The Republican Party and Jesus’ Unbelieving Followers
Religious appropriation and strategy to further rebrand Jesus underway.
Many people claim Christianity right now while defining Jesus and the doctrine He inspired and taught through their particular cultural lens.
By Brad Ward, Director, Armor of Truth
On the one hand, we see a group defining Christianity as open and affirming specific kinds of sins, saying that Jesus would affirm homosexuality and Transgenderism. On the other hand, millions of Americans today define Christianity as a patriotic expression rather than an Evangelical movement. The United States replaced Israel, George Washington is Moses, Abraham Lincoln is the Christ figure, and today, sadly, many Americans have identified Donald Trump, The RNC, and Conservatism in general as a fulfillment of prophecy and a righteous movement of God.
Both groups are doing the same thing: filtering and contouring Jesus and the Scriptures to justify their movements. Upside down: Both of these groups have devised a Jesus that serves their immediate needs. Faith in Christ is precisely the opposite of this. From the early days of the church when Christianity first gained influence in the Roman Empire, the name of Christ has been used as a means to an end.
Recently, writer McKay Coppins read every prayer offered at Donald Trump’s campaign events since he announced he would run again in 2022. As of July 29th, there had been 58 in total. Politicalwire reports:
“The resulting document—at just over 17,000 words—makes for a strange, revealing religious text: benign in some places, blasphemous in others; contradictory and poignant and frightening and sad and, perhaps most of all, begging for exegesis…”
“The premise of all of these prayers is that America’s covenant can be re-established, and its special place in God’s kingdom restored if the nation repents and turns back to him… Many Christians now seem convinced that God has anointed a specific leader who, like those prophets of old, is prepared to defeat the forces of evil and redeem the country. And that leader is running for president.”
READ MORE LINKS:
AoT Substack: False Christian Allies
https://open.substack.com/pub/armoroftruth/p/fake-christian-allies?r=1slrxy&utm_medium=ios
A 2022 Gallup Poll on Belief in God revealed many interesting facts about belief among Americans.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/393737/belief-god-dips-new-low.aspx
“Fewer Americans today than five years ago believe in God, and the percentage is down even more from the 1950s and 1960s when almost all Americans did.”
The poll reveals that, as of 2022, 81% of Americans “believe in God,” down from 87% just five years earlier. But what does that 81% actually believe about God? Do they know the true living God? Gallup reports that just 40% of Americans believe God hears prayers. The report stated,
“While belief in God has declined in recent years, Gallup has documented steeper drops in church attendance, church membership, and confidence in organized religion, suggesting that the practice of religious faith may be changing more than basic faith in God.”
Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research collaborated on a project to evaluate Americans’ knowledge of God every two years. This data can help Christians better understand today’s culture and equip the church for better discipleship. The most shocking statistic revealed in the survey found that 53% of professing Christians in America, those who say they know and believe the gospel, do not believe that Jesus is God.
See more for yourself at the link below:
Ligonier Ministries and State of Theology Key Findings https://thestateoftheology.com/
Can someone claim to be a follower of Christ while they deny what Jesus said about Himself? There are only two options for a person: belief and unbelief. Regarding Jesus, there are only two options: He told the truth, or He was a liar. Is it possible that many people who claim to be followers of Jesus could be confused or deceived? What might that look like?
In John 6:65-66, many of Jesus’ disciples walked away. Why?
Once Jesus effectively discouraged every material and earthly motive for following Him, many stopped following. Jesus rebuked their material and earthly motivations for following Him. If they did not seek Him by the Spirit instead of seeking Him for food and a kingdom, then they had not come to Him at all. When so many left, it looked like Jesus' enemies had won. The loss of those who followed Jesus for material or impure motives was sad, but their leaving didn’t prove Jesus and His remaining disciples to be false.
We must follow Jesus’ example here and never encourage others to follow Him for material and temporal motives. We must never promote Jesus as a means to an end, the key to a better life, or as a campaign strategy. There is only one way, and for those who claim faith for these reasons, we know from John’s Gospel that the Father had not granted them the right to follow Jesus.
The remaining 12 disciples stand as examples of willingness to follow Jesus even in the face of despair when the crowds aren’t cheering for you, when they’d rather kill them, and even when they did not fully understand why they were being persecuted.
Realizing that it is possible for someone to believe they are a Christian when they are not is a sobering reality. How do we know? Scripture provides clear warnings about self-deception in matters of faith.
