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The Troubling
Theology of Trump’s Faith Adviser
by Josh Davis, Southwest Radio Church
President Trump tapped
controversial televangelist Paula White-Cain as the
head of the newly created White House Faith Office on
Thursday, Feb. 6. Aiming to promote religious freedom
nationwide, this initiative seeks “to address
anti-Christian bias within federal agencies,”
according to the appointee’s website. This office
will work closely with the U.S. attorney general to
combat discrimination against Christians in three-letter
government agencies like the DOJ, IRS and FBI.
Set aside the political
debate on whether such an office should exist. Of all
the Christian leaders Trump could select to lead this
new initiative, choosing White is puzzling and troubling.
Known for espousing the prosperity (fake) gospel, this
false prophet now holds a powerful position in the White
House.
White has close ties to
the New Apostolic Reformation. Its dangerous mistreatment
of Scripture has created some unbiblical beliefs and
practices. For example, some NAR adherents practice
grave soaking. They visit the graves of people considered
spiritually powerful and attempt to absorb the anointing
of the deceased. This practice of necromancy is prohibited
in Scripture (Deut. 18:10; Gal. 5:19-20).
For those who don’t
think end-times views make much difference, consider
this Exhibit A: The NAR teaches that Christianity will
dominate seven key areas of society including politics,
education, media and the arts. This so-called Seven
Mountain Mandate says that God’s kingdom is here
now and that Christians will dominate every area of
society, thus bringing the kingdom of heaven to Earth.
However, the Bible is
clear…
•
The kingdom is not now. It is still in the future.
• Christians will
not bring the kingdom down. Jesus will. A proper reading
of Bible prophecy makes this easy to understand.
• We are not the
hero of this story. Jesus is. Rev. 19:11-21 describes
Jesus’ victorious Second Coming. The only role
the saints play is to tag along.
• We won’t
even swing a sword. Jesus is the victor. Jesus –
not His saints – brings in His Millennial Kingdom.
I pray that the President
will ignore the false gospel and bad theology of Paula
White. I pray he has advisers who alert him to his dangerous
selection. I pray that people wake up to false teachings
and false teachers. I pray that people will turn to
God’s Truth with their whole hearts, Paula White
included.
Title: Christian support for
Israel revisited
Subtitle: Media bias against
Israel as demonstrated in various on-line articles
Media
bias against Israel is almost palpable! But for Christians
who have been taught bible prophecy, the current trend
for believers to support Israel no matter what, is a
tragic mistake. Yes, we should pray for the “peace
of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6) and for the ultimate
salvation of the Jews. But at the same time realize
Israel is back in the land today—but spiritually
blinded (Romans 11:7), in a state of unbelief and under
the condemnation of Almighty God. They are facing “the
time of Jacob’s trouble”—the Tribulation
Period—in which the Antichrist is going to deceive
them into believing he is their long-awaited Messiah.
And although some people in positions of national importance
occasionally set forth interesting insights into the
situation in the Middle East, their insistence upon
a “Two State” solution in which Israel will
have to cede land for the Palestinians a homeland—something
the formation of Jordan was supposed to accomplish and
didn’t—God has placed His Name in Jerusalem
(Deut. 12:11) and made it clear that the land of “Eretz
Israel” belongs to Him. The term Eretz Israel
basically refers to the land God promised to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob—of which has been said that “only
a tithe” (1/10) has ever been occupied by Israel
and will not be fully realized scriptually until the
Millennial Reign of Christ is established.
To say that this scenario
is complicated would be the understatement of all time!
And speaking of Jerusalem, Isaiah 51:17 & 51:22
mention that Jerusalem was a “cup of trembling”
which God instigated and then removed, never to be drunk
again. Then we have in Zechariah 12:2 this prophecy
concerning Jerusalem at some point in the future: “The
burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the
LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth
the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit
of man within him. (2) Behold, I will make Jerusalem
a cup of trembling unto all the people round about,
when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and
against Jerusalem. (3) And in that day will I make Jerusalem
a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves
with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people
of the earth be gathered together against it.”
