The Best And The Brightest

                    Billy Graham's ministry to the world lasted for seven decades. The first few may have been wonderful in the crusades that were everywhere....but Billy himself....according to his own testimony later....had a lot to learn. He even wondered later in life if early on he presented the need for salvation seriously enough....and he regretted his mistakes made in his involvement in politics. He was on fire the last few decades in warning everyone of the nearness of the return of Jesus and of the coming judgment to America....but the time came....nearing a hundred years old....when he could do little. His son said that he hardly said anything in his last year. This was 2017....and Trump was not one 1/100....not one 1/1000 as dangerous as he is today....but did Billy as he lay there know that something was seriously wrong with where the church was going? I would imagine that he did. He went to be with his glorious Lord whom he served so faithfully on February 21, 2018. His son Franklin apparently learned nothing from his father's mistakes in politics.
                    R. C. Sproul....a Pittsburgher....was one of God's greatest gifts to the church. I supported his ministry for over thirty years now....and received the latest Tabletalk only two days ago. I love even the memory of him and am so thankful to God for this man's ministry....but he made a mistake in early 2017....as the 500 year anniversary was nearing of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. His annual Ligonier conference was to address and celebrate the Reformation.....but the title that was chosen was....The Next 500 Years. Was there no one on the board at Ligonier to speak up and say that this was not a wise conference title....for it belittled the imminence of the return of our Lord and Savior and King? R. C. died unexpectantly later in 2017....and is now with his Lord and Savior!
                    John MacArthur made the biggest mistake. Here is a man who was probably the strongest defender of the gospel in the entire world....who I also thank God for the blessing of his ministry. No one more than he warned more powerfully against false prophets....but he received a phone call....probably a surprise phone call....on a Lord's Day afternoon in August of 2020 from a false prophet in Donald Trump. The pandemic had altered Pastor John's discernment as the government tried to close the doors....temporarily....on his 6,000 member church. He told Trump that all true believers would support his candidacy....which in effect said that John Piper and millions of other true believers....were not true believers. He went on to say before his congregation....I watched this with my own eyes....that there was no pandemic. I do not know if he ever apologized for that or clarified his remarks. He sued California for closing his doors and received a lot of money. His lawyer was a Trump lawyer who later was under indictments concerning the 2020 election. John MacArthur had entered Trump's orbit and suffered because of it. This whole covid episode was not wise. MacArthur though was one of the very few....to decry from the pulpit on Trump's comments that he would go to heaven if he was good. John MacArthur took ill on January 1, 2023....and went to be with the Lord who he faithfully served....this past July 14.
                    Another minister of international renown....Alistair Begg....made a mistake on the air on his radio ministry. He knew what his answer to a question was going to be....this question from the letter from a listener....so he should have had enough discernment not to answer that question on the air....but he did....and John MacArthur came down hard on him....too hard. Why? Everyone came down on him too hard. This was early 2024....politics and the election....that we now put all of our trust in....was only months away....and we were not going to let any minister get away with a soft answer on LGBTQ! So Alistair Begg eventually retired....way too early....and we are less one more man of good repute in a pulpit that might potentially stand in the gap against what is going on in the church.
                    Pat Robertson had made some unwise statements over the years....but I thank God for his ministry also....as I was a supporter of the 700 Club....for years. Pat's time for shouting from the rooftops....the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ....came to an end in July of 2023....as he also was called home by the Father. Pat had a discernment and a passion for souls that was greater than his doctrinal knowledge. He strongly supported Trump at the beginning....but later saw that there were big problems....and said that Trump....after the January 6, 2021 failed insurrection....was living in an...."alternate reality."
                     David Wilkerson was a modern day Puritan Pentecostal evangelist....odd as that may sound. I'll give you an interesting anecdote. Wilkerson had attended a concert of the biggest Christian musical artist of the day.....to see what this was all about. According to David....the singer's husband played the guitar and with a rose in his mouth. I was at one of this singer's concerts at the time....and her husband did indeed play his guitar with a rose in his mouth. Wilkerson said that he could see demons on the stage....and he ran up the aisle shouting....."Ichabod....the glory has departed!" That was David Wilkerson! I am fully confident in saying that had David Wilkerson lived.....(he died suddenly in 2011)....he would not for one minute have fallen under the sway of the false prophet Donald Trump.
                    God has taken home just about all of the men....(there are one or two left....somewhere).....who have the gravitas and national prominence to say something that the media will pick up on....and the nation's evangelicals will at least listen to. In other words....we have no spokesman left who are willing to stand in the gap....defend the gospel of Jesus Christ....and tell the church that they are depending upon their own might and power....and through a boastful and corrupt and vile man and false prophet at that.
                    There is not a man that I mentioned here....who does not leave me in the dust as to faithfulness or fruit for the kingdom. One the one hand I have no right to be critical. Proverbial speaking it would take me an eternity to even get to meet them in heaven....but on the other hand....no man is greater than his calling.....and if there is anything that we should learn today it is that even good men have to be careful when they become too successful. These type of men need to know this....so that they can examine themselves every day....and plead to God that they never think that God's needs their ministry.
                      

Addendum: There is a Reformed pastor who has been in the news a lot lately....Doug Wilson....out of Idaho. The secular news will describe him as someone who was relatively unknown until lately....but in evangelicalism....he has been very well known for many decades. He has started an association of churches across America....among other things. Hegseth is a member of one of those churches. One might say that this then would be the voice that is missing. Wilson has appeared many times on the same dais as Sproul and Piper and others. When we had a Reformed Christian bookstore....twenty-five years ago....I had two of Doug Wilson's books on the shelf. In fact I still have a copy of both of them in my basement. He said recently....that I heard recently anyway...that his plans will take hundreds of years to see their fruition. This that he presents is Christian nationalism....almost at its worst. This is not the voice that I wrote about above.