The corruption foretold by the inspired pen in the ranks of nominal Christianity during the final moments of earth’s history continues to reach new heights.
One is aghast at the adoration, much of it downright sacrilegious, now being lavished by American evangelicals on the political messiah they have anointed as their all-but-infallible leader. For those familiar with Bible prophecy and its forecasts of betrayal and hypocrisy in the last days by those professing the Christian faith, the spectacle now unfolding both confirms the inspired predictions and evokes the sharpest indignation.
Certainly this should hold true on the part of those still adhering to the lodestar of the inspired text and resisting by God’s grace the lure of cultural grievance. The latter is truly becoming a spiritual death trap for multitudes who claim to exalt the supremacy of Biblical authority and who once claimed to prize character above all else in their choice of leaders, whether religious or political.
“The Chosen One”
One professedly Christian music artist has written a song titled, “The Chosen One,” dedicated to the exaltation of the one who can only be called American Christendom’s pseudo-deliverer [1]. Though the song’s author acknowledges that her hero has “messed up bigly,” she “will stand with him regardless because he is anointed by God to save America” [2]. Why she makes this extravagant claim, and on what grounds, is not explained.
While the song begins with the statement, “I’m not saying he’s something divine” [3], it has long been evident that for his millions of adoring Christian acolytes, even the most egregious flaws—myriads of documented lies, shameless adultery, denying ever asking God for forgiveness—can’t seem to disqualify him in their minds for America’s highest office. One reporter notes that “it can be tricky to tell which lines” of her song refer to God and which to her political champion [4]. The same reporter observes how this song writer appears to have chosen to squander her former brand as a Christian vocal artist “to write songs about the guy from The Apprentice with the same reverence she used to reserve for Jesus” [5].
And she isn’t the only one. A current member of Congress with exceptionally extreme views on a number of issues recently compared the aforementioned political figure to Christ Himself, insisting that the former’s status as a convicted felon holds no shame for her, because the latter was a convicted felon also [6]. (Thoughtful observers can only recall the Savior’s prayer for His murderers, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), and decide whether it bears the slightest resemblance to the revenge-breathing tirades of the spiritual charlatan so revered just now by conservative American Christendom.)
And it gets worse. At the same rally where the aforementioned congresswoman made the Jesus comparison, the local state party chairman declared to the crowd, “We are here in Sunset Park to worship and bring back the greatest president we’ve ever known in our generation” [7].
If this isn’t the worst sort of idolatry, not to mention blasphemy, it’s hard to imagine what is. These pathetic souls have truly cast off whatever Biblical guardrails they might once have honored. Like the Jews in Pilate’s judgment hall, who declared, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15), they have exchanged the sovereignty of heaven for the capricious whims of an earthly tyrant.
“Complete Hypocrisy”
Several years ago one Peter Wehner, an evangelical Christian who served as an adviser to Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, stated with visible regret that conservative Christians have become the “most reliable defenders” of the now-convicted criminal they hail as America’s cultural and political redeemer [8]. Never mind that in the not-too-distant past, political figures with different ideological beliefs who fell into similar indulgences were summarily denounced by evangelical Christians as unfit for office. But the big difference between those figures and the Christian Right’s current champion is that the former disagreed with evangelicalism’s theocratic political agenda, while the latter embraces it. With these misguided souls, moral misdeeds only matter when committed by their philosophical opponents. If, by contrast, their political allies do these things, they can expect unconditional forgiveness from America’s self-appointed moral guardians.
Wehner is one of the few prominent evangelicals with the courage to denounce his fellow religionists for “complete hypocrisy” [9] in their unquestioned allegiance to one of the most morally flawed—if not the most flawed—political leaders in the history of the American Republic.
Conclusion
This is not a political screed. Rather, it is a most needful warning to the striving faithful in the Seventh-day Adventist Church to have nothing whatsoever to do with the sort of political idolatry we are now witnessing among professed Christians in the United States of America. And please, let us not respond with a “pox on both your houses” denunciation. Most assuredly it is doubtful any political leader in the current scene is without fault; Ellen White’s statements about the “faultless character” [10] of “Daniel, that faithful statesman” [11] would be hard (even if not impossible) to replicate in our day, or perhaps any day. But to claim moral equivalency between the brazen blasphemy noted in the statements here cited and the shortcomings of other contemporary office-seekers, is an out-and-out sundering of the Ninth Commandment.
