Was God in the Election Results?

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, November 7, 2008


I promise that this will be my last column on the subject of presidential election politics. At least for a while. I am greatly fatigued by this presidential election season – and I feel like it’s gone on for next to forever. But I also feel strongly that there are a few more things to think about before we move on to the next election season.

Last week, I wrote that this nation will persevere and move on – no matter which candidate was elected on Tuesday. Now we will see if I’m right. Listening to some of the analysis and commentary on the election, however, there seem to be many who disagree with me. I’ve heard Obama supporters say that his victory over McCain signals dramatic change in this nation – change that will lead us from the brink of disaster to which Bush led us over the last eight years, and that would have become certain under McCain. So they thanked God that Obama won and brought new hope for America.

I also heard some reports on McCain backers who said that the Obama victory WAS the disaster – and there is no room for hope now that the “liberals are in control.” Even before the election, there were many who considered McCain-Palin to be “God’s Ticket,” and prayed ferverently for an outcome different that what actually happened on Tuesday.

So where was God in this election? Did God create an Obama victory? Or did the forces of evil prevail by defeating McCain? Can we even determine God was (or was not) intimately involved in the election outcome?

When the Apostle Paul talked about government to the Christian church in Rome, he told them this: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Rom 12:21-13:2)

I find it interesting that Paul talks about the government starting with an instruction: “do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” There are many who believe that government is evil – a necessary one, perhaps – but still evil. Yet, Paul says that we Christians should overcome evil with good. So even if government IS evil, we can’t run away from it or ignore it; rather, we must be God’s agents of transforming evil into good. And so Paul says to submit to the governing authorities, for they are in authority because God established it.

A lot of people are challenged by that statement. “How could God establish the authority for someone as clearly evil as Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany?” some might say. “If God is willing to establish that kind of authority – to put that kind of man in charge of a nation – then that’s not a God I want to follow.”

On the other hand, Abraham Lincoln is seen as either the greatest President of the United States of all time, or a close second right behind the Father of the Nation George Washington. Both of those presidents are often described as men God ordained to lead this nation in its crucial moments of birth and attempted division. “God brings great leaders to lead great nations. As long as we stay on God’s side, then we will always have a great leader.”

The problem with both of these perspectives is that they are based on our perceptions – and not on what God was actually saying through Paul. God does NOT establish the authority of specific leaders, or even specific governments. Instead, God established the concept of authority itself. “The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Paul says. He does not say, “Caesar’s authority has been established by God,” even though Nero Caesar was the absolute ruler in that time period. So God created the IDEA of government, but not how the government is organized, nor by whom it is led.

As much as I would love to claim that United States democracy is God’s specially approved and blessed form of government, I cannot. God himself is not revealed to us as a president, governor, senator – or even community organizer. God is revealed as Creator, Lord and King! We don’t get to vote God into office, nor can we vote God out. Rather, we can submit to God’s authority or rebel against it. And rebelling brings judgment against the rebeller.

So to answer the question that headlines this column, God was present in the election results – but only as far as we remember how Paul started his own discussion of politics: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. I have no doubts that Barak Obama has the capability to do good – he, too, was made in God’s image. I also have no doubts that Barak Obama has the capability to do evil – he, too, is a sinner who falls short of God’s glory. So no matter whom you voted for, please join me in praying for President-elect Obama, that he would more closely follow God’s authority as he lives into his own authority as president during the next four years.