Obviously this event is still in the future due to the
references to “all people round about” and
“in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome
stone for all people…”
And as we can see from
the number of articles being written about Israel today,
it is pretty evident that the “midnight oil”
is figuratively being burned in embassies around the
world as their leaders ponder how to deal with the situation
in the Middle East.
I may be totally off base,
but with Israel trying to gain the upper hand in their
decades-long struggle with their avowed enemies who
literally surround them, it seems reasonable to conclude
that they are ripe for a supernatural leader! A member
of Israel’s Knesset was quoted years ago, as saying
something to the effect that “be he God or the
devil, whoever brings peace to us, we will follow.”
That sentiment reflects an attitude the “man of
sin” (2 Thess. 2:3), known today as the Antichrist,
will exploit. The Greek “anti” prefix of
Antichrist means “against,” “opposite
of” or “in place of.” In other words
this individual, who has yet to appear on the scene,
will be a counterfeit christ. And according to all that
the bible has to say about this character, we know that
he will literally be Satan incarnate. Jesus Christ is
God incarnate—God in the flesh and the “man
of sin” will present himself to Israel as being
their Messiah. And the Word of God tells us that he
will “push all of the right buttons” to
totally deceive Israel. The Apostle Paul had this to
say about him:
2 Thessalonians 2:3-12
(KJV)
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day
shall not come, except there come a falling away first,
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he
is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I
told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be
revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only
he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of
the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in
them that perish; because they received not the love
of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
It is my belief that the
phrase “a falling away” (Gk. Apostasia)
in verse 3 refers to the Departure/Rapture of the Church.
Admittedly, this is not the traditional interpretation,
but nevertheless it is a legitimate translation used
by the Geneva Bible. And in a recent article I made
mention of this, along with the words “letteth”
and “let” in vs. 7 meaning “hinder”
in today’s English. The “he” of that
same verse clearly refers to a personality: the Holy
Spirit of God. He is the One who has the ability to
hinder Satan, the most powerful angel God created (the
“anointed cherub,” Ezekiel 28:14). And finally,
the phrase “until he be taken out of the way,”
in my opinion, speaks to the ubiquitous Holy Spirit
Who is found everywhere in the universe, without exception.
So how can He be taken out of the way? Actually, it
is quite simple: He lives in the heart of every genuine
believer and when the Church is suddenly removed at
the Rapture, the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit
manifested through believers will be “taken out
of the way.” This pivotal and instantaneous happening
will doubtless stun the world and at some subsequent
time, vs. 8 tells us, “And then shall that Wicked
(Gk anomos—lawless, perhaps not subject to the
Law of Moses), be revealed.” Satan incarnate will
appear on the scene—along with the False Prophet—both
of whom will be working stupendous miracles (vs. 9)
“with all power (Gk. Dynamis, from with we get
our English word “dynamite), “and signs
and lying wonders.” The Lord Jesus Christ criticized
the Jews on numerous occasions for seeking signs which,
to them, would prove He was their Messiah, and He refused.
While on the other hand, the Antichrist posing as their
Messiah will “blow them away” with all the
“signs and lying wonders” they ignorantly
thought would come with their legitimate Messiah.
So what am I trying to
say with all this? Again, it is my belief that Israel
will fall under the spell of the very one who will,
at some point try to kill them all! But in the interim,
will achieve a status in the world beyond their wildest
expectations. Possibly by utilizing the miracle working
power of Satan they will finally reach their goal of
Eretz Israel and occupy the entire Middle East—thereby
erroneously thinking they had attained what was prophesied
in the Old Testament about their untimate blessing during
the Millennial Reign of Christ:
Deuteronomy 28:8-13 (KJV)
8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy
storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand
unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the
LORD thy God giveth thee.
9 The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto
himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep
the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his
ways.
10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art
called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid
of thee.
