As You Cast Your Vote,
Remember This!
David Bryant offers SIX reassurances found in Christ
for all who vote in the 2024 presidential election.
(A reprint from October 20, 2020, revised and updated)
Let’s talk about how you’re feeling about the election this fall.
As you read newspapers, listen to the news, and take in the vast array of opinions on social media—as you try to decide which candidates to vote for in this coming election—how are you feeling about all of it? Are you up to the challenge?
Or do you want to run away and hide? Do you feel like finding a cave to retreat into until it’s all over?
Are you emotionally exhausted? Are you weary of processing so many months of nonstop presidential and congressional campaigning?
Discouraged?—by the level of vitriolic discourse? Angry?—at the fecklessness of many government officials? Ambivalent?—sick of scandals and suspicious of the other party? Fearful?—about the outcome for the future of our nation? Paralyzed?—because you dislike the choices so much that you’re considering not voting at all!
How many of us feel we’re being dragged into
some kind of black hole in 2024?
What do I mean? What exactly is a black hole?
The NASA website tells us this:
Don’t let the name fool you: A black hole is anything but empty space. Rather, it is a great amount of matter packed into a very small area. The result is a gravitational field so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it.
In other words, black holes may be invisible to the naked eye, but they are as real as anything else in creation.
They represent what we might call a parallel universe. You can’t see them, but they are just as tangible as the creation we can see.
In the same sense, throughout this presidential campaign—and every campaign season—there exists another reality alongside and yet beyond what we have read in newspaper op-eds, heard from cable talking heads, experienced at campaign rallies, or pondered while looking at the candidates’ social media, TV ads, and daily tweets.
It’s the greater reality you can choose to step into as you step into the voting booth this year. Understanding it can totally revive your enthusiasm for the upcoming election.
What makes up this black hole, this parallel universe?
The Parallel Universe Confronts the 2024 Election
The answer, put simply, is this: Jesus is Lord. He is Lord over all—and remains so through the 2024 election saga—and its outcome.
When Christians say that in everything Christ has the supremacy (Colossians 1:18), we mean that there exists another world next door to and actively engaged with the one imagined by Republicans or Democrats or Independents. It’s called “the kingdom of God’s dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).
Thus, we should shout hallelujah as we go to the polls or mail in our ballots! Whatever ramifications this fall’s November 5th election holds for the future of America, God’s parallel universe, saturated with the spectacular sovereignty of his Son, presses on unabated—and will continue doing so long after kings and kingdoms have all passed away, including current presidents and congressmen and governors!
In addition, it is also actively breaking into our visible universe countless times and ways every day because throughout the course of history, as well as today among the nations, this revolutionary, redemptive, transforming, decisive reign of Christ is (as Jesus put it) “forcefully advancing” wherever “people of force lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12).
So, as you cast your vote this fall, remember this:
According to the book of Revelation, Jesus reigns, at this very moment, as the supreme ruler over all the leaders of all the nations (Revelation 1). All the authority and all the crowns of the earth belong to him (Revelation 5). In him, all the kingdoms of this world are subsumed forever under the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Revelation 11).
By nothing more than manifesting his awesome presence, he will destroy all evil principalities and powers, both seen and unseen, replacing them with a new creation inhabited by sovereign grace (Revelation 19-21).
This is the One who fully occupies our nation during Election Day 2024.
As you cast your vote this fall, remember this:
According to Ephesians 1, the Father, whose mighty strength was revealed by raising Jesus from the dead and placing him at his right hand as Lord and Redeemer, has ordained his Son to continue to be exalted far above all other authority, up to this very hour.
As you vote on (or before) November 5, remember Jesus is actively in charge far above all powers and kings, all public officials, and all political machines. He is above every name appealed to for order and direction in this world (including Harris or Trump). God has placed all things under Christ’s feet not only to determine a single nation’s destiny but, above all, for the growth, spread, and impact of the entire Church (Ephesians 1:23).
As you cast your vote this fall, remember this:
According to Romans 13, God’s plan for the ages incorporates all government officials (including US presidents) who serve—whether they know it or not—with temporary, delegated authority for the singular purpose of helping to fulfill God’s saving purposes among the nations. King Jesus raises leaders up; he also puts them down.
Thus, for believers, our primary calling is to live and labor for Christ in light of the great day that is coming when his domain will totally renovate all the saints, all creation, and all governments throughout all ages (v. 11-12).
No wonder Paul writes in Romans 13 that Christians should daily “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 14)—no less so when we vote. That’s because, in the end, we should vote as unto Christ, with the mind of Christ (compare 1 Corinthians 2:16 with vv. 10-15). This means seeing the political landscape from the viewpoint of his throne (Colossians 3:1-4), with our eyes focused on the sure and certain triumph of his “forcefully advancing” kingdom (Matthew 11:12).
