Many good Christian people will admit that neither John McCain or Barack Obama represent what they seek and desire in a Presidential candidate. They admit that neither candidate represents what is Biblically and Constitutionally sound, that neither represents or upholds the principles of liberty, individual God-given rights and Constitutionally-limited government that America was founded upon.

Both McCain and Obama receive a grade of “F” by the Gun Owners of America. Both practice principles of socialism. Both voted for the $700 billion financial bailout. Both want to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Neither has any intention of securing our borders. Both have campaign advisors who are members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR promotes an anti-American, globalist and elitist agenda, and is determined to undermine our national sovereignty. Both men’s track records indicate that they have little regard for the plain text of the U.S. Constitution, nor feel bound by the original intent of the writers of the document.

Nevertheless, many of us, as “good Christian people,” are lining up to vote for a candidate who does not represent our own views and values. Many of us are aware of a so-called “third party” candidate who does represent our views and who is championing the cause of all that we believe to be right and necessary for the restoring of our republic. Nevertheless, we are preparing to yield the precious empowering virtue of our vote to that candidate which we ourselves disbelieve and disapprove, a candidate many admit is simply the lessor of two evils.

So why are we doing it? We are doing it out of fear – fear of the greater of two evils, a fear that has become the motivating force that is determining how we as Christian people are casting our vote. But what does God have to say about such fear?

I have been told that the Bible records, in various forms, over 100 instances of God commanding us to “FEAR NOT!” Now perhaps that’s just a polite suggestion and not really a direct command, but I have a hard time finding wriggle room in a two word statement that only consists of an action and a prohibition against the action.

Then there is the passage in Romans 14:23. I realize that verse is wrapping up a discussion about eating certain foods deemed to be unclean, but the button put on the end of that verse is separated out in a manner that indicates to me that it can stand on its own just fine: “for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Now I know that taking this verse literally is going to be hard on some of us, but it appears to me to be a fairly unambiguous statement.

So if I’m reading my Bible correctly, not only is fear a violation of a direct command, but anything done outside of or contrary to faith, is sin.

I don’t mean to bring people under condemnation and be telling you that if you have any fear in your life you are some sort of terrible person who is willfully sinning against God. Perhaps we should establish just what sin is. Sin is an old English word that was used in archery to indicate missing the target, or missing the mark. So sin is anything that misses the mark or falls short of the standard that God prescribes (Rom. 3:23).

So why does anything that is not of faith miss the mark? Because faith is God’s way of doing things, it’s the way He operates and the way His kingdom operates. Everything He does He does by faith. On the other hand, fear is Satan’s counterpart, the force that his kingdom operates by and which he uses as the motivational tool for manipulating and controlling mankind. Hebrews 2:15 tells us that it was through “fear of death” that Satan managed to make mankind “subject to bondage.” Fear is the tool that Satan uses to bring us into bondage.

So when God says “Fear Not,” He is saying, “Don’t bow to Satan’s tactic for bringing us into bondage”. When God says that anything that is not of faith is sin; He is saying that when we shrink back from faith, we miss the mark and fail to operate in the ways of God and of His kingdom.

Now I’m wondering how all of us good Christian people, and all the good Christian leaders, and all the good Christian organizations, can go around saying “I’m afraid of Obama,” “We’re afraid of Obama,” “You should be afraid of Obama,” and let that fear be the motivational force that instructs us how to cast our vote. I’m wondering how we can do that, then turn around and ask God to bless our vote, bless our political actions, or bless our nation? How can we expect God’s blessing on our actions unless we first repent of violating the spiritual principles of His kingdom and repent of violating his clear command to “Fear Not.”

I don’t see this as a matter of God just being hard-nosed about fear and getting bent out of shape if we slip up and miss it. I see this as a matter of a loving Father warning His children not to engage in an activity that will take them out from under His protection and out from under His blessing and that will open a door to their adversary and make them prey for the devil.

We claim we are at war with terror, and well we should be. Terrorism is the planned, organized use of fear as a tactic to bring people into bondage. It is the supreme tactic of Satan who is the original terrorist. The ultimate victory in this war on terror is to “Fear not” as Jesus admonished, and to instead “believe only” (Luke 8:50).

I’m sorry if this is hard to take, but I just don’t see any examples in the Bible of good things happening to people when they were operating in fear, terrorized by the enemy, terrorized by the giants in the land, or in our case, terrorized by the liberals and terrorized by Obama. I only see examples of victory and God’s blessing coming on the people when they repented and returned to trusting in God, trusting in Him enough to obey Him and do things his way by faith.

We like to praise and venerate the great Bible heroes, but did you notice that all the heroes listed in Hebrews 11 are praised for having done their exploits by faith? Whether their undertaking was successful or whether they were rejected and killed, they are praised for having done what they did as an act of faith. Someone please correct me if you can find a Bible story that praises someone for doing something out of fear.

So just what part of “Fear Not” don’t we understand? It seems pretty simple to me.

We need to repent of our disobedience, repent of basing our actions on fear, repent of shrinking back from a righteous standard through fear, repent of fearing liberals, repent of fearing Obama, and repent of allowing our terrorized state of mind to drive us to moving the standard of what is Biblically and Constitutionally right in order to accommodate our voting for candidates because “they can win,” or because they bear the favored party label, or because they are the lessor of two evils.

We need to return to the fear of the Lord, that reverential trust and respect that finds the courage to stand for what is right by faith no matter the odds and no matter the outcome. We need to return to honoring God, honoring His ways and honoring His way of doing things so that He can be justified in bestowing honor upon us and our endeavors.

In this election season I want to encourage us all to put aside our fears and honestly ask ourselves and ask our God which candidate truly represents a righteous standard that God can honor. Then, as an act of faith, find the courage to invest the virtue of our vote in only those candidates who represent what we know to be right and believe to be necessary, regardless of any other consideration, by an act of faith casting aside fear and simply standing for what is right.

May we heed the words and wisdom of the father of our country, George Washington, who admonished:

“The time has come for Christians to vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them…Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to their country as a part of their duty to God….God will bless or curse this nation according to the course Christians take in politics.”
Rev. Charles G. Finney