Thank God that the US and the
world have been granted something of a reprieve with the election of Donald
Trump. At least, when compared to the alternative – and if only because
of a reprieve from imminent nuclear war with Russia. Along with Brexit and
similar developments, this is – so far – a flat tire for the globalist
juggernaut.
We can also be thankful that although generally
pro-Christian, Trump comes from outside the mainstream of cultural
“Churchianity”: Now the Christian Right cannot really claim to have
“God’s man” in the White House once again – a claim which
would inevitably misdirect their faith and hope even further into
government and politics.
The sad truth is, the last time that happened – under
George W Bush and the “War on Terror” – the results were disastrous. And
especially so, for families of the official minimum of 150,000 innocent
civilians (or unofficial 1,000,000) killed in Iraq.
Out of sight is out of mind, and so those innocent
human lives were dismissed with a shrug by many otherwise good
people, who were led to believe it was all the will of God. Too many
Christians back then, once Bush claimed that God “spoke” to him to go into
Iraq, their man in the White House could do no wrong.
If confronted today, few of them – I hope – would deny that this
“prophetic” word from Bush was a false one. Yet the fact is, at the time,
all the leading ministerial lights of the airwaves backed him up.
Leaders
Blindsided
Amongst fellow Christians, there are two broad camps when
it comes to claims like, “God spoke to me…” and it all revolves
around the Biblical chapter of 1 Corinthians 14:
On the outer camp edges, one faction believes the beginning
(spiritual gifts), the other believes the end (male leadership) – while
each sincerely believes the other part to be out of date.
So our Pentecostal and Charismatic brothers and
sisters (about 36% of Catholics and 46% of Protestants) are wide open to
prophetic words – real or fake – but also love divorce and women
yelling at their husbands from a pulpit. While our traditionalist
brethren and others have tended to uphold marriage and male leadership
much more, but are less open to “words from God” – real or fake.
However – except for the Catholic Church mainstream at the
time – both camps did swallow, more or less whole, the claim that God
had told Bush to go to war.
The New Testament does instruct believers not to despise
prophetic words (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21) – but also, to test or judge
them carefully and publicly. The Apostle Peter, for example, dedicated
much of his second epistle to warning us about listening to those who prophesy
and have many followers, but have gone off track – some in part, some
completely.
And the
truth is, without the support of Christian leaders, the Iraq war would likely
never have taken place – a sad fact outlined in more detail under the
title, “Is
God Pro-War“.
Among
those cheerleading ministers of the airwaves was Kenneth Copeland. With a
last reported $100m of annual ministry income, he is a well-known and
influential Christian leader of leaders – who recently met with Donald Trump and also Francis of the Vatican.
I believe
Copeland has a genuine calling and so will not bring a “railing accusation” against him or even try to
rebuke someone much older than I. And yet so many have died,
while Christianity has been all but destroyed in the Middle
East, and many over-reliant and over-awed followers have been led
astray. So names must be named – but we will just look
at the facts:
Here is
one “prophetic word” from Copeland, delivered right after 9/11, just as
Christian soldier Bush was marching others onward
to war in the Muslim world:
“And there
are going to be multiplied millions upon millions, there’s going to be close to
a billion people that have been trapped in that religion, that over the next
few months are gonna to come into the kingdom of God. (cheering) That’s gonna
happen, you watch and see what I’m telling you… that
thing has come to an end, its over, I’m talking about Islam and every, all that
that stands for. That’s over with. Now, God is making His
move.” (Word of Life Christian Center, Honolulu HI,
Dedication Celebration Service, Evening, Dec. 2, 2001) You can even listen
to it all here.
Now, the
awful results are in and clearly, the Islamic world was not
converted. Instead, that war has driven the number of Christians in Iraq
down from over 2 million, to around two hundred thousand.
Anyone can make a mistake, but to my knowledge, there
has been no public retraction. Copeland has in fact continued beating the
drums of war on TV with guests like Mike Huckabee – in his campaign
for President of 2008 – as he went up against a true candidate of
peace, Ron Paul.
Just
before that in 2006/7, Brother Copeland had announced that “the Lord
Jesus instructed” him to set up an airlift relief ministry to Haiti, called
“Angel Flight 44″. It was widely promoted and even a book was written. There
can be little doubt that millions were raised – but the flight never took
off and the funds were redirected. Again there was no public retraction or
apology. Copeland’s lawyers even tried and failed to shut down a blog by one author of the
book, exposing it all.
