Man' religion always defines "bad" and "good" and works to fix it. God isn't really necessary when it comes down to it. SELF is sufficient to the task. So, please feel free to disagree with me, of course, but I want to be able to challenge the prevailing views as a "good Berean" in the spirit of unifying, not for the sake of unity, but for the sake of Christ. We often shy away from challenging doctrines and popular teachings calling any discussion or debate "disunity" and even religious. Cults do the same thing to quiet and suppress dissent. In the church, no one wants to be seen as a troublemaker. But is this what God meant by disunity?
From what I can see, and I could be in error, scripture teaches that disunity results when people move in a spirit of pride, jealously, gossip and other selfish sins. For the sake of time, I am not including scriptural support, but I will be happy to find the exact verses that I am basing my claims on if someone asks for it. Anyhow, disunity is also the result of silly, meaningless arguments that have no value whatsoever; they are petty and inconsequential, like should Christians have a Christmas tree, or what day was Jesus really born on, or can a Christian have a nice glass of Chardonnay with their filet mignon? (I would prefer a red wine, but I don't drink anymore! If you do, I hope that you enjoy it.) Paul was clear that these have nothing to do with making us righteous by faith. They have no saving power, in other words.
But when it comes to veering off course just a little from the faith of the gospel, it's not an unimportant issue, and particularly as the "day approaches" wherein we will be confronted with a precipitous rise in false doctrines, teachers, and prophets leading to a great falling away, (Matt 24, 1 Thess), it becomes crucial that we address these issues in love, patience, and respect- but address them we must. Only faith in Christ can save us, and Satan knows it, so it is constantly under siege.
That said, I wanted to throw this out there. I saw it clearly this morning as I was reading in Proverbs about how wisdom hates pride, arrogance, and corruption. This verse made me think of Trump's movement and all of this flooded my mind.
Trump and the "right" claim moral high ground, and the movement has two boxes in which they have placed good and evil, as well as the cure all. There is a box that is designated as sin and in it they have put the gay agenda, trans stuff, open borders, and all the things that certainly are NOT righteousness; fair enough, very easy to identify such moral depravity. They have lumped this together and put it into a tidy little box, chock full of fear, and marked it with a sign, "evil and sin". In the other box is "righteous" that is marked "Trump/MAGA" and it is also the cure for the fear and horror engendered by the LEFT box. It's the answer. Trump himself has repeatedly said that he is saving the world now. (I am not even going to get into the many blasphemies committed by him or his followers who post videos depicting him in Christ's place. Trump retweets them all.)
This GOOD box is replete with an anointed leader and prophets who claim that Trump is "chosen" for this task. He is "anointed". If he is anointed, and chosen of God, how can you argue with what he is doing? This designation alone places the MAGA movement into an exceedingly precarious position. In fact, I would argue that this spiritual designation alone could pose the primary problem leading to blind obedience.
If you have some concerns about all of this but are swayed by the church masses, I get it. How do you stand alone when such amazing leaders, thinkers, and activists see it differently? This is very difficult, but I believe that a little child-like faith in God's promises will take care of that. You see. You know. You hear by the very word of God and His Spirit who he has PROMISED to us to lead us into all truth, especially now, for this season. Can we believe the word of God, and ask the Lord, and then listen? Or do we believe the false and dangerous doctrine that one must listen to "prophets" to know what the Lord is saying about world events right now? Scripture teaches that the masses will go the wrong way, and history demonstrated this at his first coming and also let's not forget the German church. The church, by and large, can be duped. They have been duped.
Diehard Trump believers claim that God has always used worldly men for his purposes. Fair enough, he most certainly has, but find even one story in scripture where God supports His people elevating a man, deeming him as specially anointed of God, and nary a peep of criticism against him can be found? Have you noticed that being critical of anything that Trump does will incur all kinds of vitriol at worst, and condemnation at best. I don't, and won't, follow or even give ear to so-called prophets, but I heard that one of them had the guts to say something slightly negative about Trump sending the "prophetic council", whatever that is, into a conniption fit. One of Trump's most famous and ardent prophets went so far as to say that anyone not supporting their favorite politician cannot claim to be a believer.
I might also add that God does use sinners for his purposes. Think about Judas, Haman, Magog, the Assyrian King, and finally even the Antichrist himself will be used of God to bring down the wealthy, prideful Babylon at God's will as per Rev 18. Mystery Babylon is described as the world's greatest consumer who made merchants the globe over rich by buying their goods. Buy. Buy. Buy. Pride. Power. Consume. We are strong and will never see sorrow! Sound familiar? It does to me. Consider this: this Antichrist is the Lord's chosen vessel to take down the strongest military and economic power on earth. The global "cabal"? The "elites"? The richest and most influential men of the earth who reign over the global kings (nations) and manipulate behind the scenes with their billions. He will also "wear down" the saints, and it doesn't mean we are to support him although he is doing what God is wanting him to do with Babylon. These are just some thoughts to consider.
But maybe we have been conditioned in the church. Perhaps we have consumed false teaching about this nation that did not come from the Holy Spirit, and maybe we all have blinders on us when we think about this nation. Germany made the same mistake. They were special, and Hitler was going to save conservatism and the Christian church. This isn't the first time someone wanted to bring religion back, starting with Constantine.
