Why Obamacare Fails to Get God’s Vote (Part 1)

I know. I know. It’s not officially called Obamacare. But the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by any other name still fails to get God’s vote. And the reasons might surprise you.

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Now, back to why Obamacare fails to get God’s vote. I’ll suggest five reasons over the next several posts to kick off this new blogging home. Subscribe now to the right to make sure you don’t miss any as we await one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions in the last half-century, if not longer.

Here’s why Obamacare fails to get God’s vote:

1. God requires rulers to keep their covenant with the people.

We are, as Americans, a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We have a history, a culture – a Biblically sound one — based on our covenant with our leaders. We call that covenant our Constitution. When our business partners violate our corporate covenants, we quickly declare it unethical. When a spouse violates the marriage covenant, we rightly view such behavior as immoral. When the used car salesman (the slippery kind, not the one you know) doesn’t stand behind his written agreement, we call someone in a bureaucratic cubicle somewhere because we recognize such dishonesty as morally wrong.

Yet when politicians break their covenant with us, we shrug and grumble about not having a voice while chanting, “Throw the bums out!”

But God doesn’t dismiss such violations so casually. “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God….For he is God’s minister….” (Rom. 13:1,4). With all due respect — and respect is due to every public-office holder — God takes His minister’s integrity seriously.

Consider a few examples of Biblical rulers God visited when they overstepped the bounds He gave them:

• Saul. He offered a sacrifice in place of the prophet/priest, thereby violating the separation of powers established by God in Israel.
• David. He selfishly numbered the people of Israel in violation of his legal boundaries.
• Moses. He simply struck the rock in anger against God’s instructions.
• Herod. He just started believing his own press about being a god.
• Pharoah. He abused the Israelites entrusted to his oversight by divine Providence.

Let’s not forget our own national heritage that coalesced around this very issue — the breach of covenant we experienced as colonies of the English crown. The writers of our own Declaration of Independence made the case for both a watching world and their watching Creator. They believed the case needed to be made, not just for practical reasons to give political cover, although that pragmatic component existed. The first-hand accounts of our Founders’ thinking show they believed it no trivial thing to throw off the powers over them – even when they believed those rulers had repeatedly broken covenant with the people. Yet they declared their causes against an unjust authority that crossed divinely appointed boundaries.

If the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is, in fact, a violation of our national covenant, Obamacare is not simply a political faux pas — but an immoral one. When those put in authority by God break trust with the people God has entrusted to them, the leaders err in their duty toward God. No offense to Chief Justice Roberts, but God’s opinion is the ruling that will eternally matter. Hence the warning to “obey your leaders… as those who will have to give an account” (Heb. 13:17). The ultimate accounting for a politician’s breach of our national covenant will not be at the ballot box — although that is coming soon.

Our rulers have a divinly-ordained duty to uphold our Constitution because they swore — before God and men — that they would do so. Anything less is a breach of trust and will ultimately be taken up for a ruling by the Highest of Courts. That’s coming, too.

Next: Why Obamacare Fails to Get God’s Vote (Part 2) UPDATE: How Should We Respond to the Obamacare Ruling?

How do you think our Supreme Court will rule? How do you think the Divine Court will rule? Leave a comment below to be part of the conversation.