God Didn’t Buy Our Vote

For the last two days, I have been thinking about Michael Bloomberg—not about voting for him but about what his opponents are saying about him. They are charging him of trying to buy the nomination for the presidency. Billionaire Bloomberg has been spending hundreds of millions in an attempt to become his party’s candidate. Even if I were a member of that party, I would have no problem with that. Why? First, I do not believe that spending millions on campaigning is buying an election. Buying an election is in some way giving money to voters to purchase the assurance of their vote. I must explain: Bloomberg can spend billions on advertising and still not buy voters’ esteem, favor, respect, or love. The advertising may deceive them. It may even persuade a few of them to vote for the guy. But, with rare exception, it will not get them to like the guy or elect him. Now suppose he really did buy the nomination and eventual presidency. Suppose he, at least by proxy, was able to meet each voter before he went into the voting booth and promise him $10,000 dollars to vote Bloomberg. I believe a huge number would do so. Of course, in reality, many voters would, after voting for another, take the $10,000 knowing they could say they voted for Bloomberg and there would be no way for him to ascertain their truthfulness. But, hypothetically, most would take the money and vote for him. Bloomberg would buy the election. But, what he would NOT have purchased would be the voters’ respect, love, and admiration. Money is power. And, in our scenario, Bloomberg’s power assured his election, but not the love of those who voted for him. You may be asking what all of the above was about. It is really about this: In the modern push to extirpate God from people’s belief, the ancient problem of evil is ubiquitously being pushed upon people. In simple form it is this: You believe in an all-powerful, loving God? But, there is evil in the world that God does nothing about. Therefore, there can be no all-powerful, loving God. If your God exists, He either has the power to do something about the evil and suffering but doesn’t love humanity enough to do so, or He loves humanity and wants to do something about the suffering but doesn’t have the power to do so. I believe the Bible provides real, though difficult, answers to this conundrum. However, that is not my point today. My point is this: God’s response to suffering isn’t the exercise of His power but the demonstration of His character. God is all-powerful and could immediately eliminate all evil and its consequent suffering. So why hasn’t He? Because if God used His power to immediately and completely eradicate all evil, He would have to force people to stop hurting other people, make humanity stop sinning. He is powerful enough to do that. But, when He got done ridding the world of suffering by forcing humanity to be righteous, He would have not have gained people’s admiration, affection or love. That cannot be “bought.” They would not look at God and say, “How wonderful, loving, and holy God is. I just love Him.” They would not even credit Him with solving the problem of evil. They would say, “He bought the election,”--in the terms of our analogy. God has done something about evil and suffering; He entered into our suffering and bore our evil on a cruel cross. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” God has made the problem of evil about love not power. Folks cannot honestly look at what God has done about suffering and evil through Jesus’ hanging on the cross and not love, admire, and have affection for such a God. God didn’t use His power. In fact, He laid aside that power to give Himself to the evil hands of His crucifiers. We do not buckle under the power of God in coerced subjugation. We note and then surrender to His great love in the crucified Christ. It was the love of God, not the power of God, that solved the problem of suffering and evil. God has not bought our vote. He has earned it.

God Didn’t Buy Our Vote

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