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January 16, 2008
Posted at Novakeo and Rhea County Newspaper.
I stopped outside a church house,
Where the citizens like to sit,
They say
they want the kingdom,
But they don't want God in it.
-- U2, The
Wanderer (with vocals by Johnny Cash)
I have quite a good Christian friend who is not a very political person. This is one of her many virtues. However, she has very solid instincts and discernment. She doesn’t just brainlessly accept what people tell her.
Recently, she said that if Mitt Romney were elected president it would give false legitimacy to the dangerous and deceptive cult of Mormonism. (1) This is truer than she knows.
The presidency is not a religious office. Article VI of the US Constitution forbids religious tests for public office holders. Mormons have as much of a right to seek public office as anyone else. So why should we be concerned?
It is my profound fear that, in today’s religious climate, if Romney is so much as nominated, many evangelical Christians will begin to accept Mormons as Christians. This would be one more bit of evidence of the apostasy prophesied in the Bible. Let me explain.
Since 1980, evangelical bible-believing Christians have had an unholy alliance with the Republican Party. They are the GOP's most reliable voting bloc. While not all evangelicals are this way, millions support the party unquestioningly. I have heard it said that GOP stands for “God’s Official Party.” I cannot help thinking that a significant number of people believe this.
In 2000, GWB said one thing about Jesus one time, and millions of evangelicals drank his Kool-Aid. It matters not that there is no Christian fruit on his tree. Millions of professing Christians are absolutely infatuated with him. The always quotable Chuck Baldwin has remarked that it is as if GWB had been added to the Holy Trinity.
GWB doesn’t even know the most basic fundamentals of the Christian faith. (What was he doing in all those counseling sessions he supposedly had with Ted Haggard?) On at least two occasions he has told the media that we all pray to the same God. NO WE DO NOT!!!
Some say this because the president needs to be diplomatic about these things. I don’t think so! Is he a Christian first or the president first? The Apostle Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel. (Romans 1:16) Why should Our Grand Exalted Phantasmagorical Christian President be ashamed of the Gospel? Numerous athletes boldly proclaim Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Why should this purportedly Great Christian Man be so timid?
This belief that, regardless of our religion, we all worship the same God runs counter to the Bible. (John 14:6, Acts 4:12) This is not Christianity but universalism. The Bible warns us not to be deceived for there will be a great falling away in the last days. (II Thessalonians 2:2, 3)
These megachurch pastors and other influential Christians who have done so much to promote this hogwash about Bush’s Christianity have sold their souls for political influence. It is as if “Death before Democrats” has become an essential of the Christian faith. I have had too many conversations over the years with too many Christians who are in total denial about the Bush administration’s crimes but who view Bill Clinton as the president from the bowels of hell. They would vote for Larry Flynt if he ran as a Republican, but they would rather be drawn and quartered than see a Democrat in the White House.
It is bad enough that this “conservative” outspends Kommunist Klinton by $1 trillion per year and has expanded all the big government junk that these “conservatives” say they hate. Worse yet, it is now “Christian” to support warrantless searches, no-knock raids, tasering, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, guilt without trial, martial law, torture and unprovoked war. Instead of doing their duty as watchmen on the wall -- Ezekiel 33:1-6 -- large numbers of pastors would have us bend our knee before the false god of the modern superstate. If we wind up with a full-blown police state in America, its biggest supporters will be evangelical Christians.
As the saying goes: if you stand for nothing you will fall for anything. Churches, like schools, have been dumbed down with disastrous results. Millions of Christians simply have no biblical worldview. Hence, so many were so easily seduced when Dubya said something about Jesus. (2) Likewise, it ought to be no surprise that so many Christians are so geeked up about Mike Huckabee, a big-government Klinton Klone and a shameless religious hustler.
The next chapter may very well feature millions of Christians accepting Mitt Romney as a Christian – and Mormons in general as Christians – because they absolutely seethe with hatred for Hillary Clinton. Even though Romney is merely a Klinton Klone, they will be in total denial about his Mormonism. (3) And if you try to talk to them about the great differences between Mormonism and Christianity, they will just not listen to you.
A lot of Mormons are great people. Our Constitution guarantees them the same rights as anyone else. As Christians we are to love them, pray for them and present them with the Truth of the Bible. However, we are NOT to consider their beliefs equal to ours because they simply are not. And God help anyone who includes Mormons as Christians for political convenience.
There are far more important things for true Christians than who wins elections. Churches have been turned into political tools to a degree that is positively sickening. Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36) While Christians must be mindful of political affairs – the Bible mentions the word “king” almost 2000 times (4) -- we must remember that when Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world, He resisted this temptation. (Matthew 4:10) It is far more blessed for Christians to serve from the bottom up than to rule from the top down. (Matthew 20:25) This entire idea that if we just elect enough Christians, and if they just pass enough laws, we will be able to fashion some sort of Christian utopia has no biblical basis whatsoever.
Revelation 13 prophesies a one-world government, a one-world economy and a one-world religion. It is bad enough that millions of Christians have slavishly followed a president who does not even know the basics of Christianity. Based on this precedent, it is now a fairly safe bet that, should Mitt Romney get the Republican nomination, the great differences between Christianity and Mormonism will be disregarded for the sake of electoral victory. We will, thereby, lurch one step closer to this one-world religion.
I recently walked away from megachurch Christianity not because of politics, but because politics tipped me off to a very sinister agenda at work in these churches. The Kingdom of God was no longer as important as the kingdoms of man. That so many professing Christians clamor so desperately for dominion and influence in the kingdoms of this world tells me that these churches are under an influence that is just not Christian.
(1) To learn why Mormonism is deceptive and dangerous, this page by a former temple Mormon is a great place to start.
(2) Bush is not Hitler. However, it is instructive to remember that some of Hitler’s greatest support came from German Christians. Of 14,000 churches in Germany, over 13,000 swore allegiance to Hitler. I highly recommend the book Hitler’s Cross by Erwin Lutzer.
(3) There is a true constitutionalist running for president whose Christian testimony I do believe. However, the evangelical establishment acts as if he did not exist.
(4) Hence, it is ludicrous to argue that "we shouldn't discuss politics in church."
Megachurch pastor Joel Osteen: Mitt's a Christian
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Freely Speaking: Essays by Doug Newman
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