NOTES ON THE TERRIBLE IMPORTANCE OF HONESTY IN THE PULPIT: “THE JUDAS EFFECT” AND AMERICA’S BETRAYAL OF CHRIST – (WITH VIDEO)

THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “But above all, my believers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be [a truthful] yes, and your no be [a truthful] no, so that you may not fall under judgment.” – JAMES 5:12, AMP

KEY TERM: “SWEAR.” ‘Omnuó’ [ὀμνύετε]: “From a primitive root meaning, ‘To declare on an oath;’ to make a [solemn] promise; to affirm or threaten [with a pledge]; to call a person as a witness to invoke [a truth].” WEBSTER (1828): “To utter or affirm with a solemn appeal to God for the truth of the declaration.”

QUOTATION. “For so sworn good or evil an Oath may not be broken and it shall pursue Oathkeeper and Oathbreaker to the world’s end.” ― J.R.R. TOLKIEN, The Silmarillion, 1977; edited

COMMENTARY. “Impatience in times of trial is also manifested in ‘swearing.’ Here it is not a question of profanity, or cursing, primarily. Neither is it a matter of taking an Oath in a court of law. ‘The practice forbidden is the thoughtless use of the Lord’s Name or some other name to attest the truthfulness of one’s speech.’ The Christian should not have to swear by anyone or anything, either in Heaven or on Earth. Those who ‘Know Him’ should be able to depend on the fact that his ‘Yes’ means ‘Yes’ and his ‘No’ means “No.’” – WILLIAM MACDONALD, Believer’s Bible Commentary, 1995; edited

II. TEACHING

I’ll make this Introduction of what is to follow both brief and sharp. There is an horrifically ILLOGICAL CALCULUS that the American Church has somehow cobbled together that has destroyed her witness pretty much for perpetuity. Runs something like this (with homage due to my undergraduate philosopher professor, Dr. Virginia Ringer):

MAJOR PREMISE. God hates all lying (and all liars) but loves truth telling (and all truthtellers). – Proverbs 12:22: “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.”

MINOR PREMISE. Donald Trump is a Pathological Liar. (Washington Post fact-checkers documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, an average of about 21 per day; Jan. 4, 2021).

CONCLUSION. American Christians continue to vote for and support Donald Trump at a consistent rate of 82%. (Pew Research Center; Sep. 9, 2024).

Pastors, Teachers, Priests, Prelates and Evangelists. What do you have to say about this AMERICAN TRAVESTY, and how shall you explain it to Jesus at The Judgment of His Shepherds? For He shall surely inquire about it, having not placed Unconfessed Sin under His precious Blood (John 3:15-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9; James 3:1).

PREPARE. Therefore, for still another Upbraid from Yeshua ben David, that you might: (1) Redeem your ministry from catastrophic failure even at this late date; (2) Rescue countless misled, confused or wandering sheep under your care from Final Extinction, or worse: Hellfire.

AMY SHIVELY HAWK. I have the distinct pleasure of getting to know and talk with the author of a truly exceptional little book, The Judas Effect: How Evangelicals Betrayed Jesus for Power (2024). In 153 pages of meticulously documented erudition, this young and keenly intelligent writer skewers the Trump Christian Nationalist Seduction of White Evangelical Christianity with Love and a straight up Realism in which I frankly revel.

I will start with a bit of Biographical Background of her fascinating story, then move to several of her Major Points and Arguments Re: The Spiritual Betrayal of Jesus Christ in the American Church. Finally, then to her forensic like Deconstruction all its Major Falsehoods.

NOTE. All that follows is taken from her Book and official Website (edited). Keep in mind as you read or view this: ‘We are All Amy Hawk, beloved, every single one of us.’

BACKGROUND. “In 2016, Amy Hawk was a hyper-patriotic, Jesus-loving, White, Evangelical, Church-attending, and ministry-leading wife and mom living in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. She came into the election determined to vote Republican, but when she saw the video of Donald Trump mocking a disabled journalist, she hurled herself off the Trump train and never looked back. Shunned by some in her conservative evangelical community, her world was shattered and her faith tested as she was forced to reevaluate the Christian institutions she devoted her life to. Disoriented and confused by the Church’s embrace of a man who is the Antithesis of Jesus, Hawk turned to the Scriptures for answers. Part Bible study and part personal faith journey, ‘The Judas Effect’ is about the selling out of Christian values for political gain. It’s about how, buoyed by Trumpism, the message ringing from Church bells across America has morphed from “Goodwill toward men’ to “It’s us against them.”

