donald-trump

Many Have Bowed Down And Fallen

/ JSB / 9 Comments

A WATERSHED HOUR
The Church America is in a “watershed” hour.

The spiritual atmosphere is shifting. Thought patterns, narratives and paradigms are being sealed into whole networks of Christians; where pastors, pundits, prophets and intercessors not only believe false storylines, but care little for cautionary scriptures, and heartily draw each other into the destructive spirits attached to the lies. There is no argument, no amount of reason, no logical presentation of the facts that can budge individuals from the realities that so many are clothing themselves with.

When a full web of deceit has been allowed to infiltrate the minds of any collection of humanity, (ie. married couple, family, small group, church fellowship, or denomination) the perverted world-view then determines the truth. The deceived bend the scriptures to reenforce the perverted truth, and scriptures that militate against the perverted truth are marginalized and ignored altogether.

This is where the household of God finds ourselves in 2025 – entranced by the myths of a gilded delusion.

False, collective mind-sets have overtaken the people of God throughout history. From the tower of Babel, the days of Noah, the Children of Israel, to the days of the prophets, to the church in Corinth, Sardis and Laodicea, to the crusades, to the civil war Southern Baptists in our own United States, and the Lutherans, and Catholics in 1930’s Germany, and Italy – whole elements of the people of God have repeatedly veered into degenerate beliefs about the ways of the Lord.

FALLING AWAY
The Bible often refers to this phenomenon as “falling away” from faith in God.

“These ones have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they fall away.” (Mark 4:17) (See also Luke 8:13)

“These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to FALL AWAY.” (John 16:1)

“Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never FALL AWAY.” (Matthew 26:33) (See also Mark 14:27)

“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men and FALL from your firm grasp on the truth.“ (2 Peter 3:17)

“Then many will FALL AWAY into sin, and they will betray one another, and hate one another.” (Matthew 24:10)

“Blessed is everyone who does not FALL AWAY on account of Me.” (Matthew 11:6)

“Let no one deceive you by any means; for (the Day of the Lord) will not come unless the FALLING AWAY comes first…” (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never FALL AWAY…” (2 Peter 1:10)

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1)

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:11)

We can be easily deceived by our uncrucified mind. The ability to see when one is falling away is a supernatural work of the Spirit. Our flesh will distort our reality, and the nature of the faithlessness that’s truly in our hearts. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)

PSALM 20 • SOME TRUST IN HORSES
In Psalm 20, David notes that many in his day “put their boast in chariots, and horses” (v.7), and had “bowed down” (to another) and “fallen away” from “trusting in the Name of the Lord” v.8. This erosion of faith; whereby the covenant people of God are seduced by lies, and place their ultimate trust in another power of provision other than YHWH is routinely identified as “IDOLATRY” in both the Old, and New Testaments.

THE IMAGE OF GOLD
One of the most prominent pictures of idolatry is vividly detailed in the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s “image of gold”, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

After years of hearing of the Lord’s judgments upon the nation of Judah, the Jews had finally been deported to Babylon. There, the covenant people of God would spend the next generation, outside of the land of promise, under the unrighteous reign of a series of pagan kings. In Daniel chapter 3, we learn that the first king, Nebuchadnezzar, has erected a towering statue on an open plain near the city. Furthermore, the king is demanding that all of the inhabitants of his realm “bow down” to this image upon his command. Undoubtably, many Jews in Babylon heard this decree, and, in varying states of faith and unbelief, were faced with a choice: “In light of YHWH’s first commandment, how do we respond to this summons to extol the glory of Nebuchadnezzar?”

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” (Exodus 30:4-6)

Apparently, many “bowed down” (Exodus 30:5; Psalm 20:7; Daniel 3:6) to the king’s demand to worship his image. Perhaps they rationalized that they were simply showing proper respect for their new ruling authority. Or maybe, many had already begun to embrace the Babylonian cult-legends, ultimately believed the lie that by submitting to the false glory of the king of Babylon, they would be sufficiently provided for, and protected… (who knows?) What they didn’t perceive was that they were actually taking the next step in their long process of “falling away” from their God; the One Who had been pleading with them, and their father’s fathers through the prophets. Undoubtably, many of these Jews had a correct belief in Who YHWH was, but in the heat of self-preservation their theology was exposed as a rhetorical construct and not a practical reality that shaped how they lived their day to day lives. With meager faith in YHWH, many children of Judah capitulated to Nebuchadnezzar’s orders, perhaps even donning fashionable golden-image jewelry, or chanting popular, emotional phrases, and prostrated themselves before a demonic entity.