Then in
2012 when it looked like the favourite of Christian
conservatives – establishment neocon and Mormon (who therefore
believes Lucifer to be Jesus’ brother) Mitt Romney – was on track to
win: Copeland excitedly informed the faithful that God had said,
when the election results come in, “You’re gonna like it!”
Proverbs
29:2 says, “when a wicked man rules, the people groan”
and the Apostle Paul instructed us that love “does not rejoice in iniquity.” But when Obama
began to move ahead, Copeland rebuked the faithful for misinterpreting what God
had actually meant… which was, he claimed: “You are going
to like it” i.e. that they must make themselves like the
election results regardless! It is still there on YouTube.
So heads that prophecy wins, tails the unwary faithful lose…
Just like so many others from various ministers which
are so vague or ambiguous as to be unverifiable – and are never
judged properly or publicly.
Churches
in Trouble
So what is going on? The fact is, mainstream and state-church
denominations have long been on a path of decline. And the TV/ megachurch
circuit is, by and large, stuck in a loop of preaching to the same choir
that prays and pays for it all: Despite all the “power”,
“anointing”, “revelation”, “breakthrough” conferences and “great revival”
prophecies; in terms of actual US numbers since 9/11, the evangelicals and
Charismatics are barely breaking even. In the UK and Europe, the results
are even worse.
In much of the developing world, however (excluding the
Middle East) – where the government is widely identified as a corrupt or
persecuting enemy – Christianity is spreading much more rapidly.
At the
root of all this, is the age old problem of “Church and State“: The belief that government
is a form of God in the flesh – the arm of God on earth to “help” get the
Christian message out.
This
concept has long been defended and justified by the poisonous
mistranslation and misinterpretation of scriptures like
Romans 13. But the end result is a mixed message and polluted faith
that proclaims the kingdoms of this world alongside and in the name of,
the Kingdom of God.
With Donald Trump, hopefully, war will at least be on the back
burner – though we should all continue to agree in prayer that problems with
e.g. Iran, as well as Russia, will not escalate. But for now and for that
much, we should be glad that he has conservative Christian support.
However, there are also some new Christian “leaders” on the
inside of the Trump administration:
One is the
female Inaugural speaker and Trump advisor, “pastor” Paula White. Acclaimed by
“empowered” women for daring to dress improperly in public, she is
beloved even of anti-Trump CNN. She may or may not actually have a calling as a
prophetess, like Miriam of the Old Covenant who, “led the
women in procession” – never the men. Either way, White is way
off track.
Although Trinitarian, White was promoted from the stable of
non-Trinitarian “oneness” preacher, TD Jakes – and frequently revisits. More
than a technicality, the “oneness” doctrine diminishes and confuses fatherhood
and family order, by teaching that our Heavenly Father is actually the
same person as Jesus the Son. The concept dovetails with the fatherless
family environment that many of Jakes’ members live in.
On CNN,
White appealed for “grace” and sympathy, for having been called an
adultress. But Romans 7:3 says, “if, while her husband lives,
she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress.”
She is now living in adultery having left her husband, Pastor
Randy White “amicably” (ie. with no third party involvement) some years ago.
Or, would that be double adultery – Randy being her second “husband”
in the current row of three? Number three is rock star Jonathan Cain – who
on video recently, advised women to watch porn with their husbands.
Of course,
government paperwork calls the latest arrangement “marriage” as do
mainstream Christian publications. Jesus, however, said, “if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits
adultery” (Mark 10:11) and the Apostle Paul said, “A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does
depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband.”
To Christians, it is therefore, sexual immorality.
Believers are also instructed to give cheerfully and not under
compulsion. Yet White claims to deliver highly specific prophetic “words from
God” – always of the unverifiable sort – and especially when it comes to
pumping money on the church circuit. Here is one example:
“…if I
take for myself when it’s time to give to the kingdom I can bring a curse on
myself.” “You will die! You will die unless you go to the phone and do what God
says to do.” “Don’t just listen to the Word of the Lord, you got to do the Word
of the Lord! You will die! You will die unless you go to the phone and do what
God says to do.” (Paula White, Benny Hinn Telethon, LeSea
Network, April 16, 2004)
So beware: While the Christian Right are
celebrating a purge of the ungodly Left from politics; there are some
newly influential “leaders” behind yet another agenda:
“State-Family”
Values
Donald Trump’s speechwriters have reportedly been scrambling to
put his instincts and impulses into words. According to one report, the theme
will be that he has no ideology and just wants to “take care of” people like a
great big “family”.
The State-Family that is – although thankfully, there was
nothing about it in the Inaugural speech.
