It is time the church realizes who they have crawled into bed with...

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For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed"God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. - 1Thessalinians 2:1-12 (ESV)

God gives us instruction throughout the bible for a reason. He does not waste a single word. In this new world of "alternative facts," God is the embodiment of truth and as followers of Christ, we should not be caught defending lies and ruining our witness for Christ by supporting any evil. The bible makes it very plain that we are not to take part in any of the works of darkness. At the top of that list is carnal politics, which has infected the church today like a metastasizing cancer. A great swath of the apostate church pastors today have created an entire brand out of the NAR dominionist position. As the bible says, these people are enemies of God. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. They teach people that the evil men they support are God's chosen, for a time such as this. Except they are not. Sure, God raises up and uses all leaders but that does not make any of them righteous. The issue is not that you support any given candidate or party. The issue is when you defend them vociferously and pretend that they are anointed of God. The church today actively supports and defends a convicted rapist. A man who has 34 other felony convictions. A man who has six bankruptcies. A man who cheated on his first wife with his second wife and his third wife with a porn star. A man who openly bragged about grabbing women by the genitals because he was famous. Yet the NAR has convinced the church to claim he is the second coming of King Cyrus. Or King Jehu. That he has an Elijah mantle and a Deborah anointing. Then we wonder why 40 million people have left the church in the past 25 years. Remember, THAT was supposed to be what we should be focused on. This world is not being revived. It is passing away. The only thing that matters between now and then are how many get saved before Christ returns.

As if things could not get worse, they did yesterday. We must realize that when we crawl into bed with the devil, the bill eventually comes due. It was not enough to flush our personal pride and witness down the toilet for the past eight years but now, the church is in bed with a child sex trafficker. That is because the House of Representatives released an ethics report on former Congressman, and Trump nominee for the Attorney General, Matt Gaetz. Do not get bogged down in useless talking points about the release of the report. The committee had an equal number of Republicans and Democrats and they unanimously agreed on the findings. If you find yourself arguing nuance, then you really need to question your salvation at this point. This guy flew young girls around the country and to other countries for the express purpose of prostituting them for sex and giving them illegal drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine. One of his victims had just finished her junior year in high school when he paid her for sex, twice. Do not get bogged down in the nuance of whether he knew she was underage because it is not relevant to Florida law, which says you do not have to know for it to be considered statutory rape. Not to mention, if you find yourself arguing that a 17-year-old being raped is somehow less of an issue if the assailant never asked for her age, maybe you again need to question your salvation. The report concluded:

"Representative Gaetz took advantage of the economic vulnerability of young women to lure them into sexual activity for which they received an average of a few hundred dollars after each encounter." - House Ethics Report on Matt Gatez

For a few hundred dollars. Someone's daughter. Someone's sister. If your politics makes you so biased that this is somehow not important to you, then your politics have become your idol. One of the victims said that Gaetz would make her feel bad for not having sex with him and another said she felt violated. Please, we should not try and parse this out in our wicked and deceitful hearts. The reason why you do not come out and pretend that Donald Trump is righteous is because you then own Matt Gaetz as well. Donald Trump has called Gaetz a "friend of his who has a big career set up."

Yesterday. He said that yesterday. AFTER the ethics report was released. Think about that for a second. The first buddy Elon Musk referred to the ethics report as being worth less than nothing. That is how the people you directly support each day with your retweets and Facebook posts feels about 17-year-old girls being statutorily raped by a sitting US Congressman. They are less than nothing. Steve Bannon, who you are also in bed with, said yesterday, and please forgive his language:

"Take the ethics report and shove it up you're a**. Gaetz must return like Trump returned. Don't back down, double down." - Steve Bannon

What does double down mean? That Gaetz should rape more young girls? You might parse this out as, I didn't support Gaetz - yes you did! That is the entire point! When you confer righteousness upon evil, you are in bed with that evil. Again, I am not speaking about one carnal vote. I am speaking about defending the evil. Demanding other Christians also vote for your evil. Wrapping your evil up in Jesus and driving the unsaved away from the gospel in the process. This is not merely about political parties because both are evil. This is the man that your idol just nominated for the top law enforcement job in the country and after the release of the report he is a good friend with a bright career ahead of him? Stop defending evil! I want to turn to scripture in the hopes that it still matters to us. I chose the key verses from Paul's letter to the church in Thessalonica because it highlights how we are to view the sheep in God's church. People are supposed to matter to us, not politics. So, let us reason once more in expositing these verses:

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict."

