Hijacked!

Trump rally hosted by Dream City Church in Phoenix, AZ  | June 23, 2020

One question gets asked frequently on social media by mainline Protestants, Christians raised in other countries, and other people who haven't been thoroughly indoctrinated in the American Evangelical subculture but are familiar with the message of Jesus and the historical positions of Christians in general:  why are conservative American Evangelicals supporting Donald Trump, whose actions and character are so antithetical to the teachings of Jesus?

 

Having been around long enough to have seen it happening, and having educated myself as to the historical doctrines and practices of Christianity since the first generation of Christians post-Pentecost, I can state with confidence the nature of the problem.  American Evangelical Christianity® has been hijacked by wolves in sheep's clothing, and the sheep have been conditioned not to recognize their Master's voice.  In fact, they've been told He wasn't even talking to them!  The hijackers can be readily divided into two camps, which I will conveniently label as their first-century Jewish analogs:  the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

 

The Pharisees were eschatologically focused fundamentalists who ensured they and their followers never broke any of the 613 commandments by erecting behavioral barriers that kept them far away from the grey areas.  They painstakingly defined exactly what was and was not permissible on the Sabbath - whatever could remotely be considered work was forbidden.  They had no tolerance for ambiguity.  If there was any conceivable way something could lead to violating a commandment, it was forbidden….unless they really felt the need to do it, in which case they would interpret Moses' statutes more liberally.  They knew their Bible, for sure.  They practically accorded it divine status.  And they were eagerly awaiting the promised Messiah, who would sweep away the wicked, drive out the uncircumcised foreign oppressors, and make them the ruling class so they could show the goyim a thing or three.  But, they were convinced their God was waiting to send their deliverer until they got their national act together.  They were suffering under foreign oppression because they tolerated too much wickedness, so they needed to Make Israel Great Again and thus usher in the End of the Age.  Their power base was rural, working-class folk, and they were the rabbis that taught in the synagogues.  They hated Jesus, and he wasn't overly fond of them either.  They had a great deal in common with the Zealots (Hebrew Nationalists that were spoiling for a confrontation with the Feds…er, Romans), but they weren't looking to personally engage in violence, but rather expecting the Messiah to send those they hated to Gehenna on their behalf.  Pharisees fought the culture war against prostitutes, sinners, and tax collectors (they hated taxes), not the civil war.

 

The Sadducees were the ruling class - the Jerusalem establishment that maintained their wealth and power by appeasing or collaborating with the Romans.  They controlled the Priesthood and the Temple, and were the party of law and order, peace and prosperity.  They tolerated the Pharisees because strict Torah observance meant more tithes, but the zealots were bad for business, so the Romans found out about them quickly enough to head off any unpleasantness.  As long as the Pharisees kept the working class focused on cultural issues, they could keep collecting their interest, their rents, and their take of the Temple currency exchange.  Any threat to their power and profit, no matter how popular with the unwashed masses, would be dealt with subtly but swiftly, preferably using Roman muscle.  If they could convince the moralistic majority that their troublemaker was a sinner, that made everything easier, because the Romans would take care of the problem to shut the annoying Pharisees up while the Sadducees stood by with their hands folded and looked like the concerned liberals they pretended to be.  They were the party of the Temple - Jerusalem - Mount Zion, where God chose to dwell and which He would preserve forever (despite the words of Moses and the Prophets to the contrary).  They would do what was necessary to keep their good thing going, and no would-be Messiah was going to come in and take over, thank you very much.

