HEAVENLY ELECTION

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

The 2016 election season is almost over and the 45^th president will be chosen tomorrow. Despite all the heated rhetoric and insincere political promises, it is our Constitution that mandates the requirements, responsibilities and range of the office of the president. Ironically, the constitutional requirements to serve as president are very few---you must be a citizen for at least fourteen years and no younger than thirty-five years of age.

Historically, a new president was inaugurated on March 4th until the Constitution was amended in 1933 to change the inauguration date to January 20^th (or 21^st if the 20^th falls on a Sunday). This situation has only occurred a handful times in history---one in particular offers some interesting trivia. When James Knox Polk’s presidency ended on March 4, 1849, President-Elect Zachary Taylor refused to take the presidential oath because it was a Sunday. Therefore, Senator Pro Tem David Rice Atchison was named as Acting President for a day.

The word election has been a much-used word recently, but election is actually a Bible word, used six times in the scriptures (KJV). In several aspects, election is a hard doctrine to understand mainly because it comes totally from the mind of God. Election is tied to the doctrine of God’s foreknowledge and our spiritual predestination, teachings that are also hard to get your arms around. The main thing to understand about spiritual election is that it is personal (2 Peter 2:4), unmerited (Romans 9:11) and eternal (Ephesians 1:4).

Theologically, election is an act of God in eternity past in which He chose those who will be saved (Romans 8:29-30). It is vital to point out that spiritual election does not rule out human responsibility, i.e. “whosoever will may come” (Isaiah 55:1; Romans 10:9, 13; Revelation 22:17). Simply stated, election is God choosing you because He knew you would choose Him. David Rice Atchison never thought of himself as president, in fact he slept through most of his big day. It was his family who wanted everyone to know; they marked his grave “David Rice Atchison, President of the United States For One Day.” Rejoice today in the fact that God elected you to be with Him forever, and tomorrow do your Christian and civic responsibility by voting. Think about it.