A friend of mine recently remarked about the historic World Series victory by the Chicago Cubs — he said he knew someone who didn’t like the Cubs or the Indians. This person was a die-hard Braves fan and was still grousing that Atlanta didn’t make the playoffs.

In philosophy and logic, pulling for the team that’s not even in the game would be called a counterfactual. There’s not a lot of percentage in hanging your hopes there.

So here we are on Election Day. We’ve all spoken our piece, followed the news and storylines, waited in the voter lines and — now we wait. Vice presidential candidate Mike Pence said it well not long ago: “What’s before us is a choice between two vastly different futures.”

“What’s before us is a choice between two vastly different futures.”

We will soon know to a great degree which one of those futures we have chosen.

In the preface to “God in the Dock” (A collection of C.S. Lewis essays, published in 1970), Lewis wrote to counter-liberal clergy who “undermine and deny the very doctrines they are paid to uphold.”

I thought about that line more than a few times during the last six months of this campaign. Politicians are not clergy (although some clergy become politicians, such as the Hon. Gov. Mike Huckabee and Congressman Mark Walker). And according to Romans Chapter 13, governmental leaders are indeed “ministers.” And politicians — like ecclesiastical figures — can lead well or poorly. They can speak truth or lies. They can govern righteously or unrighteously.

Speaking of moral and upright leadership, we may in a few hours see empirical proof of Proverbs 29:2: “When the righteous rule, the people rejoice.” Grassroots zeal over the Trump-Pence ticket has been all about hope stirred in the hearts of beleaguered millions who long for leaders who actually seem to, well, love America.

Related: Fight for America’s Path Forward

If Washington continues unchanged and corrupt — with elected offices used as leverage points for favors, financial gain, and social experimentation — the second half of that verse will be expressed: “But when the wicked rule, the people groan.”

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Let me make a prediction: If, at this time tomorrow, Donald Trump is the president-elect and the Teflon Clintons have conceded in defeat, many of us Christians will know God played a hand in it.

How this providential state of affairs came to be and what that portends is another story. But if tomorrow reveals the converse, and it is Hillary Clinton heading to a January inauguration — then I believe there are some clear spiritual implications for that scenario as well.

Let me boil this election down to one proposition: In the first scenario, the judgment of God will have been stayed because we as a nation are beginning to repent of our embrace of death and darkness. And by this, I mean that the American people will have voted to turn away from the abortion industry and the legislation of immorality imposed by judicial fiat. In the second scenario, I’m firmly convinced that the judgment of God on America will intensify, because we have voted to maintain and even enhance our genocide of infants and our societal lawlessness. Much like the choices God gave Israel in Deuteronomy 30:19 — America is in the process of choosing between life and death.

Perhaps, laying a foundation of life and grace for generations of Americans not yet born, God will have favored us with leaders who revere Him and believe in moral truth. Let us hope so.

But regardless of what tomorrow’s headlines bring, the priorities of life for the Christian citizen remain unchanged: We are to love God and grow in Christ. We are to grow in grace, love our neighbor, and daily live as citizens of two kingdoms. As St. Augustine noted, Christ’s followers walk in two worlds: The city of God and the city of mankind, with responsibility to both. Pity the people who live under leaders who only recognize existence of the latter. Pity more the people blind enough, selfish enough and greedy enough to repeatedly elect such.

Related: Pray for the American Voter

I believe that leaders of every strata — whether it’s those in the home, the pulpit, the classroom, the news desk, the judicial bench, and in the halls of government — all have a God-ordained obligation to promote truth and to oppose evil at every opportunity.

This election cycle was especially frustrating — in that many pseudo-conservative leaders who could have courageously unified to promote truth chose rather to play it safe, posture, and check which way the winds of opinion were blowing.

Hillary Clinton’s wish was that Donald Trump would not become president. Sadly, many in the Republican Party shared that wish. More was said about the improprieties of Trump’s private remarks than about the security and ethics breaches of Hillary’s private computers. Those in any position of leadership, whether they realize it or not, have an actual charge before God to uphold the greatest common good. This is not always easy to accomplish, and certainly not always popular. But I would have to believe such responsibility would begin by courageously standing with all who would uphold moral law and defend human life.

And pity that so many in church and in government could not sully themselves with a clarion call to flocks and constituents — an inspiring charge to unify around the greatest good.

 Prayers will still be answered, and truth will still win in the end.

Like the baseball fan who pulled for the Braves even while the Cubs played the Indians, many leaders’ love of the counterfactual resulted in a squandered opportunity. Ben Franklin warned about us digressing into “dozens of squabbling factions.” How will those leaderless factions ultimately have voted? Tomorrow, we’ll know.

Whether Wednesday’s headlines find you hopeful or heartbroken, know this: God will still be on His throne. Prayers will still be answered, and truth will still win in the end. It will. Believe it! And so we continue to pursue the good, and as our Founders would advise us to do, looking unto Him who is the foundation of all that is good and true.

Dr. Alex McFarland is a religion and culture expert, national talk show host, speaker, and author of 18 books, including “Stand Strong America.” He also serves as director for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at the Christian Worldview Center of North Greenville University in Greenville, South Carolina. He spent 20-plus years training teens and adults in the biblical worldview.