I tend to agree with Arlene who responded to Rene about the election:My thoughts about elections are this:Zechariah 4:6. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.At first glance it sounds like this passage is giving two examples of the same thing and contrasting that by the third thing but it is not. There are two distinct and separate ways that it says God will not work His means to bring His will on the scene of our world and they are different from each other. First is not by MIGHT and then not by POWER and these are two different things that God says He will not use to get His will done.While they may sound the same there is a big difference and we should know this because since He has told us what He won't use, it saves us a lot of wasted energy that we might spend in trying to get God to honor our efforts in either of these first two endeavors.So what is MIGHT and what is POWER?Might is physical means, or to try and force the world into complying with God's way by not giving any other options besides God's way and God says He does not do that. After all He was the one who gave us free will in the first place. (I set before thee TWO WAYS, life or death, Blessing or cursing... Choose life!) An example of those who try and accomplish God's will through physical means would be if someone wanted to put a stop to abortion by destroying an abortion clinic (physically) with a bomb or arson or what have you but God will not honor that or sanction or endorse such means. (This is not to say that ultimately God will not judge evil with whatever means He chooses to destroy for that we know is ultimately coming but that is His doing and not up to us to help Him in our might and power.)Next is POWER and represents political authority over the world and God says He does not use this as His way to do things on earth either. An example of this would be to elect a politician who is pro-life so that the laws will be changed to ban abortions. Let me ask you this: Have we not had pro-life presidents in the White House already? And yet was abortion stopped?That is why it does not say in2 Chronicles 7:14. If my people, which are called by my name, shall...get out the vote and elect godly politions with biblical principles and put up barriors around evil so that no one can do any sin but must stay on the straight and narrow...then I will heal their land.(Another example: Did "Prohibition" stop people from drinking?)No, He says By My Spirit which means through humbling ourselves and pray etc. Jesus instructs us to pray "Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth... Pray the Lord of the harvest that He will thrust forth laborors into His field etc.Kat Kerr said in one of her excellent videos on Youtube (check them out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kfxxJgJW0M ) that when we pray for God's will on any matter to be done, it causes a sword to be formed out of our mouth that when it is complete an angel takes it and uses it to accomplish in the spirit realm God's will according to His word in that matter. Now that is getting things done! She said that is how the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.The bottom line is that such evil as we see in our world was prophesied long before and Jesus said He was telling us in advance so that when it came we would not be caught off guard but He said when we saw it, not to try and do something about it and stop it so our world can be a better place for longer a time but to look up for our redemption draws nigh.Even back in Paul's day there was plenty of corruption in his cities but Paul never organized an attempt to change or "Christianize" his society at all. He just told Christians to come out from among them and be separate. He did say to pray for our leaders so that we might dwell in peace etc but didn't try and control who those leaders might be as though that would make a difference.The church is ekklesia in Greek which is out called ones from this world.