Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." They said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." - Matthew 27:3-4 (ESV)
I understand this message might fall on deaf ears. I am still compelled to share the truth so that some might come out from the darkness that has deceived them within the walls of the American church. It will also prove useful for some who may not know how to try and speak to their friends and family members who may even claim to discern and even be against the NAR, yet espouse the very dominionism that is the primary driver of modern NAR theology. Before the spin doctors and apologists start with the usual nonsense let's get a couple of things straight. This is a Christian discussion, not a political one. As Americans, we all have the liberty to choose who we think is best to lead this country for all of the secular reasons we want. The economy, the border, civil rights, abortion, or whatever motivates you. It becomes a spiritual, discernment issue when people insist on interjecting Christ and the gospel into the carnality of politics. For example, Steven Strang and Charisma News ran an absolute onslaught of false teacher articles leading up to the election trying to spiritually bully those in the church into voting for Donald Trump. They eviscerated scripture to accomplish this. For every reasonable sounding article from Dr. Michael Brown, who still said no Christian should ever vote Democratic, there were three articles from the likes of Jack Hibbs, Mario Murillo and Greg Locke consigning to hell anyone who did not vote for Trump or even those who might choose to not vote at all. Realize the damage this does to believers who are supposed to be led like sheep, with the truth of God's word. Think about the faith that was shipwrecked. Idiots like Mark Driscoll, who stole 200K from the tithes of his former church, can rant all day long about who he thinks Jesus would vote for but that does not make him any less of the liar that we all should know he is.
This all being said, the premise from folks whose ministries focus on discernment of false teaching, is that the church has been convinced to follow a cult leader for false Christian reasons. Cult leaders demand complete fealty, which Christians have been all too willing to provide. Dissent is not allowed. Critical thinking is forbidden. The people behind this are political operatives disguised as Christian leaders. What they convinced the church was that the character of the man that they were voting for was somehow irrelevant to God. When they only follow fake right-wing media designed to prop up talking points instead of the truth, the cult grows. For example, most of folks in the apostate church believe that the Democratic Party "weaponized" the justice system because of all the indictments Donald Trump was facing. This of course is ridiculous, but what it allowed was for people to minimize the crimes that the cult leader has committed. It is a provable fact that he is a convicted rapist. There is not up for debate. He was convicted. Not be democrats but by a jury of his peers. Likewise, he was convicted of 34 other felonies when he tried to deceive the public before the 2016 by paying off a porn star he had slept with while his third wife was home with his newborn son. None of that matters to God? This is the Faustian bargain the NAR demanded Christians make. It was not enough to simply make carnal arguments for why Trump might be the best secular choice. It was not enough to even say that he was the lesser of two evils because both of those options might still leave too many Christians not voting at all. So, they had to apply a thick patina of Christianese onto the least Christian candidate to ever run for president. So, Charisma employed their gaggle of false prophets to declare that Trump was somehow a fulfillment of prophecy, which provided the church with the excuse they were looking for to cast their vote. Fools like Jonathan Con or some random guy named "Joey Z" would write absurd article after absurd article. Trump was correlated to a reincarnation of King Cyrus or King Jehu. We all heard ad nauseum the notion that "God could use anyone," and the church lapped it up never realizing that same argument would work for the other side or any candidate for that matter. The notion that God can use anyone does not mean the guy they want you to vote for is God's choice. So, now let us take a look at exactly who the NAR has convinced the church to crawl into bed with because now that the election is over, there still can be no dissent. They have shoved their chips into the middle of the table, and they are all in. They also demand that you are all in. You cannot return the thirty pieces of silver as we see in the key verses today. It doesn't matter how much damage it does to the witness for Jesus Christ because He is not the savior in this worship paradigm. Trump is.
So, we have seen Charisma News and the NAR try to defend the selections Trump has made for his cabinet, despite the outrage from both parties. We could talk about Pete Hegseth being named to run the Department of Defense with an 850-billion-dollar budget and 2.8 million employees despite having never managed anything other than being a two-bit Fox News weekend host. It was also revealed that he paid off an accuser of sexual assault previously. That is all bad enough, but additionally, he lobbied Trump in the past to pardon three soldiers convicted of war crimes. The worst one, had killed a teenage prisoner in Iraq with a knife, then posed with the corpse, and then threatened his fellow soldiers if they ratted him out. That is who the NAR has now forced the church to be in bed with. He is an admitted racist, insisting that black Generals did not earn their promotions. He has also praised the Christian crusades, which should be utter anathema to any bible believing Christian. Pete Hegseth may be the worst choice ever for Sec-Def but he is far from the worst cabinet nomination from last week alone.
