Last words about a false Messiah
A few weeks ago, a man who believes himself to be the Messiah was elected to a position of earthly significance in one of the nations of North America. He is surrounded by a cadre of disciples who worship in a cult of personality the likes of which we have not seen for several generations in the West, not since Franco.
Even his faults are proof of his virtues, and every word that drops from his lips is seen by many as words from a living god, and he has encouraged, welcomed, and supported the idea that he is the chosen of God to save his people.
Is this freedom or just another form of tyranny?
Making America Disappointed Again
Let me make a few predictions about this false Messiah. His brief reign will be one of profound disappointment. He is not the chosen of God, he is not the Messiah, he is not ‘God’s man for the moment,’ and as such, his demise, his compromises and fall will result in the end of faith of millions who have lost sight of God and committed the most fundamental of all errors, a loss of faith in themselves and their God-given ability of self-empowerment through the eternal Spirit.
For the Christian, it is not ‘What will Trump do?’ but ‘What did Jesus do?’ and Jesus accomplished all that needed to be accomplished long before Trump was born and there is nothing the false Messiah can do for God except perhaps believe in him, which he doesn’t, and he won’t, and the fact that millions of Christians cannot see it is the great tragedy.
They still talk about the ‘deep state.’ They talk about conspiracies. They talk about revolutions, and they better, for their false Messiah was elected and he now has the power, and the buck stops with him, and he has one term left to fulfil all those great promises. This is their chance. This is their opportunity. This is their great moment.
The reality is that the conservative, libertarian, anti-deep state agenda is on the clock, and that within a short few years, in the context of a democratic polity, with a powerful media, this earthly vision or revision of America will be enacted. At the end of this farce, this theatre, this comedy of errors, will be the end of the MAGA movement because now they have what they want, and they better deliver on all those promises made or their movement will be shown to be what it is, a racist throwback to the days of old white America, a protectionist state, fearful, fortress America, a nation at war with others and with itself, back in the dark, not reaching for the light.
Trump’s America: Free to persecute others
Yet, there is not much freedom in what they say, for they talk of pogroms and prosecutions, and protectionism, and they say nothing about building, creating, or inspiring. It is a vision of the past, a long-dead America, America of the late nineteenth century, long before civil rights, long before American greatness, for America was never great before the war. It’s period of greatness was at the end of the Pacific War and the War in Europe, and modern prosperity comes from the trade system Trump wants to destroy.
I was told by some that I had no choice but to support Trump because he opposed abortion and it is murder and he is the only candidate to defend the unborn. Let me be clear, America will never abolish abortion, and those who believe this, have been played, and American Christians are often, the most gullible Christians in the world, because they keep getting played. You are being used, to promote the actions of an adulterer, about whom you are silent. What theological somersaults were required to backflip on hundreds of verses on personal integrity regarding this man just so he fits into your sick and twisted view of God.
In America, abortion terminates the gospel
The Bible is silent on abortion, but it is not silent on divorce, and it is very clear, from the scriptures that the incoming President is an adulterer, but you will not hear this from the millions of Christians who deliberately misread their Bible, twist the words of Christ, and cut-and-paste the word of God for their own, sordid, personal ends. Be very careful if you wish to play the morality game in politics, for you are all tainted with sin, washed in iniquity, and bathed in depravity.
Remember, holy ones, that the same standard you mete out to Biden, to migrants, to gays, transgendered people, and others, will be meted out to you by the God you pretend to believe in. The same standard you demand of others will be demanded of you, but you have no intention of living up to them. I never preach morality, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but at the same time, sin is sin, and if you want to play the sin in politics game then it is all in or not at all.
Let me clear so you understand the Bible. God is not the author of sin, and he does not use sin to advance goodness, and he does not use sinners to promote the gospel, the good news. Why so many Christians have given up the faith over this man is a mystery to me, but it represents in America, at least, a good thing, for Trump worship means the beginning, hopefully, of the end of America’s cultural Christianity, and perhaps, one day, a revival of true faith, instead of this insipid, fake, politically-driven nonsense that God only cares about the unborn and not the living.
