One of the most piercing passages of sacred Scripture is Matthew 7:21-23 wherein the Lord Jesus Christ warns of false converts: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’” (Jesus is here quoting, or at least alluding to, Psalm 6:8a: “Depart from me, all evildoers.”)
We are herein warned that there will be many evildoers who claim to be serving Jesus. Of particular interest is that Jesus describes these false Christians as those who break the law (“lawbreakers”). The key factor in the genuineness of someone’s profession of faith is not that they simply affirm the name of Jesus, or that they partake in ostensibly emotional or spiritual activities, but that they live in adherence to God’s revealed Law.
Experience confirms what Jesus forewarned — there are many in our day who claim the name of Christ and yet live a life contrary to his Law-Word, as it relates to both doctrine and practice.
We would do well to remember this passage as we observe the name of Christ wildly attached to the latest political movement or event.
For example, recent events in Lancaster County have appended the glorious name of Jesus to their movement and yet have failed to rightly apply the Law-Word of God.
False Prophet
Julie Green – who appeared at both the Walk as Free People event in Quarryville in September and the Reawaken America event at Spooky Nook in October – claims to speak for God and regularly makes “prophecies.” Most of her claims are vague enough to find fulfillment in any occurrence, but it is reported that she once said God told her President Joe Biden is deceased: “God said he is actually not alive anymore. There is somebody else playing his part.”
(To be fair, Biden looks nearly comatose, but he does yet live.)
The main point is this: the Law-Word of God has something to say about those making prophecies which prove to be false—namely that prophet, at the very least, is not to be recognized as a true prophet (cf. Deut. 18:22). Furthermore, the book of Hebrews makes it clear that whereas “long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets…in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son [Jesus Christ]” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
At the Reawaken America event, Green said, “Says God, you can’t stop my son, who is the rightful president. He is on his way back and how he takes his position back on center stage, you will never see that coming because you won’t see me coming. And I am with him.”
Green’s shenanigans are just one example of how the co-opting of Christianity by certain conservatives is creating a mass of duped people ignorant of what the Law-Word of God actually says regarding salvation, revelation, and civil government.
Earnest Christians who seek to apply the Law-Word of God to all of life, including political events, will no doubt face the ire of the disciples of false teachers like Green, but our greater concern should be to honor the Lord. His words, in Matthew 7, indict movements using the name of Christ and yet disregarding what God’s Word says. I’d rather face the wrath of ignoble prophetesses than the Ruler of the kings of the earth.
Depart from Me, You Who Would Govern As If God Didn’t Give You a Law
It is easy to bash the Democrats, the globalists, and the leaders of the sexual revolution. (Which is why I do not usually spend much time on it — plenty of other people are doing that.) No doubt, the Left’s ideology is destructive. But the fatal flaw in both the MAGA movement and conservative Republicanism is that these opponents of the Left’s ideology simply insert their own humanistic vision for society in its place.
Not only do these movements and personalities (Reawaken America, MAGA, Julie Green, Bo Polny, Sean Feucht, etc.) present an extremely shallow understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but they also promote “lawbreakers,” as it were, when it comes to what God says about civil government.
God’s Law never authorizes the government to take our money at gunpoint. God’s Law never authorizes the government to debase the currency (see Isaiah 1:22, cf. Prov. 20:10). God’s Law never authorizes the government to educate the children. God’s Law never authorizes the government to set up correctional facilities and use confinement as a punishment.
But massive government spending via theft by forced taxation or quantitative easing (debasing the currency) is standard practice for all those in the uniparty (Biden, Trump, et al.). And upholding the patently socialistic practice of government education is the expectation for the latest “real conservative candidate,” ready to return America to “greatness.” Even “tough on crime” politicians prop up the prison system which forces victims to pay for the crimes of the perpetrators.
Do the latest leaders and personalities actually care what the Law of the King says about civil government? It would appear they do not.
I ask, then, on what basis should I accept a movement which appends the name of Christ to their movement, while at the same time disregarding the Law-Word that Christ affirms?
By What Standard?
How do we judge a movement claiming to be “Christian”? We need two things.
First and foremost, we need the Word of God, the Norm of all norms, the Plumbline for all things. But sadly, the Bible is little more than a tool for much of the MAGA movement. The promotional literature for the Reawaken America event in Manheim presented the movement as standing on the Holy Bible, and yet biblical doctrine, sound exegesis, and rightly dividing the Word of Truth are jettisoned for political expediency and the “greater danger” of the Left’s takeover. Students of history know that this is not the first time that compelling circumstances have led some to say we shouldn’t worry too much about what the Bible actually says. Such diversions from sound doctrine never end well.
Second, we need a good understanding of history, including church history. Charismatic carelessness and excesses have been the bane of the true church since her beginning. Sensationally false claims have been around since at least AD 156, when two women in Phrygia perverted biblical ethics in the name of their fanciful claims to revelation (one said Jesus came to her with divine messages). The allure of such “new prophecy” continues to our day, with false teachers like Green promoting the shallow display of pretended spirituality. The result is a generation of professing Christians who would have a hard time telling the difference between Jeremiah and Hananiah.
Anti-intellectualism and emotionalism have given us modern-day evangelicalism, which is a mile wide and an inch deep. And we are exporting this garbage to the nations.
Would the crowds turn out to hear what the Bible says about civil government, rather than what Gen. Flynn or Eric Trump have to say? Unfortunately, not.
However, there are Christian voices (two examples: local pastor Joel Saint at Independence Reformed Bible Church, and the California-based Chalcedon Foundation) who have devoted years to teaching what the Bible says about civil government. But these movements are not interested in any of that. They only want what will emotionally stir people up to vote for the next candidate who will disregard the Law-Word of God. The condition of the church in America is beyond troubling. And now political movements are being led in a similar apostasy – baptizing ungodly philosophies in the name of Christ.
The Left’s policies are not the reason we are in this mess. The Left’s policies are the judgment; the reason is that we have compromised and abandoned the lordship of Christ in every area of life. And conservatives didn’t need any help from the Democrats to do that. Movements like MAGA are trying to reverse the curse by doing the very thing that got us here: setting up man’s standard as supreme. Not all that glitters is gold, and not all that bears the name of Christ is consistent with His Law-Word. It behooves us to start exercising some discernment in these challenging times, lest we find ourselves unable to recognize good from evil (cf. Hebrews 5:14).
Chris Hume is the host of The Lancaster Patriot Podcast and the author of several books, including Seven Statist Sins. He can be reached at info@thelancasterpatriot.com.
Wow! I thank GOD for JESUS! Read the love in HIS WORD even when he is correcting! Where is your love? Not evident in your writing!
Chris, thank you for that thought provoking piece. I’ve found that when Christians bristle at pieces like yours and cry ‘where’s the love?’, they often forget that there is no love without truth and, more importantly, both Jesus and the apostles called out false teachers and prophets regularly. All one has to do is a quick reading of the gospels to find that Jesus’ most damning accusations were directed at the religious and not the unsaved. Paul called out several BY NAME. Unfortunately a large swath of those claiming to be Christians offer lip service to God; more concerned with love (their version of it) than truth. Lastly I would point anyone taking issue with you to read Romans 1:18-32. You are right when you say the current political issues are the judgement. In Romans 1 it clearly says that ‘although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God’. In that same section it says 3 times that because of their hatred of and rebellion towards God that He ‘turned them over…”. The last reference being they were turned over to a reprobate or debased mind and do all the things we see in this country today. What’s more loving, to continue to encourage a watered down service to Christ and His word as people go full speed to hell or warning people before that happens. Ezekiel 3 says we’re watchmen; Acts 17 says to be Bereans.