He Put A New Song In Our Mouth

                For quite a number of years....decades really....the message to the church from Billy Graham and many others....was that America was in need of repentance....and that God would judge us if we did not as a people repent of our many and varied idolatries....contributing to the violent culture that we were increasingly becoming. No one questioned this for we knew it to be true. Christian conservatives worked in the political sphere....at times with great results. There was no repentance here....as it was more of a holding the line....until we might as a people humble ourselves before God who brought our nation about....and who sustained it through many difficulties....and was patient and longsuffering.
                The year was 2015. Barack Obama was nearing the end of his eight years of which we survived but Hillary was the odds on favorite to replace him....for maybe another eight years. Our candidates were good people....Ted Cruz and Ben Carson and others. It would be a bit of an uphill fight but we were motivated and even confident....but things happen in the course of history from which the entire direction of nations change course. This year would see one of those monumental adjustments.
                He had always been the most comical of tabloid celebrities. No one ever took him serious in anything....and with good reason. The other side laughed as he came down that escalator....the entire scene choreographed as if it were a professional wrestling event. People were paid to attend and join the festivities.
                All of our candidates were civil in their campaigns and debates.....but this new candidate roared like a lion. As in an Agatha Christie mystery....one by one the normal candidates fell by the wayside. Was this really happening we pondered? Cruz was the last.....and he was humiliated at the convention. Donald Trump was indeed going to be our candidate.
                I knew practically nothing of this man....did not like him....but being a long time political observer....I knew as the election drew near that he was actually going to win. I say this from observing my home state of Pennsylvania. I had never seen anything even close to what was happening....the only thing near it being Ronald Reagan.
               This man's whole life was nothing but one controversy after another. He didn't need a thick skin....in fact he didn't have a thick skin....for he thrived on people not liking him. He bragged on how he brought out rage....and how he used fear to control people. The majority of the Republican Party fell hook-line-and-sinker for his bravado and promises....but far worse than this....evangelicalism showed itself to be what in reality it was....vacant....lacking in the basics of the Christian Faith that it proclaimed....sitting ducks....easy marks.
                The man preached exactly the opposite of what Billy Graham and others had been telling the church....as he told us that we were one glorious nation under God....that was going to keep on....winning....winning....winning....and that our best days were yet ahead of us! It was now complete. Evangelicalism succumbed to a genuine biblical false prophet....and the judgments were to begin in earnest.
                The man stood on the podium in the House Chamber of the United States Capitol on February 4, 2020 at the annual State of the Union Address....and sounded like Nebuchadnezzar on top of his palace. We on our side of the aisle laughed and partied...."bring out the gold goblets of the temple"....we in as much as cheered....so that we could celebrate our looming certain victory in the next election....but God was already at work....the plague of a coronavirus was incubating....horror on every front would follow. There would be no victory. 
                The heir to Billy Graham in evangelicalism....not his son who has been badly mislead himself....but a man who was known for his discernment and defense of the gospel....faced his large congregation and said....(as I watched in amazement)...."There is no pandemic." We had denied God's judgment....and moved to destroy anyone who said anything else....and have been on one long hate-driven....bloodthirsty revenge binge since then.
                 A new gospel and a new Christianity evolved. The new gospel was not new other than no one any longer had to be born again....to vote MAGA was good enough. The new Christianity was hard....vindictive....power-driven....unforgiving....self-righteous. Apologetics in this new Christianity revolved around defending the Constitution....no longer the truths in God's Word. The doors of the churches had to be kept open....and it did not matter one iota what was preached inside.
                 Billy Graham was gone. Christian bookstores were gone. Our supply lines were in effect cut. MAGA had run us into the ground and stomped us with its jackboots....and we now preach Trump crucified. Christian nationalism replaced evangelizing. Magnanimity was for losers. We now sing a new song....Amazing Grace being replaced by Macho Man. 
             We may sheepishly look to God before the destroyer is done with us....but He in turn may first look at us....and tell us what He told Jeremiah to relate to the people...."But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah." (Jeremiah 2:28)