Public morality is not the good news
If Trump was appointed by God, then so was Biden, and so was Putin, and by this logic, so was Hitler, but we cannot say that God appoints our man and not others, for this is just silly theology, and yet we live in a time of dumb theology, and stupid theology, and it is so washed and drowned and covered by the Culture War so that all that matters is a superficial public morality of which the Pharisees might celebrate.
God doesn’t care about the surface, he doesn’t care about the skin, he doesn’t care about life’s pimples, but he cares about the heart, and this is his true domain. American politics, even with Trump’s America, says nothing about the human heart, so why do Christians get so excited about a man who cannot even save himself from himself, let alone from his sin?
As for the gullible, the stated reason why millions of American Christians voted for Trump, abortion. let me say this.
As for abortion, many American Christians are wrong and always have been. Whether you abort a pregnancy or not, is your personal choice in a modern society, and it is, and always will be, a byproduct of your Constitutional rights, and in other places, a consequence of what it means to live in a modern, secular state.
Abortion is one method for the control of the birthrate and prevention of pregnancy. There are many others now, but abortion is essential for public policy in any developed nation, as is the availability of alcohol, the last thing Christians wanted to ban in the twentieth century. In both cases, Prohibition and the current abortion wars, Christians try to force others to live up to a version of their expectations for public morality.
Abortion has nothing to do with the gospel, nothing to do with faith, and has nothing to do with personal morality. I have never preached on abortion. I talk about the good news of Jesus. That is what Christianity used to be called, as it is about Christ, not the state.
Abortion is a public policy issue for a secular state. Gaza is now a wasteland and the same people who oppose abortion support the right of Israel to commit genocide, so I am not speaking of Christians here, for how they be, to defend the killing of living children overseas but oppose the deaths of the unborn at home.
Christian Nationalists are America’s Taliban
A modern, secular society must seek the good of all its citizens, and the state has no right to enforce sectarian public morality in a free and open society, certainly not Christian morality, and certainly not in a Republic of the kind America is. The Constitution is not a Christian document, the Bible is. The Constitution is the legal document defining the secular, not religious American state, and last time I checked, church and state are separate.
If abortion is illegal, then how different is America from the Taliban? What’s next, ending female education or the right of women to vote? For Christian Nationalists, the answer is yes, and this means a dark, vicious and evil world run by angry old, white men. These men hate freedom, they hate democracy, and they hate women, and it astounds me that this religious, fanatical filth has crawled from the gutter, the alleyways, and the darkness into mainstream American politics. We see this hatred echoed in the incoming administration, lists of people they don’t like, names of people they want to remove, and words they want to ban.
They sound a lot like tyrants to me. If America comes after the rights of women to vote, to be educated, and to have careers, then these are the grounds for revolution, to kick out tyranny, kick them back to their pulpits and out of Congress, and maybe strip them of their tax exemptions so they might need to pray to the God they used to believe in.
What’s in it for me? Why Christians voted for Trump
Many Christians supported Trump because they want power and money. They want their cut, and they had their price. It may come as a surprise to Christians, but we do not live in a Christian but secular state, and whether or not public policy is moral or immoral is irrelevant for the person of faith, for all of it is or all of it isn’t. Those Christians who fixate on abortion and ignore every other national policy are utterly godless and corrupt, and there are millions of them who claim to believe in Jesus.
A person is not morally accountable for the actions of their government, but they are responsible for their own lives, and their own decisions. God has no interest in saving nations, and has no interest in saving America, and has no investment in the so-called Christian Nationalist Agenda pursued in his name.
God’s manifesto is Jesus. God’s revolution is the love of Christ. God’s radicalism is the love we show to our enemies.
None of Trump’s political agenda is about freedom, for it says nothing about freedom, nor will Trump set anyone free. This political farce is just another prison of the mind, another deceit of diabolos, another trick of tyranny.
Nothing has changed. Nothing will change. History will march on and for the next three years or so, we have a choice, either follow Jesus or Donald Trump, and it saddens me to read and hear of millions who no longer follow Jesus but put their faith in a man who has never suffered for one day, or one hour, or one minute the sufferings of the Christ.
