It was the last call I was going to make
that evening. Just 2 hours before the polling stations closed. I was hungry for
what was left of the curry at the ward base camp. This should be a short one.
They’d probably voted already anyway. After all, they hadn’t far to walk. I
could actually see the polling station from their front step, no more than 50
metres away. The door was opened by a slim , raven-haired white lady. Pretty bright
blue eyes, but a furrowed forehead and thin angry mouth. I thought I vaguely recognised her from years
ago. From school may be, but a few years below me? She scowled at my rosette. This
was not promising. I checked my notes. Yes right house number. Supposedly they
were voting for us.
“Good evening Mrs -------. Sorry to disturb you. I’m Jeremy from the
local Labour party. Just calling to check if you’d been able to vote this
evening?”
“To be honest I don’t
think I’m going to vote.”
“Oh really, why’s
that?”
“What’s the
point? It won’t make any difference.
You’re all as bad as one another.”
Perhaps I should
just let this one go, catch up with Les and “MH” then head back for some curry?
But no, I thought, one last push, one final conversation. Of course, one vote
on its own wouldn’t make any difference, but if we all thought like that…After
all, this could be one of thousands of late canvassing conversations around the
country. Together, collectively these last calls could make all the difference.
Couldn’t they?
“I think there is a
difference you know. It’s important what’s at stake at this election. The Tories
if they get in are going to take our public spending on a “roller coaster
road”, with £30 billion of cuts. That won’t be good for the economy or ordinary
families like yours… Child tax credit…”
“Well, I’m not voting for them either. But
none of you lot help us. All those people coming over here. They get the first
choice of houses, the pick of the jobs. Not our kids. We need to look after our
own.”
“Well, Labour have accepted they didn’t get
things quite right over immigration last time. They would require EU migrants
to work for 2 years before they got benefits."
Still scowling.
“… but I’m afraid free movement of labour is part of
the rules of the European club, if we want the benefits of being part of the
club…thousands of jobs rely on us being part of Europe, but the Tories would
put all that at risk. Our kid’s futures…”
Still scowling.
“So what about all
the others coming over here?”
“Actually you know immigrants contribute more
in taxes than they take … our NHS couldn’t cope without all the doctors and
nurses from overseas.”
Yes, still
scowling.
“Well, how come that
lot are allowed to go round with their ceremonial swords? We’d get arrested if
we did that.”
And now I’m scowling.
And after a bit
more word-jousting, I signed off as I’d started; “Good evening, Mrs -------.”
****************************
The lady on that
last call clearly wasn’t listening. Or if she was listening she wasn’t hearing.
Her heart was hardened. Whatever I said she was determined not to believe me.
She’d already made up her mind. The polling station was only 50 yards away, but
it might as well as been 50 light years away. She wasn’t going to vote for us.
She wasn’t going to vote for anyone. Yet by choosing not to vote she was kind
of voting by default. Like nearly a third of those entitled to vote, she was
choosing to let everyone else decide who should run the country.
But there’s a much more important choice we
have to make, a much more important election, whose results we’ll have to live
with not just for 5 years, but for the whole of eternity. But, as with the
general election, so many of us won’t engage in the process. We won’t
be making a choice. We’ll be copping out. And yet by not taking a decision, we are still
making a choice, a choice by default.
The choice I’m talking about is
whether we choose Jesus as our leader. Whether we “vote” for him or not I believe
Jesus is one day going to return to rule the world. But he won’t force his rule
on us. We have to choose him if we want him to be our ruler.
But with him the
election is not so much his election as ours.
It’s God who gets the vote. Will he elect us to be part of his new
society, part of his wonderful new kingdom on earth? According to the bible,
the answer is starkly simple. Everyone who votes for Jesus he too will vote for
and accept as a citizen of his heavenly kingdom. Apart from Jesus, “there is no other name
under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11), and the
bible guarantees this; “everyone who
calls on Him [Jesus] will be saved “(Acts 2:21) and thereby
become a citizen of his fantastic future kingdom, glimpsed in Revelation 21 . And
if we choose not to believe in Him…. then we are choosing to exclude ourselves
from His kingdom, forever (John 3 v 16-18).