 

Jesus was quite the Social Justice Warrior, in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, teaching the multitudes the path of non-violent resistance, hanging out with people the Pharisees despised, and giving way free food and health care.  He acted like whores' lives mattered, and had nothing favorable to say about either the wealthy and powerful Sadducees who oppressed widows and orphans or the hypocritical fundamentalist Pharisees who thanked God they were better than those disgusting tax collectors and sinners and filthy foreigners.  And was he ever a troublemaker!  Interrupting the commercial activities of the Temple complex…forgiving sins…doing all the things the Messiah was supposed to do in Isaiah…claiming to be GOD, for Christ's sake!  Nope.  He must die, for the greater good.  While they were plotting to kill him, he pronounced judgment on the Jerusalem establishment:  total destruction of the city and the Temple, and vengeance for the blood of all the prophets from Abel to Zachariah.  With his death and resurrection, he established a New Covenant, not for one nation but for all people, and not one strip of real estate but the whole earth.  The Old Covenant and its Temple were made functionally irrelevant, with God's Spirit dwelling in temples not made with human hands, and the Church named the new Zion and the Israel of God.  Forty years later, giving national Israel a full generation to repent and believe the Good News (a good number of them did so), God made the Old Covenant permanently obsolete with the destruction of the man-made Temple, the loss of its furnishings, eviction with extreme prejudice of the wicked tenants that had dared kill the Landlord's Son, and the permanent and irreversible end of the Levitical economy.

 

Alright…back to the point.  Hijackers!  Today's Pharisees are, like their first century counterparts, eschatologically driven fundamentalists who elevate the words of God (Bible) above the Word made Flesh, at least when it comes to interpreting Scripture and ordering their lives.  Much of American Evangelical Christianity® is Infected with the pernicious doctrinal system of Dispensationalism, introduced by John Nelson Darby in the early 19th Century, propagated by C.I. Scofield's reference Bible with embedded Dispensationalist commentary and accompanying eschatological charts in the early 20th Century, and taught at such Evangelical learning centers as Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary.  Under Dispensationalism, the Sermon on the Mount was given under the Dispensation of Law, and will apply to Israel in the Millennial Kingdom, but the Church is most definitely NOT Israel, NOT the heir to the Promises, and NOT the agency by which Christ's Kingdom will fill the entire earth (we're Plan B, holding the fort until Jesus removes us and restarts the Old Covenant to finally have things the way he wanted them all along).

 

As Pharisees who do not accept the applicability of Jesus parables and teaching on the Kingdom of God/Heaven to the present age, they are prone the Pharisees' moralistic hypocrisy and always willing to blame the degradation of culture for the Lord's delay in establishing His kingdom on earth.  Never mind that the Church has historically taught that the Kingdom was inaugurated during Jesus' earthly ministry with a parade on the back of a donkey followed by a rather unusual and bloody coronation, and made complete by his resurrection and ascension, where he rules from the right hand of God while the Kingdom fills the earth and until every enemy is subdued.  Nope.  To the Dispensationalist the Kingdom is future, full stop.    

 

The modern "fundagelical" Pharisees have been coopted by today's ruling class to continue the culture wars so they can have politicians elected who will enable them to get richer.  The Sadducees of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex recently joined by the private prison industry, finance and empower their culture warriors against the social justice oriented followers of the teachings of Jesus (fairly characterized as red-letter Christians) because if the working classes ever united across racial and theological divides the hungry could be fed with good things and the rich sent away empty.  (Historic Christianity honors the Blessed Mary by echoing her prophetic song every morning.)  The Greedy Bastards® fund the neo-Pharisees and their not-quite-right-in-the-head neo-Zealot cousins, the White Nationalists, so they will elect Republicans because of gay marriage, abortion, immigration, and Israel (not necessarily in that order).

 

American Evangelical Christianity® begrudgingly held their noses and voted for Donald Trump in 2016 despite his obvious lack of character or competence because (a) Hillary Clinton?  Seriously? and (b) he promised judges that would support their right to discriminate on the basis of religion and overturn the abomination that was Roe v. Wade. The fact that they believe he put us about a decade closer to Armageddon by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the nation that pretends to be Israel while rebelling against the King of Israel is the bonus that might get some of them to vote for him again.  But if they accepted that Jesus was speaking to them in Matthew 25, they would realize that the final judgment is going to be all about social justice, not moral purity, and repent before it's too late and there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

 

"Why do you call me Lord, and don't do what I say?"  Luke 6:46