Peter Wasn't Perfect Either!

By: Daniel Hammond

       Our country is rapidly becoming more hostile to God's laws. Political candidates are increasingly reflecting the morals of our lost culture. With the election pressing upon us, I would like to address the dilemma that we as Christians are facing. What should we do when there is no God honoring candidates left in the race? This is most certainly a valid question of which I see four possible remedies.

   Our first option is to simply stay at home and refuse to cast a ballot. If we are men of principal and all other Christians follow our lead, then we will be assured that the most ungodly candidate will be elected president. When we as Christians abstain and leave the lost to decide our fate, we should not be surprised when we get a worldly outcome. As long as God gives us a voice, we should exercise it for His glory!

   Our second choice is to ignore the two main parties and simply vote Libertarian. This may hold promise for the future but as it stands now, Gary Johnson supports abortion and for most Christians, including myself, this is the greatest injustice of our lifetime. I see no wiggle room for Christians here. 

   The third possibility is to "write in" a godly candidate. Perhaps Franklin Graham for president! The problem here is that God gave us minds to go with our body & spirit and we know that a write in candidate simply isn't going to sequester even 1% of the votes. The result will be a Democrat once again in the White House as Christians divide their vote between the ideal and the less than perfect. 

   Our final option is to vote for the lesser of two evils. Depending on what the "evils" are, this may be an easy choice or perhaps a very difficult one. If our options were two extremely wicked politicians both supporting abortion and seeking to destroy God's laws on every front, then this would require much soul searching and committed prayer before we, as Christians, could make an appropriate decision. In fact, there may come a time when we struggle to vote for either leader when the hearts of men are bent only to do evil. 

   However, I do not feel that we are by any means confronted with this terrible scenario as of yet. The two candidates have both been public figures for a long time and we, as Christians, can judge the fruits of their past actions quite adequately. But the question remains. Is it wise to cast a vote for the lesser of two evils?

    Let's turn to the Scripture for God's wisdom. Jesus himself called Peter as an apostle. He was not only an apostle but the leader of the twelve. In fact, he was part of Jesus' inner circle of three including Peter, James, and John. 

   Peter was a reckless man that spent much of his time trying desperately to remove his foot from his mouth. In fact, immediately after Peter called Jesus, "The Christ, the Son of the Living God", Jesus had to reprimand Peter for trying to keep Him from bearing the cross. Jesus then scolded him with a scathing rebuke when He said to Peter, "Get behind me Satan." 

   Peter was quite a flawed man. And this is who Jesus picked to help build His church? When Jesus was at His greatest need, bearing the ridicule, scorn, and physical beatings at the hand of the chief priests, Peter denied vehemently that he even knew Him. In fact, he did it three times while cursing and swearing.

   What a scoundrel Peter was to have assisted Jesus in the feeding of the five thousand, to have walked with Jesus on the waters of the Sea of Galilee, to have been an eye witness to His transfiguration and then to totally abandoned Him in His greatest hour of need! I can't think of a more unqualified candidate for apostleship than Peter.

   When we go into the voting booth and ponder the imperfections of Donald Trump, remember this; "Peter wasn't perfect either" and yet Jesus chose him!