The
doctrine of the State-Family teaches that government has the rightful
authority of a family, or very much like it. Kenneth Copeland and others
have long promoted the idea on the airwaves worldwide and
online. More on this can be found in the article, “The
Exclusive Kingdom“.
But it serves only to give the state a veneer of legitimacy,
wrapping up all the violations and violence in social conservative
pseudo-morality. To followers, the government is seen as an extension of
natural, God-ordained family order – as if any father ever had the right to
send his children off to rob, to threaten and to kill others, as all
governments do… varying only by degree.
Considering the failure Trump has made of his own family life,
any inaccurate ideas about the family should hardly be surprising.
However, it does seem like he wants to do the right thing now – and if so,
good for him. Unfortunately, he may think that means listening more
to people like Kenneth Copeland and Paula White.
But Christians are supposed to be very selective indeed about
their leaders – as even good ones can go seriously off track. For
example, a flawed family life automatically disqualifies even a deacon
from leadership in the church (1 Timothy 3:8-13). And there is no such thing as
a female church leader to be found anywhere in the New Testament.
Yet like
many leaders today, Bro. Copeland often shares a pulpit with his wife – and not
just for teaching the younger women how to be, “discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands”
(Titus 2:5). Not so long ago, he also allowed his daughter Kellie –
who is now divided from her third Christian “husband” – on TV
to teach a series that included, “Building Relationships That Last”…
According
to public records and insiders, there are at least
14 divorced relationships within the Copeland extended family circle and
much more among those involved with the ministry. No doubt some are the
innocent victims of betrayal. But this is the visible fruit of a
church doctrine that directly contradicts the Word of our Lord – that for
believers, there is no divorce, “except for sexual immorality”
(Matthew 5:32, 19:9).
The point
is this: We are told to judge prophetic words carefully and
publicly, and we are told to accept and select leaders by
examining the known “fruit” of their
lives – which includes family life.
In which case, something has gone very wrong in the church
sub-culture:
The family and sexual order as ordained by God, is being seen as
less and less important and now the consensus is that if the family must
decrease, then so be it; and the state must increase.
So faceless bureaucracy – backed by the
institutionalized armed theft of taxation – is now seen as a legitimate
supplementary or replacement family system to “take care of” people. Sexual
morality is therefore seen as less important because the financial consequences
are forcibly taken care of by others in the state “family”. Or by running
to the state family court system for forcible redistribution of family assets
and inheritance money.
Any time this reality becomes a little too clear, do not be
surprised when a new social conservative fad or morality campaign is run
up the political flagpole – especially on Christian TV. The rapid PR
effect is to polish up the system’s image for those saluting Christians
and social conservatives eagerly seeking “godly government”.
Such measures may fool some and they may serve to put a
“cherry” on top of it all – but they cannot change the
ungodly mess of problems underneath:
A Pile of
Problems
The problem with subsidizing destructive activity of any kind is
that you get more of it.
The problem with the government assuming the responsibilities of
fatherhood is that it diminishes fatherhood.
The problem with assigning the state to “take care of” people is
that it replaces personal duty and love with a faceless bureaucracy.
The problem with rolling out a red carpet of state family
support for the unfaithful and offering a way forward for the sexually immoral
is that it actively invites more unfaithfulness and immorality. Plus it steals
from intact families to pay for the new dysfunctional structures.
And the problem with having the state pick up the tab when there
really are no family ties left at all is that it replaces the church
as a voluntary and natural hub of social welfare. It also diminishes any
other form of personal or privately organized charity – along with the sense of
duty and responsibility to perform such work.
The reality is that the more government tries to act
like a family, the more it creates and facilitates a totalitarian socialist
nightmare of impersonal dependancy; with everyone living as tax slaves of an
artificial and unnatural bureaucratic hierarchy.
Socially, this is a recipe for a total mess of instability
and isolation. Economically, it is a recipe for disaster. We see and hear from
whole political movements of such people in the news daily – always
causing one problem or another.
And so, welcome to the modern Western world: Here the left have
called it social “justice”. Now the Right call it the government “family”.
Probably that nightmare is not what Trump really
wants. Probably he just wants everyone to have an equal chance and to get rid
of government obstacles.
So let’s pray he sees through this false doctrine of the state
family. Because it is far worse than just a policy error:
Actually, it is a form of heresy – government sponsored
heresy.
Government
Sponsored Heresy
Churches must start thinking about and believing in family and
fatherhood once again, instead of slipping sideways – left into welfare
state “social justice” or right, into the “state-family” doctrine.
The real truth is, those churches who teach that families do not
always need to take care of their own and that the state should act like a
family to take care of people – are in outright heresy.
