(Do Not Open Until Election Day 2020)
November 3, 2020
Dear followers of Jesus,
It’s Election Day! Wow! Has it been four years already?
Today, the people of the United States will either: 1) re-elect President Donald J. Trump to a second term, 2) elect another Republican in the rare event that someone successfully challenged President Trump in the primary elections to become the party’s nominee, or 3) elect the Democrat candidate in the 2020 Presidential race.
I’m writing this letter to bring some things to your remembrance and to ask some things of you, especially if the third possibility becomes a reality today and a Democrat is elected to lead our nation as the next President of the United States.
1) Keep praying.
Four years ago, in the days following President Trump’s election, many Christians composed some beautiful and deeply meaningful prayers on behalf of the President-elect and our nation. Some posted and shared these prayers on social media. They acknowledged and praised God’s sovereignty, credited His wisdom and His guidance upon the electorate, professed their confidence that His divine hand had been decisively active in the outcome of the election, and petitioned His richest blessings to be upon the new President.
I hope that you saved those prayers in an easily accessible place. Please retrieve them and pray them again today and in the days ahead… verbatim. Change them only to reflect the name of the new President-elect. They would be splendid prayers for you to continue praying over the next four years. I’m asking this of you simply because I don’t recall the composition of such prayers in 2008 and 2012, and it would be a real shame to reserve such lofty petitions only for candidates of our liking and choosing. Or is it possible you believe that God only selectively involves Himself in our elections, with unfavorable outcomes serving as an unmistakable signal as to which ones He has chosen to sit out?
Oh, and the countless public prayers that I have heard in Christian assemblies over the last four years that specially requested heavenly blessings upon President Trump, openly and unashamedly mentioning him by name… those would be great to continue as well. Again, my mind isn’t quite what it used to be (I’m nearing 60 now), but I just can’t remember such prayers being offered with any regularity during the eight years prior to President Trump’s election.
2) Keep reciting and living out Scripture.
Do you remember those Scriptures and memes that were so prolifically posted on social media when President Trump was elected? They included Biblical texts like:
“First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (I Timothy 2:1-4)
“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good… Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (I Peter 2:13-17)
That was so great! Please do that again!
Many Christians experienced a miraculous measure of renewed interest and dedicated commitment to these Scriptures on November 8, 2016. I just don’t want to see these texts fall back into the depths of obscurity, neglect, and disuse that they suffered from 2008 to 2016.
3) Keep calling for unity, healing, and overcoming divisions and differences.
Following President Trump’s election four years ago, there were repeated calls from Christians for the nation to come together, unite, support our new President, and heal the wounds of division within our country. Harsh rebukes were offered to those engaged in post-election protests, urging them to get over it, accept the will of the people, and respectfully support the President-elect as the incoming leader of one nation under God.
The memories of many were apparently instantaneously wiped clean of any recollection of the divisiveness, disrespect, incivility, insults, name-calling, demonizing, venom, and vitriol in which far too many Christians had been deeply involved for the previous eight years. I lost count of the number of believers I know who stated or wrote, “Barack Obama is not my President. He will never be my President.” I regularly heard President Obama’s name spoken with derision and contempt.
You can’t speak like that and behave like that for eight years, and then, upon the election of your favored candidate, wave a wand, flip a switch, sweeten your tone, invite everyone to grab a hand and sing “Kumbaya,” and expect to be taken seriously. You can’t repeatedly toss grenades and verbal weapons of mass destruction, and then glibly pontificate about the need to heal.
So, if “the other candidate” wins this 2020 election, please commit yourself to be among the first to call the nation to unity, to demonstrate solidarity and show support for the President-elect, and commit yourself to sincere and ceaseless prayer on his or her behalf, and for our nation under their leadership. Whatever you thought “God is in control” meant in 2016, try to speak and act as if you still believe it now.
Only when we’ve lived it can we credibly prescribe it.
When we fail to do these things, the light of Christ becomes shrouded by our duplicity, our hypocrisy, and our blatant double standards. We ensure that those who are skeptical and dubious about our belief in Jesus will find it even more impossible to accept our faith as genuine and authentic.
If we believe that our God’s sovereignty and the successful working of His will is dependent upon the election of a particular candidate or the dominance of a single political party, then our God is far, far too small.
Lest you think I’m being overly critical of believers or unduly “beating up on fellow Christians” to the neglect of pointing out the faults and failures of those in the world, please understand that the latter is not within my purview as a minister of Christ. “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” (I Corinthians 5:12-13)
My desire is that our light shine more brightly, our convictions more consistently, and our witness more credibly as disciples of Jesus.
Grace and peace always,
Tim
Thinking Out Loud 
6 comments
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November 10, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Anonymous
I think that there is no denying that, objectively speaking, the party platform of one of the two major parties is substantially more aligned with the dictates of scripture than the other. I also think that electing the standard bearer of that more scriptural platform, irrespective of his or her personal piety or foibles, is worthy of at least a little more rejoicing than the other, even if the other standard bearer would equally deserve our prayers for God’s guidance.
