English – Chinese
We received the following letter in response to first letter in our voting series, “For Whom Do We Vote?”
I don’t really know how I got on your email list, but I must say not voting is the coward’s way out. My son served in the war in Iraq and I think it’s important to put an end to the slaughtering of our children who are serving, as well as the Iraqi children. Therefore I am taking a stand against the current administration. I believe that nobody has the right to speak up if they don’t take a stand and vote. My son is defending that right, my father defended that right and his father defended that right. By sticking your head in the sand you are simply following those sheep who refuse to make the world a better place. Ignorance is not bliss and it is not the responsible way to follow a democracy.
Please remove me from your email list.
Thank you.
Victor’s reply:
Hi, Terry,
I appreciate you responding and expressing your views. We will certainly honor your wish to be removed from the mailing list. However, I would like to establish somewhat of an understanding here. I ask for your patience and attention to this letter. I don’t know if you received the next segments of the series on voting, for whom to vote, why and how. I wonder if you would understand better as to what we are saying if you read the one I enclose, entitled, “Why Do We Vote for Jesus Christ?”
I can sympathize with your perspective, having a son in Iraq, and being exposed to war. However, you have missed our point entirely, and I will explain and confront you on your error.
First of all, you err in saying that we are not voting. We ARE voting, as stated. The question is for whom. You say you will vote against the current administration because you hold them responsible for Iraq. Are you sure they were in control, or were Bush and his party simply puppets for other powers? Do you know? Secondly, for whom will you vote? The Democrats? You express concern not only for your son, and the sons of America, but also for Iraqis. Did not Bill Clinton send bombers to Yugoslavia to carpet-bomb everything there to hell? Everything was destroyed in the most cowardly way. The same thing happened in Viet Nam, Korea and elsewhere. Why? Because men have ruled, men for whom you have voted.
What makes you think that it won’t happen again, just because you exercise and “defend your right” to vote for men? Americans have been voting for a long time, have they not? They have voted for Republicans, Democrats and others, yet wars and economic, social, religious, educational, medical and other kinds of turmoil and crises have continued persistently.
Let me tell you this, Terry: You, by voting for men, get what you are getting because you vote for them. We have a historical record of a people who were ruled directly by God, and who had it very good, but chose instead to have a king, a man to rule over them. Here is what the Scriptures say about those who vote for men, and it includes the very kind of consequence you express concern about:
“And they said to him (to Samuel, the prophet of God…Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing was evil in the eyes of Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to Jehovah. And Jehovah said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even until this day, works with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods, so they do also to you. And now listen to their voice. Only, you shall surely protest solemnly to them, and show them the kind of king who shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the Words of Jehovah to the people who asked a king of him. And he said, This will be the privilege of the king who shall reign over you. He shall take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and his horsemen. And they shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint commanders over thousands, and commanders over fifties, and some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and make his weapons of war and weapons for his chariots…And you shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and Jehovah will not answer you in that day. But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, No, but we will have a king over us” (1 Samuel 8:5-19).
Your son is or was in Iraq because you have voted for men, “exercising and defending the right to vote.” It will not matter for whom you vote, be it Bush or Kerry or Nader. You are the one hiding your head in the sand, because you refuse to face the fact that you prefer to vote for an impotent and finite creature rather than for the Omnipotent, Eternal Creator. Jesus Christ and He alone can put an end to war. He alone truly desires to do so. There is nobody but nobody on this earth but Him that has laid down his or her life so that we might not have war anymore. Jesus Christ alone did it. He also calls on us to “vote” for Him, and in doing so, war will cease.
It is you who is following the sheep, as a sheep yourself, believing the lies told you by men who promise the sky and deliver the grave. Those who have taken the stand we take have been tortured and executed throughout history to the present day for preaching the truth, for confronting people on the error of trusting in men, and in not putting full trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So much for “burying one’s head in the sand.”
Speaking of sheep, and following a democracy, do you not see your contradictions, Terry? Just what is a democracy? Is it not the people voting for leaders who will do as they expect (though it seldom works out that way)? Is it not the sheep telling the shepherd what to do? As one standing for democracy, are you not following sheep, and are you not a sheep yourself?
Now, a theocracy is very different. It is “right side up.” It is “the horse in front of the cart.” It is the shepherd leading the sheep. It is the shepherd and not the dumb sheep that should be “calling the shots,” don’t you think? That is what we need; that is the solution; that is the answer to war, destruction, and death. Why vote for another sheep? Why not vote for THE Shepherd?
You are right when you say that ignorance is not bliss…at least it is not always so. However, we are not ignorant, nor do we encourage ignorance. Ignorance is represented by darkness, and we are informing you, being informed ourselves, of the Light of the World. I think, Terry, your problem in perceiving where we are coming from in what we say is that you really do not believe that one can in fact vote for God, quite literally, and thus prevail over the ills of earthly, carnal, corrupt governments. Jesus said, “The thief comes not but to steal, and to kill and to destroy; I come that they may have life, and that more abundantly,” (John 10:10), He meant it. He is not a liar or a fool. People have been voting for the former rather than the latter, and reaping their just desserts.
There is only one way to “make the world a better place,” and those who will not vote for God are the ones who “refuse to do so.” I can tell you right now, Terry, that if you vote for the Lord Jesus Christ, it will cost you your life. It cost me mine. You will never be the same. I am not. That is not an act of cowardice. It is an act of wisdom, enabled by the pure grace and goodness of God.
Victor Hafichuk