The political climate in America is quite charged with many controversial issues on the minds of people such as terrorism, gun control, immigration, the war in Syria, the economy, etc. Corruption at the highest levels of government have led to an intense interest in the current contest for who will become the next president of the United States. It seems that many Americans are fed up with political elites and are looking to a new leader who can save this once great nation from its continual downslide and eventual collapse. As we reported in our last post this has led to the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist church to take sides on controversial political issues and using the church publications and the worldly media to promote their views. In this post we want to look deeper into the role that Seventh-day Adventists should play in the face of these fast moving and somewhat complicated matters from the perspective of what has been provided for us in timely counsels from the pens of inspiration. Several quotes are listed below. Please feel free to comment on how they apply to our current political environment.
Political Questions And Political Propaganda
(Addressed to “Dear Brethren”)
Our work is to watch, and wait, and pray. Search the Scriptures. Christ has given you warning not to mingle with the world. We are to come out from among them and be separate, “and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17, 18). Whatever the opinions you may entertain in regard to casting your vote in political questions, you are not to proclaim it by pen or voice. Our people need to be silent upon questions which have no relation to the third angel’s message. If ever a people needed to draw nigh to God, it is Seventh-day Adventists. There have been wonderful devices and plans made. A burning desire has taken hold of men or women to proclaim something, or bind up with something; they do not know what. But the silence of Christ upon many subjects was true eloquence. . . .
My brethren, will you not remember that none of you have any burden laid upon you by the Lord to publish your political preferences in our papers, or to speak of them in the congregation, when the people assemble to hear the Word of the Lord. . . .
We are not as a people to become mixed up with political questions. All would do well to take heed to the Word of God, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers in political strife, nor bind with them in their attachments. There is no safe ground in which they can stand and work together. The loyal and, the disloyal have no equal ground on which to meet.
He who breaks one precept of the commandments of God is a transgressor of the whole law. Keep your voting to yourself. Do not feel it your duty to urge everyone to do as you do.—(Letter 4, 1898.) – Selected Messages, Book 2, pp. 336, 337.
Not To Become Absorbed In Politics
God has warned His people not to become absorbed in politics. We cannot bear the sign of God as His commandment-keeping people, if we mingle with the strife of the world. We are not to give our minds to political issues. God’s people are walking contrary to His will when they mix up with politics, and those who commence this work in the Southern states reveal that they are not taught and led by God, but by that spirit which creates contention and strife and every evil work. We are subjects of the Lord’s kingdom, and we are to work to establish that kingdom in righteousness.—Letter 92, 1899.
Neither you nor any of your brethren had any work to do in arguing or writing or taking any part whatever in politics. 2 God was dishonored by all who acted any part in politics.
God has chosen a people who are to proclaim the third angel’s message to the world. They are to be a separate and peculiar people in this world of churches who are transgressing His commandments. . . .
The Lord would have His people a separate and peculiar people, bearing the sign and seal of the Sabbath, in preserving the memorial, the seventh day, upon which the Lord rested after His work of creation. . . .
The redemption of men draws them away from political strife to rest and peace and quietude in God.—Letter 11, 1897.
Gospel ministers are to keep their office free from all things secular or political, employing all their time and talents in lines of Christian effort.—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, p. 252.
The Lord has been greatly dishonored by His people catching up the issues that arise in this time of test and trial. His people are to keep free from politics. They are to stand as a separate, peculiar people; the name of God our Ruler is to be in their foreheads, showing to all that He is their sovereign.—Manuscript 1, 1897.
If anyone shall seek to draw the workers into debate or controversy on political or other questions, take no heed to either persuasion or challenge.—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 122.
”Christianity — how many there are who do not know what it is! It is not something put on the outside. It is a life inwrought with the life of Jesus. It means that we are wearing the robe of Christ’s righteousness. In regard to the world, Christians will say, We will not dabble in politics. They will say decidedly, We are pilgrims and strangers; our citizenship is above. They will not be seen choosing company for amusement. They will say, We have ceased to be infatuated by childish things. We are strangers and pilgrims, looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”—Testimonies to Ministers, p. 131.
Avoid Identity With Party Interests
God’s people have been called out of the world, that they may be separated from the world. It is not safe for them to take sides in politics, whatever preferences they may have. They are ever to remember that they are one in Christ. God calls upon them to enter their names as under His theocracy. He cannot approve of those who link up with worldings. We are entirely out of our place when we identify ourselves with party interests. Let us not forget that we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are soldiers of the cross of Christ, and our work is to advance the interests of His kingdom.—Manuscript 67, 1900, p. 10.
