If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
(Jeremiah 20:9)There is something of a classic misreading of the above verse from Jeremiah within Charismatic circles. Often, it is interpreted as saying something like: "The Spirit of God is so heavy on me that I cannot but help evangelize, prophesy, sing songs, &c." Someone will start preaching, and we'll say "He's got a fire shut up in his bones;" or someone will have a word of knowledge, and we'll say "She's got a fire shut up in her bones."
Yet the Scriptural context of this passage is to be found within the entirety of the Book of Jeremiah: Jeremiah has been regularly called by the Lord to speak the Word of the Lord in due season to the apostate people of Israel, and they have regularly rejected him. Here, at chapter 20, he reflects on how he feels wearied by these continual rejections. He says:
O Lord, you have deceived me and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out. I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
Jeremiah is weary from speaking God's prophetic truths to God's people, and he's weary of being God's chosen messenger in a season of such spiritual decay in Israel. Yet, he will continue to speak, unable to resist because God's Word burns within him. The Word of the Lord must be said, even though it brings its messenger discomfort (and, eventually, a ticket to solitary confinement in a cistern, left to die).(Jeremiah 20:7-9)
I feel like Jeremiah is the perfect analogue for this (political) season in the American Church. There are some among us who, like Jeremiah, feel a fire shut up in our bones concerning manifestations of evil within our community, places of true spiritual idolatry in which things other than Jesus have taken precedence over His Glory. And, like Jeremiah, these voices go generally unheeded.
It is with heaviness that I come to this keyboard. In the past I have talked about (whether on this blog or in more personal contexts) what it means that my wife and I have begun considering ourselves "Postcharismatic." To re-clarify, what that term means, in part, for us is that we love and will always consider ourselves as Charismatics within the broader spectrum of the Charismatic Movement and within the specific wing of Pentecostalism. And yet, we have witnessed certain ecclesiological and missiological abuses within that movement that we no longer feel comfortable with and that we feel morally compelled to distance ourselves from. I have not intention on delineating those issues presently (though I have many-a-time considered writing a list of 93 of them to post on some random megachurch somewhere...).
I think it is vital, though, to emphasize that for all of the various point-by-point issues which we have noticed within the Charismatic Movement and that we would love to see addressed by the Charismatic leaders, we do still feel emotionally and spiritually tied to the Movement. When we attend our local churches (in Wood River, a Restorationist church; in Chicago, a C&MA), we go with the sort of tacit acknowledgement from our friends that "Hey! there are the Charismatics of our church!" Sometimes during Bible Studies, I have the tendency to say things like "Well, as a Charismatic I think..." We raise our hands in worship a lot more than other folks tend to. Sometimes we silently speak in tongues during times of prayer. Et cetera. For us, being Charismatic is part of our Christian DNA, it is part of our story, and it is part of our family - many, many of our friends are Charismatic Christians. We deeply love and care for the Charismatic Movement, its well-being, and its future.
Thus, it was with incredible sadness that I watched "radio silence" from the leadership of the Movement back during Ferguson October... Not because I desired those leaders - that is, the leaders of the "flagship" streams, Bethel, IHOP, and Morningstar - to take some sort of political stance, but because I knew so many of my black brothers and sisters whose souls were in deep anguish over the state of race-relations in our nation. While leaders from other major (and conservative) denominations - the Southern Baptists, the Assemblies of God - took up their voices to offer consolation to the black members within their communities, the leaders of one of the largest and loudest chunks of American Christianity today were entirely silent.
Thus, it was with great dismay that I heard this past fall that Mike Bickle, pastor and director of IHOP, formally endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz for the presidency. That is, that a leader so prominent and influential would 1) endorse a presidential contender (something that pastors - especially nationally-recognized pastors - should never do*); and 2) of all people, describe as a "righteous leader" a man whose entire career has been built on being uncooperative and hard to work with and whose character has been described as "brutal," traits which are hardly reflective of Christian service.
Yet it is with ever-the-greater frustration and lamentation and, as I said earlier, heaviness that I must observe this recent tweet from one of Bethel Church's senior pastors, Beni Johnson (wife of Bill Johnson):
"Is Trump perfect? Nope, who is. Am I voting for him? Yup. Crazy uh. He's the only one I see who can beat Clinton." (3/19/16, 11:36 PM)This is something very, very different. I don't actually even know how to speak, having to retype that tweet in order to write this post. It oozes off the fingers like some Exxon slime.
Before I say what's "on my heart" (as we say in Charismata), let me address some objections:
1) Can't a Christian person vote for whomever they want?
2) But... isn't keeping Clinton out of the White House a worthwhile goal?
3) Can we make a moral, theological judgment off of one tweet? / Can you judge another person's walk?
4) Isn't Trump a Cyrus sent to deliver us from our Babylonian captivity and who will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem so we can finally hang up our harps and stop singing sad songs?
