No King But Jesus

It is important that we walk through this life with a knowledge of what it means to be a Christian, to
exhibit the character of the Lord as we go about our daily lives. Jesus taught in John 15:
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

The fabric of our lives as believers in Christ is not to be determined by what we read on the Internet, the reporting of the media, which seems to be intent on defining what a good Christian should be, or by our own human understanding.   We recognize the call of God on our lives; and realize that we have been loved by Him, filled with His nature, and directed to go out and engage in meaningful human relationships, predicated on humility.  We can check ourselves to make sure that we are allowing His character to be radiated through us.

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We have to evaluate what it means to be a Christian in today's world, and develop Christlike character.  2nd Peter 1 gives us instruction in that area:
(5) giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble...

In the midst of all the year-in-review material that was spread out through the media, there was an editorial column about which columnist and media host Michael Brown called attention.  It was in the New York Times, not surprisingly.  In it, writer Katherine Stewart says: “The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war. They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself.”

Brown responds that, "Such claims are as ludicrous as they are misleading." He says that in the world of this author:

...when evangelicals like Lance Wallnau compare Trump to King Cyrus in the Bible, they are actually wanting Trump to be a king. Indeed, she claims that, “in Mr. Trump, they have found a man who does not merely serve their cause, but also satisfies their craving for a certain kind of political leadership.”

Evangelicals, whom she slyly characterizes as “Christian nationalists,” want a king, not a president. They want someone to impose their views on the nation. They are theocratic, not democratic. That’s why Trump is their man.

While that may be true for some, it certainly seems to be a cartoonish mischaracterization.

Brown went point-by-point about the contentions of the author.  The comparison of Trump to Cyrus has been around since during the campaign, and I think it has some merit.  Brown writes:

The Cyrus analogy had to do with the unlikelihood of someone like Trump being president, just as it was unlikely that God would use someone like Cyrus (an idol-worshiping, non-Israelite), to restore the Jewish exiles from Babylon.

Wallnau even read Isaiah 45 to Trump at a gathering of evangelicals during the primaries, including these words: “For the sake of My servant Jacob, Israel My chosen one, I call you by name, I hail you by title, though you have not known Me,” (Isa 45:4).

In other words, God was raising up Donald Trump, a non-evangelical, non-Christian, to help America and, in particular, to help evangelicals. It had nothing to do with him reigning as a king.

Brown contends that evangelicals are not paranoid, rather, "We are fighting a very real battle for our liberties. We are standing up for the rights of our children."

I disagree with Christian leaders who would say that the culture wars are over and we lost.  I agree with Brown that...

...we evangelicals are fighting a culture war. We are not fighting “democracy itself.” To the contrary, we believe the democratic principles of our country are being undermined by radical ideologues who have a very different vision for America.

He is concerned about "mobocracy, not democracy."  And he disagrees with the loaded term, "Christian nationalists," which I think conjures up images of Christians who put country over God.  Christians who want to see godly principles lived out in American life and remember the hand of God in the establishment and furtherance of this nation should not be chastised; I was concerned to see a thread last summer about churches celebrating the Fourth of July; why, we should be devoted to rejoicing in this wonderful nation that has been established on a belief in the Bible.  But the "nationalist" label has negative connotations attached to it now, and Stewart plays along in reinforcing that characterization of Christians.

And, finally - and I think this is something the Church really needs to be aware of - there is the use of the word, "patriarchy," to describe Christians.  Brown responds:

Fifth, these evangelical leaders are not standing up for patriarchy. They are resisting radical feminism, which ultimately hurts women more than anyone. They are pushing back against the “Shout Your Abortion” movement, against the war on the unborn. They are pro-woman and pro-family.

Unfortunately, you have this dangerous mindset that denigrates men, questions their leadership and fidelity, and promotes women as superior custodians of the moral order.  And, we have to be careful that the Church doesn't embrace the world's feminism to create division between men and women as they seek to fulfill their God-given roles.

Brown concludes by saying that Christian leaders may agree with some of the President's principles, but do not concur with the way that he communicates them.  And, people continue to forget, it seems, that faced with a binary choice in the 2016 election - and it really was, even though there were third-party candidates who had no chance of winning - as Brown points out, a large number of Christians could not vote, in a good conscience, for Hillary Clinton.

It is puzzling to me that there are some faith leaders who are more critical of Trump, who has been a friend to the evangelical Christian community by and large, than they were of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, who represented a set of values and principles that ran completely contrary to Scripture.

But, there will be those in the media who are intent on describing what is a "good" evangelical and what is not.  For instance, there was a recent story on the New Yorker website entitled, Conservative Evangelicals Attempt To Disentangle Their Faith from Trumpism.  As if it were. It basically is trying to present a more enlightened, socially acceptable, form of evangelical Christianity, centered on a university professor who seems to be challenging this patriarchy in the church and society.

For instance, she believes the "Billy Graham rule," named after the practice of the late evangelist to not be alone with any woman (other than his wife), as "encoded sexism."  This professor was also a supporter of the gay-identity movement's "ReVoice" conference and leader of a petition drive to oust a professor at another school, a Southern Baptist seminary, because of past statements that were considered to be so misogynist that they warranted his removal; ill-advised, probably, but the opposition could certainly be regarded as vitriolic.

This is the type of wedge-building that the enemy delights in, and has become all-too-common in the evangelical church.  But, it's acceptable for the media to lionize certain "evangelicals" because they represent a threat to the established, and in some cases, Biblical order of things.  Which leads us to a practical point here.

Our views are to be shaped by Biblical principles.  That includes political views.  And, we have to develop discernment so that we are not distracted by high-profile Christian leaders who promise some new, "enlightened" way of thinking that are Scripturally questionable.  We have to be wary of the "next new thing" in Christianity, the shiny object that seems to be trendy and fresh, but that may, in fact, lack Biblical foundation.  Perhaps a return to the tried and true is the answer.

We do have to be careful that our behavior does not line up with the caricature that has been created for us.  We have to make passion for Christ the focus that should never supersede our fervor in the public square.  Though we should be engaged in the public square and continue to speak out on important issues with a Biblical perspective.  When progressives say, "Shout Your Abortion!," we can "speak the truth in love."

There are certainly ideas that are in conflict in our country.  There may be common ground that is there, but we have to realize that there is a group; Michael Brown calls it a "mobocracy," that is intent on implementing radical policies and forcing taxpayers to fund them - Medicare for all, free college, a Green New Deal, based on the shaky template of climate change.  And, woe be to those who disagree.  Many are not interested in dialogue, but domination.  In the public debate, we should be intent on not wanting to win by shutting down those with whom we disagree, but by communicating our deeply-held, Biblical principles in a compelling way.  "Win at all costs," is not the motto of the Christian.  We win by losing, by humbling ourselves before Christ and allowing Him to govern our human relationships.