And there is no need to fuss over complicated theology or
doctrine to establish that – God through the Apostle Paul made it clear and in
very strong terms:
“If anyone
does not provide for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an
unbeliever”. – 1 Timothy 5:8
Sadly, the
term “worse than an unbeliever” fits exactly today:
Why is it only the decaying Christian civilizations of the West
that fail to take care of their own elderly and family members – and even set
up systems to avoid doing so?
Go to any of the majority heathens, Islamic, Hindu or pagan
countries – even poverty-stricken African countries – and you will see the
elderly much happier, more respected, and much better-taken care of
socially, than in the welfare states of the West.
The family has to rise again, and not just as a religious
sentiment or as a “moral majority” campaign for more government action, but as
the decentralized order of God: It is the most basic natural hub of
social and financial provision, or for support of any kind. It is the very
framework of the Kingdom of God on earth. It is the very reason God himself is
revealed to us as, our Father – and Jesus as the Son.
But beware any talk of using government funding to “rebuild” the
family – this is nothing but an evil deception. Government funding – or
more accurately: organized, legalized, armed robbery – has itself provisioned
the family’s destruction by opening the door to unsustainable alternatives and
undermining the cultural sense of natural family duty.
And not
just passively through the welfare state. It was government
funding through the CIA for example, that fired up the rise of radical
feminism – the facts are easy to find online.
Be
Fruitful and Multiply
Today there is a crisis
of leadership, of family life, and even of gender identity in Christian
churches. The rise of the alternate Welfare State-Family is one big factor
behind it all.
This is no foundation for
any widespread or lasting Christian revival.
By God’s grace, the light
of truth must come on or Western civilization is finished. Even with
Trump/Brexit and possible Frexit etc. reprieves, we are not so far from
that point right now.
And not just socially, also economically: In this
area so far, the Trump team does not appear to have a clue – while
the UK and Europe are more ignorant still. Like grown-ups watching a huge
balloon at a children’s party being blown up, the alert are wincing, while
protecting and bracing themselves – the rest are in for the shock of their
lives.
But once that light does come on and churches start
rediscovering those scriptures about family, with all that implies; then
suddenly, sexual morality and the authority of fatherhood become important
again – in order to keep the unit intact.
Men and women, instead of being confused about their very
identity, will have a new purpose in life. Established Christians must be there
to help new and not so new believers, drive out the inroads of darkness that
demons have found in their lives, personalities, and sexuality.
Sound Christian teaching must emphasize that men are called to lead
and to take care of dependants. It is vital that this should be backed by
love and kindness, not by harshness – as any provocation from the top
works directly with disobedience from below, to destroy a home.
Nevertheless, leadership is not conditional upon good behavior.
Most men do the best they can, but there are none perfect and many are deeply
flawed – but by all means, their leadership must be upheld.
And yet, churches must also teach that dependants do have
powerful recourse – if they will turn to God and not the
state: There are in fact specific divine principles, promises and other
godly ways to overcome abusive leadership of any kind, as outlined by the
Apostle Peter in chapters 2 and 3 of his first epistle. It does not
involve state agencies or court systems in any way.
The same
church teaching must uphold women as wives and mothers, with that “gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of God”
(1 Peter 3:4): And not the assertive pulpit barkers, screamers or
feminist he-women – who in reality despise and devalue the precious calling of
women, by seeing value only in doing what men are called to do.
It is in order to provide for children, the elderly and each
other, that God has specially created men and women with differing functions on
this earth. But today, many men and women have abandoned those God-given
functions and sadly, that includes reproduction:
Women are often deliberately barren, and so are lost as to what
to do in life. Then they try to find value and purpose in doing what men do.
And then blame the men for doing it better.
There are those who are unmarried, or barren through no fault of
their own, who can still find great purpose in assisting others as did the
precious women who followed Jesus and the Apostles.
The Bible,
however, repeatedly emphasizes that we are to be “fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:22, 1:28, 8:17,
9:1, 9:7, 35:11, Psalms 128:3) and that women are to be “saved in childbearing“. There is no time for
acting like a man when women are fulfilling this vital and important calling,
as well as managing their household. To raise several children properly is
a full time, decades-long occupation. In fact, most did just that until a few
decades ago, before the welfare state and effective artificial birth control
disrupted this natural order.
And have you noticed that it is mainly the decaying
Christian West that is now literally dying out – losing the population through
birth control – while the East (excluding communist China), the Middle East and
the third world, multiply like rabbits?
