Baptist News Global: Trump Prophets Ratchet Up Attacks After Debate Against Harris
It's a joke, to insist that standing with Trump is standing with truth. It is also a condemnation of anyone who makes that claim. It makes them liars, too.
To anyone who has the ability to use a computer, read a book, or listen and understand a speech, the lies Trump told during his debate performance, which triggered even the debate moderators to make note of a fact check when he started in on the lie about immigrants kidnapping and eating the pets of people in Springfield, Ohio and Aurora, Colorado, makes his complete lack of honesty pretty obvious. For anyone claiming to be Christian, and thus standing for truth in that way, Trump's incessant, obvious lying is disqualifying.
Evangelical Christianity, especially its Pentecostal/Charismatic branch as represented by most of the men who were subjects of the BNG article that is linked above, is full of liars, cheats and deceivers. We have some outstanding examples in this country of religious imposters, mainly for the purpose of profiteering off gullible people. That seems to go hand in hand with Trump politics. Everything that Trump said last Tuesday was a lie. Everything. And now we have these religious imposters proving that they, too, are liars, by their claim that they are standing with Trump, "because he stands for truth."
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Matthew 7:14-15.
The "fruits" these men produce are what comes of following a fraudulent and lying politician, like Trump. He doesn't tell the truth and their defense of his lies makes them liars. Most of these so-called Evangelical "leaders" are after the same things Trump pursues, power and money. So they are willing to ignore his immorality, his lies and his corruption and crimes, to continue to deceive their followers into supporting him. And they are willing to ignore his open denial of the Christian gospel itself, in his refusal to admit that he has done anything requiring God's forgiveness.
That, according to the early church Apostle John, is the spirit of antichrist.
"..but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. I John 4:2-3, NIV
Refusing to acknowledge one's sinful condition, in Evangelical doctrine, is a denial of Jesus' atonement for human sin, which Christians believe was accomplished when he was crucified. That they see as a sacrifice for human sin. To deny that is to deny the whole of the Christian gospel. And that's exactly what Trump has done.
Political Issues verses the Character of the Politician
Back in 1996, the late Dr. Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee and a former President of the Southern Baptist Convention, preached a sermon that was titled, "Does Character Count?" His argument was that the character of a politician, their morality and their ethics, being someone who considered that they represented the will of "the people" rather than "some people," and above all, the ability to trust their truthfulness and honesty, weighed above the benefits of, and agreement with their policy. Dr. Rogers argued that character should be placed above all, and that issues and policy weigh a distant second as a Christian determines how they exercise their vote in an election.
Of course, Dr. Rogers was aiming his sermon at President Clinton, following revelations of his alleged sexual misconduct with Monica Lewinsky, as a means of discouraging Christians from voting for him. According to Rogers, Clinton's immorality was his disqualifying factor. But Dr. Roger's words hold true when applied to Trump as well, though many of his congregation are loath to acknowledge that Trump's immorality, cheating, and lying, disqualify him from office in exactly the same way Dr. Rogers insisted Clinton did. Truth, if that's what you believe it is, is still truth. And that makes Trump as reprehensible as his Evangelical base thinks Clinton was.
Evangelical "Leaders" Standing in Support of Racist Bigotry and Hatred of Their Neighbor, Which is Equal to Hatred for God
If they're standing for Trump, then they're standing for racist bigotry and hatred. Look at the way they have disrupted people's lives in Springfield, Ohio, taking something good, the economic and financial revival of a community, and dumping their hatred right on top of it. Claiming to stand with Trump means claiming to stand with his racist bigotry and hatred, a direct and serious contradiction of the Christian gospel.
Since we're talking about Evangelicals, let's talk about Jesus again.
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Saducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"
Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments." [Matthew 22:34-40, NIV]
So, by equating these two commandments, Jesus is saying that the way someone who claims to be a Christian, following him, demonstrates his or her obedience to the first and greatest commandment, to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, is by loving one's neighbor as one's self. So all of that hatred poured out on the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, by Trump and Vance is their public testimony that they also have no love or respect for God. And that also applies to each of these so-called Evangelical leaders who claim to be standing with Trump.
Landon Schott, pastor of the multi-campus Mercy Culture Church in the Dallas-Ft Worth area, said during the Democratic National Convention, "You are not a Bible-believing, Jesus following Christian if you support the godless Romans 1 evil of the Democratic party!"
Well, Landon, it seems that Jesus is saying, in Matthew 22:34-40, that those who hate some of their neighbors in Springfield, Ohio, which would include both Donald Trump and J. D. Vance, who are spreading vicious lies about them and subjecting them to terror as a result, are clearly demonstrating their hatred for God by showing their hatred for their neighbors. And if you're standing with them, then, well, take that for exactly what it means, or make a choice, between your loyalty to Trump and your loyalty to Jesus, because you can't do both.
From a personal perspective, I can't support a morally and ethically reprehensible candidate for President of the United States on the basis of some kind of incidental agreement with a few of his policies, though frankly, I find Trump to have few real policies and none with which I find any agreement. I can't in good conscience, vote to elect someone who doesn't have the character, the discernment, the common sense or the mental and emotional stability to provide leadership to this nation, and whose words demonstrate a complete disconnection from reality. And I would not, under any circumstances, vote for a man who incited, and led, an insurrection against the United States Government, on the basis of what was conclusively proven to be a lie.
And the fact that this particular group of Evangelical leaders, advocating for the heretical views of Christian nationalism, which are completely antithetical to the Christian gospel and to the words of Jesus Christ as recorded in the gospels of the New Testament, think Trump represents truth, makes them as antipatriotic, and as un-Christian as he is.
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