Bill Leonard: Isn't it Really Fundamentalist Christian Nationalism?
Russell Moore: Evangelicals Call Jesus "Liberal, Weak"
Even if you're not into Christian doctrine and theology, but politically, you're a Democrat or a Progressive Democrat, stick with me for long enough to grasp the conclusion that's being drawn here. The Signal Press has been informing, educating, and warning people about the dangers of the blending of far right wing Trumpian politics with conservative, Evangelical doctrine and theology to create an entirely new religion that is proving to be a grave danger, not only to American democracy, but to the Christian church as well.
In his shortest church epistle, known to us as the book of Second Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul describes the prophetic appearance of a person he describes as "the man of lawlessness." This person, who, in conservative doctrine is also called "The Antichrist," though that term only appears in the New Testament in John's epistles, was a prophetic reference to the coming persecution of the church at the hands of the Roman emperors in the first and second centuries.
In their literalist interpretation of the New Testament, conservative Evangelicals, including fundamentalists and those in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement, blend this description together with a similar, symbolic description of the same kind of "lawless" authority, found in Revelation, and make his appearance a precursor to the second coming of Christ and the "rapture" of the church, a term also not found in scripture. It's an incorrect application of these passages of scripture to the "end times," meaning "end of the world," rather than "end of the age" which the Apostles and Jesus meant as a warning to the churches about the coming destruction of the temple and the end of the theocratic old Covenant, in favor of the new Covenant, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But, like many of the references in the New Testament to the end of the age, this one in Second Thessalonians does provide some prophetic insight into those figures in history who put themselves against the Christian gospel and the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ, and try to take his place as the savior of the world. And when I look at these prophetic references, and look at the political events happening in our day, I see something that could very well serve as a warning to our time, as much as it was a prophecy for what was about to transpire in the churches. The description of the "man of lawlessness" in 2 Thessalonians shouldn't require a lot of deep thought or creative imagination to equate it to a modern day political personality in America. The description is uncanny.
As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.
He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God....
The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the work of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.
Among Christians, there are a couple of ways to interpret this. In the historical context of this particular Pauline epistle, the Apostle is issuing a prophetic warning to the Christians of this particular church to whom it is addressed about the growing threat of Roman imperial rule and the increasing tendency toward worship of the Emperor himself as a god.
But there's an approach to biblical eschatology, the study of the "end times," that emerged from the more literal, less historical approach to interpreting the Bible that came from American fundamentalism which didn't develop until the late 1800's, that sees this as a reference to a particular world ruler who will appear just prior to events that will set in motion the physical return of Christ to the earth who they call the Antichrist, even though that term in the Bible is not applied to any specific person, but is a general identification for any spirit that denies Jesus as the Christ. Far right wing Christians claim that the "man of lawlessness" and "The Antichrist" are the same person, who will appear at the time that a series of events will usher in the Second Coming.
This person, in that particular theological view, is not initially identified as evil, or as a subversive of the Christian faith, but is, according to their interpretation, initially adored by the church, before denying the person of Jesus Christ and the entire Christian gospel, and demanding to be worshipped himself. While I don't particularly believe that kind of futuristic interpretation of this part of the Bible is accurate, it does bear a certain resemblance to a particular extremist right wing politician who has mesmerized and hoodwinked millions of Americans and that delusion now includes direct attacks on core Christian teachings of Jesus himself.
Keep reading. There are Christians who are calling their pastors "liberals" and "woke," because they preached from Christ's Sermon on the Mount. The son of this particularly bellicose politician has publicly stated that the idea of "turning the other cheek" is not going to work for them, because it is not "worldly" enough.
