Front Page Article
"The Lenses of Reformation Concerning
Right to Vote"
by Dr. Patti Amsden
God is all-powerful. He is also all-knowing, meaning He is never void of knowledge, wisdom, or strength. As Creator, He is the only Eternal One who was present before the foundation of the heavens and earth. He is the Alpha. That said, He is also the Omega, meaning that all things culminate from and in harmony with His will and His ordination. The implication of Alpha and Omega is the idea that He works all things from His own council and completes His council without malfunction.
Reformation lens #1 – God is sufficient unto Himself and needs no counsel, might, or assistance to fulfill His sovereignly purposed plan.
God is not improved nor increased from outside of Himself. In His self-sufficiency, He could execute His will without the aid of any created being. He does, however, enlist both angelic and human help in moving His plan toward the Omega. Genesis 2 communicates that God created mankind in His image and empowered His image-bearers to rule and administrate the earth. As the earth is the Lord’s, the Genesis mandate indicates that mankind was given stewardship of God’s property. In this stewardship, humans are empowered to gain knowledge, make decisions, and execute human willpower that alter the course of human affairs. Even thought God possess all power, He shares that resource with humans.
Reformation lens #2 – God does not monopolize power but, rather, shares His power with humans.
Empowering someone to take action in the name of another is modeled within the Godhead. Jesus came to do the will of God and then sent the Holy Spirit to work in Jesus’ stead. Monopoly of power is a foreign concept to God. God empowers the church. We, the believers, are granted authority to determine how heaven interacts with the earth. Even when we use our authority contrary to God’s purposes, the Lord does not immediately recapture His power by stripping it from us. He certainly continues to train, and he might even discipline His representatives; but only as a final judgment does He recall the power.
Reformation lens #3 – God grants humans the right to represent Him though choices and allows them to live out the consequences of their votes.
Each human has plans, purposes, and properties that are within his or her God-given spheres of management. An individual can monopolize that power and not seek to enlist the aid of others in stewarding their portion. That would mean that each person would need to be physically present to do all the work and make all the decisions in everything action that is done. No person operates that way. Ethical and contractual sharing of stewardship aids people to maximize efficiency of both time and resources. People give power to others to function in their name. Shared power is representative power.
Reformation lens #4 – The ones we empower to represent us must be faithful to execute the representational power in harmony with our wishes.
As reformers, we recognize that elected officials steward the power of the electorate that voted them into office. The citizens do not monopolize their individual power but rather share it by way of representative power. When we vote, we must consider the candidates. Will they bear our name in vain or in harmony with our will? Will they labor in their seats of authority in the fear of God? If they do not reverence God as His representative, they will not honor the electorate in representational power.
Reformation lens #1 – God is sufficient unto Himself and needs no counsel, might, or assistance to fulfill His sovereignly purposed plan.
God is not improved nor increased from outside of Himself. In His self-sufficiency, He could execute His will without the aid of any created being. He does, however, enlist both angelic and human help in moving His plan toward the Omega. Genesis 2 communicates that God created mankind in His image and empowered His image-bearers to rule and administrate the earth. As the earth is the Lord’s, the Genesis mandate indicates that mankind was given stewardship of God’s property. In this stewardship, humans are empowered to gain knowledge, make decisions, and execute human willpower that alter the course of human affairs. Even thought God possess all power, He shares that resource with humans.
Reformation lens #2 – God does not monopolize power but, rather, shares His power with humans.
Empowering someone to take action in the name of another is modeled within the Godhead. Jesus came to do the will of God and then sent the Holy Spirit to work in Jesus’ stead. Monopoly of power is a foreign concept to God. God empowers the church. We, the believers, are granted authority to determine how heaven interacts with the earth. Even when we use our authority contrary to God’s purposes, the Lord does not immediately recapture His power by stripping it from us. He certainly continues to train, and he might even discipline His representatives; but only as a final judgment does He recall the power.
Reformation lens #3 – God grants humans the right to represent Him though choices and allows them to live out the consequences of their votes.
Each human has plans, purposes, and properties that are within his or her God-given spheres of management. An individual can monopolize that power and not seek to enlist the aid of others in stewarding their portion. That would mean that each person would need to be physically present to do all the work and make all the decisions in everything action that is done. No person operates that way. Ethical and contractual sharing of stewardship aids people to maximize efficiency of both time and resources. People give power to others to function in their name. Shared power is representative power.
Reformation lens #4 – The ones we empower to represent us must be faithful to execute the representational power in harmony with our wishes.
As reformers, we recognize that elected officials steward the power of the electorate that voted them into office. The citizens do not monopolize their individual power but rather share it by way of representative power. When we vote, we must consider the candidates. Will they bear our name in vain or in harmony with our will? Will they labor in their seats of authority in the fear of God? If they do not reverence God as His representative, they will not honor the electorate in representational power.