As you cast your vote this fall, remember this:
According to Jesus in Matthew 13, no matter which earthly personality resides in the White House during the next four years, Christ’s kingdom will never stop growing and expanding.
It’s like leaven quietly permeating a whole loaf of bread. It’s like a great tree rising up from imperceptible beginnings as a small seed. It’s like tiny grains sown in rich soil that, over time, faithfully produce a hundredfold crop.
And it’s like a coming harvest when citizens of his kingdom have so fully populated the nations that his glory can shine through us like the sun—unopposed, unmistakable, and undiminished forever.
As you cast your vote this fall, remember this:
According to 1 Timothy 2, first of all, we should check the ballot boxes with a spirit of prayer—prayer for all those running for office (no matter who we vote for or who finally wins), both the minute we vote as well as the whole time the winners serve in office.
No matter who is governing, the Bible teaches that our top priority is to intercede that they might create a climate conducive to sharing the gospel so that many more may come to know Christ as Mediator, Redeemer, and Lord.
Ultimately, as we vote, we should ask our Father for results that ensure the spread of the fame and claim of Christ rather than limit our prayers to the survival of one nation or political party.
Because whoever wins, Christ-driven appeals to heaven must never cease for every leader of every ideological persuasion, all for the sake of advancing Christ’s unstoppable triumphs.
Finally, as you cast your vote this fall, remember this:
According to Philippians 1, over and over, to his great delight, Paul was given increased opportunities to preach Christ as a direct result of the actions of pagan, ungodly, immoral, anti-Christian rulers throughout the Roman Empire—not the least being the emperor himself.
He discovered that frequently the machinations of earthly powers and policies were overruled by the Father and used to create space for Paul to bear witness in places and within political establishments that he could never have penetrated otherwise—including in Caesar’s household and among his officials (vv. 12-13).
Therefore, let me close by revisiting Paul’s experience in Philippians 1. He shows us how to think about the true hope for any nation’s future, no matter who wins an election!
For America, that hope impinges on how fully the Church in America rises to pursue this vision from sea to shining sea.
I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect.
Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah.
That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far surer of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God . . . Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!
. . . everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.
Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ . . . Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you—and both because of God. There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ . . . (from The Message, emphasis added).
2024’s most pressing election issue for every Jesus follower
No matter who is elected this November as our next president, the most pressing issue is this:
At this defining juncture, what might the Spirit of God be preparing to accomplish for the reclamation and transformation of America through a multitude of believers he freshly awakens and enlivens by the supremacy of God’s Son, who put their hope in Christ the way Paul talks about here?
What if we once again exalt Jesus to his rightful place, giving him full sway over our life together as God’s people? What if we invite him to conquer us in new ways and then take us into his kingdom work throughout the nation?
What if we invite the Lord Jesus Christ to once again become the One we trust instead of all the human leaders we have been looking to—asking him to rescue us from this unwitting idolatry that blinds us and to reclaim our nation for the gospel?
What if we open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit to ignite in us an all-consuming passion for the risen, living, reigning Son of God and for the “platform” of his dominion as spelled out by the whole New Testament—a passion that could infect a whole nation, like a virus, with the reality of God’s saving purposes for our generation?
What if we allowed ourselves to enter into the spiritual gravitational pull resulting from his supremacy laying claim to our lives—stirring up in us wholehearted obedience to him?
What if that transformation inside the Church began to pull the rest of our nation into another kind of hole—not a black hole full of darkness but a “glory hole” that draws us deeper and deeper into the radiance and brilliance of ALL Jesus is to us, for us, over us, before us, within us, through us, and upon us?
I’m talking about a “glory hole”—another dimension of this universe—from which we would never want to escape!
It’s the “glory hole” Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 4:6 like this:
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
This is the “parallel universe” that alone can ever make sense of everything else going on in the visible dimension of this universe—including the installation of the next president of the United States.
So yes, please vote—as every American should.
But do so with a clear-eyed hope
that is based on the parallel universe.
Do so as unto the Lamb on the throne.
Do so under the Lamb on the throne.
Do so, trusting the Lamb on the throne.
Do so for the Lamb on the throne.
Do so, worshipping the Lamb on the throne.
Do so, rejoicing that the Lamb on the throne—
who is right now turning all the kingdoms of the world
into the “kingdom of our God and of his Messiah,”
and “he will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11).
We invite you to view Day 16 of our “21-Day Video Journey Into More of Christ.” This 4-minute video is titled “What Does the Supremacy of Christ Over Global Rulers Look Like?” View it
HERE.
About the Author
Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his weekly vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!
Thanks for the reminder that God can and does accomplish His kingdom even through the most troubling of human circumstances. I still want to see clearly which candidate/party would advance His kingdom most efficiently with the least conflict (of any sort). God help us to see though the facades, the lies, the manipulation of “facts” and innuendoes!