One of the biggest lies circulating the political spectrum these days is that God will abandon the United States and us if we vote for Hillary Clinton. This is a lie because simply put; God will never leave us, and he makes that promise to us in the Book of Deuteronomy:
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
On Tuesday night, Dr. Ben Carson took the stage at the Republican National Convention and brought his version of theology into the mix. He had this to say about the future of America:
“If we continue to allow them to take God out of our lives, God will remove himself from us, we will not be blessed, and our nation will go down the tubes.”
I believe Dr. Caron to be a brilliant surgeon but as a theologian he is horrible. As the quote from Deuteronomy says, “he will never leave you or forsake you.” God loves us unconditionally that means God loves us, and will continue to love us, no matter who we vote for!
There seems to be this version of America that we are the new Israel and that we are God’s chosen people. This is what is known in theological circles as Dominion Theology. Simply put Dominion theology states that Christians need to win back the sinful secular society and replace it with a theocratic version of America that they believe once existed.
George Grant, wrote in his 1987 book The Changing of the Guard: Biblical Principles for Political Action wrote:
“Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness…..But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice…. Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land — of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ.”
I am a theologian and not a historian, but America was not founded as a Christian nation, and my theology teaches me that what is being put forward here is heresy of the first degree as well as very dangerous.
All of humanity has been created in the image and likeness of a God who loves us no matter what. After the flood came God made this covenant with Noah and through him to all of us: “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth” Genesis 9:11. In other words, God will NEVER leave us no matter what.
Telling people that God will leave them or that God does not love them is antithetical to the message of the Gospel. God so loved the world that he sent his son… (John 3:16) this is the basis of Christianity. God is an all loving God that embraces each of us no matter what color skin we have or where we come from. God sent Jesus to show us the way and the way that Jesus taught us was to love God and love our neighbor as well as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and welcoming the stranger.
If we buy into the notion that God cares who we vote for then, we buy into the idea that God has given the United States of America a superior place among the other nations of the world and simply is not true and wrong theology.
