Using Christ to Justify Evil in Our Culture
Since the fall and sin entered the world subjecting us to futility sinful humans and the Powers of Evil have sought to discredit Christ and to get people to commit great evil in his name. There has throughout human history been no shortage of that. In our day, the Spirit of Evil is at work in our lives and in our culture to continue his mission. Now we know Satan has been defeated in the long term. Yet in this period of almost but not now we must contend not only with spiritual evil but our own sin and evil.
In our culture as truth and civility are further eroded by secular evil, we find the basic right to life of the unborn is being used as a weapon to bully those who oppose injustice, violence, and murder of anyone other than the unborn. The innocent and aborted unborn are being used as a weapon to beat Christians into submission justifying cruelty and violence against women, children and anyone else Donald Trump decides to attack or demean.
Christians are being told by Pastors and others that they must sign off on everything Donald Trump does, and if they don’t support him in whatever evil he commits, they are abandoning the unborn and are certainly pro-abortion. So the statement is made that Christians who do not blindly follow Donald Trump are going to Hell. Then there is the toxic environment created by the Big Lie of voter fraud that still deludes the minds of many.
Sadly, Franklin Graham made a blasphemous comparison of Trump to Christ as he compared the republican Senators who voted to impeach him were like Juda’s Iscariot. There remain many Pastors and other religious leaders, including a long list of con artist false prophets who are using Christ to maintain their deceit. There is nothing, nothing redeeming about Donald Trump.
Scripture has been used to justify the Crusades, slavery around the world and in todays world the perpetrators of false beliefs are in a cult like thrall to Donald Trump. Our government leaders are now fawning and swearing fealty to him as he plots to undermine democracy and fair play and truth.
The Devil’s logic is when we use the suffering of one group to justify inflicting suffering and injustice on another.
Robert Jones, CEO of the independent nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute, said QAnon centers on a “very apocalyptic, good-versus-evil” set of false assumptions that connect Trump’s party to godliness and Democrats to heathendom. “The fact that we saw QAnon, white supremacy and white Christianity all carried together in a violent attack on the Capitol means that particularly white Christians have got some real soul-searching to do,” said Jones, author of two books on white Christianity in America.
Christians can still be active in the public square while staying true to their faith. The problem we have today is a combination of a nationalist identity and a Christian identity that is becoming dangerous.
At the recent insurrection at our Capitol the “QAnon shaman” (a proponent of conspiracy theories and his self-described spiritual leanings) delivered a prayer thanking God “for allowing the United States of America to be reborn. To see this for what it was, a pagan and essentially evil display should make us all concerned for the soul of our country.
We as a nation watched as QAnon, white supremacy and white Christianity all came together in a violent attack on the Capitol. These violent nationalists founded in Nazism and other gnostic cults have developed ways to deploy religious symbols in service of their malevolent ends.
American Evangelicalism is becoming known more for its association with fear-based, power-grabbing, nostalgic partisan Republican politics than it is for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many proclaimed Evangelicals showed up at the Capitol insurrection as if it were a holiday taking selfies in front of destroyed windows and offices.
Of course we must remember that there are many law abiding Christians that voted for Trump and have not bought into his cult. However with the apparent slavish attitudes of Republican Senators and others and as we saw yesterday Senator Kevin McCarthy is still worshipping at the Trump alter, we risk having an evil strongman calling the shots and making demands and threats not unlike many of the third world banana republics. Think Drug Lords and Crime Bosses.
The moral failures and cowardice of the Republican Senate is leading us down the road to ruin. They are not working for the will of the people. Let’s be clear neither Biden and the Democratic Party or Trump and the Republicans will save us from anything. The Spirit of Division and Evil is finding fertile ground in our nation today. A Qanon Senator who threatens the survivors of school shootings, calls for the killing of other politicians is evil and seems to be ok with the other Senators she works with. Minions of Trump calling for beheadings and killings of political appoints has become more entertainment for the blood thirsty. O how far we have fallen!
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
The spiritual warfare in which we are engaged is a battle occurs throughout our lives “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” We have been saved by Christ, yet the battle continues. Many people today are consumed with Conspiracies which are Lies and have accepted lawlessness and deceit as an end to a means and often attempt to justify their behavior or beliefs through Christ.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By …” Romans 8:1-39
As Christians our lives are centered on Christ and no one else. We must be humble, selfless, patient, and long suffering. Be faithful in your daily prayers, confessing sins, repentance and Bible reading.
Jesus should always be our ultimate and only example of how to live our lives. Looking into Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-14 we are provided an example of Jesus responding to evil. In these scriptures we see Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Face to face with Satan, the author of evil, how did Jesus respond? He quoted Scripture. Jesus is showing us the utmost importance of knowing God’s Word and being able to speak truth in the face of evil!