Some thoughts:
1) Can't a Christian person vote for whomever they want? Absolutely. Except, of course, in our current culture a Christian person who votes Democrat would be viewed as a heretic [I know many theological conservatives who vote politically liberal]; or a Christian person who votes for an establishment candidate is viewed as 'part of the problem'. I mean, either a Christian is free to vote as they feel, or there are theological-moral obligations which they are committed to. You cannot have both.
2) But... isn't keeping Clinton out of the White House a worthwhile goal? ... ... ... ... The fact that I must answer this objection is ridiculous to me. Yet it seems to me that keeping Clinton out of the White House has been a prime motivating factor of many of Trump's camp, including the evangelical bloc of his voters. I do acknowledge that, for some folks, there might be a moral quandry of "choosing between the lesser of two evils" concerning Clinton versus Trump, but the bigger issue with this question is that my post is addressing the words of a Christian pastoral leader here, not a political strategist.
3) Can we make a moral, theological judgment off of one tweet? / Can you judge another person's walk? Good point. Solid objection. But it is certainly one of those modern misreadings that we have digested the "Thou shalt not judge" rule in our modern Christian context to mean that we cannot critique the declarations of leaders who live in the public spotlight. Jesus said, instead, "Make right judgments" (Jn. 7:24), and the Apostle John tells us to "discern the spirits" (I Jn. 4). For information's sake, Beni posted many, many, many tweets defending her position in various ways, and (thanks to the power of the Internet) we can go back in time to a tweet in 2011 in which she lamented that Trump was not running that year. She is clearly not simply an "anti-Hillary" kind of supporter; she actually wants Trump to win.
4) Isn't Trump a Cyrus sent to deliver us from our Babylonian captivity and who will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem so we can finally hang up our harps and stop singing sad songs?No. Cyrus was a Medo-Persian king who ruled between the years 570-530 BC and whom God anointed to accomplish the first part of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. There are certainly pagan kings who can be used for God's sovereign and good will, like Cyrus or Nebuchadnezzar, as the "Cyrus argument" runs. There are also pagan kings like Pharaoh, Belshazzar, and Sihon and Og who have through blasphemy set themselves in direct opposition to the purposes of God. Trump fits best into this latter category, as I will demonstrate.
What shall I say? I don't think that Theology is too difficult to apply to our lives. I do think that Political choices can often be morally vague, and that certain things are good for certain people and certain things are bad for others. I generally dislike making big either/or claims concerning political authorities - either they're a Hitler or they're a Jesus-sort of thing. Yet sometimes there appears a Big, Loud Voice that everyone is drawn to, and this voice pricks what everyone's "itching ears want to hear" (II Ti. 4:3), and they do not know they are being hypnotized. I do not think that the content of the Big, Loud Voice's message is the "morally vague" sort of Politics. And, in fact, I don't think that the content of this post constitutes a Political claim at all; instead, I'm really discussing something Moral and Theological. Compare these two lists from the Bible:
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5:2-10)
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
(II Timothy 3:1-5)These are basic, theological, and Christian principles. The group in the former list are those who are called "blessed" because they represent the nature of Christ and reflect His Kingdom values. The group in the latter list are those who are representative of the kingdom of Satan and who reject God's Kingdom and advance their own kingdom instead. It should be clarified, too, that Paul is specifically warning Timothy not of the "common sinner" but of the Big, Loud Voices that want to come and invade the Church and pervert its doctrines (cf. v. 6).
Compared with the Big, Loud Voices, Jesus elevates and highlights the Still, Small Voices. In other words, He identifies as blessed those souls which exemplify His Nature. Those who are "meek" will inherit the earth because Jesus is meek and He is the King of the earth. Those who follow Jesus, we know, are imbued with His Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of Jesus, and He will, through the process of sanctification, empower us to become meek, weak, small, little, humble, slow to anger, slow to speak, quick to listen, quick to repent, quick to pray. We have a Spirit of Power who manifests in us a quietness of character which is a bold rejection of a kingdom that pursues its own way.
This is why my various personal statements against Trump are not intended as a political scheme. I am not all that interested in who is elected President in our temporal country which will last as long as a flower in light of the Kingdom of God. I tirade against him because he represents an obvious "spirit of antichrist"; that is, to redeem that term from our Charismatic End-Times lingo (i.e. I am not saying Trump is the harbinger of the end of the world), he represents everything that is opposite of what Jesus represents. This is not some idea I received from television or the big media companies (because I don't watch television, and I don't care for the media); this is an obvious interpretation when one compares the Big, Loud Voice of Trump with the entirety of Scripture: from Pharaoh's hard-hearted refusal to repent, to the rebellion of Korah, to the obstinance of King Saul, to the slimy and insidious deceitfulness of Elymas, to this list of descriptions from II Timothy 3, to some specific descriptions of the antichrist given in Scripture (to name a few: Ez. 28:1, Da. 7:8, Rev. 13:5). To be exhaustively clear: I am neither calling Trump the Devil nor the Antichrist; just that he is obviously operating in an entirely anti-Christ direction, method, and worldview. I am also not saying that he is not the Devil or the Antichrist. I'm holding off that discernment for now.
