Why I am not voting for Darrell Castle

Its election season again, a time of year where most of professing Christianity throws out the principles they hold dear and make compromises with the world.  Most of the well known Christian celebrity teachers compromise on these issues, if indeed they talk about them at all.  Wayne Grudem in particular endorsed Donald Trump for President, while Thabiti Anyabwile endorsed Hillary Clinton.  I’m not going to make a full post on why either of these individuals, or the legions of others who make similar arguments, because I don’t really see this as a debatable issue.  The Bible has numerous passages that are clear about Christians only choosing just men, men who are just by God’s standards, to rule over them.  A few of these passages are:

“If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.” Proverbs 29:12

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. 2 Samuel 23:23

Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.  Exodus 18:21

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.  Psalm 2:12
And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.  Romans 3:8

In my mind this is more than sufficient scriptural ground not to vote for men who are not Biblically qualified.  And as we can see even a very cursory reading of these passages would rule out voting for a man who is unjust or who does not rule “in the fear of the Lord.”  This standard pretty clearly rules out Trump, Clinton, and Johnson from being qualified for the office, and I have no interest in watering down those Biblical standards for the sake of pragmatism.  I am convinced God will not bless his people as long as they continue to compromise on their principles for political expediency.

Which brings me to a more subtle compromise, one which I believe many godly people who rightly detest unbiblical compromises have fallen into, including many of my fellow theonomists.  That compromise is to vote for Darrell Castle for President.  The rest of this post will be dedicated to explaining why I do not believe a Christian should vote for Darrell Castle.  I believe these arguments would probably apply to Tom Hoefling as well, but I don’t know much about him and I haven’t seen as many people specifically say they’re voting for him as Castle, so I’m primarily going to be aiming my comments at Castle, and the reader who knows more about Hoefling should be able to discern whether the comments rightly ought to apply to him.

But before I start I want to make a couple of notes.  First of all, I respect that Castle supporters are at least trying to be principled by voting for a believer rather than one of the “big three” pagans.  Second of all, I’m primarily addressing this critique to those who would be of a theonomic persuasion, yet are voting for Castle.  If you’re a Christian constitutionalist or a libertarian these arguments won’t so much apply to you.  You should read the arguments anyway, but you’d really have to change your views on religious pluralism in order to be convinced not to vote for Castle.

With that being said, I don’t demand a perfect candidate to vote for before I’d support them.  This accusation gets thrown out a lot.  And its not true.  Here’s an example of the type of imperfect candidate I’d support

9So in the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king of Judah. 10He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. 11Asa did what was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father. 12He also put away the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols which his fathers had made. 13He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and burned itat the brook Kidron. 14But the high places were not taken away; nevertheless the heart of Asa was wholly devoted to the LORD all his days. 1 Kings 15:9-14

The high places were pagan places of worship.  God commanded his people to tear all of them down (Deuteronomy 12).  Yet kings like Asa allowed people to worship God at those places.  He did not, however, tolerate the worship of false Gods.  Idols (which couldn’t be used to worship the true God) were destroyed.  When I see “good but imperfect” kings in the Bible, this is usually what I see.  Leaders who tolerate bad forms of worship toward God but do not tolerate worship of false gods.  On the other hand when I look at one of the most ideal leaders in the Old Testament, King Josiah (who was himself certainly a fallible man) I see this:

2 Kings 23:5-14

⁵ And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens. ⁶ And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. ⁷ And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. ⁸ And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city. ⁹ However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ¹⁰ And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.^{[a] 11} And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts.^[b] And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altarsthat Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces^[c] and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. ¹³ And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.
I could more exhaustively cite more examples, but the point is that good leaders are very interested in the true religion and promote it by using the sword against evildoers.  This doesn’t mean people are required to convert, but it does mean that outward worship of false gods is a civil offense just like theft, murder, sexual immorality, or anything else.

I believe strongly in, and care deeply about, liberty.  If you read my article “Biblical Taxation” you’ll know that I believe government should be way smaller than it is.  But saying government should be small is very different than saying it should be a neutral force in society.