We are presently experiencing something like a controlled
demolition of Western Christian culture and mostly, it is an inside job. To
salvage what can be salvaged, we must utterly reject the concept of birth
control. Being unfruitful leads only to dissatisfaction and decrease, not to
increase or a better life.
To facilitate this fulfilling life of increase is one
reason why it is men, not women, who are called to leadership in the home and
in the church. It is not a matter of human value, but of divinely ordained
functional differences and order:
Let a
woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to
teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was
formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being
deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in
childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with
self-control. – 1 Timothy 2
A Man’s Calling
There is one very good
scriptural reason why so many leaders today – who promote politically
correct leadership by women in churches – are giving out so much nonsense
as “prophecy”. To the point, in fact, that to any objective hearer, none can
even be verified or recognized as a prophet:
Let your
women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but
they are to be submissive, as the law also says.. [see Numbers 30] ..And if they want to learn
something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women
to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it
you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or
spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the
commandments of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant. …Let
all things be done decently and in order. – 1 Corinthians 14:29-40
Read that
again about the one who “thinks himself to be a prophet
or spiritual” and, “let him be ignorant“.
Note that the word “ignorant” is also translated, “not recognize“. By allowing women in
leadership and the pulpit, they violate the order of God and so come
under the divine promise that, “if anyone does not
recognize this, let them not be recognized“.
That sums up pretty much all of the so-called prophets of today
– certainly when it comes to anything major and predictive.
Actually, despite the earlier statement to the contrary,
there is just one female church leader in the whole New Testament – the
“Jezebel” of Revelation 2:20. In that passage, male leaders are
specifically rebuked by the risen Jesus for allowing a woman to
prophesy to or teach the whole church. Also, for the sexual
immorality (divorce, adultery etc.) and idolatry that goes with it.
Today, like
the original Old Testament Jezebel who manipulated the king (1 Kings
21); or like those who demanded government in 1 Samuel
8; much of that idolatry is focused on the state or the “state-family”
– which in turn enables artificial female “empowerment” (insubordination)
and facilitates divorce, adultery and sexual immorality.
Here is that warning from the risen Lord – spoken not to the
wicked, but in love to otherwise good Christians:
“I know
your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your
works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few things
against you because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a
prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat
things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual
immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and
those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent
of their deeds.”
Final Word
Jesus said
we are to be “salt” and “light” on this earth. That includes praying for the
very flawed people in charge of the very flawed systems of this earth.
So it is important that Christians should pray, not for Trump to
begin some great state-family project but to first do no harm. And that he
would see through this poisonous teaching, rather than promote the idea –
beloved of all tyrants – that government is a form of family.
Because the truth is, at its core, the government is nothing
more than an institutional enabler of the wicked – and the chief anti-Christ
destroyer of the family. Only it’s restraint or at least, it’s redirection
to less harmful avenues is to be welcomed with thanksgiving.
Individual Christians must wake up to this, even if their church
leaders have not.
If that means standing alone, then so be it. From these
committed believers, new and faithful leaders can arise. With God, we will be
just fine and can get on with spreading some true light.
We can
expect persecution – official or personal – and must be aware that
the going will get tough at times. But in those times, we can and
must always “be of good cheer” –
because if we endure in this way, it leads on to the promotion and
greater victories (see James chapter 1).
The challenges we face, however, will be overcome
and they will not be nearly as tough as the problems that will befall
followers of the “Jezebel” – that evil spiritual influence which is
seeking to pollute Western Christianity completely.
But it requires no great spiritual feat to avoid being
misled:
If we will steadfastly and diligently maintain a clear
conscience, while growing in knowledge, in kindness and in love for
others, the Apostle Peter assures us we will never stumble (2 Peter 1).
And Jesus said that all who believe are in constant
communion and fellowship with Himself and with God our Father
– through our Teacher the Holy Spirit’s inner presence (see John
14,15,16). But the fruit or voice of the Holy Spirit is never to be found
in war, death, sexual immorality/ divorce, or in idolatry toward the
kingdoms of this world.
We can instead tune in more clearly to the inner witness or
“still small voice” of God in daily life – which is always found on the love
“wavelength”, on the joy and good cheer band, and on the peace channel.
And yes, there will also be a lot of very helpful correction in there too
– we must embrace it and move forward.
In conclusion: Let us steer well clear of the state “family” and
instead choose to stay faithful to our own family and our own calling –
and so to Jesus, our Lord, and our King.
Paul Green [send him mail] provides internet and
communications privacy services worldwide - and shares the Good News of
Christian liberty from his website, SetFree.Now.im.
Copyright © 2017 Paul Green
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