Like all evangelical children, I grew up while being told that “the return of the Jews” to Israel in 1948 was the biggest and most important event in world history, right up there with Jesus’s first coming to earth. In fact, I was taught, Jesus’s return was the “fulfillment of prophecy.” In those days our evangelical theology was a private matter alongside our belief in original sin and all the rest. We believed that history was best left to God to shape.
Not anymore. Today’s evangelicals are done begging God to hasten the End Times. The white messianic evangelicals Trump is working with and that his presidency depends on for any shot of victory in 2020, see Israel as the launch pad for the End of Days. They believe that only once Israel is “complete” – i.e., rules over the entire Middle East – will “The End” happen. Then the Jews will die. They believe they’ve been called to make all this happen.
The media is mostly asleep to the fact that our government— from county commissioners, state legislatures, to our federal government, to our judicial system is being infiltrated by zealous white radicalized messianic evangelicals like Mike Pence. Pence and company feel God has “called” them to run for office. What the media don’t seem to “get” is that what motivates this crowd is a desire to live through the destruction of life on Earth– and to help it along!
Like-minded white radicalized messianic evangelicals are Trump’s bedrock supporters. They are also the heart and soul of today’s Republican Party. And they are shaping policy. For instance, (aside from whatever Putin “has” on Trump) another reason Trump sticks with Russia is because his staunchest evangelical supporters – like Jerry Falwell Jr., and Franklin Graham – are encouraging that relationship. They believe that Russia is the “last white Christian country.” They want Russia and the USA to join in a global anti-gay and anti-Muslim crusade for Christ. They regard Putin as a “Chosen One” alongside Trump. They see both men as wicked but no matter: They see them fulfilling prophecy, in spite of themselves.
Just as they see Trump and Putin as wicked but also deserving of support as God’s Chosen Instruments, all those Evangelicals rooting for Israel and the entire Christian Zionist movement are also profoundly anti-Semitic. They “love” Israel not for itself but for how God will use it. They love Israel but hate Jews. To them Israel is just a sacrificial lamb that will be destroyed by Jesus. To them the Jews are evil, just like Trump is evil, but like Trump the Jews are also being used by God for a “greater purpose.”
That greater purpose is God’s plan to vindicate Evangelical Christians and put them in charge to “rule over earth.”
Meanwhile, until the Christians are in charge, to the evangelicals “Those Jews” are the “disloyal liberals” who vote for Democrats. Those Jews were the first pornographers, they run the “fake news” media in places like the New York Times. Those Jews “secularized” America. Those Jews live in cities. Those Jews worked for blacks to have rights and took away segregation from good white Christians. Now Those Jews want to take away our guns! They are pro-black and pro-gay, and want immigrants to replace us. Those Jews are anti-NRA.
But… Those Jews will not replace us! Jesus will fix them when he comes again and we’ll make sure that is soon!
Trump is surrounded by white extremist messianic Evangelicals: Mike Pence, John Bolton, Sarah Sanders, Mike Pompeo, Betsy DeVos, Mick Mulvaney and many others. They are Jew-hating, but Israel-loving Christian Zionists. They apply to Jews the same strange thinking they apply to gays whom they say they “love.” They say they “love the sinner but hate the sin.” They also love Israel but hate (and fear) Jews.
They talk about “the covenant” and how everyone in their group must surrender themselves to the “one purpose of Jesus” which they say is to “bring forth the End Times.” And their version of The End, ends in a Jewish blood bath.
Evangelical delusional theology is now our only consistent “foreign policy.” It’s the one thread in Trump’s wandering brain he keeps being pushed to grasp again and again in the midst of his mental chaos. So our embassy is moved to Jerusalem, we cut funding to Palestinians, we back the Israeli far right settler movement, etc. Everything else slides, from our EU relationships to China trade, but not the agenda of the Christian Right. Trump is focused and consistent on that, from taking away abortion rights to backing Israel.
And speaking of Trump’s chaos: Evangelicals see in his trade wars, his destruction of our old alliances and his embrace of global thugs further “signs” of (you guessed it) the imminent arrival of the End Times.
Who owns guns? White extremist messianic Evangelicals do! Who thinks Trump is the “Chosen One”? White extremist messianic Evangelicals do! Who hates the government the way Trump does, as he lashes out against the FBI and CIA and all environmental protection agencies? White extremist messianic Evangelicals do! They’ve been arming themselves for years against “THEM” i.e., our government, while in the grip of conspiracy theories.
In Trump, the religious lunatic fringe at last have a leader as deluded and dangerous as themselves. They cling to Trump—porn stars, lies and self-dealing notwithstanding—because he’s allowed them to go mainstream. He’s the evangelicals’ last gasp for relevance. He’s the link to Christ’s return.
White radicalized messianic evangelicals cling to Trump because he’s their best and last shot at moving history down the road to their beloved (and utterly fictitious) End Times on a timetable where they will get to see it all happen! So they no longer sit back and trust God to do his thing. They want to run the prophecy fulfillment show themselves and God (that old slowpoke) be damned!
All the white evangelicals lacked was a leader as deranged as themselves. Now they have one.
Dear Media, You ask why the white messianic evangelicals don’t criticize Trump for claiming he is the “Chosen One?”
Because that is what they believe.
4 comments. Leave new
I’ve been trying to explain these same things to those who are close to me, but your words…..wow! So exact. What a voice of reason. Thank you Frank.
thank you for the work you do….
Frank,
We are going to need our guns to stop these folks!
Taking them away is insane.
A progressive gun owner.
Nine
Thank you for writing about why the Evangelicals support tRump. I’ve tried to explain about the “need” to replace the temple at Jerusalem, etc. Now I’ll just refer them to you! Thanks!