JUDAS ISCARIOT. “Judas Iscariot was a follower of Jesus. He walked with Him. He talked with Him. He ate with Him. Presumably, he participated with Him in sharing the Good News. He did everything a good follower of Jesus is supposed to do. But somewhere along the way his heart was tempted to go Off Mission. He became greedy for gain. It doesn’t matter whether he wanted money or political power. ‘Neither is promised to the follower of Christ’” (p. xi).

INTRODUCTION. “It has always been my contention that, ultimately: ‘Telling the Truth is the most important thing the Evangelical Church can do.’ I mean, we are out here trying to convince the world that we know the Way to God. They aren’t going to go anywhere near us, let alone follow us, if we have one foot on the Road of Truth and the other on the Road of Lies. The Truth is that the world watched in horror while the Church made a Spiritual Alliance with a fraudulent Con Artist and Abuser. Yes, I said ‘Spiritual.’ It wasn’t just a Political Alliance” (p. xv).

CAVEAT EMPTOR. “The Characteristics Donald Trump is Most Known For Include (Found in Psalm 10 and Proverbs 6): Narcissism; Arrogance; Puffed-up Pride; Boastfulness; Superiority; Contempt Toward Perceived Enemies; Paranoia; Insatiable Hunger to Win; Mouth Full of Curses and Lies; Harmful Words; Mocking Gestures; Divisiveness; Violence-Provoking; and Refusal to Be Held Accountable” (p. 1).

TRUMP HAPPENS. “The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Sixteen unfolded like a scroll delivered from the fiery pit of a chaotic, unrelenting, inexplicable Hell. Amidst a barrage of Twitter assaults from the New Leader of the Free World, I lost sleep, cried for three days, had nightmares, my eyelashes fell out, and I woke up in the night furious at God. The President’s gaslighting took a psychological toll that left me alternately despairing and enraged … I screamed so loud at the TV I scared the dog …Until the Election I thought I knew what we all stood for. Kindness, Integrity, and Truth were Virtues I could get behind and advertise to the world with confidence … But ‘The Celebration of Donald Trump’ was the nail in the coffin that dashed those hopes forever” (p. 8).

FALSE MESSIAH. “‘I’m the only one!’ Donald Trump announced from a stage during a 2016 campaign rally in Pennsylvania-and my Spidey senses went into overdrive. There were lots of reasons already to not like the guy, but hey, I was a traditional Republican with traditional views. I could overlook some bad qualities as long as our candidate delivered on his conservative promises. This particular pronouncement-just a slight variation on the claim Christ made about Himself-was probably my first big red flag that something was wrong. And when I say red flag, it was more like every red flag, alarm bell, and whistle went off in my spirit at once … No, sir. Nope. I shook my head and tried to explain to him through the television, ‘There is only One Lord and One Savior, sir. And you are not Him!’” (p. 12).

NEVER BOW TO A BULLY. “One of my favorite things about my early experience in the Evangelical world was that they seemingly took a hard stand against Bullying. Pharoah was a bully, and God was against him. Nebuchadnezzar, Judas, and Saul were all deemed bullies whose ugly behavior was condemned … Evangelicals’ sudden Laissez-Faire attitude about bullying made [my husband] Steve and me feel like we were living in the Upside-Down World. ‘People defend bullies either because they are afraid of them outright, or they don’t want to lose the position of power that maintaining a friendship affords them.’ It seemed to us that many in the Evangelical world wanted power more than they wanted to accurately represent Christ” (p. 25).

EVERYTHING IS UNCOVERED. “One role of the follower of Jesus is to shine a light in the darkness and bring what is hidden out into the light. Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil, and we are called to follow suit, but we cannot expose what we refuse to acknowledge or what we are afraid to call out just because a person is an authority figure. ‘Evil is evil … Bullying is evil. Mocking people is evil. White Nationalism is evil. Sexual assault, and the glossing over it, is evil.’ God is not glorified when abuse and/or bad decisions are covered up by pulling the ‘Governing Authority’ card.No leader-poitical, religious, academic, business, or otherwise-is above scrutiny and correction” (pp. 29-30).

