If I require real belief in the triune God for the president of a secular state, you
know, I really would be disenfranchised.
I wouldn't be able to vote.
Period.
Because it's very rare to have an authentic Christian up for election for this secular
state.
And I think that there are times in the past where I've seen believing Christians running
against pagans for the highest office in the land where the pagan's policies were more
in keeping with biblical policies of government than the Christian's were.
And so, I look at whether the policies of the candidate are compatible essentially with
the fundamental precepts of government as God ordained it.
I believe in the distinction between separation and state, but that concept of separation
in church and state has come to mean in the secular world the separation of the state
from God where the government, particularly the federal government, has declared its independence
from God.
Not just from the church, but from God.
And at that point, it's a revolution against heaven because it's God who ordains government.
God institutes not only the church, but He also institutes civil government, whose principal
task under God is to protect, maintain, and sustain the sanctity of human life, which
our government does not.
And so, if I have any issue that determines my vote, it's not the Trinity; it's abortion.
Because any candidate who supports abortion by law has completely abrogated his responsibility
as a governor by failing to protect and maintain the sanctity of human life.
So, I will not ever vote for a candidate in any office including dog catcher who is pro-abortion,
okay?
MACARTHUR: In a somewhat humble illustration, if you asked me the question, "Would you allow
a physician to do brain surgery on you if he didn't believe in the Trinity?"
I really don't care if he believes in the Trinity.
I just want to know he's been in somebody else's brain, and he knows where to look.
If you asked me that question about the state, then its competence and consistency with a
biblical view of government, exactly as R.C has stated it.
And I think inherent in the biblical view is the protection of life and is capital punishment.
Jesus said, "Peter, put your sword away.
If you live by that, you're going to die by that."
I think that's another component that is largely missing, an unwillingness to punish the evil,
Romans 13, and reward the good.
Everything is turned on its head.
No protection for the family.
A president who affirms gay marriage, is so violently opposed to the sanctity of life,
which is the building block of human society.
To say nothing about how you deal with the government, how do you deal with family?
That is devastating stuff on a civil level, and we have to go the opposite direction from
that.
SPROUL: There are lots of people who believe that the church should never say anything,
and Christians should never say anything about what government does.
But that ignores the whole history of redemption, all the way up to John the Baptist where that
was a distinction in the Old Testament between the priests and the kings and all of that.
But the church historically has always been given the responsibility of what we call "prophetic
criticism."
Not that we want the state to be the church, but we do want the state to be the state.
And when the state rebels against its God-ordained responsibility, the church not only may, but
it must speak out against it.
LAWSON: I'll just add a verse, Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is
a disgrace to any people."
And so, it's fundamentally not about the economy.
Stupid.
It is righteousness that exalts a nation, and what Dr. Sproul and Dr. MacArthur have
just asserted are righteous issues, and it's righteousness that exalts a nation.
It's interesting, you remember, back in the nineteenth century when Alexis de Tocqueville
left France, came to America to discover the greatness of America, "What makes this nation
so great that we have sent the Statue of Liberty to?"
And he says he went into the commodious harbors to look for the greatness of America.
He did not find it.
He looked for its greatness in its industry, and in its grain fields.
He did not find it.
He said, "It was not until I went into the church houses and I heard her pulpits ablaze
with righteousness did I discover the greatness of America."
And then he said, "America is great because America is good.
And if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."
And really, I would lay the blame not even so much at the White House but at the church
house where we need to be ablaze with righteousness and proclaiming the Word of God and for there
to be a strong remnant in our country that would uphold righteous standards and out of
that for there to be salt and light influence.