Jacob Winograd [00:00:00]:
If Christ is king, how should the Christian consider the kingdoms of this world? What does the Bible teach us about human authority? And what it means to love our neighbors and our enemies? Before we render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, let’s know what it means to render unto God what is God’s. This is the Biblical Anarchy Podcast, the modern prophetic voice against war and
Jacob Winograd [00:00:31]:
empire. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Biblical Anarchy podcast, a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and part of our Christians for Liberty network. This week and every week on biblical anarchy, we seek to live counterculture to the empire of man and to instead seek the kingdom of God by unpacking what the Bible teaches about government, authority, and human relationships. I am your host, Jacob Wenegrad. Now I just recited my longer intro, what I don’t do on every episode anymore like I used to. But there’s a reason for that. And this episode is going to be on the shorter side. This episode is going to air, Monday, November 4th, and that’s the day before the election this year of 2024 where we’re gonna determine actually a lot of things.
Jacob Winograd [00:01:26]:
We’re gonna determine senate and other races as well, but the one that’s on everyone’s mind is, of course, presidential spot and vice presidential spot as well. And I’m here to tell you how to vote or rather who to vote for, I guess, is is the way that I should say it. And it’s a little bit of a clickbait y title and it’s a bit of a shorter point, but I think it’s an important point. Because odds are that no matter who you are, when you get to the week after this week, when you’re listening to this, you’re gonna start to notice something. You’re gonna notice that whoever won, like if the person that you wanted to win, if they won or if the person that you didn’t want to win, if they won, I hope you start to realize that in either case, that something kind of rings true, which is that politics and, you know, making sure someone has is gonna win or make sure making sure someone’s going to lose. And the investment into the outcome of this election has become idolatrous in our nation. I wanna be clear that I think that there are and I I have my biases. Right? But there are arguments for almost any outcome or rather any course of action for an individual Christian in terms of how they vote this year.
Jacob Winograd [00:02:55]:
I used to be a Democrat. And I’ve been recently asked by some people close to me, how could you be a Christian vote Democrat? And I said, well, listen, for a lot of Christians, they understand maybe the importance of certain social issues, but they just don’t prioritize them as much because they think that some issues are more of the nature that need political solutions, and the social issues need to be solved more on the cultural war front. And, you know, I don’t entirely agree with that, but but there’s some crossover I still have with that. I think abortion is absolutely morally reprehensible. But there is a limit to how much we can do to combat abortion through voting or through legislative means. As we’ve seen with the failed war on drugs, you can ban something and threaten to throw people in jail for it. But as long as there are chemical substances that people seek, whether they’re seeking them for a high or they’re seeking them for an abortion, we’re going to fall short to some extent, in in trying to prevent those through law and the means of using force to stop them. Now there’s other considerations why someone might vote Democrat, especially especially in this election.
Jacob Winograd [00:04:17]:
This is something I don’t agree with and something that I have a personal bias against, but I can at least keep my mind open enough to realize that some Christians truly believe that Donald Trump is a threat to our republic and democracy because they think that he would overturn would have overturned the results of the last election and that he might overturn these, that he might not step down from office, that he might misuse the power of the presidency and sort of forsake the constitution even more. And they think that that threat is so existential that we need to vote for Kamala Harris. I don’t find myself persuaded by that argument, and I actually think a lot of the arguments about why Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy or the things about January 6th. I actually think that’s a lot of theater and not truth, but I don’t hold anything with absolute certainty. And I can at least understand why someone might hold another conviction. There are reasons, of course, to vote for Donald Trump this year. You know, Donald Trump elected supreme court justices that helped to overturn Roe, and people, of course, wanna give him credit for that. And people think that Donald Trump stands in the way of a sort of deep state, uni party, military industrial complex, globalist order that they think Kamala Harris and the Democrats are sort of representing.
Jacob Winograd [00:05:45]:
And they’ll acknowledge that Donald Trump has some, perhaps, character deficiencies and isn’t a paragon of Christian virtues in his own personal life, but that the coalition of people he’s built around him and there’s even libertarians who would argue this that it’s not just that there are good conservatives who have built himself around him, but that on the political side, Donald Trump has brought in a lot of people of different political backgrounds like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Junior. And even working in some sort of, like, coalitions, or or those people have worked with coalitions with libertarians. Donald Trump showed up to the Libertarian National Convention and, you know, said that he would appoint libertarian cabinet member. He said he would make some certain pardons that the libertarians care about, such as freeing Ross Ulbrich. He said that he would abolish the Department of Education. So there’s a lot of reasons why, Christian conservatives or just Christians in general or libertarians in general, are considering voting for Donald Trump. But then there’s the Libertarian party and there’s the candidate, Chase Oliver, who I’ve interviewed. And, you know, certainly, I have some disagreements with Chase on certain social issues.