Contributing Evidence from Two of My Favorite Authors
Russell Moore, current editor of Christianity Today, one of the few publications circulating among conservative Christians that retains a semblance of credibility and doesn't repeat conspiracy theories, has documented Christians claiming that the teachings of Jesus are "weak," and are accusing pastors preaching sermons based on the Sermon on the Mount of being liberal. Moore is a former executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, pressured out of that position because he has considently articulated a "never-Trump" position from a Christian perspective. No matter how conservative one's Christianity makes them when it comes to politics, Moore has been very clear that it is inconsistent to support the kind of worldliness, immorality, lying and fraud that is the trademark of Trump. Those Southern Baptists who attacked him, and helped pressure him to resign have lost the essence of the Christian faith, and as far as I am concerned, they have lost their minds and are preaching a "different gospel," which the Apostle Paul says leads to anathema.
Getting his information from pastors, Moore reports that the most offensive part of what Jesus had to say, from the conservative Christian perspective has to do with his admonition to "turn the other cheek." He reports that a pastor told him members of his congregation came up to him after a recent sermon and asked, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?"
The pastor responded, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ." The response? "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak."
"When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus are seen as subversive to us," says Moore, "we are in a crisis.
This is more than a crisis for the church. It's an intrusion of heresy, the result of blending extremist right wing politics with ultra-conservative Christianity. It is, as the Apostle Paul says in the passage I cited earlier from 2 Thessalonians, "a powerful delusion, leading them (Christians in the church) to believe what is false."
So if you've ever wondered why it is so difficult to argue using facts and truth with a Trumpie, then the explanation from this Christian epistle may offer a real and legitimate explanation of what you see. These people are deluded and beguiled by a man of lawlessness who is subverting the Christian gospel and the church for worldly political power.
Bill Leonard, a former professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who is the founding dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, goes a bit further in explaining how this delusional theology has taken hold in the church and is denying the character and teachings of Jesus and the whole doctrinal and theological foundation of the church. Leonard points to the words of the pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, Robert Jeffress, who said:
"Evangelicals still believe the commandment, 'Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star. However, whether [Trump} violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him" [emphasis mine.]
So, according to this Baptist pastor, the Christian gospel is totally irrelevant to Christian practice when it comes to supporting conservative, right wing extremism in politics. You can't make this stuff up. He might as well have told his congregation, "Everything I've ever preached to you up to this point has been a lie. So ignore it and reject it."
With that statement, Jeffress disavows his belief in the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture, essentially saying that when it comes to politics, we can set Jesus aside and believe whatever we must believe in order to give a man of lawlessness our loyalty and our trust. So in other words, it's OK to replace Christ at savior and Lord with a right wing, immoral politician. It is perfectly fine to set up an immoral man as an example of living for other Christians to see who now obviously depend on a gospel that leads to a different savior than Jesus.
Make up Your Own Mind
The term "antichrist" doesn't appear in the book of Revelation, as many people seem to think that it does. It is found in two of the Apostle John's epistles, in I John 4:2-3 and in 2 John 7. In both cases, the term is associated with being deceitful regarding the identity of Jesus Christ.
"By this you know the spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world." I John 4:2-3
Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." John 2:7
It's also not a coincidence that the same author who identifies the evil of antichrist, also goes to great lengths to emphasize that the Christian gospel rests on a foundation of love, and mentions this multiple times in the short epistle. What we are seeing, in this political intrusion into the church, is the opposite of love being preached, and the gospel of Jesus dismissed and attacked as weak and liberal. What we are seeing bears all of the described characteristics of what Paul defines as the man of lawlessness and what John calls anti-Christ.
I'll let my readers draw their own conclusion about that. But it is clear that this intersection of extremist right wing politics with conservative, Evangelical Christianity is pulling its churches into apostasy.
This is also a crisis for our country, because there are those among the more conservative groups of Evangelicals who ignore the apostolic instructions about respecting government, because it operates under God's authority, and because being lawless was not a value or a characteristic that Jesus intended for his followers to exhibit. That principle is mentioned twice in the New Testament, in Romans 13:1-7 and in I Peter 2:13-17. By claiming some kind of "chosen by God" status that allows them to ignore the Christian gospel and the teachings of Christ, they put themselves in the position of claiming to be his instruments doing is will, which is what they have already determined that to be.
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