I was going to get into the NAR also insisting we need to turn our eyes away with a wink and a nod to Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence. Someone who is essentially an asset for the Russian Government, Gabbard infamously claimed that the US was secretly running bio-warfare labs in Ukraine at the start of the war. This of course was utter garbage spread by Vladimir Putin as a false pretense for invading Ukraine and he was no doubt pleased to find a useful idiot in Gabbard. Even Republicans have called her treasonous. Those are secular arguments, however. It is people like Robert Kennedy for the head of Health and Human Services that might be the scariest. From a Christian perspective, it is odd for the party that pretends to be pro-life to act like it doesn't matter that this selection has a lifetime of pro-choice bonafides and is on record saying that he does not think any vaccines are safe and effective. Did you get that? Any! I am not a vaccine purist by any stretch, but I am pretty sure the measles, mumps and polio vaccines have been safe and effective. This just furthers the perception from the lost that not only are Christians unchristian, but they insist on being the stupid people. You cannot begin to measure the damage this does for the witness of Jesus Christ.
We can put all of these horrific selections to the side however because the focus here is on Florida Congressman, Matt Gaetz. Make no mistake about it beloved - the church is in bed with Matt Gaetz now. He has been nominated to be the Attorney General. The only experience he has had with the Department of Justice is being investigated by it for sex trafficking a minor at drug fueled parties. The lawyer for the former teenage girls was on record yesterday as saying that Gaetz had paid to have sex with the 17-year-old, then stopped when he found out she was 17 and waited until she was 18 to pay her again for sex. You know, because who would Jesus sex traffic? The NAR and its GOP masters have tried to spin this that because DOJ decided to not prosecute, somehow, we can pretend none of it matters. The reality is that DOJ realized that the corroborating witness needed to convict, was herself, guilty of the sex trafficking as well as Gaetz and when your primary witness is that compromised, conviction becomes very murky. Never mind that Gaetz's admitted wing man, Joel Greenberg is in prison for 11 years for the very same sex trafficking! Never mind that a lawyer for a woman involved testified to the House Ethics Committee that she saw Gaetz having sex with the high school student in question during the drug filled party across state lines. Never mind that a fellow Republican is on camera saying that Gaetz used to walk around Congress showing pictures of the young girls he was sleeping with. Never mind that the same colleague said that Gaetz bragged about crushing erectile dysfunction pills and mixing them with energy drinks so he could "go all night." Never mind that He was also accused of creating a game with fellow male politicians from Florida with a point system for who they were able to sleep with. One point for a lobbyist, two points for an intern, and even higher points for sleeping with the wives of other legislators. I speak these truths because this is now who the church stands with. This vile excuse for a human being, who stands credibly accused of sexually trafficking a high school student, who he then supplied with drugs in order to have sex with her. This is the end result of demanding that voting for a convicted rapist who was great friends with Jeffrey Epstein was a Christian imperative. When you are so compromised to begin with, the filth just keeps mounting and you take it because you have convinced yourself that somehow the Machiavellian ends with justify the Faustian bargain means. The devil is laughing because we keep defending the abject worst our society has to offer as somehow having a "Deborah anointing" or an "Elijah mantle." What nonsense.
Gaetz by the way was about to face his reckoning. The Ethics Committee, run by his own party, was about to vote on releasing the results of their investigation, which has been reported as being devastating for Gaetz. Knowing this, Gaetz flew up to Washington on Trump's plane and they hatched this scheme. The nomination allowed Gaetz to pretend that he needed to resign from Congress, knowing that would end their jurisdiction and possibly give enough cover to his allies to pretend they could not longer release the report. Originally, the faux-Christian Speaker of the House said he could not be involved, which was correct, but after spending the evening with Mr. Trump he now is completely making up that it would somehow be unprecedented if it were released even though this has happened multiple times before. Just for fun to consider, Trump and Gaetz may have decided to try this on purpose to eventually pull the nomination. It might benefit Trump because then his other poor nominations might get less scrutiny and Gaetz would simply walk back into his newly elected seat in January, with the ethics report dismissed. All the while the church sits there holding the hand of a sex trafficker of minors insisting it is all somehow "God's plan." If you find yourself today lying next to Matt Gaetz and realize that there is no Christian excuse for it, realize that God always forgives if we repent. The character of the candidates did matter greatly to God. Not in our carnal sense but in defending them as somehow being righteous. Somehow being anointed by God for "such a time as this." Get out while you still can beloved. Evil is still evil, in anybody's name.
