Many people will soon go down to the polls and vote. The voice of the people will be heard and a new leader will take the office of Chief executive officer of the Government of the United States or the old leader will remain in his office with the renewed vote of the people.
He will then be allowed to sign laws into place over the people, appoint new federal judges through out the nation, nominate new Supreme Court Justices and lead the army into battle as a commander in Chief of the nation. The voice of the people will have made its will law and all who are a part of that nation will be under the new chief.
Most of the people will be dissatisfied with the winner. Less than half of the people who could vote will vote for the winner and many of those who did choose the winning candidate do so simply because they like his opponent even less. Some people will be elated and continue to believe that their candidate can do no wrong and they have elected God's choice until the voice of the people speaks again.
In the bible we also see the phrase "the voice of the people" in first book of Samuel, a prophet of Israel, a nation with no king. It is some four hundred years after their departure from Egypt when the people have turned their backs on God and are choosing a central leader who would have power and authority. They had men to lead them before but they were not like the other nations nor could their leader exercise authority over them as they were servants of servants, for in those days there was no central ruler in Israel.1 This was the way God wanted it and based on what Jesus said we have to assume that God still wants it that way today.2
But the people spoke. The new elected leader of Israel would now lead them into battle like the other nations and he would be able to compel the people to contribute to his government and its needs which would include a compelled sacrifice or tax and the taking of their sons and daughters to serve his will. Of course Samuel said if he did so it would be a foolish thing and his government would perish.3 Samuel gives a long clear warning from God as to what would happen if the voice of the people were to choose a central ruler that was an executive officer who had the power to make law. It was a terrible curse but God was not choosing this curse but it was their own desires that brought them into condemnation.4
Prior to this Israel had appointed their titular leaders from the bottom up maintaining their right to decide fact and law in their own courts according to the laws and customs written in there own hearts. This new leader would now appoint men from the top down. There would soon be a multitude of officers appointed from the top down to eat out their substance, take their sons to wage war for him and their daughters to work in his service5.
The first fruits of their labor would eventually be his as the people continued to turn from God to their new benefactor who would exercise authority for them. They would eventually return to the bondage of Egypt where more than 20 percent of their labor was taken from them each year by the government6, all their gold and silver was in the treasury of the government and their rights to their land were nothing more than renters. Moses knew that the people might be this foolish and that giving such power to one man would be a great temptation and he warned them what elements they should put in their written constitution if they were to be so foolish as to elect a leader who had power.7
He should not have treaty making powers or accumulate the gold and silver of the people in his treasury or establish a standing army... Israel was a republic in the sense of Webster's definition where the leaders were titular but this new leader would have an exercising authority like the other nations who rule over the people. Israel was turning the world upside down with their vote.
What is a vote?
According to Webster's 1913 Dictionary the word vote can be defined as, " An ardent wish or desire; a vow; a prayer. "
A vote can be considered a vow or a prayer. It is an expression of your desire and wish and it is a form of application for that wish to become law. It is also participation in an attempt to exercise authority over all other voters, both registered and those merely qualified to vote.
"Often the terms 'citizen' and voter are confused. A voter is a person who is allowed by law to take part in the government."8
That vote as a "vow" can be defined as, "Specifically, a promise of fidelity..." for what ever candidate wins. Is voting an act of faith? Fidelity is defined as, "Faithfulness; adherence to right; careful and exact observance of duty, or discharge of obligations."
Or is further defined as, "A solemn promise made to God... an act by which one consecrates or devotes himself, absolutely or conditionally, wholly or in part, for a longer or shorter time, to some act, service, or condition; a devotion of one's possessions; as, a baptismal vow; a vow of poverty." Webster's 1913
In order to understand what a promise to God or god is we need to understand what is meant by the word god since the bible tells us that "There are gods many" http://www.hisholychurch.net/sermon/theosgod.HTM
If Jesus told us to not to be like the governments of the other nations who call their leaders benefactors and also exercise authority one over the other then how can we say Jesus is our Lord. [see Luke 22:25...]
To vote is an attempt to exercise authority over your neighbor through the agency of the elected.
I must ask what is your vote, your vow, your prayer?
Who are you going to pray to have rule over you this year? Men or God? Men like Gideon or Jesus Christ who would not rule over you? Do we have an alternative? Is there another way to go? Is that the kingdom of God under the perfect law of liberty?
Actually there is an alternative to democracy as we have been taught. It is called the kingdom of God which Jesus told to preach is at hand. The kingdom of God begins within you when you are as concerned about your neighbors rights as you are about your own, but it is also a very real system whereby Abraham freed many souls from Haran, Moses freed a nation from Egypt and Jesus turned the world up side down redeeming a peculiar people.
He told His appointed ministers to go out and preach to all nations that the kingdom of God was at hand. That is what we hope to share with you at His Holy Church.
What is that kingdom, how did it operate and why can it set men free?
