It's a hard book to read....because it is so in error and beyond speculative....God, Trump, and the 2020 Election....Why He Must Win and What's at Stake for Christians if He Loses....by Stephen Strang....the founder of popular longtime charismatic magazine Charisma.....of which I read faithfully back in the 1980s....before I saw that it was God's sovereignty that reigned in Scripture....and not our intuition. The author hits every angle in defense of a second term. The necessity of originalist Supreme Court justices probably leads the way....but all the charismatic prophets running around....prophesying about Donald Trump....are right up there with it.
There's a couple of ways to address this book. On the spiritual side....the charismatic will love this stuff....most of the evangelicals will fall for it....but the Christian who hasn't left the Reformation behind....as the first sentence here implies....would have trouble even reading it through. The following....unfortunately....is probably powerful 'evidence' from the book to most of that first group of readers...."When Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946, it was exactly seven hundred days later that Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948. On Trump's first full day in office he was seventy years, seven months, and seven days was inaugurated in the Hebrew year 5777....he beat Hillary Clinton by seventy electoral votes....because seven electors defected." Folks....has anyone even considered that maybe God permitted the enemy to orchestrate this 'evidence?'
On the political side....it's very typical talk radio obfuscation of the bad and exaggeration of the rest. When I look at the last thee years I see political chaos everywhere because the man in office is not only incompetent....but a con man. I see nonsense on North Korea....ignorance on the national debt....chaos in the State Department....and purging in the Department of Justice. I see dozens of well-known and well-respected diplomats and statesmen....and public servants....dragged through the mud by Brother Trump's Traveling Salvation Show. I see evangelicalism taken in by a pied piper....and a once valuable talk radio turned into a propagandafest....and a conservative movement neutered through power and greed. I see a perspicuous Mueller Report....from an honorable man....that is an indictment if you read it....but somehow labeled a 'nothingburger'....and I see that honorable man ridiculed and trashed by a man who joked about his own avoiding the draft....and I see veterans missing all this.
On the 'personal' side....in my seventy years I have not seen nor even read about....with the possible exception of Nebuchadnezzar....King of Babylon....anyone with a narcissism as has Donald Trump...."Look what I have built!"....but the book in its blindness....only sees a "unique personality." I have never seen anyone able to lie so consistently.....with no conscience at all....but the book incredibly describes him as one who courageously stands for truth....this a man who has the mentality of a mobster who can flatter out of one side of his mouth....and send out enforcers from the other.....but again the book only sees this as a "brusque billionaire" and an "alpha male."
Just one example here of many....God, Trump, and the 2020 Election at one point is very critical of how radicals 'stigmatize' their opponents....such as Donald Trump.....as a tactic. How can the author possibly write this and at the same time be oblivious to that same man....Donald Trump.....who is almost a mirror image in his tactics of Saul Alinsky? This type of cognitive dissonance....missing the forest for the trees....permeates the book.
God has taken away our discernment. We now have an evangelical community who not that many decades ago knew that judgment was nigh upon America for what we have become....but today....wherein we are ten times more in rebellion to God.....believe that God all of a sudden has blessings ahead for us.....through Donald Trump....who is not just 'imperfect' as we excuse him as....but almost perfectly deceitful in all his ways.
On the practical element....the book....as do apparently most republicans today....seems to think that one has no choice but to vote for a second term. It assumes that an alternative of something terrible must be good.....or at least better. That indeed can be the case but one cannot assume that it is the case....for both alternatives can be terrible....and that is what God has given us....two alternatives that are judgments. What we Christians are in effect saying....is that God must use a political process....that He must use might and power! Anyone know of a Scripture verse that might apply here?
This election is not the determining issue that we believe it is. The issue is whether or not we as a nation will in numbers large enough humble ourselves before God. It's not in our installing a new Trump establishment party that would point to any kind of repentance....but rather that we would instead see our own culpability in America's condition and humble ourselves....for it would not matter who becomes President....or who controls Congress....or who sits on the Supreme Court.
God paired down Gideon's army for just this reason....He surrounded Elisha with His angels to protect him....He commanded Noah to build that Ark to save him....He gave courage to that young boy David....that David might exalt Him....He blinded the pharisee Saul so that he would see....He gave Peter the prophesy of the cock crowing so that he would be humbled....He gave Luther those words....."Here I stand....I can do no other"....to return to the church the Gospel of Jesus Christ....He used a common tinker in Bunyan to inspire generations....He gave Whitefield that booming voice....He gave Spurgeon that gift of preaching....He does not need electoral votes....he laughs at the arrogance of Donald Trump....and He curses the plans of the Democrats.