If we dig in the word and stay open to the Holy Spirit to teach us, we see that it is quite the opposite. Any sort of elevation of a man, nation, or king is called idolatry, and God severely disciplines his people when they do it. Isaiah 7-8 is one of many, many examples and is particularly relevant to our current day. But the theme of scripture is that we are not to trust kings and things other than God. And when God's people insist on looking to other things, God lets their idols save them. Have you been there? I have, and it's not pleasant to be left to your idols. If they don't repent, He feeds them the bread of adversity until they come back to trust in God. I've been there too, and it works. From that place we are humbled, made poor in spirit once again, and we will cry to God alone, and He answers us. Eventually we learn to trust God's way, and not ours, by His grace. God is very jealous for His name, and His glory, and His people's trust and affection.
Yes, God used Cyrus, and others, but God did not have them looking to Cyrus-and that is the difference. They didn't elevate Cyrus; God just did it. God blessed his people when they listened to his prophets-and trusted in God alone! That is always the crux of the issue when it comes to times of trouble. Those prophets were the voice of the Lord that is now the indwelling Holy Spirit. But Trump and his prophets and supporters have given us our two boxes of good and evil, as well as the perfect solution, helped along greatly by Qanon prophesies mysteriously emanating from the dark cybersphere like some kind of a cyber prophet of the end times.
Q
The unknown origins of Q alone should concern us. And if we haven't listened to Q or Q's designated interpreters from the dark web, (a Q friend of mine explained to me that is how they got their messages), we most definitely have been influenced by Q ideas and don't even know it. Have you ever heard talk of a wealth transfer? That's Q talk, and you can trace it back to "the plan" spoken of by New Age spiritual channers over 20 years ago that foresaw a "golden age" starting in 2025. Q is a mixture of truth and lies to manipulate people to a desired end. But does God work that way? Through the dark web, cryptic messages and prophesies given from a source no one knows for sure?
The New Agers love Q as well, because they too believe we are in the dawning new age, and the "dark controllers" are being taken down by the one and only Donald Trump. (And I am not even going to get into Trump's blasphemies about ushering in a Golden Age and other words taken from Isaiah and pertain to the true Messiah and his Millennial Reign.) All of this should alert believers, but we have been conditioned not to discuss it. Satan is laughing-but not for long. How are we to guard against all of the deception that Jesus himself took the time to warn his disciples about, and about 1/3 of scripture teaches? We can't talk through his warnings, and look about to see if anything could possibly be coming to pass, and do it in love? Is that man's idea, or God's idea to not speak about it?
I would just ask this, as we should ask about all beliefs that we are holding, Lord, is that what your Spirit has said to me, to not talk and cause "division", or did that come from another spirit? Teachers, preachers, and prophets are gifts that expand, expound, clarify, warn, exhort, remind, and affirm His truth, but they don't deliver it anymore. There are no keepers of truth, anymore. This isn't the Catholic church where the priests know the truth and teach it to the ignorant sheep. God gives all of us access by the blood of Christ, so we can test all teaching and prophesy. Let's' talk about testing things instead of accepting everything.
But these two boxes are the neat and tidy MAGA doctrine, and it is dangerous. We have our two groups, two boxes, one marked GOOD (republicans) and EVIL (democrats) and also, most terrifying, a method to deal with the evil, that is our chosen vessel, Donald Trump, and his political agenda. Man's power. Trump and Paula White, another deep problem there, are "Bringing religion back." Since when did religious rules and governmental laws save people? I find it compelling that Trump has found approval among uber religious Islamic leaders who say we share the same values such as views on homosexuality and views on the sanctity of two sexes. Religion. We are moving closer to our Islamic brothers and sisters and away from the gospel of Jesus Christ who came to die for those in the LEFT box that we often pray against.
If you don't think that we pray against them, I challenge you to show up at a prayer meeting this week and start praying genuine prayer for the Democrats in government, say, Nancy Pelosi, and the immigrants and see how quiet the room gets. I say this from experience. It was very uncomfortable. (This event happened at another church and not my current one, by the way.)
Jesus wants us to get free of the sin in our hearts, not out there. The woke left exists because the church is asleep, not because haven't "stood up" and called out their sin enough and fought them at the ballot box. Perhaps wrongly, but I feel it's important to challenge the status quo that is like a strong tide sweeping the church, and it is highly resistant to being challenged.
Can we not recognize that when men gather together to snuff out evil with their laws and mandates, we are eating from the tree marked good and evil, and not the tree of Life? And I think a good argument could be made for the fact that LEFT is not all evil, and RIGHT is not all good. And I will not fall prey to the truly divisive spirit that condemns those caught up in this deception, for they are precious to God, and many, many are mature believers. They trust in Christ, and we are family. I will not divide from my family over a politician. But God hates lying. God hates exploiting or any overlooking of the poor and vulnerable. Looking out for the weak and vulnerable and loving our enemies is the hallmark of knowing God. We are in an upside- down kingdom.
I always say, if we would have said look, this is just about politics, this man has some conservative policies that we can get on board with, and look at the alternative, that would be one thing. That's not what we have here. He is elevated. He is chosen. He is anointed. He is rarely or ever challenged. We listen to pink haired prophets and empty, clanging vessels singing his praises instead of looking to God and hearing his heart. We are far, far gone and I do believe the bread of adversity will be served up very soon, and it is already starting, but it is for our healing. He will conquer us to heal us. He is faithful.
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