Jacob Winograd [00:06:58]:
But on on a policy level, Chase is almost, in many ways, a candidate who, you know, checks all my boxes. As much as Donald Trump wants to pitch himself as a candidate who is pro free speech and anti war, he’s not perfect on those fronts and and quite far from it. Donald Trump has talked about, putting people in jail for burning the American flag as well as other sort of, like, pushbacks against the media, which certainly there’s problems with the media. But sometimes his proposed solutions border on calls for censorship and government control of media, which is, of course, the opposite of what we need. Whereas, Chase is very good on those issues. When it comes to war, while I appreciate that many Republicans and many conservatives and people like Donald Trump, are not in favor of, you know, wars of intervention anymore in the Middle East, it seems, and we wanna scale those back. They’re not in favor of sending just unlimited money to Ukraine, for example. And a lot of them are even, like, looking into perhaps where maybe there was some propaganda and false flags with the Ukraine war with Russia.
Jacob Winograd [00:08:09]:
But Trump doesn’t really meet up to my expectation for anti war candidate when it comes to Gaza and Israel and understanding that conflict and just calling for Netanyahu to do whatever he has to do. Chase is better on that issue. Of course, there is the problem that as good as Chase might be on certain issues, there’s just no way that he is going to win this election. But for some Christians and for some libertarians, a protest vote against what they consider 2 candidates and 2 parties who are no longer lesser enough to be considered lesser evils is important, and voting on principle is important. And to them, there’s good reasons politically, pragmatically, as well as morally to make a protest vote for Chase Oliver. There’s also other third party candidates that people could vote for, independent candidates that people could could vote for for similar reasons. Then, of course, I think there’s even good Christian and libertarian arguments to not vote at all. Some people think that participating in the system is, no matter what, even if it’s protest vote, it’s legitimizing the system, and it’s grown too corrupt, too swampy, to to truly participate in.
Jacob Winograd [00:09:21]:
In fact, some would argue that voting and participating in the democratic process could constitute for a Christian, a division of our allegiances that were in fact asking to participate in a process where we elect rulers over other people who will use force to some degree to force their their views and policies on other people who haven’t actually meaningfully consented. And furthermore, that to say that we’re voting for Trump or Kamala or even like a Chase Oliver, anyone, is to say that we have chosen them as our ruler, and that’s to reject Christ as our king. I don’t personally hold to what I would say is kind of a purist and bordering a legalistic interpretation of certain Christian and libertarian principles regarding, you know, rejecting, you know, human sovereigns and, our allegiances. But I understand where that argument comes from, and it does hold some persuasive power. And certainly, it’s something to consider that you’re not a bad Christian just because you don’t vote. If you’re convicted that, you know what? None of these candidates really, you know, make me comfortable. None of these candidates meet the sort of internal measures I need to kinda put my endorsement behind them to be like, I think they should do this job. I think they should be given this power.
Jacob Winograd [00:10:42]:
If you’re convicted not to vote, then, you know, I would encourage you to follow that conviction, and I would respect that. I guess the point I wanna end on here is that this is very complicated. And I have, of course, my biases, and I will end up most likely voting for someone tomorrow. As of the time of recording, I don’t know who I’m gonna vote for or if I will ultimately vote. But go back to my initial point, that politics has become idolatrous in our nation because people can’t sit down and articulate and understand where people of different political emphases and different political persuasions are coming from and recognize that they can be coming from a place of of Christian conviction or, you know, libertarians do this with libertarian principles as well and respect that you can understand where different people are coming from in terms of why they would vote or not vote a certain way. And at the end of the day, if your response to people voting differently than you or choosing not to vote at all is to respond in anger and accusations, in in judgment. Right? And I wanna be clear. I would separate that from just saying, that’s interesting.
Jacob Winograd [00:11:55]:
I disagree in having respectful political discourse. And in fact, our country needs more of that. Our world needs more of that. We need to be able to respectfully compare and contrast our views with other people. But we should do this from a place of love and of edification of trying to understand one another. When we do that from a place of holding them against what we believe you need to do and how you need to vote to be a true Christian or a true libertarian or a true conservative or whatever you wanna fill the, you know, the true Scotsman test there, where where where we wanna fill that in with. I think especially as Christians, we need to take a step back. And we need to realize that if we have put so much into these elections, we put so much we so much is riding on the line on these elections, then maybe it’s a faith issue.
