop with Canaan then it certainly does not stop with Northern Ireland. Thankfully this is not the place God has chosen as the eternal resting-place for himself and his people. It is a beautiful country – of that there is no doubt. But it is not heaven. It is still spoiled by sin, as a quick glance in my garden will prove! And that being so, this piece of land is something over which it is not worth fighting. For, along with everything else, Northern Ireland is destined for the fire.

The truth of 1Peter 2:11-16 still stands today; we are pilgrims, strangers, aliens in a land that is not our own. We have not arrived yet. Northern Ireland is not our final destination. The kingdom of God is not fulfilled here; there are still spiritual battles to fight and spiritual ‘lands’ to claim. There is still a long way to go on the journey. And as any traveller knows, the easiest way to travel is to travel light! The more baggage you have the more you are weighed down and the slower the journey. It just means a whole lot more trouble.

If ever there was a country where the pilgrims were held back with baggage it has to be Northern Ireland. False doctrine has been drummed into us since birth – to be a Christian in NI you have to be Unionist; you have to adopt a Protestant ethos before you can be saved; you have to support the British way of life. Of course it is not quite so overt but that is what it amounts to and so living for the Kingdom is made so much more difficult, just like the Pharisees made it. The result is that many Christians are caught up in a political fight for the land that has stunted their kingdom growth. Priorities have become confused and clear biblical truth gets twisted or distorted to suit political ends. An advert in the News Letter publicised a church which claimed to preach ‘the unadulterated Word of God – old time gospel hour, the fight for Ulster and no surrender’. Surely that has to be a contradiction in terms since the ‘unadulterated Word of God’ makes no mention of Ulster.

Lies have been used to justify political extremism and from there the road to violence is a short one. The threatening language of the ‘road to Rome’ is resurrected from time to time but what a lie! The truth for many is that people south of the border are in many instances much more open to the truth of Jesus; the ‘Jesus’ video is more readily accepted there than in the north. Many of the laws in the Republic are much closer to biblical standards than what emanates from Westminster. We ought to question the establishment to whom many of us wish to claim loyalty when we consider those laws. Some respond by saying their loyalty is to the Queen, the royal line; can we honestly say royalty upholds Christian standards of living and provides a fine example?

We need to be much clearer in our minds that as Christians we are on a journey that will end in God’s glory when his kingdom is fulfilled. Until then we must not settle for anything less and should not waste so much time and effort on earthly loyalty. We must show a different, a better way. We are new creatures, saved from all those lesser loyalties and it is a shame when we slip back into them. The priorities of the world should not be our priorities and we should not be pressed into its mould. As Paul wrote, ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (Romans 12:2). Show the world that there is a better way, a better kingdom for which to fight, that will not pass away.

We are in a struggle, a war, but it is not the kind of war some would have us believe. It is a much more subtle and devious war. ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood’ (Eph.6:12). The enemy is much stronger than a political movement and the stakes are far higher than a piece of land. We cannot afford to be distracted by things that, from an eternal perspective, are so unimportant. Paul advised Timothy: ‘No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer’ (2Tim. 2: 4). The soldier’s mind must be focused on the battle and so must ours; but too many Christians are ignoring the real battle and fighting earthly ones.

It is time we got our minds back on the job, time we remembered that the priority is to please the commanding officer, not to run off and fight for what is insignificant. Are we up to it? Are we prepared to live for the right principle, the principle of allegiance to the King of kings? Are we prepared to seek first the kingdom of God? Or is a flag more important to us than the cross? We must think very carefully before we vote and make sure we do it for God and his glory alone. It is the only allegiance that matters.

Stephen Cave has recently been appointed General Secretary of Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland. Before taking up this post he was pastor of Ballycrochan Baptist Church.