Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him? Will you show partiality toward him? Will you plead the case for God? Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man? He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality. Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you? Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay. - Job 13:7-12 (ESV)
Niccolo Machiavelli is credited with saying the ends justify the means. The long and short of this is that the achievement of an objective is all that matters - not how you got there. I am here to say that God does not ascribe to Machiavellian philosophy. In fact, just the opposite. God is infinitely more concerned with how we get somewhere than actually getting there. The apostate church system gets this wrong because they are under the delusion that God needs our help with something, anything. The original teaching of dominionism included the belief that Jesus cannot even return until we conquer the seven cultural mountains for Him. Beloved, God does not need our help for anything. He does not need us to install theocratic rule, rig elections, lie, cheat or steal to accomplish His will. Christo-political operatives are always insisting that this election is the most important of our lifetime God needs our vote. Nonsense. Absolute, blasphemous, nonsense. God has never awoken on the day after Election Day surprised at the results. We will not be standing before Christ with Him reviewing our voting record.
I say this as a backdrop to a story that flew under the radar this week in Christendom. Most purveyors of Christian news will have heard of the Family Research Council (FRC), headed by Tony Perkins. For the uninitiated, the FRC is a lobbying arm of the apostate church system. This is no secret as their own description from their website informs us that they are:
"A nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to articulating and advancing a family-centered philosophy of public life. In addition to providing policy research and analysis for the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government, FRC seeks to inform the news media, the academic community, business leaders, and the general public about family issues that affect the nation from a biblical worldview."
Advancing a family centered philosophy into public life is code speak for furthering the dominionist agenda of establishing theocratic norms in our pluralistic society based solely on Judeo-Christian beliefs. They openly admit to trying to influence all three branches of government. They have written amicus briefs before the Supreme Court. They have rallied presidents and worked to overthrow presidential regimes they did not agree with. They are constantly working with Congress to write what they view as biblical values into our laws despite a fair portion of our country not actually being Christian. Not satisfied with the cultural mountain of government, the FRC also seeks to influence business, media, education, and the general public with their self-contrived "biblical worldview." One can claim the FRC to be many things. They can be considered a political operation. They can be considered an extension of the Republican Party. They can be considered a lobbying organization. They can be considered a right-wing policy think tank. What no one would ever suggest however, is that they are a church. Until now.
The FRC has applied for and been approved to change their status with the Internal Revenue Service to an "association of churches." If our readers think this sounds familiar it is because we reported on when Franklin Graham changed both Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Organization to the same designation with the IRS a few years back. Both are charitable organizations of which Franklin serves as the CEO. The move was to prevent Graham from having to release his salaries each year. At the time, Graham was paid over $880,000 in salaries, which was causing him some well-deserved criticism. This is the apparent motivation for the move by the FRC as well. Now, they no longer have to reveal the salaries of their executives or reveal where their donated monies come from. How Jesus-ish. Additionally, the IRS cannot initiate an audit without high level Treasury Department approval. For the record, the former parent organization of the FRC, Focus on the Family, changed to a "church" in 2016.
So, the question is what do we do with this? Is it not worth our time to see how organizations claiming to do the work of the Lord behave before the world at large? There is no question that what the FRC did here was immoral. It required lying, which we know the Lord hates. It required cheating - just read what God thinks of weighted scales. If you are so proud of your work for God, why are you hiding what you make for it? Why are you hiding who you are in bed with financially? Who you are beholden to? Do you think that this dishonesty and hypocrisy is lost on this dying world? The things of God may be foolishness to them, but they can see carnal, fleshly behavior very well. If you are willing to lie to conceal money, why would anyone care what you have to say about Jesus Christ? Of course, the FRC does not care one whit about the cause of Christ, just like Franklin Graham and Focus on the Family. They care about power, fame, and money. They represent the apostate church, not the body of Christ.
I would close this discussion with a review of the key verses spoken by Job. It is an incredulous plea that can be directed at the apostate forces, dominionist preachers and organizations such as the FRC now. They believe they must speak falsely for God. They lobby the government in order to speak deceitfully. They plead their case for God, as if He needs their help but all they are really doing is helping themselves. The Lord rebukes them today. Tony Perkins, Franklin Graham, James Dobson and the whole lot of them who think their money or their donor's money is more important than their representation for Christ. Will it be well with you when He searches you out? Do you think that you can deceive God like you deceive man? He will surely rebuke you! Does not His majesty terrify you! Does not the dread of God fall upon you! Your maxims are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are as fragile as defenses of clay.
Beloved, this is no small matter. God is far more concerned with how we represent than achieving carnal goals. These organizations do not further the cause of the gospel. God does not need to cheat. He does not need to lie. He does not need anything from His creation to accomplish His will. Stop valuing this world. We are but pilgrims and sojourners walking through. Our true citizenship is in heaven. Dominionism, or Christian nationalism is the last idol of the church age. Do not fall for political operatives hiding their money and pretending to be doing it all for Jesus. They will answer for every careless word and so will we. We need to choose our affiliations wisely. The ends do not justify the means.
Reverend Anthony Wade - July 20, 2022