Jacob Winograd [00:12:41]:
Maybe we’ve forgotten that god is in control. Maybe we’ve forgotten that Christ is king and that he’s already won. And the kingdom of god, although it’s not fully culminated, it is already here, and we are already in this world as ambassadors and servants for that kingdom. And it’s very possible Kamala Harris might win and god ordained that and is gonna use that for good. And it’s very possible Donald Trump will win, and god has ordained that, and god will use that for good. At the end of the day, our Christian walk isn’t incredibly impacted by who we vote for, but rather how we vote. Because if we at any point are voting in the spirit of looking to the outcome of this election to be what solves our problems personally or as a nation. We’re committing the same error the Israelites did in 1st Samuel 8, and we are looking to the world to solve our problems.
Jacob Winograd [00:13:35]:
And it doesn’t matter if we have 4 years of Harris or 4 years of Trump. Doesn’t matter if, you know, if you want Trump to win, and let’s say he accomplishes everything you want him to do. And even if you’re a libertarian and Trump does a bunch of libertarian things, and and that’s good. You know what? That that isn’t going to transform the country. Because at the end of the day, Trump could win for 4 years, and then someone else could get in there and undo things that he he does. And people will continue to to be divided on politics, and the culture can continue to become more degraded. And, you know, I was I was at that recent rescue the republic rally, and what I kept asking people and encouraging we asked the speakers there were, you think we need to rescue the republic? Fine. I actually agree with that.
Jacob Winograd [00:14:16]:
But, certainly, that means more than just 2 wins this presidential election. How do we make sure in 4 more years that the republic doesn’t need rescued anymore? And what does it mean to rescue the republic? What does it mean to rescue this nation? At the end of the day, politics is a triage. Politics is a process, But politics is really an outgrowth of culture, and culture is an outgrowth of what people believe. And if people reject Christ as king, then their beliefs and their politics will follow suit. And that is why we and this connects to my recent eschatology series, which I’ll be getting back to here soon and and doing the final episode of. But it gets back to this. The kingdom of god is now, and we have to be out there living for that kingdom and spreading it to the nations, not waiting for a future kingdom after a time of tribulation. We’re not expecting that there will be some global age where Christians are reigning over the entire world through a one global Christian government or an age of golden Christianity.
Jacob Winograd [00:15:21]:
But that we aren’t gonna bring about you know, Christ’s second coming will happen when it happens. But in the meantime, we are to go out there to the nations and preach the gospel, and we transform the nations by transforming individuals. And it isn’t us who does that, but Christ in us through the preaching of the gospel, through the applying of the sacraments, through the baptizing of new believers, by bringing people into the fold of the one covenant community of Christ. And if you’ve been distracted this season by the politics, by the by the arguments and the and the issues, and you’ve lost sight of that, and your hope is no longer in that, then I would call you to repent and to come back to that. You can faithfully engage in politics as long as your ultimate hope and allegiance remain grounded in Jesus Christ and his kingdom first and his will being done first, and trusting that whatever the outcome is, that god isn’t losing if Kamala Harris wins or Donald Trump wins or a libertarian doesn’t win or doesn’t get a certain percentage. These things need to be held to a lesser importance. And so that’s what I’m gonna leave you with. However you vote tomorrow or however you don’t vote tomorrow, make sure that your heart is in the right place, Christian.
Jacob Winograd [00:16:45]:
And if you’re not a Christian, you’re listening to this, and you’re like, I don’t understand how you can look at this upcoming election and not be putting all your eggs in the basket to be like it matters. It matters so much who wins. And if we don’t win, do you not realize what’s on the line? Well, then I would just encourage you to realize that what makes me not panic about that and what gives me a living hope that allows me to not get sucked into that state and to not be filled with anxiety is the hope and faith I have in Jesus Christ as not just my personal savior, but as lord and savior of the whole world. And so I encourage you to look into that. That’s all I have for you guys for today. Be safe out there, and and I’ll talk to you again next week. Live at peace. Live for Christ.
Jacob Winograd [00:17:30]:
The biblical anarchy podcast is a part of the Christians for Liberty network, a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute. If you love this podcast, it helps us reach more with a message of freedom when you rate and review us on your favorite podcast apps and share with others. If you want to support the production of the Biblical Anarchy Podcast, please consider donating to the Libertarian Christian Institute atbiblicalanarchypodcast.com, where you can also sign up to receive special announcements and resources related to biblical anarchy. Thanks for tuning in.
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