So today Franklin Graham is the default chief spokesman for the church in America....more accurately for evangelicalism in America. I do not believe for a moment that Billy Graham would have fallen for this false prophet in the White House. Yes....he voted for Trump in 2016....so did I. According to Franklin....Billy did not speak much at all in his last year....he died in February of 2018 and did not get to experience 1/100th the real Donld Trump. I can only imagine the visions that Billy might have had on where we were going....but it was too late for him to do any more to warn us than he had already done over so many decades.
There are other....'spokesmen'....out there....usually mega-popular authors such as Jonathan Cahn.....or Eric Metaxas....or Robert Jeffress. We have passed the day when we had a number of men who for good or maybe at times not that good....had a great influence upon the church. Pat Robertson was one....and I believe that by now....with all the horror that we have witnessed with Trump....he would be shouting a warning from the housetops....but his son also went the way of Franklin Graham.God had taken Tim Keller home....and He took R. C. Sproul home.....both of whom would be pleading with us now to return to trusting in God alone. David Wilkerson would be denouncing Trump as the false prophet that he is....and pointing to the demons all around him.
There are more names of men that are still with us. John MacArthur made the biggest mistake of his ministry when he endorsed Trump in 2020. I checked the website of his church only an hour ago....as I do every week at this time....to see if he will be in the pulpit this Lord's Day....for he announced a month ago that he is ready to come roaring back....but it will not be this week. Please pray for him....not only that God might restore him to his very visible pulpit....but that he has come to see that Trump is the very false prophet that he so effectively warned us about for almost a half century!
Alistair Begg was another minister who was often in the limelight. He made one mistake in judgment....and we in effect banished him. John MacArthur said at the time that he hated to see a man's ministry of so many years end in such a way. I thought at the time....'what....why is this man's effective ministry ended?' Alistair Begg is retiring from his pulpit....too young....but still has his ministry of Truth For Life. May God give him wisdom and courage to speak in the days ahead. It has been my opinion that the extraordinarily harsh reaction to Alistair Begg's mistake was politically motivated....(although none of these men realized it)....because it was the election year....and Trump had to be elected....and we needed to keep the pressure on for Christians to vote against the woke policies of Joe Biden....while the effect of Alistair Begg's great sin would dampen that political motivation.
That leaves John Piper....second only to MacArthur in his influence. I have added many of John Piper's sermons and conference talks to these posts over the years. I check his ministry....desiringgod.org....every day. He is a prodigious author and a few years ago published a monumental textbook tome titled....Providence....of which I gave as a gift to our son. I do not know what he is up to today. I hope and pray that it is not a health issue....but as wonderful as his writings have been....I hope that it is not another book....because right now.....we need from John Piper....his voice declaring the sovereignty God....on the airwaves....and in conference halls....and in a pulpit!
It seems as if God has taken these men away from us for a purpose....to let us fall away.....to go the way that we really want to go. Jonah warned Nineveh....and we today are as a Nineveh....and they as you know repented....for a time....and we from time to time....for a time....humbled ourselves....but God eventually sent Nahum to the same Nineveh....and there was no warning this time....only a declaration of impending judgment. It appears that is where we are today.
Nonetheless God is always there....and He is there for us today....however many of us finally humble ourselves....and He will restore us....not as a nation....but as a separated people....ready to give glory to God at the revelation of His Son....upon His return in righteous judgment!
