I have observed a lot of political situations in fifty-five years of closely following politics.....beginning in earnest with Bobby Kennedy's 1968 campaign. Every one of them could neatly fit in a political science textbook....but not this one....not Donald Trump.
It is said that Nixon's comeback was extraordinary in that not only did he lose to JFK in 1960....(as a ten year old....I remember that night)....but he lost his race for governor of California in 1962....out of which came Nixon's famous statement to the press...."You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because gentlemen, this is my last press conference."....but the extent of that comeback was not 1% of Trump's comeback....nor 1% of the importance of what has transpired with Trump....nor were Nixon's crimes and miscues and arrogance 1% of those of Donald Trump.
I have written this a number of times over the past few years....this is not politics with Trump....I should be more specific and say that it is not primarily politics....it is spiritual....and it is not only of biblical proportions in importance....but it is biblical in prophetic end-times importance.
Take yesterday's commencement at the University of Alabama for instance. This is the heart of the Bible Belt. Probably most of those students were evangelical....Southern Baptist....church going young people at least as they were raised....yet they wildly accepted a man who is the antithesis of everything they would have learned in their Sunday School classes. He told them that they were the first graduating class in the....Golden Age of America....and they believed and rejoiced in it. No remark of his was more telling to what has happened to America than when he said...."They all hated me in my first term....and now they are all kissing my....(posterior.) Something like this is an everyday occurrence....and has been for ten years now.
We in evangelicalism are totally convinced that what happened in Butler Pennsylvania was God's full endorsement of Trump. It was not. Jonathan Cahn....the most influential Christian author of this decade....according to his mistaken view of God's Word....has 'unlocked ancient mysteries'....to prove to us how God is using Trump as a modern day Jehu. Franklin Graham....maybe the most recognizable name in evangelicalism....is the poster boy of Donald Trump's supporters....and what is even more striking.....John MacArthur....the minister who more than anyone else over the past half century has defended God's Word....particularly against false prophets....missed this false prophet....so far.
I am in the middle of a book right now....it is going real slow because the miscalculations and misinterpretations in it are so great....that I need breaks often to get through it....where a number of evangelicalism's most biblically sound ministers are dragged over the coals because they would not support Trump. As I read through this book....a few chapters last night before it became too sad to read....every chapter is politics under the guise of Christianity. The men the author was taking to task....were defending God's Word....and the men who were on Trump's side....were defending the constitution....and they were not even correct all the time there.
No....this is spiritual battle in the headlines all across America. There is a power that is at work here....and that power is not of God. When evangelicals watch television news....it is Fox....or one of the smaller Trump networks. They are hooked on talk radio. I should know what that is all about because I was hooked on talked radio for a half century. They listen to their favorite podcasters. They go to Breitbart. They only read....as Jehovah Witnesses only read....material that the leadership tells them is the truth....everything else is fake news..
So as I observe all of this....it is more than daunting in that Trump has amassed strong and unconditional support in all of the areas of our lives that influence us. He is truly winning on this level....and right now seemingly unstoppable....as he is in control of the lawmakers and the law enforcement....and is gaining control everywhere else from news to entertainment. If anyone in government so much as questions anything....they will indeed be purged. Pastors won't protect their sheep....and republicans in congress let him do whatever he wants. The only thing close to what is happening is what happened in the mid-1930s in Germany....when churches fell for the hype of making Germany great again.
Nothing in the above is really new from what I have posted in the past....but this is new....my challenge to you....to be an evangelical....and to know that we are not to put our trust in princes and armies and our own power....you are going to be a very distinct minority!