Though many tragically bowed down to the image on the plain in those days, Daniel records that three would not. There were three who saw the moment for what it was. In spite of the pervasive cult beliefs, the peer pressure, the Facebook memes, and perhaps even arguments from their own teachers – these three saw Nebuchadnezzar’s executive order as an affront to the power and glory that belonged to their God.

Of the thousands who were on the plain in that day, only three passed the test in the courts of heaven.

FALLING AWAY HAS CONSEQUENCES
The story of the “golden image” is much more than a quaint Bible story about three noble young men who made a wise choice. It was a significant day of judgment upon the people of God. One that would lead to potential reward and blessing for some, and consequence and additional curse for others.

Over the last several weeks, as our authoritarian President has dictated that our nation honor the birthday of the flag, the army, and his own life, (a demand that would have sounded familiar to Nebuchadnezzar, and many other self-exalting supremacists throughout human history including Mao, PW Botha, Pinochet, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Kim Jung Un, Stalin etc. – all who held military parades on their own birthday) the Lord has brought the American Church into an hour of judgment no less pointed than what Shadrach, Meschac and Abednego were faced with. The Lord is looking us in the eye, and confronting us with our own idolatry. In a very troubled, and tumultuous cultural context, He’s issuing the pointed question to our souls: “Who will you honor? Will you put your nimble, daily trust in Me? Or will you ‘bow down’ and hail another carnal king who promises to provide for you, protect you, and make you a great people?”

Simply put, the Lord is bringing us to a moment when He is testing the nature, and strength of our faith.

PROFESSED FAITH vs. CRUCIFIED FAITH
The faith we want, and need to have in this hour, must be more than a correct propositional statement. It needs to be more than orthodox dogma about Jesus. In Matthew 16, Peter declared what was true about Who Jesus was, truth that Jesus even affirmed as being “revealed by the Father” (Matthew 16:17). But in the minutes after this inspired assertion, as Jesus described what was about to happen to the Messiah, “doctrinally correct Peter”, is found rebuking Jesus! He openly opposed the way that Jesus was describing – the way of humility, crucifixion, death, and abject faith in the will of the Father. Peter let the prominent cultural legend about the mission of the Messiah to determine his belief, and even override the expressed Words of the Messiah, Himself! His narrative had the Messiah violently overthrowing pagan oppression. Jesus was indicating that both pagan oppression and religious orthodoxy were about to put Him on a cross. It was oil and water in Peter’s mind. He had no template for what Jesus was talking about. Death meant failure and loss. Victory looked like spiritual, moral, and governmental domination.

Peter’s ideologies toppled all the more as Jesus underscored the way of true anointing: Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26)

This was Jesus’ vision of robust, living faith: to lay down one’s life, without complaint, and to trust that the Father would receive the complete offering of self, along with all of one’s hopes for self-glory, self-sustenance, self-determination, self-justification, and self-gratification, and raise us up in the same Spirit of Christ, so that we share in the same glory; the same authority; and the same character as Jesus, Himself. Jesus was saying that He was about to offer His Father “obedience to the point of death” (Philippians 2:6-8) and by it, the Father would see to it that Jesus’ covenant love, mercy, and leadership would be extended to the whole world. Complete surrender of the impulse of self to the Father, even to the point of death, was the way Jesus was going to extend His Kingdom, from Jerusalem, to Galilee, to Syria, to Turkey, to Rome, to Europe, to the Americas, to all of Africa, China, the Islands – in person after person, and ekklesia after ekklesia.

It takes a lot of real faith to believe this – both, from a global / missions perspective, as well as from a daily, personal perspective. The way seems small, too slow, and too dangerous. It takes faith to believe that there is a Father in heaven Who sees and rewards every little extension of kindness, forgiveness and sacrifice with His favor, and His “dunamis” power.