TEST THE SPIRITS. “‘Not every leader is chosen by God!’ If they were, the Bible would not issue so many warnings about ‘False Leaders.’ Proverbs 25:5 says, ‘Remove the wicked one from leadership and authority will be credible and God-honoring.’ The longer Donald Trump went on promoting Conspiracy Theories, calling for violence, and labeling anyone who criticized him ‘Fake News,’ the more concerning it became that our fellow Evangelicals were backing him. Much of the Church was besotted by his conservative promises, which desperately tumbled forth from his mouth in an attempt to cater to the Religious Right. Those Bewitching Promises’ were so bright and attractive, they blinded [many] Evangelicals from following standard Biblical protocol for weighing a leader, which is to ‘Test the spirits’” (p. 49).

TRUMP & HITLER. [Based on her Review of: Dr. Robert G.L. Waite’s book, The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, 1993 and Michael Kranish & Marc Fisher’s Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money and Power, 2016, Hawk drew the following gutsy ‘Parellels between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler’ in the following compelling comparison of their detailed characteristics and methods]. Boastful Arrogance. Charisma. Cruelty and Violence. Duplicity. Authoritarian FathersF. Fear Mongering. Absence of Friendships. Hyperbolic Speech. Lies. Intellectual Vapidity. Obsession with Loyalty. Messiah Complex. Racism. Adulatory Rallies. Patriotism. Absence of Sense of Humor. Sexual Perversion/Misogyny. Wealth. False Leadership” (pp. 49-74).

THE CONTAMINATED GOSPEL. “The Gospel of Jesus is pure and holy and lovely and eternal. It is the Good News of God’s Kingdom coming to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ, to love and embrace the poor, the downcast, the brokenhearted, and the oppressed … But we can be fishers of men only if we are preaching a Pure Gospel. ‘Be very careful. Keep a sharp eye out for the contaminating yeast of Pharisees and the followers of Herod.’ According to Jesus, the Gospel can be contaminated by at least Two Common Attitudes, which can spread throughout the Church and ruin the whole batch of dough. Some of the Pharisees were ‘Judgmental and Hypocritical.’ Their religious instruction was heavy on control and rules and legalism and hoop jumping, and had a convenient way of overlooking the log in its own eyes while barring entrance to God’s Kingdom for others … The other contamination Jesus warns of is the ‘Yeast of Herod,’ which is a ‘political yeast’ … Herod whispers, ‘Come follow me, and I will make you … as powerful as I am’” (p. 81).

JANUARY 6, 2021. “Although he lost by more than seven million votes, Trump spent weeks whipping up his followers into a frenzy with State and Federal Allegations of Election Fraud. Never mind that both State and federal courts had thrown out nearly four dozen Trump lawsuits attempting upend the results. ‘Big protest in DC on January 6^th. Be there, will be wild!’ Trump had promised them. And it was. At his behest, a crowd of thousands gathered to join their leader in protest of the election results. Their protest included smashing windows, spreading feces and urine in the corridors of the Capitol Building, destroying statues and historical relics, threatening to hang Mike Pence (for telling the truth by certifying the election results), and killing five people while injuring hundreds more. Trump stood at the Ellipse, behind the White House, and delivered the speech that earned him a second Impeachment, this time for “Incitement of Insurrection” (p. 93).

CHOOSE LIFE. “Telling people I’m Pro-Life gives me a shot of adrenaline. I don’t deny it. It makes me feel holy and, dare I say, just a tiny bit self-righteous, to be a protector of the innocent … I didn’t figure it out, until 2016, that I was using my Pro-Life stance as my personal beacon of morality, without bothering to dig into other important issues that are also a matter of life and death. Like the number of refugees who will live or die based on our country’s current policy. Or how many DACA recipients may be put into unsafe, life-or-death situation if forced to leave the United States. Wearing a mask in the middle of a global pandemic is a Pro-Life issue. ‘Either you care about other people’s lives or you don’t.’ Fighting for health care for people who need it, and for relief bills that will feed hungry children, and for common sense gun laws, are Pro-Life” (p. 102).

LUSTING FOR POWER. “If God used Trump for anything, it was to show us what we look like to the rest of the world. God held up a mirror to the Church, and Donald Trump looked back. God brought into the light what we needed to see about ourselves. I’m grateful … An unbridled lust for cultural, political, or religious dominance means we have fallen under the wrong spirit. It’s a scheme of the Enemy as old as The Garden. He promises control, he promises power, he promises us a win in the ‘Culture Wars’-and then he convinces us that God wants us to have it. If the Enemy can make us obsesses with having power, he will have achieved his goal of throwing us Off Mission. ‘God promises us none of these things,’ because none of these things is necessary for our earthly assignment, which is simply to reconcile the world to a loving God by showing sacrificial love” (p. 114).

WISDOM FROM HELL. “The Premier way that Hell’s Wisdom causes Chaos is by the ‘Proliferation of Lies.’ One of the most unfortunate consequences of Trump’s presidency as the continual flood of Lies and Conspiracy Theories that flowed like toxic waste from his mouth (or Twitter account) to the media outlets that pushed them, to, most unfortunate of all, many in the Church who picked them up and passed them along … Another sign that someone is getting their wisdom from Hell is the constant sowing of division and hate. Trump regularly appealed only to his base by insulting the rest of the country, thus giving his supporters permission to call them, among other names, ‘Weak,’ ‘Disgraceful,’ ‘Human Scum.’ Trump’s Spirit of Disunity most assuredly doesn’t come from spending time listening to God” (pp. 121-122).

BE ZEALOUS AND REPENT! Repentance-what a wonderful concept. It literally means ‘To change one’s mind.’ And the Promise attached to Repentance is even more extraordinary-a ‘Time of Refreshing’ will come. Some call that a time of refreshing ‘Revival.’ I’ve been fascinated with the Idea of Revival for about ten years now-ever since God physically healed me. The whole idea that He could burst into our lives at any moment-that He could show up in our lives with His Goodness and Life and all kinds of healing Power-it floors me … With the casting down of idols and Return to God’s actual presence and power, we really can be a Light to the World. We are never going to agree on every issue, but we can agree, in our relationships with one another, to ‘have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,’ which is to choose humility, tenderness, and compassion. As His disciples, we will never go wrong if we do this … Let us eschew affiliation as ‘Red’ or ‘Blue,’ as we seek to simply be affiliated with Christ. Let us be the Peacemakers whose aim is not to ‘Rule the land’ but to sow to peace. In this way we will resemble the Lord we serve and make His Joy complete” (p. 141).

EPILOGUE. “Twenty-three years ago, with a glad and trusting heart, I let the White American Evangelical Church take me by the hand and lead me around. We covered a lot of Sacred Ground. She led me to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been the greatest gift I’ve ever received, and is the guiding force of truth through which everything else in my life must be measured. I could not possibly be more grateful for this gift … ‘[Much later] I let the Evangelical Church lead me until she took me to a place I couldn’t follow. My heart was devastated in the letting go.’ I had to say goodbye to a Church community I loved, a pastor I adored, and another pastor I thought of as a spiritual father. It was an agonizing and disorienting time. I lost friends; some I had been friends with for over twenty years. I didn’t fault them. I’d run with the Evangelical pack for so long, and now I was going against the grain. Every element of instruction I received while under Evangelical tutelage was put under a microscope and inspected. My Faith itself underwent a Great Shaking, and many of my long-held beliefs fell away. You know what though? ‘Jesus held!’” (pp. 136-142).

III. LAST THOUGHTS

WAKING UP. Amy and I disagree somewhat on whether or not a Great Revival will take place in America in these Last Days just before the Return of the Messiah to Rescue His True Church, and then Judge the Nations. She longs and believes and prays for it, but I do not.

But perhaps we are both right.

What happened to Amy Hawk and Cliff Kelly and countless numbers of you all in this Fellowship is what I shall comfortably refer to as: “AN AWAKENING!” Prior to the First Advent of Donald Trump in 2016, most of us were Conservative Christian Republicans. We all had taken in the same False Teachings of all three of those Schools of Thought that they were Isomorphic to Biblical Christianity.

And then: ‘Voilà!’

Our own Journey of Reexamination of The American Gospel over the years led us Back Home to Orthodoxy, and we became Free of the Deceptions. And we began to have New Eyes to discern the Devastating Lies we had been fed all our lives. Very much like Ms. Hawk, we shall remain eternally grateful for all the pain and loss and reconstruction of our Christian Heart and Mind for it.

THE PRAYER. Lord God of Hosts, I pray that all those who remain deluded by the False Messiah Donald Trump, would lay down their presumptions at Your Throne of Grace, and be thereby delivered from it all. From it all! In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, the only King of the World that is now and shall ever be. To then go and serve only You in whatever path you have set for them. Amen.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/DiuYCDBe46c