What of Darrell Castle and the Constitution Party?  I quote from the preamble to the Constitution Party platform http://www.constitutionparty.com/preamble/
//
The Constitution Party gratefully acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States. We hereby appeal to Him for mercy, aid, comfort, guidance and the protection of His Providence as we work to restore and preserve these United States.

This great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions but on a foundation of Christian principles and values. For this very reason peoples of all faiths have been and are afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.
//

 

I approve of the fact that they acknowledge our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  On this matter the Constitution Party is better than the Constitution itself, which leaves all such mentions out and refuses to acknowledge Jesus Christ at all.  Nevertheless, the second paragraph here is problematic.  I wouldn’t necessarily object to “asylum and prosperity” depending on how defined.  A member of a false religion could live and work in a Christian nation so long as he kept his errors in his heart and didn’t openly worship his false god or proselytize his false religion to others.  However “freedom of worship” is a completely unbiblical concept.   We never see any ruler praised in scripture for protecting “freedom of religion” for anyone.  Instead, we see rulers praised if they crush false religions and promote the worship of the true God.

With that being said, while I could vote for a ruler who imperfectly defends the true religion, I do not see how I could in good conscience vote for a candidate who by his own admission would do nothing to stop the spread of false religion in this country.  What groups like the Constitution Party want is a liberty that can be appreciated by people of all faiths.  But when I look at scripture and how God handles his people, this is not what I see.  I do not see any sign that God blesses a nation that tolerates false religion.  I also see no sign that God will bless a nation with a constitution that refuses to recognize him.  As Isaiah 49:23 says

Kings shall be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
    and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”

As Christians we should be supporting leaders who will support Christ’s church.  We should be supporting leaders who will use the sword not only against violations of the second table, but also against violations of the first.  While Darrell Castle is a better candidate than most of the others, he’s still a compromise candidate.  He’s a compromised candidate because there’s not a single verse in the Bible that would suggest that he is qualified for a political leadership position.  See Deuteronomy 17:14-20

¹⁴ “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

¹⁸ “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by^[a] the Levitical priests.¹⁹ And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life,that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

 

Some would say that even trying to follow a law like this is inherently ridiculous.  Not only are there multiple references to “Israel”, but the law also features Levitical priests (which have been done away with) and writing down a physical copy of the law (which in the days of the printing press may seem unnecessary.)  Its at this point that its important to consider the general equity of the law vs the particular equity.  In one case God told Israelites to build fences around their roof.  This doesn’t mean we literally have to build a fence around our roof today, its a law requiring that people respect the lives of others on their property and don’t unnecessarily endanger them.  In Israel people walked around on the roof and had parties on the top of the roof.  However, the fact that we no longer walk on the roof today doesn’t mean we can disregard the safety of others now.  In the same way, while a leader writing down a physical copy of the Law is probably unnecessary in the era of a printing press, the general equity of the command is that the laws must be understood and followed by the king.

Of those laws, perhaps the most frequently repeated and emphasized is the wickedness of idolatry and the need to suppress it.  While the Constitution Party says it wants to be governed by “Biblical principles”, the reality is it wants to be governed by the US Constitution, which is pluralistic in nature.  The Constitution Party wants am America where all religions are treated equally, while the Biblical vision for society is a system in which only the Christian religion is upheld while all other religions are suppressed.  I don’t demand a leader perfectly understand God’s laws before I’ll vote for them.  I certainly don’t perfectly understand God’s laws.  But justice is defined by God’s laws, and so qualification for leadership certainly entails at a minimum attempting to uphold them, and not just the second table of the law, but the first table as well.  With that being said I cannot justify voting for Darrell Castle.  To do so would be to fall into a lesser form of the same compromises we rightly detest from neocons, liberals, and libertarians.  To truly uphold the law of God, we must vote for candidates who desire the law of God to be the law of the land, not for candidates who want pluralism.  With that being said, I would recommend that any Bible believing theonomist either write in a candidate, someone who truly understands theonomic governance, or else to abstain from voting.  And in the meantime, continue to preach the gospel, continue to disciple the brethren, and continue to pray for repentance and reformation in families, the church, and ultimately the civil magistrates as well.