So what about those
who never hear about Jesus in this life, who never get the opportunity to
“vote”? The bible doesn’t tell us. May be like the criminals dying on the cross
next to Jesus they get their chance, as a one to one with Him, just
as they die? (Luke 23:39-43). Only God knows and we just have to trust Him to
act justly. (Genesis 18:22-26).
But for most people
in this country who have heard about Jesus they do have a choice, a vote now.
This is our opportunity. We have to seek him while he may be found, call on while
he is near (Isaiah 55:6). There won’t be any more chances to vote for Him in
the next life, for we are “destined to die once and after that to face
judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27). Once our life’s bell tolls the polling
station closes. Yet like that lady I last called on we’re actually very close
to that eternal polling station. God is much nearer to all of us than we think
(Acts 17:26-31). As and when we reach out to Him, He reaches out to us- “come
near to God and He will come near to you”. (James 4:8-10) But if we “harden our hearts”, if we close
our minds off to Him we’ll never find Him. (Hebrews 3: 15) If we want to be one of the elect, one of the
chosen citizens of his amazing kingdom on earth when he returns we need to vote
for Jesus now.
But isn’t it just naïve wishful thinking that
King Jesus will one day return to put the world right? Most people would
say so and of course being a predicted future event there is no way I can prove
it will happen. Yes it is a matter of faith. And yet it’s not simply blind,
irrational faith. It’s a faith based on a past track record. This
guy has history for pulling off the impossible. According to the most reliable
ancient records that we have (the new Testament gospels-yes, you heard right!)
this man lived a life of miracles, culminating in the greatest miracle of all;
by rising from the dead three days after his crucifixion, just as he’d predicted
he would. And if he didn’t do then there are some things you have to seriously
wonder at. Like how on earth did a strange sect of the national
religion of a tiny state at the far reaches of the Roman empire not just die
out with its failed leader? How come I 3,000 miles away and 2,000 years later
believe in him? How did his frightened, abandoned, mostly uneducated followers
manage to spread his message to the centre of the Roman empire within only a
generation? And how and why were most of them prepared to sacrifice their lives
for what they must have known to be a lie?
How did his message, instead of dying out with him, reach and transform
the lives of millions of people from “every tribe, nation and language”?
And if Jesus really did
do the “impossible” by overcoming death, just as he predicted, you have to
start taking seriously his other prediction; the prediction that he will one
day return to earth to bring his heavenly kingdom.
Jesus might not return until many years after
we die. But, as Daniel prophesied, when he does those who have died in Him and
“sleep…will awake…to everlasting life” (Daniel 12:1-3). As “the last trumpet
call” sounds they will be “transformed” into immortal beings (1 Corinthians 15:51-54),
fit to be citizens of his heavenly city, fit to return to earth to rule the
kingdom with King Jesus. (Daniel 7:18).
Of course, I might
just be completely wrong. Just like, I believe, many people were
deceived by the Tory spin and lies at the last election, perhaps the millions
like me who believe in Jesus have been taken in by the church’s spin and lies?
All I can say is that I have at least carefully (and prayerfully) looked into
it. Just like I carefully (and prayerfully) looked into the claims, counter
claims and manifestos of the parties before the last election . Only then did I
sign up, campaign and vote for the Labour party. I looked at the actual
evidence, rather than just relying on my natural instincts or the headline
media spin. By doing so, I believe I found out for myself , for example, the
truth about the cause of the economic crash, our debt /deficit and who actually
had the better record of economic
competence. And it was not the Conservatives! (Taking a look at a graph of our historical debt
and deficit will give you quite a strong clue). Unfortunately, what the
conservatives did have was the better evangelists!
Of course, I
know full well that there are others who have looked just as closely into these
things and came to the opposite conclusion. Either of us could be wrong, but at
least we’ve seriously looked into it. Sadly, most of the electorate
either failed to consider their vote in very much depth or (a third) failed to
vote at all. But if I’m right, something much greater is at stake with Jesus. And yet
how
many of us have really looked into the evidence about Jesus, his claims and
manifesto? Not all people who
have carefully looked into the truth about Jesus have accepted Him, but a great
deal of them have. What he is claiming (if true) is literally earth-shattering,
universe-shattering, (yes even) multiverse-shattering.
It would be of eternal importance for our lives. So, so much more important
than any general election.
Aren’t his claims at least worth looking
into? Or will we just make a decision by default, to reject him and
risk missing out on that last call, risk missing out on our election to eternal
life?
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