Those Christians who claim that Trump is like Christ are to be pitied for he is not, and they would do well to remember that Jesus died on a cross and was buried, and the Father raised him to live again. Jesus is one I can follow because I have confidence in his words, faith in his person, and belief in his life.
Those of you who follow Trump, what will you do when he deviates from your agenda? Will you criticize him? After all, your American god chose him to be the man of the hour, he is the chosen one, so how dare you criticize whom God has chosen, but criticize him you will, eventually, which means you are a liar, and just another hypocrite who creates theology for the times. This theology is not about God, it is about you and what you want, and what you expect, and what you expect from Trump, and you have turned the eternal word of God into a sordid, political, weapon, and how different are you from those whom you condemn.
There is nothing about God in MAGA
There is nothing about God in MAGA. Read the title. Check the fine print. Double-check the mantra. You got played by the second oldest profession in the world, politics. It is no wonder 90 million of you didn’t bother to vote. At least they got the memo. Democracy is dead. It has been dead for a long, long time, and this corpse gets revived every four years and you are given no choice, but two corrupt leaders of two branches of one corrupt party, which cares little about America, little about the world, and nothing about you.
Follow Trump if you want, good luck to you, but remember, you get what you pay for, but with God the price was paid by his Son on the cross. I would rather follow Jesus than this false Messiah, his false promises and his false words. The only one who brings true freedom is God, and this is the way to walk in God’s world, among all whom God loves, even those whom Trump and his minions despise. After all, is it not in God we trust, or is this also on a list of things to go?
My conscience is clear
The last three years, I have not hesitated in declaring to you the person, the power, and the presence of God in Jesus. I have not diluted the good news, but spoke plainly, simply, and with compassion about the life of Jesus, and our need to follow him. I have spoken on war, on Ukraine, on Gaza, on America, on Russia, the pandemic and on the church, and, to date, have published ten books with Freedom Matters Today, published by our imprint, Hidden Road Publishing.
My conscience is clear. Those who have read my books, and listened to my podcast, would know the good news about Jesus, who he is, why he matters, and why we need to follow him.
All my work was and remains original. I did not draw from others, nor did I lift the material of others, nor did I quote from others, but all my writings are from my own head and heart, my own inspiration, and I believe, with my own commission from God who inspired me to write and keeps me writing. I believe, in these ten books is a basic outline of how a Christian might live, walk, and work in a political world, and among the people whom God loves, and while the world moves on, the basic message of these ten books will remain relevant, for the things of God remain, and those who stay in his orbit, ponder eternity, step by step.
Today, Syria is in ruins, and Israel continues to commit genocide, marching proudly towards the new Holocaust. I have said all I have to say on these matters and have decided to take a page from my own company title and embrace freedom because freedom matters today.
Jesus for Busy People
I feel a different calling, one that has been deep within me for many years, and now it is time. The future will be all about Jesus, and how the world has, and does, esteem him. Next year, we will begin our daily podcast on Jesus. It will be called JESUS FOR BUSY PEOPLE.
I have the domain name for this site in both America and Australia and the new website will be set up soon, and linked to Freedom Matters Today.
It will be subscription based, daily, available in both podcast and eBook format.
The slogan is simple.
No politics.
No agenda,
Just Jesus.
I feel that when I have run out of things to say about Jesus, I might return to the Culture War, but I must admit to you that this seems unlikely. I may from time to time write a book on various political subjects, so I will leave this door open, but I believe that Jesus is the answer, and about Jesus I am interested in his spirituality, his identity, and his authenticity.
Japan and Jesus: A Personal Journey
The podcast will continue next year but it will be different and will focus on Japan and Jesus, the encounters between Japanese and Christianity. I believe that we need to spend more time outside of the Imperium and outside of America, and outside of the world we know, and we need to explore the world God has made, and for me, I feel a calling to talk about Japan and the encounters between the Japanese people and Jesus over the centuries.
A friend of mine asked me in February when I will write about Francis Xavier, for he has been waiting for 15 years. The patience of a friend is a gift from God, and it is time to fulfil a promise not only to him, but to many, to talk about Japan and Jesus, and to shine the light of the good news on a world few know about, but for whom Christ came, for those whom God loves and whom we are called to love, as we are loved by God.
Remember, freedom matters today because you matter to God.