The above protest sign pretty much sums up the prevailing opinion surrounding us in this broken, self-obsessed society we call home. “We get to decide everything, not God!” That sounds good – but nobody stops to check how that is going. Democracy may be the best way to organise political leadership – but how has it served the deeper needs of humanity?

When it comes to the Church, democracy presents a huge problem. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual matters like salvation. The fact is, ‘majority rules’ is flawed because the majority is never right.

A very long time ago, God instructed the children of Israel to enter and conquer the Promised Land upon reaching its border, declaring it to be theirs. However, the people (the majority) had different ideas. They called a committee meeting.  The adage, “Committees are the dark alleys into which ideas are lured and slowly strangled,” may be familiar to you. That’s what took place here. God’s truth was gradually choked out. You may have also heard the adage, “For God so loved the world that He didn’t send a committee!”

So, a ‘wise’ plan was hatched by the people to send twelve spies into the area to check things out for themselves. They were determined to do this right. They wanted to do it the human way. Naturally, they selected the most competent, intelligent, gifted individuals they could find. To put it succinctly, they picked people who were similar to them, so that 10 of the spies were gutless spiritual wonders, deficient in what mattered most – faith in God – and the willingness to know that God says what He means and means what He says. God had said, “go – it’s yours.” That’s all they should have needed.

Upon their return, the spies were in agreement about the difficulties that lay ahead, but 10 of them terrified the people so much with their reports that they came to believe that God was wrong. Caleb and Joshua were the only two spies who were prepared to stand up for God. They knew it was all they needed to know if God had said so.

The people effectively put God’s word to a vote. And faith was outnumbered 10 to 2. Sadly, it almost always is. For Israel it meant 40 years in the wilderness. All because of unbelief… a lack of faith.

Politics is not at issue here. This is not a question of national governance. I’m not against legitimate democracy as a system of governance. This is about spiritual matters. This is about how you are going to run your life. Don’t put God to a vote with your friends. Neither do votes in churches determine the truth. It can never be, because God will always be true even if all the world be false. People spend too many years in the wilderness because they try putting God to a vote.

The only vote that counts is the vote that God cast when He sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world so that you might believe in Him and have everlasting life. In Jesus, through Calvary, your salvation is done and dusted, if you accept Him by faith. To put that to a vote is downright insulting to the One who has loved you so much.