As this article is being written the United States is in the final month of the campaign for the general elections that are to take place on November 7. By the time you read this, the elections may well be over and the contests decided–including the one for President of the United States.
No matter who wins, there will be some who will be pleased and others who will be disappointed. Those who are pleased at the results may look for great things from the new President. Those who are disappointed may be fearful of what the new President might do and how it might affect the country.
No one can predict with complete certainty how this election will turn out. But one thing is certain: things will not change greatly for the better because of it. No matter who is in office or no matter what program is passed into law, human nature will not improve. The world will remain the wicked world until the end of time. There will be no golden age as the result of political action.
This is not an opinion or observation, but the judgment of God revealed in His Word.
What the Scriptures say about the future of this present world does not inspire confidence in it or optimism concerning it. Jesus says that the world to which He will return for judgment will be like the godless ancient world that God destroyed with a flood in the days of Noah. It will be like the wicked cities that God destroyed with fire in the days of Lot (Luke 17:26-30).
Speaking by the Holy Spirit, Paul predicts “perilous times” for the world because of the natural sinfulness of the human heart. “Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:2-3).
The book of Revelation pictures Satan and the ungodly powers of the world as raging against God and against His children until the end.
Informed Citizens
The truth about the world, now and until the end, keeps us from pinning our hopes on this world.
It is so tempting to do that. We often hear people say something like this: “If only this nation would turn to God, then it would be a better place and life here would be better.” Statements like this are true, as far as they go. If an entire nation were to turn to God, it would be a better place. But whole nations do not turn to God. Only individuals repent and are converted–one at a time. Lives, homes, and families are changed when the Holy Spirit brings people to faith in Jesus Christ.
But the world as a whole remains under the sway of the evil one. We are not to entertain high hopes for the future of this world, for it is under the divine sentence of destruction.
For high hopes the Lord directs us to the resurrection and eternal life. These are realistic hopes because they are based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. He has atoned for all sin, thus solving forever the problem of human guilt before God and alienation from Him. Jesus has risen from the dead, overcoming death and giving the promise of unending life to all who believe in Him. He has ascended into heaven, going ahead to prepare a place for His disciples, promising to come back personally to take them there. He has also promised to be with us and help us in every need until that day.
Until then politicians will come and go.
We as citizens of nations ought to do our duty as citizens by informed voting–maybe even by working in a campaign or running for office. But let us do so as those whose hopes for these things are limited, “for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Php. 3:20).
–Pastor John Klatt