The only thing that matters is the gospel. Not conflict. Not being mistreated. The NAR sells victimhood to the church to make it feel aggrieved. We see this concerted effort every day for decades now. God was not thrown out of public schools. How weak do you think God is? A high school football coach in Oregon is not being persecuted for not being allowed to force his students to pray. A baker in Colorado is not being persecuted for being told he has to bake a cake. Do you want to know who is a victim? The 17-year-old girl being flown to the Bahamas to do ecstasy and cocaine in order to lower her resistance to pay her to have sex. Lunatics like Greg Lockes, Mario Murillo and Jack Hibbs all said that people who vote Democratic are going to hell. That is not the gospel. That is not boldness, it's stupidity and arrogance.

"For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts."

Do you think that God is pleased that Christians spread the lies about our Haitian brothers and sisters eating pets in Ohio? Do you think He is pleased that we have gone from deriding Bill Clinton with the mantra "character counts" to "take that ethics report and shove it?" Jesus taught extensively about hypocrisy, yet we seemingly do not care how hypocritical we are in plain sight of the world. The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, markets himself as an evangelical darling yet he wanted to block the release of this report. The 17-year-old victims? They obviously meant less than the Republican Congressman he was trying to protect. She did not mean less to God, however. Doesn't that matter to us anymore? Paul understood that God tests our hearts. How are we doing with that test? There is a great verse in Job that asks, will you deceive God as easily as you deceive man? The question is obviously rhetorical because we will not be able to stand before Him and tell him that we honestly thought this convicted rapist was King Jehu reincarnated. Or that we were really concerned about sex trafficking, well depending on who was doing the trafficking of course.

"For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed"God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God."

Pretext for greed? Like Trump sneakers, bibles, trading cards, silver coins, guitars, and pieces of his suit coat from the assassination attempt? That kind of greed? Or do you mean the excessive greed of the NAR church leaders? Maybe Paul is referring to the 100 million dollars Robert Morris fleeced from the flock until it was revealed that he as Matt Gaetz like his women on the young side, as trump once said of Jeffrey Epstein. At least Gaetz's victim was 17 and not 12 like Morris. Paul did not seek to flatter or bribe the people who he preached to. How do the church leaders of today bribe their followers? By offering them a huckster's salvation for only 10% of their income. For that donation, they will assure you that you are heaven bound without having to change a thing. Oh, and make sure to vote for who we assure you is God's handpicked carnal messiah! The bill for that huckster salvation comes due when we are saying "Lord Lord" while standing before Christ. Paul always strived to not be the slightest burden to the people he was preaching to. Not so today for the NAR leaders who burden their sheep with defending the most reprehensible and vile politicians. It was bad enough that they made you all look the other way about rape convictions, stealing nuclear secrets and conspiring to overthrow our elections. The burden is heavier today because of Matt Gaetz. The friend of the idol they make you worship, who has a big career ahead of him despite statutorily raping a high school junior. The key verses conclude:

"You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory."

Defining your faith by the support of any politician, especially Donald Trump, is not walking in a manner worthy of God. We are supposed to exhort our children, not fly them to New York to see a Broadway play and pay them for sex. The church stands as witnesses for or against the leaders they follow. We will all stand before Christ and give account for every careless word, Facebook post, or retweet. Do not delude yourself for a second. It matters to God. This 17-year-old high school junior matters to God. The fact that a man twice her age gave her powerful and illegal drugs to manipulate her into prostituting herself matters to God. NAR Christians were all apoplectic this year over the child sex trafficking movie, The Sound of Freedom. What happened to that zeal when the victim exposes your political position as being wholly evil? Please. Do not try and get this twisted about the other side of the political argument because all carnal politics are evil. This is about supporting any evil as if it were righteous. It is about calling evil, good. When will it be enough for us to draw a line in the sand and declare we will not cross it anymore? God help us.

Reverend Anthony wade - December 24, 2024

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.