The outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election is still settling on America and the world. Votes are still being counted, and a number of races at various levels remain to be called. But for the present writer, a number of takeaways from the now-concluded contest stand out above all others:
1. While the Christian cannot escape the responsibilities of citizenship in this present world, from time to time we are forced to recognize the limitations of human leadership and governance in the non-spiritual realm. Few serious Christians need persuading that secular politics is not their savior. But at times events press home this reality a bit more forcefully than at others.
Americans, as a rule, dislike the political process, and pay as little attention to it as possible unless their material and personal comfort appear to be at stake. If a political leader promises lower inflation and a crackdown on crime, the leader’s moral character and judgment matter little. He can offer the vilest insults to different groups in society, yearn openly for absolute power, incite an insurrection to keep himself in office, and be found guilty of numerous felonies, and a majority of voters will still make him trustee of their hopes if their temporal circumstances seem bad enough. Expediency, compromise, and the trivializing of principle thus become the norm.
Something is terribly wrong in a country when the price of eggs becomes more important than the imperatives and institutions of a free republic, not to mention common decency. But that’s where we are just now in the story of the United States of America. This is where the reality becomes evident that moral improvement at its most basic level lies beyond the purview of secular politics. Civil government can—to a degree—constrain outward compliance with laws both good and bad, but it can’t transform hearts and thus truly make us better people.
2. Excessive anxiety for results is one of the great curses of modern life. Especially in America, it seems people assume that the rapid, warp-speed resolution of problems is fully within the ability of elected leaders, and that unless such quick solutions are implemented at once, those in charge must be guilty of incompetence at best and betrayal at worst. The notion of American exceptionalism, still deeply rooted in the nation’s spirit, may have much to do with this grandiose misperception.
Four years ago the United States and the world were in the throes of a global pandemic. Economies everywhere were contorted, with supply chains disrupted and the cost of goods soaring. Such things can’t be set right in a few months. But Americans tend to think that the country that put a man on the moon, and that has birthed technologies leaving global data and a hot meal at one’s fingertips in a moment’s time, can do absolutely anything and do it right away.
But as with Bible sanctification, positive changes in society—economically or otherwise—take time. Patience is a virtue easily lost when wages and prices fail to keep pace with each other. Only the religion of the Bible can impart this attribute.
3. For Seventh-day Adventists, it is time to get beyond secular political divisiveness and focus once and for all on the theological and evangelistic mission of the church. Without venturing to assign blame to any one group or person in the denomination, I am constrained to observe that at no time in my memory, perhaps in the history of our church as a whole, has secular political strife disrupted the unity of the Seventh-day Adventist people, especially in the United States. Sermons, online articles, and blog discussions have exacerbated these divisions in ways not seen in former times.
At long last, it needs to stop.
It can’t be stated often enough: God’s kingdom, on earth as in heaven, is not defined by secular political ideology. Neither political conservatism nor political liberalism bears the endorsement or condemnation of the divine will. Heaven and hell will include those of both persuasions and of all points in between.
The consummate task of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is to proclaim to the world the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14, and to thus assemble from “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (verse 6) a global community who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (verse 12). While our duties as Christian citizens and stewards of God-given liberty must continue, our eyes must ever be fastened on our sacred mission amid the polarization and conflict raging around us.
4. God is still on the throne. In the words of the psalmist, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (Psalm 118:9). The message of Daniel 4:17 is still in the Bible—that “the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.” The clash of freedom lovers and would-be tyrants is ever subject to the jurisdiction of the King of Kings. The timing of the second advent remains dependent on the spiritual preparedness of God’s striving faithful (II Peter 3:10-14; Rev. 7:1-3).
This is our agenda as Seventh-day Adventist Christians. This is our transcendent purpose. The decisions of electorates may please or disappoint us, but the Sovereign of heaven remains in supreme control. Let us dedicate ourselves anew to the execution of His will and the display of His self-sacrificing character to the world around us. In the modern prophet’s words:
The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.
The light of the Sun of Righteousness is to shine forth in good works—in words of truth and deeds of holiness [##1|Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 415-416.##].
REFERENCES
1. Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 415-416.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan