ELECTION 2008 – WHAT ARE WE TO DO?

Rev. Flip Benham • 10/29/2007

Many of you have been asking about Governor Mike Huckabee.  I first met him at the Texas State Republican Convention in 1992.  He is the real deal – a Christian who knows God’s Word and is more than able to apply it.  The Republican Party, however, will never allow him to become its presidential nominee in 2008.  The Jesus in him will not be tolerated. 

If he does somehow win the nomination (we can pray), be sure that those Republicans who have been telling us for years to vote for the lesser of two evils because anybody is better than Clinton, will desert Huckabee in droves.  They won’t even heed their own foolish advice – vote for the lesser of two evils because anybody is better than Clinton.  The Republican Party would rather have Clinton than Huckabee.  It is pretend salt – worthless in the day of battle.
Friends we will serve the kingdom we see.  We need to ask God to open our eyes.  Every time the Republican Party has had an opportunity to really stand for God, it has folded.  Look at the election in 1994 when the Republicans won both the Senate and the House for the first time in over 50 years. 

We evangelicals fought hard to bring about this victory, but we ended up with the paltry, “Contract with America.”  This was fiscal conservatism at its worst, and certainly no friend of real Christianity.  Not one of the social issues (issues close to God’s heart) was dealt with.  We were told to shut-up while our “conservative” Congressmen compromised the Word of God with their Democratic colleagues. 

In 1996 Senator Bob Dole told us pro-life evangelical Christians that, though we had worked hard to keep the pro-life plank in the Republican Party Platform that year, he was not bound by it (he said he hadn’t even read it).  We were told that Bob Dole was our man because he was the lesser of two evils – anybody but Clinton.  The Party knew that we had no place left to go.  We were bought hook, line, and sinker, and then sold down the river.  Yes, the Republican Party owned us.  It knew that we had already sold our Lord’s commission for a mess of pottage.

Then we helped bring George W. Bush to victory in the presidential election of 2000.  Now we had a Republican President, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate.  Surely they would stand forthrightly on God’s Word and protect unborn children.  But six years of Republican majorities in both houses and the presidency brought about no substantive change.  Children were still being killed, and now there was the silent and steady advancement of the radical homosexual agenda.  Why do we keep working for these guys?

Again in 2004, the evangelical community pushed George Bush over the top.  Yet we were being set up by the Republican Party for a crucial paradigm shift.  We were being set up to vote for a pro-abortion Republican in 2008.  That’s right!  The Republican Party knew that we evangelical Christians had no place else to go.  There were only two rails running to the White House - one was Republican, the other Democrat.  It also knew that we could easily be seduced into compromising God’s Word to keep the “really” bad guys out of office.  Remember the “lesser of two evils - Anybody but Clinton”argument?  It knew that we could be bought cheaply – for a mess of pottage.  And a mess of pottage is exactly what we are going to get! 

If you are wondering what pro-life Christians would do when confronted with voting for a pro-abortion Republican, you needn’t wonder long?  They will vote for the pro-abortion Republican every time, if they believe that he can win!  They did it when they voted pro-abortion Republican, Kay Bailey Hutchison as United States Senator in Texas.  They did it when they voted for pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger to be Governor of California.  They did it again when they voted for pro-abortion Republican, Arlen Specter for another term as Senator in the state of Pennsylvania.  The salt has lost its saltiness and the devil is having his way.

We have forgotten that our vote is the currency of our virtue.  We have placed pragmatism above principle.  We have sold our birthright for a mess of pottage.   The Republican Party knows this and laughs.  Now we have our brothers and sisters in Christ, the conservative talking heads, Fox News, et.al., clamoring that we must remain in the Republican Party or suffer the consequences of another Clinton administration.

Consider this, what would the Republican Party do if it had a truly pro-life candidate with a small chance of winning, running against a pro-abortion Democrat?  Don’t wonder long?  It would abandon the truly pro-life Republican and not show up at the polls.  Witness the senate race in Illinois in 2006 where pro-life Republican, Dr. Alan Keyes ran against pro-abortion Democrat, Barack Obama.  Dr. Keyes was deserted by his “faithful” Republican Party!

The Republican Party is not a friend of God, though it finds Him useful to get votes.  It is certainly no friend to unborn babies.  We should not be surprised then that it is expecting you and me to give our support to a man like Rudi Giuliani, or Mitt Romney, or John McCain, or Fred Thompson.  Remember, “anybody but Clinton!”

What will you do then my Christian friend in 2008?  Will you sell out again to the Republican Party, or will you finally cast your vote for the One you call Lord?  Sure the decision will be hard.  Yes, it will fracture the Republican Party thus paving the way for the election of an avowed enemy of the Lord.  You will be castigated by friend and foe alike for allowing “Queen Hillary” to become president.  But where is your hope – Christ or the Republican Party?

Where is God in all of this?  “You are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”  Matthew 5:13.  We who claim the Name of Christ are suffering under the remedial judgments of Almighty God.  We have not trusted Him nor have we pleaded the case of the fatherless to win it.  We have compromised His principles.  We have hired conservative and Republican mercenaries to fight the battle that only we can fight and win.  Like Esau before us we have sold our birthright for a mess of Republican pottage.

So, who should we blame for our predicament?  The Democrats?  The Republicans?  Or should we point the finger right where it belongs, at ourselves (the Church of Jesus Christ), and repent!  We were bought with a price and the Republican Party did not pay it - Jesus did!  We belong to Him.  Our duty is to deliver His mail – nothing less.  This is not a hopeless or fatalistic outlook – it is the only hope we have.   

Perhaps through this whole painful ordeal of realizing our own betrayal of our Lord, and being betrayed by the Republican Party, God will bring us forth as gold as we remember that our help comes from Him and no one else.  When this occurs we will find a new power, authority, and anointing from Almighty God, and neither Republican nor Democrat will be able to win office without God’s stamp of approval.  It is time for the Church of Jesus Christ to rise up in the Name of Jesus.  When she does the gates of hell will not prevail against her.