(And, if my general description of "the Big, Loud Voice" aren't specific enough, one could also look at the way Trump discusses women, people with disabilities, Mexicans, Muslims, &c. - but I think his rhetoric speaks for itself without needing to enter into a moment-by-moment analysis of his words and actions. We have all seen enough from the debates to know what his character is like.)
Thus, it is excruciatingly disappointing that a sister in Christ, a leader in a major portion of the Charismatic Movement, and someone who, I would hope, is desiring to pursue and see God's excellency in Christ would so actively and forwardly support and encourage the work of a man whose very character is so vitally out-of-sync with the entirety of the Christian character, value, message, belief, and doctrine. When we look at what this man represents and what his character reveals, we see that we are not in a situation where we could say "Is Trump perfect? Nope, who is" - there is a difference between a leader being a flawed, sinful human who makes mistakes, and a figure whose words and actions reveal a lifestyle of hatred, which is in 180-degree opposition to the Kingdom of God.
And this is excruciating because, in many ways, it reveals something of a broader theological-moral-Gospel crisis within the Charismatic Movement. How can this Movement last when its leaders so brashly support a man who so clearly represents the opposite of the Kingdom of God? How can this Movement be spiritually healthy and successful in the transformation of people's lives when they actively support leaders who are "strong" and "harsh" and "brutal" and "loud" and admire them? How can this Movement ever expect to see a national Revival - which it proposes to do - when they find themselves so easily swayed by anti-Christ-like leaders? I ask these questions in part because I personally don't quite understand the ideological-theological hoops which some of my Charismatic brothers and sisters are attempting to jump through concerning Trump.
And this is excruciating because there are those of us "out in the middle" (politically-speaking) who love the theologically-deep, spiritually-vibrant, and politically-complex Church and who appreciate the various gifts that the different movements of Christianity bring to us. At this point, Bethel Music has overtaken Hillsong as the folks who make modern Church music. The Charismatic Movement is influential, even in cessationist churches, and Charismatics can bring with them some vital vibrancy to the rest of the Church. Yet, to see a prominent leader within that movement support Trump is like seeing dead leaves on a branch of a tree: something is rotting here. This should be an alarming moment that creates a gut-check for my Charismatic brothers and sisters.
... And yet, I suspect that when I inevitably post this on Twitter and Facebook that I will receive comments that are knee-jerk responses to one or a few of my premises (which, of course, I don't discourage, necessarily). A friend recently observed that I post things just to "bring out the sharks." Maybe. I actually hope that I post things because the Spirit of God has placed His Word on my heart and, like Jeremiah, I cannot hold it in any longer. In other words, I don't write this to create a controversy; I write this because I love God's Church, I long to see us walk together in the true unity of the Gospel, and I hate to see ideologies which are so distinctly contrary to that Gospel being supported from our public stage.
It seems to me that somehow Trump's own rhetoric has turned inwardly of late. First, he created a campaign against "political correctness," and then he instituted his own sort of "political correctness." Under the new political correctness, any claim that observes his nature and character as wicked must be surely wrong and an attempt by mainstream media to discredit him because he represents a threat to their hegemonic system. Under the new political correctness, this post is some sort of threat to the Big, Loud Voice, and, thereby, must either be disregarded or deflated. Under the new political correctness, critique of a person's evil character which is obviously in line with Scriptural descriptions of that sort of character is "judging" or "being politically correct," ironically enough.
In conclusion, I will say this: Do not trust my words. First, do a heart-check. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-8), read Paul's warning (II Ti. 3), and read the entire Book of I John (it's short), which deals with the spirit of antichrist and discerning the spirits. Compare and contrast for yourself: What is the character of Jesus and His Kingdom? What is the character of the Devil and his kingdom? Ponder this too: knowing what you know of God's character from His Word, does He ever manifest His Kingdom-Purposes in the form of the Big, Loud Voice? Does God reveal His Kingdom in Loud, Prideful packages, or in Small, Humble ones?
I say this because I want to challenge my friends - especially my Charismatic friends - to take another look at the Word of God and to let the Word challenge us, rearrange our hearts if need be, and have a fresh look at the world around us. How does God's Kingdom manifest?
* I perhaps should make an entire post about why pastors should never endorse a President / political candidate - I've been meaning to ever since 2011 - but now is not the time. The quick summation is simple: Pastors wield spiritual authority over people's lives, and they can, through their influence - especially so in the Charismatic Movement - override the free-will choices of their flock, even unintentionally. That's not good.