Jesus Himself addressed this issue in Matthew 7:21-23 with one of the most challenging and shocking statements of the New Testament,
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"
A verbal profession, extensive religious activities, and great works of charity do not equate to genuine faith. Self-examination is foremost for the believer, and genuine repentance is the first sign of true faith in Christ. Faith is much more than a profession or knowledge of who Jesus is. A person who comes into a real relationship with the living Christ should experience a complete transformation in their disposition toward sin and concern for the condition and fate of the people of the world.
The Bible provides criteria for discerning genuine faith. Jesus taught in Matthew 7:16-20 that true Christians would be recognized by their fruit: "You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit." Paul further elaborates on the "fruit of the Spirit" in Galatians 5:22-23, listing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in a believer's life.
True Christians are characterized by their obedience to Christ’s commands. In John 14:15, Jesus states, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." This obedience is not out of mere duty but stems from a genuine love for Christ. The epistle of 1 John repeatedly emphasizes that authentic faith is manifested in love for God and others, adherence to the truth, and righteousness.
The inner testimony of the Holy Spirit also provides assurance of genuine faith. Romans 8:16 says, "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." This subjective witness of the Spirit works in tandem with the objective evidence of a transformed life.
Self-deception is so very common. Self-deception about one's spiritual state is a highly severe issue that Scripture addresses directly and with gravity. Baptism is a symbol of such a change. There will be outward evidence when one has been transformed inwardly, given a new heart, and become a new creation.
True Christianity will cause a profound transformation that will be seen, and the evidence will be the fruit of the Spirit, obedience to Christ, and the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, continual self-examination and reliance on God's Word and Spirit are crucial in discerning genuine faith both within oneself and in others.
READ MORE LINK:
AoT Substack: Moralism: The Fatal Flaw of American Conservatism
Webster's 1828 dictionary defines conservatism as having the power to preserve in a safe state or protect from loss, waste, or injury. Secular conservatism affirms traditional values like life, liberty, private property, family, and community, which overlap with Christian moral values. However, when conservatism compromises these principles, we must question what is being preserved.
Both Democrats and Republicans, in fact, most Americans today, have assumed the basic philosophical position of Progressivism, which presupposes that morality evolves as society evolves. People are always getting better and growing wiser, and our values must be updated to meet the needs of modern people. The ideals of transforming the nation, indeed the world, into a man-centered Utopian society, are baked into American culture: what we call Transformation Through Transgression.
Modern Conservatism inevitably drifts into moral relativism when efforts to uphold traditions are divorced from the transcendent foundation that makes those traditions worth preserving. Christless Conservatism is an empty facsimile of righteousness lacking any compelling narrative whatsoever for life’s ultimate purpose and really just reduces human aspirations to material success and national prosperity. These will never satisfy the deeper existential and spiritual needs of the heart.
Challenging the prevailing cultural norms requires self-sacrifice, an attribute of humility and faith. When “niceness” is the summit of morality and “salvation” is just a matter of being "a good person," the gospel of grace becomes a foolish preoccupation. If the robust transformative concepts of sacrificial love, justice, and mercy are lost, all is lost.
"Abide in me, as I also abide in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must abide in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me." (John 15:4-5)
The populist trend in modern conservatism often directly appeals to the emotions of the masses, bypassing reason, overriding traditional political structures, and undermining respect for established institutions. Similarly, market fundamentalism, another mark of Secular Conservatism, overlooks the non-economic aspects of society that sustain human life and culture, such as artistic, religious, and community values.
Society must cherish and sustain its cultural heritage, national loyalty, and religious tradition, which provide a stable framework through which individuals can understand themselves and their roles within a community.
The family, the church, and the law are essential institutions that must be protected by conservative governance because they strengthen communal bonds, moral order, social cohesion, and the cultivation of virtue among citizens.
Christianity, specifically the commitment to live out the Faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), provides the moral and existential grounding for individual responsibility, social cohesion, and benevolent structures that secular ideologies cannot. As conservative movements continue to fold under cultural pressures, there must be a call for a return to foundational principles.
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Another Well Written, Thought Out & Uplifting Article, Brad. Many Thanks To Both You & Your Wife Summer. Keep Up The Goođ Fight Anđ May Gođ Continually Bless You & The AoT Ministry, My Frienđs...💞✝️🫂
Its a pity that people still suffer from TDS. Nowhere has Trump proclaimed himself a spiritual leader?
It has been suggested that Trump is neither Solomon, Jesus, nor God — and that is perhaps what many of his erstwhile supporters cannot forgive him for.?
Some focus on a single issue ignoring the many achievements even while he was being hounded.