A Great Falling Away or THE Great Falling Away?

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015 I posted a blog entry that began:

"The Kim Davis matter has caused a fault line in the American Church.  Huge numbers

of individuals and organizations who purport to be Christian have taken the position that she should have resigned.  Many of the best minds in the Christian world disagree.  Dr. John McArthur recently declared from his pulpit, "We will not bow" to homosexual bullying.  Dr. Franklin Graham has supported Davis in the strongest terms.  Dr. John Piper released a statement supporting her as did Dr. Robbie George Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton.  Her lawyers are led by former Liberty University Law School Dean Mat Staver. And yet, scores of alleged Christians refuse to see the import of this case.

"There is a reason for this.  A lot of these people can't understand Kim Davis's position because they are not really Christians. There is no kinder way to say that.  Recently, Glen Beck, a Mormon, aired a searching dialogue in which he suggested that people who say the right words and lay claim to their fire insurance policy salvation may be deluded, especially when they can look the other way when evil is literally before their eyes."

While I am anything but a mystic, during the Kim Davis affair I clearly saw a vision in my mind's eye, the vision of a great fault line running through the church with the sheep on one side and everyone else on the other.  It was a chilling, chilling thought.

I am seeing that vision again.  This time the subject is Donald Trump.  The choice for GOP presidential candidates couldn't be clearer.  Ted Cruz is a devout Christian with a lifetime of honorable government service and impeccable legal credentials. Trump is a loud mouthed braggart with no qualifications or credentials other than being born wealthy and being able to hoodwink the gullible time and again.  And yet, millions of Christians are being taken in by Trump while rejecting and even attempting to discredit Cruz.

The Trump phenomenon bothers me on two levels.  This first is earthly and second is spiritual.  From an earthly sense, I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would pay attention to Donald Trump.  On his face, the man is a braggart, a liar and a con man.  He is everything people in the flyover country usually hate about a New Yorker.  He's bad mannered, brash and a bully.  And yet, people who should know better still listen to him.

I always check the opinions of other people whose intelligence I respect when I get a visceral reaction to a public figure.  I have done that with Donald Trump.  The best minds I follow in the press all universally despise Donald Trump.  I have a lot of respect for Christian constitutional attorneys like Mat Staver and David French.  They have both publicly renounced Trump.  I have a lot of respect for Christian leaders like Dr. Everett Piper who has denounced Trump.  I have a lot of respect for courageous broadcasters like Glenn Beck who has denounced Trump.  And, I have a lot of respect for courageous journalists like Michelle Malkin and David Shapiro who have denounced Trump. These people are among the best and brightest of our time and they all say a Donald Trump nomination is a disastrous idea.

However, he spiritual implications of the Trump phenomenon bother me even more than the amazing suspension of common sense by millions of Americans who should know better. Christians who are really Christians have a built in radar that warns them in the face of evil.  My spiritual radar has been screaming "Warning Danger Ahead" ever since the Trump phenomenon came on the scene.

I have often wondered how it was that over the millenia again and again huge masses of people could ignore God's clearly revealed plan and follow false leaders to destruction.  The answer is now becoming obvious.  From Ancient Israel to 20th Century Germany, when a nation or a people become so sinful, so removed from God's will that He has decided to punish them,  God blinds them and allows them to follow their very worst instincts to their destruction.

I believe we are at than point in America and Donald Trump is the proof of it.  Only a spiritually and intellectually blind nation could choose him has their leader.