November 10, 2016 at 9:46 pm
Tim Pyles
Thanks for your comment, Anon! My comments above were not intended assess how well party platforms conform to or diverge from Scripture, but rather focused on what Scripture calls upon Christians to be and to do in regard to those in positions of authority, regardless of their platform, piety, or performance. The Biblical instructions cited above from Paul and Peter to pray for those in authority, submit to them, and honor them were written during the reign of Nero, an emperor whose platform provided very little worth rejoicing about. Thanks for your willingness to sincerely pray for our leaders though, regardless of their party affiliation or platform.
November 11, 2016 at 12:26 pm
Anonymous
To put your reply in context, Nero reigned from 54 A.D. to 68. The first decade of his reign is thought to have been benign and tolerant, as his adviser Seneca is believed to have actually governed. The first state persecution of the Christians by the Romans did not begin until the burning of Rome in 64 A.D., which also coincided with Peter’s martyrdom. If we accept Paul’s authorship of 1st Timothy, and Peter’s authorship of 1st Peter, then all of of those biblical quotes were written prior to the first Roman persecution, and under generally tolerant imperial authorities.
However, that history lesson and epistolary context is well beside the point. Your blog post above and your reply to my comment are contradictory. The real point of your blog post is clearly to vent your heartfelt liberal leanings by (1) calling out conservative Christians as being hypocrites for rejoicing in and praising God for the election of Donald Trump when, in your words, they had been “divisive[], disrespect[ful], incivil[], insult[ing], name-calling, demonizing, venom[ous], and vitriol[ic]” towards Obama “for the previous eight years,” and (2) admonishing them, with more than a hint of anticipated, incredulity, to treat any Democrat who may be elected in 2020 with the same rejoicing and praise as Trump.
How do I know what your real point was? Because you say so plainly. You even end your blog post by quoting scripture in defense of your “ministerial” right to “judge” those in the church. Seriously, Tim, it’s not like it’s not right there printed above for all to read! And, frankly, this isn’t the first blog post where a thin veil covering contempt towards conservative Christians has fluttered in the breeze.
As the “you” in 1st Corinthians 5:12 is not specific to ministers, my point is to reject your judgement. Indeed, for Christians, the elections of Trump and Obama should not be equivocal, such that rejoicing at the election of Trump while having not done so with Obama is hardly “duplicity… hypocrisy, and… blatant double standards,” as accused above; to the contrary. First, it has nothing to do with the persons who are Trump and Obama. It has rather to do with the policy platforms of the political parties they lead. Secondly, those policy platforms are hardly equivocal in terms of how they correspond to scripture, such that rejoicing in the election of the standard bearer of one, while withholding such rejoicing in the election of the standard bearer of the other, is, in this case, forthright and sincere. The inference in your reply that scripture somehow commands us to equally rejoice in policies antithetical to the teachings of Christ is wrong. Finally, the premises supporting your accusations of conservative Christian hypocrisy in your post above are dubious. They read like so many Hollywood stereotypes of conservative Christians that might be peddled in a polemical pseudo-article from a pop culture magazine like Rolling Stone. To be sure, my “willingness to sincerely pray for our leaders” is not unique. The conservative Christians you know, who include almost the entirety of your congregation, are not so categorically pharisaic, puritanical, and severe.
November 10, 2016 at 5:24 pm
Ermalee Ort
Dear Tim, Thank you so much for this letter, Tim, and for the wonderful sermon you shared with us Sunday. I always want to remember that God is in control of the elections and will put in place the person of His choice whether it is to prosper this nation or someone to do the things that would bring our country to repentence. Again, thank you again and bless you for your daily walk with God and your teaching and example for all of us. Blessings, Ermalee
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November 10, 2016 at 9:46 pm
Tim Pyles
Thanks for your steadfast love and constant encouragement, Ermalee! It is so greatly appreciated!
November 11, 2016 at 2:49 pm
Tim Pyles
Anonymous, the formatting of the comments section does not provide for me to reply to your reply within that particular thread, so I will do so briefly here.
Your history lesson regarding Nero was interesting, but quite unnecessary as my comment was not made in reference to his persecution of Christians; like many emperors, Nero was a megalomaniacal murderer, exterminating even family members he perceived to be a threat. Peter and Paul had also lived under the reign of Caligula. I am unaware of any evidence which suggests that either Caligula or Nero (during any period of his reign) pursued a platform of governance that conformed to Judeo-Christian ethics and morality. Regardless, that was not to be the litmus test or criteria for the church’s sincere, ceaseless, and indiscriminate prayers for them.
You write at length about my alleged inference that elected candidates be equally praised and rejoiced over. You will search my post in vain for a discussion of “praise” of candidates or “rejoicing” over their election The post is a call to prayer, brother; simply and plainly; a call to consistent, persistent, sincere, non-partisan prayer, regardless of who is in office.
My post stands as written; it represents my heart and my convictions. Nothing is “thinly veiled”; it is plainly written. I recount things that I have seen and heard from fellow Christians; things that I find incongruent with the mind and the spirit of Christ. You are most free to disagree with that assessment based on your own perspective, convictions, and experience, just as I am free to strongly disagree with your subjective assessment of my “heartfelt liberal leanings” and what my “real point” is.
I am grateful that regardless of who is in the White House, and despite our differing points of view, Jesus reigns over both of us as Lord and Christ and that we are, first and foremost, citizens of His indestructible Kingdom.
Grace and peace to you, Anon! (my apologies for not being able to use your name)