Thirty-eight years ago I ambled into a Christian bookstore out of curiosity....and walked out with the classic apologetic Evidence That Demands A Verdict. It contained evidence....through logic and reasoning....that God used to transform my thinking. The evidence that we use today for Donald Trump supports our biases....not truth. It is a contorted evidence....selective....misguided....that does indeed demand a verdict....its own preconceived verdict.
There's a couple of ways to address this book. On the spiritual side....the charismatic will love this stuff....most of the evangelicals will fall for it....but the Christian who hasn't left the Reformation behind....as the first sentence here implies....would have trouble even reading it through. The following....unfortunately....is probably powerful 'evidence' from the book to most of that first group of readers...."When Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946, it was exactly seven hundred days later that Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948. On Trump's first full day in office he was seventy years, seven months, and seven days was inaugurated in the Hebrew year 5777....he beat Hillary Clinton by seventy electoral votes....because seven electors defected." Folks....has anyone even considered that maybe God permitted the enemy to orchestrate this 'evidence?'
On the political side....it's very typical talk radio obfuscation of the bad and exaggeration of the rest. When I look at the last thee years I see political chaos everywhere because the man in office is not only incompetent....but a con man. I see nonsense on North Korea....ignorance on the national debt....chaos in the State Department....and purging in the Department of Justice. I see dozens of well-known and well-respected diplomats and statesmen....and public servants....dragged through the mud by Brother Trump's Traveling Salvation Show. I see evangelicalism taken in by a pied piper....and a once valuable talk radio turned into a propagandafest....and a conservative movement neutered through power and greed. I see a perspicuous Mueller Report....from an honorable man....that is an indictment if you read it....but somehow labeled a 'nothingburger'....and I see that honorable man ridiculed and trashed by a man who joked about his own avoiding the draft....and I see veterans missing all this.
On the 'personal' side....in my seventy years I have not seen nor even read about....with the possible exception of Nebuchadnezzar....King of Babylon....anyone with a narcissism as has Donald Trump...."Look what I have built!"....but the book in its blindness....only sees a "unique personality." I have never seen anyone able to lie so consistently.....with no conscience at all....but the book incredibly describes him as one who courageously stands for truth....this a man who has the mentality of a mobster who can flatter out of one side of his mouth....and send out enforcers from the other.....but again the book only sees this as a "brusque billionaire" and an "alpha male."
Just one example here of many....God, Trump, and the 2020 Election at one point is very critical of how radicals 'stigmatize' their opponents....such as Donald Trump.....as a tactic. How can the author possibly write this and at the same time be oblivious to that same man....Donald Trump.....who is almost a mirror image in his tactics of Saul Alinsky? This type of cognitive dissonance....missing the forest for the trees....permeates the book.
God has taken away our discernment. We now have an evangelical community who not that many decades ago knew that judgment was nigh upon America for what we have become....but today....wherein we are ten times more in rebellion to God.....believe that God all of a sudden has blessings ahead for us.....through Donald Trump....who is not just 'imperfect' as we excuse him as....but almost perfectly deceitful in all his ways.
On the practical element....the book....as do apparently most republicans today....seems to think that one has no choice but to vote for a second term. It assumes that an alternative of something terrible must be good.....or at least better. That indeed can be the case but one cannot assume that it is the case....for both alternatives can be terrible....and that is what God has given us....two alternatives that are judgments. What we Christians are in effect saying....is that God must use a political process....that He must use might and power! Anyone know of a Scripture verse that might apply here?
This election is not the determining issue that we believe it is. The issue is whether or not we as a nation will in numbers large enough humble ourselves before God. It's not in our installing a new Trump establishment party that would point to any kind of repentance....but rather that we would instead see our own culpability in America's condition and humble ourselves....for it would not matter who becomes President....or who controls Congress....or who sits on the Supreme Court.
God paired down Gideon's army for just this reason....He surrounded Elisha with His angels to protect him....He commanded Noah to build that Ark to save him....He gave courage to that young boy David....that David might exalt Him....He blinded the pharisee Saul so that he would see....He gave Peter the prophesy of the cock crowing so that he would be humbled....He gave Luther those words....."Here I stand....I can do no other"....to return to the church the Gospel of Jesus Christ....He used a common tinker in Bunyan to inspire generations....He gave Whitefield that booming voice....He gave Spurgeon that gift of preaching....He does not need electoral votes....he laughs at the arrogance of Donald Trump....and He curses the plans of the Democrats.
Thirty-eight years ago I ambled into a Christian bookstore out of curiosity....and walked out with the classic apologetic Evidence That Demands A Verdict. It contained evidence....through logic and reasoning....that God used to transform my thinking. The evidence that we use today for Donald Trump supports our biases....not truth. It is a contorted evidence....selective....misguided....that does indeed demand a verdict....its own preconceived verdict.
