On August 3, 2024

NOTES ON THE OBJECT OF OUR HOPE: AMERICA’S DESPERATE SEARCH FOR A HUMAN MESSIAH – (WITH VIDEO)

I. THE THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “No king is saved by the great size and power of his army; a mighty man is not delivered by [his] much strength. A horse is devoid of value for victory; neither does he deliver any by his great power. Behold, the Lord’s eye is upon those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe], who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and loving-kindnessto deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. Our inner selves wait [earnestly] for the Lord; ‘He is our Help and our Shield.’

For in Him does our heart rejoice, because we have trusted (relied on and been confident) in His holy name. Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You.” – PSALM 33:16-21, AMP

KEY TERMS:

“HELP.” ‘Ezer’ [עֶזְרֵ֖נוּ]: “From a primitive root meaning, ‘To surround, protect or aid;’ to succour, literally, or run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want or distress; ‘to assist and deliver from suffering;’ as, to surround and rescue a besieged city; that which brings relief [from some perilous condition].”

“SHIELD.” ‘Magen’ [וּמָגִנֵּ֣נוּ]: “‘A buckler’ (a kind of shield, or piece of defensive armor, anciently used in war; composed of wood, or wickers woven together, covered with skin or leather, fortified with plates of brass or other metal, and worn on the left arm. Verb transitive: ‘To cover from danger; to defend; to protect; to secure form assault or injury.’”

QUOTATION. “‘Jesus never concealed the fact that His Religion included a Demand as well as an Offer.’ Indeed, the Demand was as total as the Offer was free. If He offered men his Salvation, he also demanded their Submission. He gave no encouragement whatever to thoughtless applicants for discipleship. He brought no pressure to bear on any inquirer. He sent irresponsible enthusiasts away empty …

‘The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish.’ For [multitudes] of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow Him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so.

The result is the great Scandal of Christendom today, so called ‘Nominal Christianity.’ In countries to which Christian Civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent, but thin, ‘veneer of Christianity.’ They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved, enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable. Their religion is a great, soft cushion. It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life, while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience. No wonder the cynics speak of Hypocrites in the Church and dismiss Religion as Escapism …

‘The Message of Jesus was very different.’ He never lowered His Standards or modified His conditions to make His call more readily acceptable. He asked His first disciples, and He has asked every disciple since, to give him their thoughtful and TOTAL COMMITMENT. Nothing less than this will do.” ― JOHN R.W. STOTT, Basic Christianity, 1958; edited

COMMENTARY. “All the motions and operations of the souls of men, which no mortals know but themselves, God knows better than they do.’ Their hearts, as well as their times, are all in His Hand; He formed the spirit of each man within him. All the powers of the creature depend upon Him, and are of no account, of no avail at all, without Him. ‘If we make God’s Favour sure towards us, then we need not fear whatever is against us.’ We are to give to Him the glory of His special grace. All human devices for the salvation of our souls are vain; but the Lord’s watchful Eye is over those whose conscientious fear of His name proceeds from a believing hope in His mercy.

‘In difficulties they shall be helped; in dangers they shall not receive any real damage.’ Those that fear God and His Wrath, must hope in God and His Mercy; for there is no flying from Him, but by flying to Him. ‘Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us;’ let us always have the comfort and benefit, not according to our merits, but according to The Promise which Thou hast in Thy Word given to us, and according to the Faith thou hast by Thy Spirit and Grace wrought in us.” – MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

II. THE TEACHING

‘Oh, foolish Americans!’ This slightly transliterated rebuke from the frustrated and angry APOSTLE PAUL to the Church at Galatia reveals much about the current condition in our churches today.

“O you poor and silly and thoughtless and unreflecting and senseless Galatians! ‘Who has fascinated or bewitched or cast a spell over you,’ unto whom—right before your very eyes—Jesus Christ (the Messiah) was openly and graphically set forth and portrayed as crucified?” – GALATIANS 3:1, AMPC

Paul incisively points out – in public! – their primary transgression with the use of the term, “BEWTICHED:” ‘Baskainó’ [ἐβάσκανεν]: Appearing only once in the entire Scripture, it means: “‘To malign or fascinate [captivate or enchant];’ lit., to cast an evil spell upon; i.e., to exercise malevolent (or diabolical) power over someone; ‘appealing to someone’s vanity and selfishness;’ to blight by the evil eye.”

DONALD TRUMP AND CHURCH DECLINE. After nearly 40 years of steady, virtually unbroken church attendance, I no longer attend church. And I am not alone in that tragic circumstance.

I have come to believe that the greatest crisis in American Church history is taking place right in front of us, but precious few Church leaders will recognize and give voice to it: SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS.