It takes faith to believe that poverty of spirit, meekness, mourning, and asking for forgiveness is going to extend Jesus’ reign on the earth. In a dog-eat-dog (X, formerly TWITTER) world, it takes trust to display love when everyone around you is hating; to rejoice while everyone else is raging; to walk in peace while everyone is declaring war; to be patient while everyone is seizing the moment; to extend kindness after you’ve been vilified; to operate in goodness while those around you are compromising with holiness; to be gentle when everyone else is taking up the sword; and to surrender self, when everyone is urging you to take what’s rightfully yours.

But this is the real, moment-by-moment world the Lord calls us to manifest faith within… And what I’ve just outlined above, is what true faith looks like to Jesus. To not possess this type of faith is to either not have faith, or to have FALLEN AWAY from real faith.

“When the Son of Man comes, will He find real faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)

This is also the type of faith that Paul describes that many will fall away from in (2 Thessalonians 2:3); a faith that both believes the true things about Jesus, and willingly lays down our selfish lives down unto the increase of His glory within the context of a hostile world.

And this is where, in this crucible of faith-analysis, that we, as a people find ourselves. For ten years our family has been challenged by one man to assert self, rather than deny self. He has openly, and daily challenged the Body of Christ to cheer words and ways that are antithetical to Christ. He’s goaded us to “fight like hell!” Seize your rights Curse! Revile! Push! Shove! Demand your own way! Condemn! Never forgive! Never admit your mistakes! Murder! Abuse! Justify your fleshly impulses! Crave! Take! Lust some more! Rage! Deceive! Alienate! Divide! Conquer! Exalt self! And, especially, at every opportunity, “exalt me!”

The followers of Christ have been selectively targeted to compromise the integrity of their wholehearted allegiance to the Father. Their trust has been assailed with temptations that are as real as Jesus’ temptations in the desert. (See Luke 4) It’s been a decade-long barrage on the Church. Every day our collective group-speak about what is evil, and what isn’t moves a centimeter – until one day, the voice of murder, lust, pride and impatience can wait no longer and openly makes us an offer: “All this power and glory I will give You… if You will bow down before me.” (Luke 4:6-7)

This is the day that is upon us – a day when the devil’s barter is seen for what it is. “Worship me! Worship my power and might! Worship my authority to not only rule the nation, but rule the earth! Hail my way of hostility, pride, self-assertion and covetousness. Acknowledge that my way – the abusive way of might – the way of Peter in (Matthew 16) – is the right way – and even God’s way.”

You’ll notice that Jesus’ answer to the devil in (Luke 4) is the same as it was to Peter in (Matthew 16). “Get behind Me, Satan!”

Selah

Selah, some more…

Would that this had been our family’s response to our President’s latest appeal to “bow down” and honor him, and his display of might and power. Would that our family would learn that Jesus’ response in both of these instances is the “real faith” that the “Son of Man” (Luke 18:8) will be looking for at the end of the age. “No. I won’t bow down to you and your contra-Kingdom definition of power, your false promises of glory, and your hostile way of self-determination. Get thee behind me, satan!”

There was a day when many children of Israel, who had celebrated the first Passover, put their trust in the familiarity, pomp, and empty promises of a deity represented by a golden calf. (Exodus 32:28) Even after being threatened by Moses, 3000 would not repent, and instead laid down their lives for their idol.

There was a day when 10 children of Israel put their trust in their own ability to win the day, and would not go into the land because of the giants (Numbers 14). All ten of them, and their families died outside of the land promised to them by YHWH.

The Lord has been giving us such a choice in these days. Will we continue to extol and vaunt the way of one who is promising us greatness through carnal strength and self-determination? Or will we humble ourselves, put self in the grave, and walk in the noble, incorruptibility of our faith, daily being made into the image of the One we long for?

This is the ultimatum that the Lord has put before us.

Allow me to be straightforward.

It’s 2025. If you’re hailing Trump, defending his arguments of carnal selfism, casually offering him displays of adoration, you have taken the devil’s bait; you are bowing to Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold; you have fallen away from faith in God.

It’s vital that you know what your approbation is communicating to the Son of Man:

A. Your “boast” in the Lord (Psalm 20:7) is more rhetoric, than daily, practical, Biblical reality.

B. You’ve compromised your allegiance to the way of Christ. In fact, you’re “bowing down” (Psalm 20:8) to a king who is contraChrist.

