Dear Friends,
Well the time is almost upon us again: the every four year presidential debacle. This brings up a rather “heady” topic that I
would like to address in this month’s newsletter. Please bear with me and remember, as your
pastor I would like to remain outwardly neutral as far as the candidates
go. I have my own opinions, but it is
not my place to tell you to vote for one person or the other. However, there are two questions that I keep
getting asked that I would like to address.
(As I do, I will do my best to remain neutral in this debate.)
The two questions are as follows: “Pastor, are Mormons Christian?” and “I can’t
vote for a non-Christian can I?” I’ll
take these questions one by one.
I would like to start with addressing the second question: “Can a Christian vote for and elect a
non-Christian into office?” Within the
Lutheran Church, we firmly hold to the scriptural idea of two kingdoms: an earthly kingdom, and a heavenly
kingdom. God is king and ruler of both,
but he operates in different ways to rule each kingdom.
Easiest to understand is the heavenly kingdom, as God rules
his church by means His Holy Word. His
work in this kingdom is to create faith in Christians through the means of
Grace. (Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and
the Word.) Thus the church falls under
this kingdom, and within the church we are to be subject to nothing else but
God and His Word. In this kingdom,
people are taught the faith, and learn to be pious and faithful people. This kingdom deals with spiritual things
only.
On the other hand is the earthly kingdom. God rules in the earthly kingdom as well by
means of secular government and rulers. God
has allowed the rulers that exist today to rule by only His own will and
authority. He gives governments and
rulers the power of the sword: that is to rule with force and power. Their duty is to maintain peace and justice
in our earthly world – in relation to life, liberty, and property on
earth. They are not to be involved in
spiritual matters (hence our issues with the Health and Human Services
Mandate).
So in the earthly kingdom, God allows earthly rulers to
protect and defend their people. In
other words, the Prime Minister of England rules under God’s allowance. In the same way, the President of Iran rules
that country under God’s allowance – even as he does it without true
faith. God allows all leaders of the
world to rule and protect their people – to provide for their earthly needs,
not spiritual.
In terms of the earthly kingdom, what one’s faith is does not
matter. We have examples like Cyrus and
Nebuchadnezzar in Scripture – faithless kings that God appointed to rule for a
time. Similarly, in our own world, be
the ruler a Turk or a Jew or a Hindi, they all rule only because the one true
Trinitarian God has allowed them to
be in that position. Whoever rules is
allowed to be in that position by God’s good and gracious will. God then works through the things that ruler
does, for good or ill, to protect and care for the people of the earth in terms
of worldly goods.
So when you go to the ballot this November (or at any
election for that matter), don’t base your vote on the reported “religion” of
the person running for office, instead vote for the person you believe will do
the better job caring for your earthly needs.
Who will give you more opportunities, who will allow you to get a better
job, who will protect you militarily, etc.
In the secular earthly kingdom, faith is not the chief measure. Luther himself famously said, “I’d rather be
ruled by a smart Turk then a dumb Christian.”
In other words, keep religion out of politics, and trust that God will do
His work no matter who is in charge.
As for the Mormon religion itself, no it is not Christian, no matter what Mormons
might claim for themselves. Since the
founding of the Christian faith at the resurrection of Jesus (And even before
that in Old Testament times) the Christian faith has been monotheistic. Monotheistic means that we believe in only
one God. The Athanasian Creed itself
says, “Whosoever desires to be saved must believe above all else the catholic
faith…And the catholic faith is this: We
worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity etc.”
Throughout the ages, this Trinitarian God has been the center
of the Christian faith. Even in scripture
itself the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is declared to be One God. The Mormon religion denies this simple
fact. They do not believe in a trinity,
but instead have uncountable numbers of “gods.”
In addition, the god that they most often reference, “the Father,” they
believe was once a human just like you and me.
This human lived a good life, and now no longer human but divine.
With these false teachings (and more), their “church” ceases
to be truly Christian, and instead joins the ranks of countless non-Trinitarian
cults. There are many other dangerous
teachings and beliefs that they wrongly hold.
These short comings, however, are in the heavenly kingdom. They have a false faith. But in the purely secular earthly realm
however, they are often very “moral” and “nice” people.
Bottom line, go and vote, but remember to vote your
conscience, not religion. If you believe
current President Obama will do a better job than Candidate Romney based on
secular credentials, by all means vote for him, and vice versa. But as a good Lutheran, please do not vote
for someone only based upon their religious faith. For even if a non-Christian is the earthly
ruler, remember, they are there because the one eternal heavenly king and ruler
God has consented that they be there for a time. He will work through their rule to bring
about his will.
In Christ,
Pastor Adam Moline
