Family Research Council’s annual event, the Pray Vote Stand Summit (PVSS), is only one week away. PVSS serves as a weekend in which champions of faith, family, and freedom can join together to pray for the nation and encourage one another to stand firm in the faith. This year’s summit offers a particularly crucial opportunity to prepare our hearts and minds for the upcoming election — which is less than 40 days away.

However, as FRC President Tony Perkins pointed out on Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” it’s a mistake to “think an election is going to solve America’s problems.” But if this is the case, then why vote? Why be engaged in politics if politics aren’t going to solve our problems? According to Perkins, a necessary step in tackling these questions is to first understand what’s at the core of our troubles.

“Our problems are spiritual,” he stated, and spiritual matters effect everything around us. This is why Christians need “to have a continual presence in influencing our government [and] our community … by standing firm on our faith.” Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California couldn’t agree more. And on the episode, he explained his reason for being involved in cultural and political matters. For pastor Hibbs, who will also be speaking at PVSS, it’s simple: Why engage? “Because I’m alive … I’m an American … I have grandchildren … I have a congregation,” and “most of all, because I’m a Christian.”

Hibbs explained further, “I do not see any separation of what is sacred from what is secular. It’s all sacred to God.” In step with Scripture, and especially the Great Commission in Matthew 28, “Wherever the soles of our feet go, we are to be bearers of light.” Christians are not called “to build a kingdom on earth,” but “to shine the light of the gospel and the gospel truth.” Second Corinthians 10:6, Hibbs pointed out, addresses how “we are supposed to actually, by our obedience to Christ, punish disobedience.” Considering this, believers can recognize how “when we shine that light, it causes disobedience to recoil.”

In Scripture, Hibbs added, “I see no separation when it comes to where should the Christian be a Christian,” because “the answer is everywhere, at all times.” Borrowing from biblical language, Perkins emphasized the need to “contend with the lawlessness by our righteousness.” In other words, “We adhere to the truth of God’s Word as the lawless” reject “the truth of God, which we see happening at every level of government today.” And when we see government rebelling against God, Hibbs interjected, “we have to call [it] out.”

The role of the believer is to “represent the kingdom of heaven,” he asserted. Ultimately, “Our politics is heaven. But until we get to heaven, we are supposed to be, as C.S. Lewis put it … the ones that are occupying enemy territory” in a “world [that] has been commandeered by Satan.” This is done by remembering that “God’s got a plan,” and we “are in that plan of redeeming and rescuing people.”

But as Perkins highlighted, the argument that Christians are “supposed to be timid and quiet” has long been raised. It’s an idea that states believers have to “go along and get along.” Considering this, Perkins asked, “Where did this idea come from?” According to Hibbs, it doesn’t come from Jesus.

Rather, he argued, it comes “from the same spirit” found in Luke chapter 19, in which the Pharisees told Jesus to “rebuke” or silence His disciples (v. 39). In response, Jesus said, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (v. 40). In this passage, the Pharisees seem to be an example of those in opposition to the message of the church today. As Hibbs explained, Christians today are told to “be silent.” We’re told, “By all means, pay your taxes. But you can’t say anything. Be good citizens as long as you do what we say. … Preach the gospel, but don’t let it go beyond the four walls of your church.”

However, Hibbs clarified that if we were to live by what Jesus said in response, then Christians would know that “we must obey God rather than man when it comes to these areas where God is being challenged by the deification of man.” Those in government “think they rule and reign,” but they’re still subject to God’s authority.

All this points to the “epic battle that is raging over our country and … around the globe,” Perkins emphasized. It’s the battle between the God of truth and “the father of lies.” And “we’re way past the idea that, somehow, we can figure … this out on our own. We’ve got to go to the word of God.” And this “need to be in the word, on the word, promoting the word, standing on the word, [and] proclaiming the word … is now.” Because, as Perkins stated, “It’s the only hope for our nation.”

“There’s no doubt about it,” Hibbs expressed. “In fact, no matter how this election goes, God is still in control. He’s not in any way swayed or influenced by the election results,” because “He knows the results before they even happen.” And especially when circumstances seem dire and the world feels chaotic, “people need to be biblically based with a foundation that cannot crumble, or they are going to completely implode with a sense of hopelessness.”

According to both men, current events only put a spotlight on the need for Christians to be engaged in cultural and political matters. “[T]here are good things that are happening in pockets around the country,” Perkins noted, “but it’s only because Christians are stepping out” to call out evil and promote good. “As Americans, we have a right to vote,” which is “unique” and something “we should cherish.” But Perkins insisted that Christians especially “have a responsibility to vote because it’s a part of being salt and light.”

At the end of the day, it’s not a matter of liking who’s on the ballot, but a matter of working hard to discern “who most closely aligns with biblical truth, and then we need to go vote.” As Hibbs argued, “[I]f God’s going to hold me responsible for every idle word that comes from my mouth, [if] God is concerned about how I spend my money, [then] the same would be true regarding the incredible liberty and freedom that has been given to me by God in a constitutional republic to cast my vote.”

Voting is “an opportunity that God gave us in this republic to make a difference,” the pastor underscored. “[W]e’re not voting for a messiah or a pastor. We’re voting for those that are called politicians, meaning” our job is to figure out “which one will come closest to” a biblical worldview. “There’s only one perfect person” Perkins said, and “it’s Jesus.” And while Jesus is King, “[H]e’s not going to stand for election.” So, “it’s time for Christians to give up their apathy and put on the whole armor of God and assume the position that God has told us to take, and that is to stand for truth — for His truth — and not back down.”

Hibbs concluded, “[O]ur biblical response should be in all areas of our life. It shouldn’t come with the anomaly of an election. It should be a constant. Our biblical response based upon a biblical worldview knowledge should be consistent in the world in which we live in — day after day, year after year.”