{"id":161,"date":"2016-04-15T15:30:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/?p=161"},"modified":"2016-09-28T15:17:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T15:17:55","slug":"the-elections-who-deserves-your-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/04\/the-elections-who-deserves-your-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"The Elections &#8211; Who Deserves Your Vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Senedd.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-162\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-162 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Senedd-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Senedd\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We are being inundated with manifestos for the Welsh Assembly elections, and every newspaper and television channel seems to be trying to help us make a decision on whom we should vote for.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as this is over, it will all start again over the \u2018in\/out\u2019 referendum over membership of the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>At the last Welsh assembly election only just over 40% of the eligible electorate voted. In all of the elections for the Assembly the turnout has never reached 50%.<\/p>\n<p>I am one of the people who have lived in Wales during the whole time that there has been a Welsh Assembly and have never once voted. In fact I have never voted in any type of election.<\/p>\n<p>This is not because I am apathetic by nature, or have a radical political point to make. It is because I have religious conviction.<\/p>\n<p>I do recognise that this Country, indeed this World urgently needs a solution to it\u2019s problems, such as war, famine, disease and poverty to name but a few you know all too well. But I do not believe that, no matter how well meaning, men and women have a solution, no matter who may be elected.<\/p>\n<p>The clear message of the Bible is that the God of the Bible, who created the heavens and the earth and all things therein does have a plan and purpose with our world. That purpose centres on the return of the return of His son, Jesus Christ, to rule over the world as it\u2019s King.<\/p>\n<p>The Bible presents us with Jesus\u2019 \u2018manifesto\u2019 including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Justice and fairness (Isaiah 11:4)<\/li>\n<li>Help for the poor and needy (Psalm 72:13,14)<\/li>\n<li>World peace (Micah 4:3)<\/li>\n<li>An abundance of food (Psalm 72:16)<\/li>\n<li>The cure of all disease, suffering and death (Revelation 21:4)<\/li>\n<li>A kingdom that will last forever (Daniel 2:44)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Old Testament prophet Daniel demonstrates that \u2018God works in the kingdom of men\u2019 in bringing about His purpose. A true follower of Jesus Christ recognises that they are \u2018strangers and pilgrims in the earth\u2019 waiting for His return. (See Daniel 2:44)<\/p>\n<p>By accepting that God is in control, whoever is voted into power is the person God wants and therefore if I vote for the person or party that does not get elected I am voting against God\u2019s will. Not something the true follower of Christ should do!<\/p>\n<p>However, I do live in this world and the Bible teaches that I should \u2018render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar&#8217;s\u2019. That is to say that I must obey the law of the State and live a life without the \u2018reproach of men\u2019, provided that the State does not ask me to compromise God\u2019s commands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I am not voting in the forthcoming elections because my chosen candidate isn\u2019t standing \u2013yet!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever\u2019. (Revelation 11:15)<\/p>\n<p>*Join us at 6pm on 24th April in our hall, Foundry Road, Ammanford to hear a special talk entitled &#8216;Elections &#8211; Who deserves your vote?&#8217;. All are welcome to attend!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are being inundated with manifestos for the Welsh Assembly elections, and every newspaper and television channel seems to be &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/04\/the-elections-who-deserves-your-vote\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Elections &#8211; Who Deserves Your Vote?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,39,6,24,40],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-christ-jesus","tag-democracy","tag-hope","tag-the-kingdom-of-god","tag-votes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammanfordchristadelphians.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}