I have joined this new initiative and invite you to do the same. The founders, Joel Selby and John Kingston, are both long-term Republicans. A number of the people who wrote chapters for the book I edited (THE SPIRITUAL DANGER OF DONALD TRUMP: 30 EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS ON JUSTICE TRUTH AND MORAL INTEGRITY), have joined this movement and are members (along with me) of a large group of people on the Leadership Committee of CHRISTIANS AGAINST TRUMPISM.
Donald Trump would never have been President without the support of the evangelical church. The Bible prophesied there would be a great falling away of Christians, at the beginning of the end. This falling away is brought on by the man of lawlessness. He will delude them and as a result, Trump Christians will be rejected by Christ and will not to be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
In order to save those lost to Trumpism, we must look at the relationship between the Biblical anti-Christ and Trump. We need to learn from our past encounters with anti-Christs and what the Bible has to say about future anti-Christ types. Many prophecies have been fulfilled and will occur again in the future, until Christ returns. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12, the Antichrist will come on the world scene at the beginning of end times. In verse 1: “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2: not to be quickly be shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3: Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4: who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5: Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? 6: And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7: For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8: And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9: The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10: and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11: Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12: in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
This is bizarro world we have here. Multiple times Ron cites opposition to Trump based off of a distaste for violence. Trump (and I didn't vote for him in 2016, lest any reader of this comment think I'm simply a Trump apologist) has been about the least violent President since Eisenhower, not just Republican but any President. He has brokered multiple mid-east peace deals that would have won every single world leader a Nobel prize had they been the broker. For the first time in generations, we have a President who has not actively sought escalated military conflict abroad. Finally, and most importantly, Trump has been as outspoken and actionable on the most violent act in America in this age: abortion. Again, I'm no forever-Trumper, so don't take my comments as being partisan, but it's a signal of willful ignorance to label him violent.
Toxic rhetoric? Stay tuned and see what the darling Democrats will do to Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court. Democrats and liberals are masters of toxic rhetoric.
I have joined the Christians against Trump group and urge all who appreciate how dangerous "the Great Divider", as I call Trump, is to our nation to do the same. It's more than essential that we go further than Dr Sider in denouncing this president, as Biblical witness has no problem with name-calling and character assessment that expresses the essence of a person's witness. Jesus had no problem calling many of his contemporaries very harsh names, and where Trump is concerned, we shouldn't either.
False humility restrains too many people in this election who should be outing this fraud. True humility requires that we speak what we know to be true, what's as plain as can be about this dissembler, coward, and fool; failure to do so is immoral, and our disgrace of a president has few morals or qualities of his leadership worth touting.
This election is not so much about politics as about integrity, it seems more than safe to say. Given the nature of the very plain character of Trump and his campaign, much less restraint and false humility can and should be practiced. You don't necessarily need to be "political" to act in this way, and it's not flippant to say that surely God forgives those who might overreach in the name of truth-telling, because we are all in danger from this president's unreality.
Donald Trump would never have been President without the support of the evangelical church. The Bible prophesied there would be a great falling away of Christians, at the beginning of the end. This falling away is brought on by the man of lawlessness. He will delude them and as a result, Trump Christians will be rejected by Christ and will not to be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
In order to save those lost to Trumpism, we must look at the relationship between the Biblical anti-Christ and Trump. We need to learn from our past encounters with anti-Christs and what the Bible has to say about future anti-Christ types. Many prophecies have been fulfilled and will occur again in the future, until Christ returns. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12, the Antichrist will come on the world scene at the beginning of end times. In verse 1: “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2: not to be quickly be shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3: Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4: who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5: Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? 6: And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7: For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8: And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9: The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10: and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11: Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12: in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
This is bizarro world we have here. Multiple times Ron cites opposition to Trump based off of a distaste for violence. Trump (and I didn't vote for him in 2016, lest any reader of this comment think I'm simply a Trump apologist) has been about the least violent President since Eisenhower, not just Republican but any President. He has brokered multiple mid-east peace deals that would have won every single world leader a Nobel prize had they been the broker. For the first time in generations, we have a President who has not actively sought escalated military conflict abroad. Finally, and most importantly, Trump has been as outspoken and actionable on the most violent act in America in this age: abortion. Again, I'm no forever-Trumper, so don't take my comments as being partisan, but it's a signal of willful ignorance to label him violent.
Toxic rhetoric? Stay tuned and see what the darling Democrats will do to Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court. Democrats and liberals are masters of toxic rhetoric.
I have joined the Christians against Trump group and urge all who appreciate how dangerous "the Great Divider", as I call Trump, is to our nation to do the same. It's more than essential that we go further than Dr Sider in denouncing this president, as Biblical witness has no problem with name-calling and character assessment that expresses the essence of a person's witness. Jesus had no problem calling many of his contemporaries very harsh names, and where Trump is concerned, we shouldn't either.
False humility restrains too many people in this election who should be outing this fraud. True humility requires that we speak what we know to be true, what's as plain as can be about this dissembler, coward, and fool; failure to do so is immoral, and our disgrace of a president has few morals or qualities of his leadership worth touting.
This election is not so much about politics as about integrity, it seems more than safe to say. Given the nature of the very plain character of Trump and his campaign, much less restraint and false humility can and should be practiced. You don't necessarily need to be "political" to act in this way, and it's not flippant to say that surely God forgives those who might overreach in the name of truth-telling, because we are all in danger from this president's unreality.