However, we should note that although kingdom seeking Christians should avoid much of the current political issues of the day and stay focused on preaching the gospel, there are some causes which it is the responsibility of the citizen to speak up on exercise their right to vote. The temperance cause was an issue in Ellen White’s day and today we have many issues relating to the practice of our health freedoms that are currently under assault. This would include the proper labeling of foods which contain genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and compulsory vaccinations.
The Responsibility Of The Citizen
While we are in no wise to become involved in political questions, yet it is our privilege to take our stand decidedly on all questions relating to temperance reform. Concerning this I have often borne a plain testimony. In an article published in the Review of Nov. 8, 1881, I wrote:…
“There is a cause for the moral paralysis upon society. Our laws sustain an evil which is sapping their very foundations. Many deplore the wrongs which they know exist, but consider themselves free from all responsibility in the matter. This cannot be. Every individual exerts an influence in society.
“In our favored land, every voter has some voice in determining what laws shall control the nation. Should not that influence and that vote be cast on the side of temperance and virtue?. . . .
“We may call upon the friends of the temperance cause to rally to the conflict and seek to press back the tide of evil that is demoralizing the world; but of what avail are all our efforts while liquor selling is sustained by law? Must the curse of intemperance forever rest like a blight upon our land? Must it every year sweep like a devouring fire over thousands of happy homes?
“We talk of the results, tremble at the results, and wonder what we can do with the terrible results, while too often we tolerate and even sanction the cause. The advocates of temperance fail to do their whole duty unless they exert their influence by precept and example—by voice and pen and vote—in favor of prohibition and total abstinence. We need not expect that God will work a miracle to bring about this reform, and thus remove the necessity for our exertion. We ourselves must grapple with this giant foe, our motto, No compromise and no cessation of our efforts till the victory is gained.” — Review and Herald, Oct. 15, 1914. (See Gospel Workers, pp. 387, 388.)
Bearing Our Testimony On The Temperance Question
How important it is that God’s messengers shall call the attention of statesmen, of editors, of thinking men everywhere, to the deep significance of the drunkenness and the violence now filling the land with desolation and deaths As faithful colaborers with God, we must bear a clear, decided testimony on the temperance question. . . .
Now is our golden opportunity to co-operate with heavenly intelligences in enlightening the understanding of those who are studying the meaning of the rapid increase of crime and disaster. As we do our part faithfully, the Lord will bless our efforts to the saving of many precious souls.—Temperance, p. 251. (Review and Herald, Oct. 25, 1906.)
Can the Next President Save America?
“The most exciting current event that we know of is the presidential election which stands only two days in the future. As the nation sees it, this is now the biggest thing in the world, even though many will not get what they want, for each one of the different parties has named its own nominee on the presidential ballot, but only one president is to be elected.
All seem to think that peace and prosperity depend upon the man they put in the White House. Upon the authority of the Word, though, I stand to tell you that regardless who is put in office there will be no peace and desirable lasting prosperity, for God is left out of the plans which have been devised although He alone can give what we are after. And now how may we know that God is not taken into partnership? The clue that gives the answer is this:
If the church members themselves leave God out of consideration and go to men for counsel instead of to God, then how can one expect the world to go to Him?” — Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 41, p. 4
Our Greatest Duty Today
Furthermore, the pursuit of peace, not of war, is our greatest duty today, for we as a people are commissioned to promote the Kingdom of peace (Matt. 10:12, 13) by feeding the world with both spiritual and material bread — by keeping our minds on the Word of God, and our hands on the plow and on the pruning hook (Mic. 4:3). This we cannot do if we keep our minds on politics and our hands on sword and spear (Joel 3:10).
So in order for us to promote honor unto God and blessing unto the nations of which we are citizens, we must be as faithful in the Word of God as was Daniel and the three Hebrews in ancient Babylon, and as was Joseph in ancient Egypt, and thus national as well as international missionaries.
Knowing full well as we do that the security and sovereign existence of any government depend primarily, not on human and military power, but upon Divine sufferance and protection, we are consequently still the more compelled to render implicit obedience to Heaven’s principles governing our duty to our land. This high compulsion rests with even more compelling force upon us who have been placed here in Providentially free America, because of the happy fact that for these last momentous hours of time He has placed the headquarters of the church here where she is to enjoy unprecedented religious liberty, to function freely, and to discharge without obstruction her Divinely appointed duty world-wide.” — Military Stand, p. 7
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