Does the Bible actually have anything to teach about voting?
We asked this question on Christ in Prophecy of our special guest, Rafael Cruz, the father of one of the United States senators from Texas and presidential candidate, Ted Cruz. He joined us to discuss what he believes are some of the greatest dangers to American democracy and freedom.
[Note: Lamb & Lion Ministries does not endorse any particular presidential candidate. The following interview has been lightly edited for grammatical purposes.]
The Freedom of Worship Switch
Nathan Jones: Mr. Cruz, what do you think about the dangers to Christianity in the way of our government limiting our freedom of religion. I hear President Obama frequently saying that we have the freedom to worship, but he never says freedom of religion. There is a big difference, right?
Rafael Cruz: Oh, there is a huge difference. Every Communist country around the world has freedom of worship. The way they define worship is that worship is what you do inside of a house of worship. Inside of a church in Cuba you can worship and you can evangelize, but only inside of the Church. Of course, Cuba has spies there in the churches monitoring what you’re saying.
Dr. Reagan: One thing you can’t do is get up and deliver a sermon that criticizes the government, right?
Rafael Cruz: No, you cannot criticize the government. That is why they have spies in all the churches. And, if you share the Gospel in the streets, you are put in prison. It is very, very purposeful that the Obama Administration talks only about freedom of worship. Under freedom of worship you may even be put in jail if you have a Bible study in your home.
Dr. Reagan: Freedom of worship sounds so good. Our President says over and over, “I believe in freedom of worship.” But, that’s not what the Constitution says. The Constitution says we have the freedom to exercise our religion, and that means taking it into the marketplace. It means taking it where you work. It means that you don’t keep your faith inside of a building.
Rafael Cruz: Jesus said, “You are the light of the world, but you know light is worthless unless you point it at the darkness.” So, Christians have got to take our faith outside of the four walls of the church and take it out into the marketplace.
Dr. Reagan: That’s so true! Yes, we had at our ministry’s annual conference this year Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association. Tim made the comment like, “There are so many Christians who think it is improper to get involved in politics in anyway because it is such a dirty thing… Isn’t it amazing that we as Christians say, ‘As good Christians we must obey the law,’ but we’ll let pagans make the laws!”
Rafael Cruz: Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. When the wicked beareth rule, people mourn.” What happens is this, if the righteous are not running for office, and if the righteous are not even voting, what is left? We get the wicked electing the wicked. And, we get what we so deserve.
Voting Biblical Values
Nathan Jones: Mr. Cruz, I was reading in the Wall Street Journal that you made this quote which goes, “The Bible tells you exactly who to vote for.” Is that correct? Where did you get that idea?
Rafael Cruz: Absolutely. Let me put it into context. Moses has just crossed the Red Sea and now is in the wilderness trying to govern over a million people. Moses is going bananas! Here comes his father-in-law, Jethro, who says, “Moses, what are you doing trying to judge people from morning to night. What you are doing is not good.” In Exodus 18:21 God speaks to Moses through Jethro and He says, “You select from among the people.” Now note, God doesn’t say, “I will appoint.” No, no, no! “You select which…” It is the same as “you elect.”
Go next to Deuteronomy 1:13 and God commands, “Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.” So, go elect.
Then God gives four qualifications for these rulers: able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. Let’s take them one at a time.
“Able men and women,” what does that mean? That simply means to elect men and women who are capable of doing the job. Let’s stop electing the village idiot! Qualifications, please.
Number two, “such as fears God.” Well, if you fear God, you obeys God’s commands. We call that in America Judeo-Christianity. What is Judeo-Christianity? First of all, it is a moral code of conduct depicted by the last six commandments in the Decalogue, the horizontal commandments. They are honesty, integrity, hard-work, individual responsibility, the rule of law, and yes, free enterprise and limited government. The Bible speaks a lot about all of those.
Number three, “men of truth.” Let me ask you this, aren’t you sick and tired of men and women who are full of lies in government? I mean, they tell you one lie to cover up the previous lie. Whether it is Fast and Furious, or the IRS, or the NSA, or Ebola, or missing e-mails, or money from foreign governments, or Planned Parenthood — it’s all lies upon lies upon lies.
Let me ask you another question. Have you come across a candidate for public office telling you all of these wonderful things that they are going to do for you, only to get elected and do exactly the opposite? We see that again and again, don’t we?
That one is easy to fix if you just follow this rule: stop listening to their rhetoric and start looking at their record. Stop looking at what they say and start looking at what they do, and what they have done. Jesus put it this way, “Ye shall know them by their fruit.” It is about time we do some fruit checking!
So able men, such as fear God, men of truth, and number four is “hating covetousness.” There’s something very interesting about covetousness in government. It is not really about money, but about power and control. Politicians covet power, and they covet the control that power gives them over we the people. That’s why we have politicians in Washington who have been there for 30 years and they want to be there another 20. They just don’t want to relinquish their power.
Dr. Reagan: You’re advice is wonderful! It is so desperately needed in the Church today. I have been so upset over the fact that professing Christians decide how they are going to vote on the basis of the race of the person, or on the basis of the party affiliation, or on the basis of anything in the world except biblical principles. They need to ask themselves where do they stand on abortion? Where do they stand on homosexuality? Where do they stand on Israel? The biblical principles are what matters.
I know of a church in the Dallas area where the pastor got up during this last election and said, “I want to tell you how to vote.” He didn’t tell who to vote for, he just said, “You need to vote for people according to these biblical principles.” As the congregation afterwards is walking out of the sanctuary, one of the deacons of the church says in a very loud voice in the lobby, “Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to vote for who my union leader says to vote for!”
That’s why this nation is in the sorry condition that it’s in. So, yes, vote for godly men.
Rafael Cruz: We need to vote conviction, instead of voting tradition. Click To Tweet
I watched this program the other night. It was an excellent interview. I also enjoyed reading it all week. Seeing the verses in writing, as well as Mr. Cruz' comments, helps me to remember better (visual learner :))Also, I like knowing I can go back and read it again.
Keep up the good work. We need you so much in these last days.
Denise