In the article noted earlier, Peter Wehner describes the conduct of his fellow evangelicals in the current American political scene as displaying “a kind of hypocrisy that is so obvious to everybody else but apparently themselves. And so I think that that has really had a discrediting effect on faith” [12]. He went on to say, in a sobering tone:
I feel like something that I treasure and is important to me is being denigrated and harmed. And it’s not only unnecessary, it’s downright destructive [13].
But the problem is far deeper than Wehner likely understands. It is a problem of basic theology, the progeny of an unscriptural gospel that has long denigrated the divine law and divorced salvation from personal behavior. This theological problem was laid bare more than a quarter-century ago when the moral failings of another U.S. President were discussed in a Newsweek editorial. The religion editor of that publication noted how this particular President’s religious thinking was likely shaped by the theology of his Baptist upbringing: “that once he was born again, his salvation was ensured. Sinning—even repeatedly—would not bar his soul from heaven” [14]. The editorial closed with the disquieting observation that the President had “learned his worldview not in the dark of a Saturday night but in the light of a Sunday morning” [15].
A recent evangelical statement on the subject of social justice underscored the spiritual bankruptcy of evangelical salvation theology when it stated: “We also deny that salvation renders any Christian free from all remaining sin or immune from even grievous sin in this life” [16]. Little wonder that a Baptist minister caught in the recent sex abuse scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention excused his vile deeds by insisting, “The flesh will do what the flesh will do” [17].
In sum, the fall of spiritual Babylon foretold in the book of Revelation continues. According to the prophecy there contained, those whose theology renders them helpless against sin, who profess “a form of godliness, while denying the power thereof” (II Tim. 3:5), will turn to the strong arm of civil power to make up the lack. The second angel of Revelation 14 announces Babylon’s fall “because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Rev. 14:8), an act she commits with “the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:2).
The fourth angel, whose message is found in Revelation 18, portrays in even starker tones the end-time condition of apostate Christianity:
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird (Rev. 18:2).
The nominal Christian world isn’t there yet; much remains to transpire before the above pronouncement will issue from heaven and from God’s earthly messengers. But when we see the idolatrous veneration of the most corrupt of men blatantly practiced by Christians claiming to be guardians of Biblical morality, we can know for certain that the spiritual collapse of all but a faithful remnant of Christ’s visible body (Zeph. 3:13; Rev. 12:17) is well under way.
REFERENCES
1. Carly May Gravley, “Dallas-Based Christian Artist Releases Bizarre Paean to Donald Trump,” Dallas Observer, June 6, 2024 https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/dallas-christian-artists-new-song-calls-donald-trump-the-chosen-one-19554744
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. “Marjorie Taylor Greene compares Trump to Jesus Christ,” CNN, June 10, 2024 https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/10/politics/video/marjorie-taylor-greene-compares-trump-jesus-rally-digvid
7. Ibid.
8. Jennifer Hansler, “Former GOP White House official: Evangelicals’ mulligan defense of Trump is ‘complete hypocrisy’” CNN, March 20, 2018 https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/politics/pete-wehner-axe-files/index.html
9. Ibid.
10. Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 569.
11. -----Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 332.
12. Hansler, “Former GOP White House official: Evangelicals’ mulligan defense of Trump is ‘complete hypocrisy’” CNN, March 20, 2018 https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/politics/pete-wehner-axe-files/index.html
13. Ibid.
14. Kenneth L. Woodward, “Sex, sin, and salvation,” Newsweek, Nov. 2, 1998, p. 37.
15. Ibid.
16. “The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel” https://statementonsocialjustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/SSJG-FINAL.pdf
17. Robert Downen, Lise Olsen, John Tedesco, & John Shapley, “Abuse of Faith: 20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reform,” Houston Chronicle, Feb. 10, 2019 https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Southern-Baptist-sexual-abuse-spreads-as-leaders-13588038.php
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan