Alan Keyes
Do Christian voters neglect their secret weapon?
Believers need to assert 'the power of Jesus' name'
By Alan Keyes
During the GOP's mock-up of a debate on Fox recently, Donald Trump stood out by refusing to pledge his support for the eventual GOP nominee. For some conservatives, this added credibility to his pose of adamant opposition to the GOP's quisling leadership. Now comes the report that "GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has promised 'several top Republicans' he will not run a third party campaign." If true, this report goes to prove what I have suggested before, that Donald Trump is participating in the GOP primary in order "to gull conservatives into keeping their heads in the rigged elitist faction political game."
But the whole issue of Trump's possible third party bid should also cause people to doubt the brainwashed assumption that they have no choice but to support one or the other of the elitist faction tools the Democrats and Republicans nominate for president. If Trump's millions of dollars can potentially buy enough votes for him to be of concern as a credible challenge to the partisan sham in the general election, why must we assume that it's impossible for millions of conscientious voters, powerfully moved by the threatened demise of their constitutional self-government, to mobilize enough votes, by and amongst themselves, to save it?
Under present circumstances, success for a self-mobilized voters' campaign would seem like a miracle – but that's what many of America's first patriots thought of the success of the American Revolution. Of course, they were predominantly Christian people, who believed in the promises of Christ and lived in good faith to be the instruments of God's will for the fulfillment of those promises. Can the same truly be said of Americans who profess to be Christians today?
Colonial Christians stood against the odds to endure bloody and violent war for the premises of God-endowed right (i.e., justice) articulated in America's Declaration of Independence. Thanks to the provisions of the U.S. Constitution, Christians in America now are called to battle, by peaceful means, as equal participants in constitutionally ordained election contests that are decided by the will of the sovereign body of the people. No blood is supposed to be spilled. No homes or property destroyed. No lives lost.
But great elitist faction powers stand against us. They are armed with devilish cunning, wealth, and media influence. Therefore, we have reason to admit that the odds are against us. But, our faith gives us better reason to believe that we have access to a Helper of far greater power than any that can be mustered by the material powers that seek to quell us. And He offers us His help on terms precisely suited to the election contests our Constitution provides for expressing our sovereign will as a people.
For these are the words of Christ:
"Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
As voters, what is it that Americans do on election days? We gather at the polling places to cast our votes. Such gatherings offer an opportunity to express our agreement about things that affect the peace, order, and well-being of the community in which we live. As Christians, we routinely pray for the good of our nation. In every election contest, we have the opportunity to act in pursuance of the things for which we pray. If we went to the polling places in Christ's name, he has assured us that he will be present in our midst. It is true that He will come again to wage decisive war against the force of evil, for His Father and for us. But before He appears to battle for us, He has told us the way to assure that He is here and present with us, in whatever battles we must endure to defend the rightful stands we take, by God's command. Given that assurance, in what other should we put our trust?
Yet when we go to the polls these days, we do so as Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, or liberals, etc. We cheer the name of this or that candidate, or the label we have given to this or that cause. But the one name Christians are loath to bring into the political arena, when they gather at the polling places to exercise their share in the responsibility of sovereign power, is the name of the one Our Father raised from dead to justify our trust, the name of Jesus Christ.
In true faith, we may call on the counsel and aid of the greatest power in creation. Yet for the gatherings by which we determine, as a people, our constitutionally sovereign will, we consent to leave out of the picture the one name in which we profess to have the greatest trust. In our actions as members of the sovereign body of the people, we will not bear true witness to the power of Jesus' name.
And then we dare to wonder at the fact elections produce results that have us, as Christians, on the verge of open suffering relentlessly unrighteous persecution?
Whatever excuses we make for this palpable folly, the simple fact is plain – when it comes to our vocation as citizens, which is to say, the share we have in the responsibility of earthly kings, we are ashamed of the name of Jesus Christ. As in days past, people of little faith were cowed by the fire and sword of persecution, so in America today, too many follow a palpably false teaching about our Constitution, which claims that it requires us to abjure respect for God as we follow our vocation as citizens. We are asked to forget that it is the will of the Creator that calls us to that vocation. So we fear the consequence of standing alone with Jesus when the votes are cast on election day. We fear being ridiculed by the media; abandoned by unbelievers; and perhaps, someday soon, excluded from the franchise itself, if we dare to stand forth boldly, calling on another to mobilize as citizens in the name that signifies our common allegiance, our common trust, our common hope for our own good and that of all humanity.
Today our country is being overtaken by God-rejecting ideologies that seek to redact every semblance of Christian morals, thought and influence from the public life and political history of the United States. That very fact goes to prove the power of Jesus' name, for like the demons in Scripture, the enemies of God seem to understand its power. They seem to know that they can never succeed in a contest where Christ is truly, boldly called upon by people of good faith.
The notion of good faith is at the root of the name by which the original advocates of the U.S. Constitution called themselves: Federalists. The name of Christ was at the heart of the goodwill that impelled America's first patriots to uphold the doctrine of God-endowed right, which defines that right as upholding the laws of nature and of its Creator, God. The notion and the name together form a term that may well describe the political understanding upon which America's liberty was erected, and in light of which it may yet be renewed.
When people these days asked me to what party I belong, I tell them that I think of myself as a Christian Federalist, part of the reunion of hearts determined, as citizens, to rebuke and discard the shame that alone prevents America's Christians from acting upon the truth. In this age of His first coming, Christ may not yet wage the battle for us, but if in battle we evoke His name, there He will be, to bear the battle with us, for God's sake and our own.
August 31, 2015
During the GOP's mock-up of a debate on Fox recently, Donald Trump stood out by refusing to pledge his support for the eventual GOP nominee. For some conservatives, this added credibility to his pose of adamant opposition to the GOP's quisling leadership. Now comes the report that "GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has promised 'several top Republicans' he will not run a third party campaign." If true, this report goes to prove what I have suggested before, that Donald Trump is participating in the GOP primary in order "to gull conservatives into keeping their heads in the rigged elitist faction political game."
But the whole issue of Trump's possible third party bid should also cause people to doubt the brainwashed assumption that they have no choice but to support one or the other of the elitist faction tools the Democrats and Republicans nominate for president. If Trump's millions of dollars can potentially buy enough votes for him to be of concern as a credible challenge to the partisan sham in the general election, why must we assume that it's impossible for millions of conscientious voters, powerfully moved by the threatened demise of their constitutional self-government, to mobilize enough votes, by and amongst themselves, to save it?
Under present circumstances, success for a self-mobilized voters' campaign would seem like a miracle – but that's what many of America's first patriots thought of the success of the American Revolution. Of course, they were predominantly Christian people, who believed in the promises of Christ and lived in good faith to be the instruments of God's will for the fulfillment of those promises. Can the same truly be said of Americans who profess to be Christians today?
Colonial Christians stood against the odds to endure bloody and violent war for the premises of God-endowed right (i.e., justice) articulated in America's Declaration of Independence. Thanks to the provisions of the U.S. Constitution, Christians in America now are called to battle, by peaceful means, as equal participants in constitutionally ordained election contests that are decided by the will of the sovereign body of the people. No blood is supposed to be spilled. No homes or property destroyed. No lives lost.
But great elitist faction powers stand against us. They are armed with devilish cunning, wealth, and media influence. Therefore, we have reason to admit that the odds are against us. But, our faith gives us better reason to believe that we have access to a Helper of far greater power than any that can be mustered by the material powers that seek to quell us. And He offers us His help on terms precisely suited to the election contests our Constitution provides for expressing our sovereign will as a people.
For these are the words of Christ:
"Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
As voters, what is it that Americans do on election days? We gather at the polling places to cast our votes. Such gatherings offer an opportunity to express our agreement about things that affect the peace, order, and well-being of the community in which we live. As Christians, we routinely pray for the good of our nation. In every election contest, we have the opportunity to act in pursuance of the things for which we pray. If we went to the polling places in Christ's name, he has assured us that he will be present in our midst. It is true that He will come again to wage decisive war against the force of evil, for His Father and for us. But before He appears to battle for us, He has told us the way to assure that He is here and present with us, in whatever battles we must endure to defend the rightful stands we take, by God's command. Given that assurance, in what other should we put our trust?
Yet when we go to the polls these days, we do so as Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, or liberals, etc. We cheer the name of this or that candidate, or the label we have given to this or that cause. But the one name Christians are loath to bring into the political arena, when they gather at the polling places to exercise their share in the responsibility of sovereign power, is the name of the one Our Father raised from dead to justify our trust, the name of Jesus Christ.
In true faith, we may call on the counsel and aid of the greatest power in creation. Yet for the gatherings by which we determine, as a people, our constitutionally sovereign will, we consent to leave out of the picture the one name in which we profess to have the greatest trust. In our actions as members of the sovereign body of the people, we will not bear true witness to the power of Jesus' name.
And then we dare to wonder at the fact elections produce results that have us, as Christians, on the verge of open suffering relentlessly unrighteous persecution?
Whatever excuses we make for this palpable folly, the simple fact is plain – when it comes to our vocation as citizens, which is to say, the share we have in the responsibility of earthly kings, we are ashamed of the name of Jesus Christ. As in days past, people of little faith were cowed by the fire and sword of persecution, so in America today, too many follow a palpably false teaching about our Constitution, which claims that it requires us to abjure respect for God as we follow our vocation as citizens. We are asked to forget that it is the will of the Creator that calls us to that vocation. So we fear the consequence of standing alone with Jesus when the votes are cast on election day. We fear being ridiculed by the media; abandoned by unbelievers; and perhaps, someday soon, excluded from the franchise itself, if we dare to stand forth boldly, calling on another to mobilize as citizens in the name that signifies our common allegiance, our common trust, our common hope for our own good and that of all humanity.
Today our country is being overtaken by God-rejecting ideologies that seek to redact every semblance of Christian morals, thought and influence from the public life and political history of the United States. That very fact goes to prove the power of Jesus' name, for like the demons in Scripture, the enemies of God seem to understand its power. They seem to know that they can never succeed in a contest where Christ is truly, boldly called upon by people of good faith.
The notion of good faith is at the root of the name by which the original advocates of the U.S. Constitution called themselves: Federalists. The name of Christ was at the heart of the goodwill that impelled America's first patriots to uphold the doctrine of God-endowed right, which defines that right as upholding the laws of nature and of its Creator, God. The notion and the name together form a term that may well describe the political understanding upon which America's liberty was erected, and in light of which it may yet be renewed.
When people these days asked me to what party I belong, I tell them that I think of myself as a Christian Federalist, part of the reunion of hearts determined, as citizens, to rebuke and discard the shame that alone prevents America's Christians from acting upon the truth. In this age of His first coming, Christ may not yet wage the battle for us, but if in battle we evoke His name, there He will be, to bear the battle with us, for God's sake and our own.
To see more articles by Dr. Keyes, visit his blog at LoyalToLiberty.com and his commentary at WND.com and BarbWire.com.
© Alan KeyesThe views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