11 And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods,
in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle,
and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the
LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure,
the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season,
and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt
lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
13 And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the
tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not
be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments
of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day,
to observe and to do them...”
My friends, Satan knows
the Scriptures and by miraculous deception he can grant
Israel the major points of God’s actual promises
above. They will believe he is their Messiah and that
they are living in his thousand year reign. Note that
in vs.10 the people of the world will be afraid of them.
Verses 11 through 13 indicate the degree to which they
will reach under the leadership of their false messiah.
Of course they will continue to ignore the conditional
“ifs” God included in His original message
to them as they are still doing today.
Just how important will
they become up to and including the first 3 ½
years of Antichrist’s reign—the midpoint
of the Tribulation Period? Some prophecy teachers today
believe there is an indeterminate “gap”
between the Rapture of the Church and the rise of Antichrist,
about which the Christian writer Arthur Pink had much
to say in his books, and opined that he believed 40
years could easily elapse between the two. With this
in mind, I believe it possible that Israel could become
the greatest nation ever seen on earth—with the
Antichrist’s headquarters being in a rebuilt and
modernized Babylon, the Euphrates River dredged to accommodate
ocean going vessels—shipping oil and other commodities
around the world—consequently seeing Israel become
the religious, political and economic capital of the
world. Look at what they, in their present state of
unbelief, have achieved since 1948! With these possibilities
in mind, let’s look at chapter 18 of the book
of Revelation:
Revelation 18:1-24 (KJV)
1 And after these things I saw another angel come down
from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened
with his glory.
2 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.
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath
of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have
committed fornication with her, and the merchants of
the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her
delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come
out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath
remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto
her double according to her works: in the cup which
she hath filled fill to her double.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously,
so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in
her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall
see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death,
and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned
with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication
and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and
lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her
burning,
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying,
Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city!
for in one hour is thy judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn
over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious
stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and
silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner
vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious
wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense,
and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts,
and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and
souls of men.
14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed
from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly
are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no
more at all.
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich
by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment,
weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was
clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and
decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.
And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships,
and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar
off,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning,
saying, What city is like unto this great city!
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping
and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein
were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason
of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles
and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone,
and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence
shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall
be found no more at all.
22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers,
and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee;
and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be
found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone
shall be heard no more at all in thee;
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at
all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of
the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for
thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by
thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of
saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
Impossible you say? The
Israel of God is not the Israel of the Antichrist. And
Christians today need to understand that our shared
heritage with Israel under God will only be fully resumed
after the Second Coming of Christ. From 70 A.D. onward,
Israel has been, and still is, under God’s condemnation.
He is going to punish them “to within an inch
of their lives” during the Tribulation Period—”The
time of Jacob’s trouble.” Their false Messiah
is going to lead them down the slippery slope of hell,
from which only a “remnant” will survive
to enter the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
This is not a pretty prospect
to consider, but I am convinced modern day Christians
(myself included at times) have been very much mistaken
about how we try to pray for and interact with Jewish
people and be pleasing to God in doing so. There is
not an antisemitic bone in my body and my heart goes
out to them as we see them suffer at the hands of their
enemies. But we need to face facts and realize they
are, for the most part, unbelievers and thus enemies
of Christ—along with billions of other people
around the world today. Our Lord and Savior is, and
always will be, a Jew and He loves those for whom He
died—both Jew and Gentile. But we need to pray
for proper discernment from God regarding them.
So please bear in mind what the Lord Himself said in
John 14:6 (KJV):“Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me.” [Emphasis mine] Only Messianic
Jews today recognize Jesus as their Messiah and the
rest remain unbelievers—many of their rabbis vilify
Jesus with awful, blasphemous comments. And because
of that, we need to be careful about the level of our
support.
We have a definite tendency
to “pull for the underdog,” and Israel fits
that description today due to being attacked by overwhelming
odds and still coming out on top. But do we really believe
God is pleased when we do? Think about it...
Pastor Ron Riffe
Ronald458@centurytel.net
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