For a closeup view of this historic ‘Dégringolade,’ or this “Rapid decline or deterioration in the condition of Church and State [in America],” I turn to a Bloomberg essay by FRANCIS WILKINSON. An opinion columnist covering US politics and policy, he was previously executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone. His article is titled, pointedly: “Trumpism is Emptying Churches” (April 7, 2024; edited).

Here is my BULLET POINT REVIEW of his ideas.

THE TRUMP ANOMALY. ‘Donald Trump, a 77-year-old Bible salesman from Palm Beach, Florida, has emerged as the nation’s most prominent ‘Christian’ leader.’ Trump is running for president as a Divinely Chosen Champion of White Christians, promising to sanctify their grievances, destroy their perceived enemies, bolster their social status, and grant them the power to impose an anti-feminist, anti-LGBTQ, White-centric Christian Nationalism from coast to coast. That Trump doesn’t attend Church and has obviously never read The Book that he hawks for $59.99, seems of interest exclusively to his political opponents.”

THE TRUMP IMPACT. What might catch the attention of some Evangelical Conservatives, however, is that ‘Trump’s ostentatious embrace of White Christian Militantism coincides with a precipitous Decline in religious affiliation in the US.’ According to the Public Religion Research Institute, one quarter of Americans in 2023 said they were religiously unaffiliated. ‘Unaffiliated’ [or ‘Nones’] is the only religious category experiencing growth. In a single decade, ‘from 2013 to 2023, the percentage of Americans saying that religion is the most important thing, or among the most important things, in their life plummeted to 53% from 72%.’”

JOHN WAYNE CHRISTIANITY. That so many White Christian conservatives swoon to Trump’s invective and false witness is not all that perplexing. ‘Evangelicals hadn’t betrayed their values’ in backing Trump, writes historian KRISTIN KOBES DU MEZ in her 2020 book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. Their support, she writes, is ‘the culmination of their half-century-long pursuit of a militant Christian masculinity that disdains Pluralism and valorizes Masculine Aggression.’”

DK NOTE. What Dr. Du Mez is more than hinting at that most American Christians and New Trump Conservatives furiously deny or reinterpret is that ‘America was won by Violence:’ First, toward the British Crown; Second, toward the indigenous Native Peoples; Third, through military conquest of half the territory of Mexico out West; Last, all while enslaving the entire Black race for 250 years. We call it by several names: ‘Principled Revolution; Manifest Destiny; the American Dream. American Exceptionalism.

INTENSIFYING SYNCRETISM. “As Christian Militancy and Trumpism merge, it’s getting harder to distinguish between them. ‘We see Conservative or Republican Americans becoming more likely to identify as Evangelical Christians, not because they’ve had a conversion experience, but because those identities (‘Conservative, Republican and Evangelical or Traditional Catholic) are becoming aligned,’ said SAMUEL PERRY, a political scientist at Oklahoma University and co-author of books on conservative American Christianity.”

POWER AND XENOPHOBIA. “‘The MAGA-Christian Merger has produced a gusher of political power,’ directing State force against disfavored minorities, such as migrants and LGBTQ children and adults, and forging a US Supreme Court Majority that routinely imposes narrow Racial and Religious Values on a Pluralistic Nation. It’s less clear what Christianity has gotten from the deal. ‘Younger, left-leaning, or moderate Americans who might have formerly identified as “Christians” in decades past are growing up in a world where the most famous representative of conservative Christian values is Donald Trump. They’re saying, “No thanks,” Perry said.”

NO TURNING BACK. “Few who flee Church are clamoring to get back in. ‘The vast majority of the Religiously Unaffiliated appear content to stay that way,’ said ROBERT JONES, president and founder of PRRI, pointing out that ‘only 9% of the religiously unaffiliated say they are seeking a religion that’s right for them.’ ‘My hunch,’ he said, ‘is that if there is a ‘TRUMP EFFECT’ to these dynamics, his takeover of the Republican Party and Conservative White Christian politics has been confirming to many who left that they made the right decision.”

AMERICAN HUBRIS. “It has long been debated whether Americans would ultimately follow Europe’s example in abandoning organized religion or whether American Exceptionalism, especially its ‘Exceptional Conservatism,’ would keep new generations in the pews. Conservatives warned of the terrible toll Europeanization would take on the Nation’s Soul. The problems for Christian Conservatives turned out to be closer to home: ‘A biting hunger to impose their will, and fealty to a ridiculous huckster promising salvation in installments of $59.99.’”

III. A NATION ADRIFT

Without any question whatsoever, America and her Church have ‘willingly’ become “Bewitched” by nothing less poisonous than The Spirit of Antichrist. Indeed, NOAH WEBSTER (1828) renders what has occurred to us as having become “charmed, captivated to such a degree as to take away our power of resistance.”

Picture a ‘Great Darkness’ over the entire nation, beloved, obscuring all our ability for a desperately needed Re-Clarification of our simple ability to differentiate between Right and Wrong, True and False, Good and Evil. It feels to me very much like it is gone forever.

Thus, America now stands on the inevitable THRESHOLD OF REELECTING THE BEAST to rule over her on November 5, 2024. A transgression so vile that God must rain down Fiery Judgment upon us shortly following his reinstallation in the White House on January 20, 2025.

THE GREAT DELUSION. “Now in regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to meet Him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly unsettled or alarmed either by a [so-called prophetic revelation of a] spirit or a message or a letter [alleged to be] from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has [already] come.

‘Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first [that is, the great rebellion, the abandonment of the faith by professed Christians], and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed],’ who opposes and exalts himself [so proudly and so insolently] above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he [actually enters and] takes his seat in the temple of God, publicly proclaiming that he himself is God …

‘For the mystery of lawlessness [rebellion against divine authority and the coming reign of lawlessness] is already at work; [but it is restrained] only until He who now restrains it is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one [the Antichrist] will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by the appearance of His coming.’ The coming of the [Antichrist, the lawless] one is through the activity of Satan, [attended] with great power [all kinds of counterfeit miracles] and [deceptive] signs and false wonders [all of them lies], and by unlimited seduction to evil and with all the deception of wickedness for those who are perishing, because they did not welcome the love of the truth [of the gospel] so as to be saved [they were spiritually blind, and rejected the truth that would have saved them].

‘Because of this God will send upon them a misleading influence, [an activity of error and deception] so they will believe the lie,in order that all may be judged and condemned [to those] who did not believe the truth [about their sin,’ and the need for salvation through Christ], but instead took pleasure in unrighteousness.’” – 2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-4, 7-12, AMP

THREE POINTS. There are obviously mountains of Theology and Eschatology here, but let me narrow our focus upon Three Key ideas that Instruct us for the very Present Hour.

DO NOT BE DECEIVED! The Greek term used by Paul here is, in the Greek, ‘Exapataó’ [ἐξαπατήσῃ], suggesting “Expatriation.” Therefore, “To seduce, beguile wholly; to become thoroughly ‘hoodwinked’ and thereby become a slave of Satan; i.e., ‘to delude into an illusion,’ emphasizes the end-impact of deception – i.e. missing true reality because “biting on the bait that brings the hook!
THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS REVEALED. The cause of much misunderstanding and needless controversy, the context and order of thought does not require the Rapture before the Antichrist is revealed, but only to those who refused to be deceived, and chose to believe the truth and reject unrighteousness. The Greek word used here is, ‘Apokaluptó’ [ἀποκαλυφθῇ]: ‘To take off the cover and disclose to those who are obedient.’ The rest of the world will be shown the Antichrist’s identity after the true, Remnant Church is “taken out of the way.” But by then, tragically, it will be too late to escape the Great Tribulation (cf. Matthew 24:21; Luke 21:36).
GOD SENDS THE DELUSION! Having had enough of the Rebellion among His own House and the shepherds, He “sends upon them a misleading influence” to all those “Christians” who thought they were in the right but had rejected the obvious truths about Antichrist and the Real Christ. In the Greek, He permitted their desire to be fulfilled “To wander endlessly into fraudulence, error and false doctrines” [‘plané,’ πλάνης].

DOCTRINES! Beloved, if you have wondered why I elevate Doctrine over every other idea or Christian virtue is because how we treat it will literally determine our Final Destination in the next life: Eternal Life or Eternal Condemnation. The Word in the Greek is, ‘Krinó’ [κριθῶσιν], translated literally as, “The Teachings of Jesus the Christ!”

He has said it so clearly to an American Church gone deaf and blind:

“The person who has My commandments and KEEPS them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really]

loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him [I will make Myself real to him].” – JOHN 14:21, AMP

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

I have been over this ground numerous times, of severe necessity, but here it is one more (likely not my last) time: All those who call themselves Christian who follow after DONALD TRUMP and His seditious, blasphemous Christian Nationalism Movement, who no fewer than 45 Theological Markers that identify him as The Antichrist, the Man of Sin, the Lawless One, ‘shall perish.’

As in be consigned to Perdition, Hellfire, for all Eternity.

This is what the Biblical Canon clearly and unequivocally teaches, and I dare not change it. Therefore, if you are reading this as a Christian supporting Mr. Trump, I say it still again: “Flee Babylon!” Take no further thought of it since he is about to seize total control over the Federal Government and more before his violent, Seven-Year Dictatorship is completed.

We must begin by a fervent and sincere Repentance, ‘toward Life!’ That you be enabled to rejoin the True Church and be lifted to the clouds at His Coming. ‘Or refuse, and Die.’

This Momentous Choice is entirely yours, my friends. Selah, Selah.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/rw04_XulIms