In the midst of arguably the most interesting election year in history, what principles should guide our voting? What is government’s role, and what types of laws are pleasing to God? Should we try to legislate morality, or let people do what they want in their personal lives so long as they aren’t harming others?
When Messiah returns He will institute holy government: He Himself will rule the nations from Jerusalem … with a rod of iron. (Re 19:15) It seems to me unlikely that He will enforce a different Law than Torah; He delights in it and expects us all to do the same. (De 4:5-6, 8)
Torah is God’s plumb line, our metric for evaluating moral goodness. The fact that many resist and rebel against God’s Law didn’t keep Him from requiring Israel to obey it, nor will this keep Him from imposing it on the rest of Mankind. (Re 2:26-27) Whether we like it or not, Torah will eventually be the law of the land. (Mi 4:2)
It would appear then that laws are good or bad based on how well they align with God’s law, and governments are good or bad according to how they represent God’s holy standard of righteousness. (Ro 13:3-4)
The only real question then seems to be whether it makes sense for us to try to influence our culture and society to accept and conform to this standard or not. If “righteousness exalts a nation,” if “sin is a reproach to any people” (Pr 14:34), if we delight in God’s laws (Ro 7:22) and believe they are good (1Ti 1:8), and that anyone who breaks them is harming God, themselves and others (Ma 22:40), then the answer would appear to be “Yes.”
Since we are not yet in Christ’s theocracy, living in a broken world with corrupt governments, how do we choose candidates who most align with God?
On the presidential ticket, I’d say the answer is the one who’s most likely to [1] protect us and execute the laws of the land as they’re currently written, which is the president’s job, and [2] diminish the power and size of federal government, limiting it’s ability to harm us. That this candidate is the Libertarian Gary Johnson, I have no doubts.
On the Congressional and state levels, I’d say the answer lies in the candidates who are most likely to modify our legal code to be more aligned with Torah. As a general rule, I think the Republican platform is the one most morally aligned with Torah.