C. You’ve “fallen away” (Psalm 20:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:) from heaven’s definition of faith in God.

D. You need to return to pure, and sufficient faith in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20) The Lord knows there are grim consequences to “bowing down and falling away”…

“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief FALL AWAY from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:12-13)

“They have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they FALL AWAY, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” (Hebrews 6:5-6)

1. Your adulation will cause you to side-step the faith-cultivating process that Holy Spirit is working in the Bride through the Sermon on the Mount. Consequently, you will not have a breathing, adroit faith that will be sufficient for the “troubled” day in which we’re living. You will lack the humble responsiveness to the Lord that will keep you safe from losing your obedient love for the Lord.

2. The spirit of delusion (2 Thessalonians 2:11) is a bonafide threat to your Christlikeness, and to your salvation. In apologizing for this man’s demonic spirit, you are being beguiled by greater and more self-satisfying lies. You will defend the indefensible. Truth-be-told, if you’re reading this with an argument in your spirit, you already are. And ultimately, you will encourage others deeply into these contra-Christ thoughts and behaviors. This is the sure, scriptural, mathematical pathway to destruction traversed by the envious, those filled with strife, deceit, malice, insolent, arrogant, unfeeling, and unmerciful.

“Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper, people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil… without understanding, untrustworthy, unfeeling, and unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also approve, and encourage others to practice them.” (Romans 1:28-32)

“Consequently GOD SENDS ON THEM A DELUDING INFLUENCE so that they will believe what is false.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11)

“For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that THEY ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things.” (Philippians 3:18-19)

“They are pure vanity, the work of delusion and error. When the day of their visitation comes, they will be destroyed.” (Jeremiah 51:18)

What does being given over to a spirit of delusion look like in a soul, a community, and/or a culture?

12 Signs and Consequences of a Christian Being Given Over to a sPirit of Delusion:

1. You cannot also be filled with the Holy Spirit

2. You will not crave the fruit of the Spirit – you will crave and justify the fruit of the flesh

3. You will (increasingly?) suffer (literally) the natural, compounding consequences of unrighteousness

4. You will not be able to rightly bear a cross; you will have no means of true discipleship in Christ, and will therefore have no means to cultivate increased living faith in Christ Jesus

5. You will be found testifying to things that actually harm the reputation of God, and harm others.

6. You will seek out greater and greater religious zeal to make up for the lack of Spirit power in your life

7. You will listen to the destructive and divisive arguments/doctrines of demons

8. You will increasingly NOT walk in the light of honestly, vulnerability, poverty of spirit, humility, meekness etc., but instead walk in darkness, shame, isolation, and evil suspicion

9. You will fill your self with more and more of a “curse” – that will actually often manifest itself as “cursing”

10. “Prophetic” words (charismatic), and Biblical teaching (dispensational) are more and more about “saving self”, and less and less about exalting Jesus, or even mentioning Jesus at all.

11. Daily intimate fellowship with Jesus and His Word, and prayer (watching and praying) becomes more and more burdensome, and the invitation to political, social, ethical, religious zealotry becomes more and more appealing.

12. Ultimately, the terms of your own covenant with Jesus are on the table, and you find yourself questioning key elements of the gospel for yourself, and others.

CONCLUSION
After ten years of this man’s vanity, deceit, lust and malicious words, the Lord is saying to our 21c blind, Laodicean spirit: “If you’re celebrating this man with no alarm about the (1 John 2:16) antiChrist spirit that’s in his soul, you’re giving him what he wants – ‘worship’; worship that only belongs to Me. This is idolatry in My eyes. The many in My household who continue to bow before this man, and his blasphemous pride and carnal hostility, ‘I am giving over’ (Romans 1:28) to a (2 Thessalonians 2:11) “strong delusion” – a spirit that has the power to cause all who elevate this man to “fall away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) from the cross-bearing faith that will be necessary to stand with first-commandment love for Me at the end of the age.”

Today is a good day to weep. Truth be told, our tears over the compromised state of the church in America have far more glorious might than all the firepower in our military arsenal. 

Shame upon a people who have lost their vision to see this… 

There are a few across the land who are heralding this warning unto repentance with love, prayers, and the anticipation of redemption. And on the open plain where the false prophets bid the people of God to bow down to nationalist glory, there are a handful who dare to stand and boast in nothing but the Name of the Lord, our God. 

And this is the message of those who stand. This is the invitation that we cry on the slippery slope of our culture: “Come! Repent of our idolatry! The Lord is bidding us to get up from bowing down, and come to His threshing floor, together. The hour is late. Let’s put away our spots, wrinkles and blemishes! Let us engage the fire that Jesus first offered to our Laodicean sisters and brothers: “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” (Revelation 3:17-18)

____________________
JSB • June, 2025

POSTSCRIPT: The only way to break the curse of the unrighteous delusion that clings to us is for believers, churches and ministries to come to the Lord’s threshing floor, and engage the Lord in brutal personal truth over His Word. It’s only as we dialogue with the Spirit about the destructive contra-Christ thought-patterns and narratives, and give ourselves to weeping, repentance and contrition that we will find power to extricate ourselves from their invasive affects on our hearts, ways and relationships.

This was the type of engagement that Ezra gave to the Lord when his people were found to infected with the virulent strain of rebellious adultery in their day:

“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens. 7 From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and priests, have been delivered over to captivity, plunder, and embarrassment—right up to the present time. 8 “But now briefly we have received mercy from the Lord our God, in that he has left us a remnant and has given us a secure position in his holy place. Thus our God has enlightened our eyes and has given us a little relief in our time of servitude. 9 Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us… “And now what are we able to say after this, our God? For we have forsaken your commandments 11 which you commanded us through your servants the prophets with these words: ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the local residents! With their abominations they have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness. 12 Therefore do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, and do not take their daughters in marriage for your sons. Do not ever seek their peace or welfare, so that you may be strong and may eat the good of the land and may leave it as an inheritance for your children forever.’ 13 “Everything that has happened to us has come about because of our wicked actions and our great guilt. Even so, our God, you have exercised restraint toward our iniquities and have given us a remnant such as this. 14 Shall we once again break your commandments…? Would you not be so angered by us that you would wipe us out, with no survivor or remnant? 15 O Lord God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left as a remnant this day. Indeed, we stand before you in our guilt. However, because of this guilt no one can really stand before you.”

While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself to the ground before the temple of God, a very large crowd of Israelites—men, women, and children alike—gathered around him. The people wept loudly. 2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God…” (Ezra 9:6-15 and 10:1-3)

Friends. This hasn’t been our way. We don’t value this kind of prayer in our evangelical circles. Nor have we “learned Christ” in this manner. Our prideful theology demands that it all be settled in a moment. Our hearts and minds are “dead set” on dominion, even if it means waving our paper swords in make-believe worlds to manifest it.

The tragic tragic truth of the matter is, MANY who believe that they are sons and daughters of the most High God will be lost under the power of the strong delusion simply because they refuse to let the Holy Spirit make them real through the fires of weeping, conviction of sin, lament and repentance. It’s so vital that we allow the Lord to begin to do this work within us today.

The 4-Fold Cycle of Cult-Formation • And How to Be Set Free

/ JSB / Leave a comment

THE 4-FOLD CYCLE OF CULT-FORMATION
PREFACE

In 1930’s Germany, the national churches, both Catholic and Lutheran, were very orthodox in their theological beliefs. They largely held to the infallibility of scriptures. They believed in one God. They believed that Jesus Christ is God. They believed that there is one way to salvation through Christ.

Where they deviated from the faith of the apostles, and the Spirit of Christ was in the praxis of their faith in Christ. They allowed the dictates of Christ (ie. the universal exhortations of taking up our cross and living according to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount) to be supplanted by nationalist arguments built upon ever-increasing levels of fear, anger, hatred and pride.

A cult doesn’t grow up over night. It takes years and decades of cyclical reasoning, fear-mongering, narrative formation, redaction, group-speak, enculturation, apologetic development, and legend enhancement. Along the way, the cult is shaped by pundits, philosophers, politicians, pastors and (false) prophets, who essentially tell potential cult participants HOW AND WHAT TO THINK about important events and issues in their world.

A flash-point of “crisis” lands in the midst of the society and a flurry of opinions break in upon the populace. (Every human that’s ever existed is hard-wired to want to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). In our age, the immediate availability of information (true or false) via social media gives our starving souls the security-information it craves – immediately.

The devil has been waiting for this age.

Whether its a plague that touches the nations; a riot that erupts in our capital; a wild argument launched by our President; or a geo-political conflict that rages in a far-away land, we are quickly submerged in thousands of “arguments and vain imaginations” (2 Corinthians 10:5) that tell us HOW TO THINK about these events. And in spite of what we vehemently assert to the contrary, WHAT WE EVENTUALLY BELIEVE does varying levels of injustice to the authority of the Word, and infidelity to the Spirit of Christ.

In April of 2020, approximately 85% of our evangelical family was adamant that it was good for churches and other public gathering places to be shuttered, or fully closed on account of the COVID plague. Less than 6 months later the beliefs were nearly inverted. WHAT CHANGED THE NARRATIVE?

In February of 2021, 70% of our evangelical family had serious misgivings about the behavior of our President on January 6. Less than a year later nearly 65% believed he was justified in his claims about the election being rigged. Four years later, I believe (I don’t know) the belief in the intentional interference of that election is even higher among our sisters and brothers in Christ.

I don’t know what the polls show re: our evangelical opinions re: Russia and the Ukraine, but I’d imagine that we’re undergoing a similar drastic shift in opinion – ALL BECAUSE OF THE ASSERTIONS OF ONE MAN.

As I mentioned, it takes years to shape cult-thinking. Many within our evangelical family are well-down this path. Many are slower, and/or more circumspect. Some, have not gone on the journey at all. But the truth of the matter is, in March of 2016 well-more than 75% of our evangelical family had serious, deep, Biblically principled objections to the idea of an unrepentant, serial sexual-abuser/adulterer serving as our national, political representative. We couldn’t have imagined that in the intervening 10 years, event after crisis; statement after episode would have led our family to the type of unfettered, near-inerrant adulation we would be heaping upon this one man, and his fantastic beliefs/vision/values/logic.

I’ve said it before, I’ll maintain it to the cliff: no single individual in our generation has made a larger impact on how we think about the world around us, than Donald J. Trump.

Our evangelical family is being over-taken by a praxis of CULT THINKING; no less than the German Churches ceded their highly logical thinking to the influence of one man and his eroding effect upon his culture’s values and principles. Whether our submersion into cult-thinking arrives at similar levels of infidelity to Christ, and human devastation remains to be seen.

(PART 1)
RAGE IS AT THE CORE

“I know your dwelling place, your going out and your coming in, and your rage against Me.” (Isaiah 37:28)

At the foundation of all CULT-THINKING is RAGE AGAINST GOD, and the things, and ways of God. (The lower left quadrant on this chart)

This RAGE is the essence of our natural/carnal relationship with God. It is born in us. It’s passed from generation to generation. And today, it churns within all 8 billion of us on the earth.

It was the seething spirit of rage that materialized in the words of the serpent in the garden: “You will certainly not die.” (Genesis 3:4) (ala. GOD LIES!) Indeed, Jesus identified murderous rage at the core of the devil in John 8:44: “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desire of your father. He was a MURDERER from the beginning.”

Whether it’s Joseph Smith’s original vision where the “spirit” told him, “You must join none of them [the churches that were experiencing revival during America’s second great awakening] – They are AN ABOMINATION to me.”

Or, it’s “You’ve got to FIGHT like HELL!” Donald Trump’s infamous rally cry uttered minutes before the crowd stormed the capital on January 6. Or any of Trump’s first nineteen juvenile fights he picked with Marco Rubio, Megan Kelly, John McCain, Carly Fiorina etc. when he first entered the GOP race in 2015.

Decades ago, our family was able to identify the MILITANT RAGE in the foundations of Marxism, Planned Parenthood, the LGBTQ, Agnosticism, etc. Now, our own “DOUBLE-DAMN-YOU” fire against all things (woke, libtard, Biden, Obama, Hillary, Brandon etc) has blinded us from being able to perceive the hellish gasoline that burns in the bowels of MAGA.

Rage is at the heart of all things CULT. The CULT will not gain traction in the heart of other humans without it.

Let me say this again: Rage is at the heart of all things CULT. It will not gain traction in the heart of a man, a woman, a group, a community, or a nation without it.

But let me be clear, “the cause” doesn’t ignite the furnace of rage within a man. The furnace of rage exists perpetually. It burns hot within a man, and GOES SEARCHING FOR “a justifiable cause” by which to fuel itself.

And in 2015, after eight years of the explosive advancement of humanist ideology across our land, evangelical Christians were boiling; primed to embrace a murderous Saul who would go to battle for them without having to navigate the bothersome encumbrance of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In Trump, our evangelical malice found a conscienceless champion for its “justifiable cause”.

Once the flame of hostility licks the fuel of a “justifiable cause” it burns, and burns and burns – hotter and with great intensity; protecting itself; building ramparts for its hearth; and slogans for its mantle; it roars with proud heat. And in its enhanced and congratulated state, it is extremely difficult (in fact, humanly impossible) to extinguish.

ONLY by the gracious gift of the spirit of humility and contrition can that oppositional spirit of raging enmity be doused and extinguished; and only by the circumspect Spirit of revelation can a rage-burning stove begin to settle, cool, and then be dismantled.

When Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the Kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), THIS is what He was referencing. THIS is what He knew about the hostile nature of the human spirit.

“For the mind of the flesh is actively hostile to God. It does not submit itself to God’s law, since it cannot, and those who are in the flesh [living a life that craves sinful appetites and impulses] will not please God.” (Romans 8:7-8)

He knew that it was only by the infusing work of the Holy Spirit that the angry turbulence of the human spirit could be brought to “life and peace” with God. (Romans 8:6)

I’ll dare to be specific and offensive here: If the CULT of Trump were to lose its ire; if Trump, Vance and Hegspeth and Wallnau and Bannon and Flynn and Kirk and Patel’s etc, anger were to freeze tonight, the MAGA movement would lose all its inertia.

Allow me to continue: HOWEVER, if MAGA were to humble their rage before the fear of the Lord, acknowledge the utter depth of their sin and their need for God and the ways of God (along with the rest of us); if they were to repent of their hostility toward God’s principles, and their murderous malice toward SO MANY others (political opponents, former colleagues, nations etc.) and let the Spirit of the Lord clothe them in Godly submission – meekness, understanding, kindness, and compassion – I KNOW it would slay a million demonic lies; and we’d see the removing of a million red hats, a collapse of godless humanism, AND a bonfire of revival and true, peace-generating godliness throughout our land.

(Part 2)
OUR RAGE GOES LOOKING FOR DECEIT TO JUSTIFY ITSELF

Whether it’s believing a white salamander spoke to your prophet, the Jews are engaging in a global cabal to dominate the global economy, or two African America ladies in Georgia were dumping ballots in the 2020 election, DECEIT forms the immovable foundation of CULT. This DECEIT, is composed of sedimentary layers of false narratives about our real world that enrage, or justify our RAGE against specific elements in our world.

For instance, if we already hate distinctives about native American history and culture, our SELF will readily accept a LIE that says “indians are being used to sow communism into the fabric of our society.” And once that lie is in place, both our evil heart and our fleshly heart go searching for more evidence to justify our wicked mix of concrete that will form the bedrock of CULT.

DECEIT actually forms the substance of CULT when we find, and encourage others into similar patterns of “belief” – and together we feed our minds, conversations, editorial pages, and conferences with mangled statistics, rhetoric, propaganda, and storylines that “cement” our toxic, unbowed beliefs. Deceit shapes our hatred into a weapon of “false justice”. And when many take up these weapons together, they form a CULT army, ready to wield their collective will upon the culture around them.

It’s important to know that the false narratives of CULT come in every langauge – in fact, CULT is at the Biblical root of why languages exist at all in Genesis 11, when God scattered the people of Babaa’l to break up the lie that they were swallowing about themselves. “Everything is possible to us; let us (together)build a tower that will reach heaven…” (See Genesis 11:4-6)

The false narrative of CULT will also be what scatters the nations at the end of the age, when collectively armed with rage against God, the 8+billion-member CULT determines to rid the earth of those who are “bound” by the truths of godliness.

“Why do the nations rage?… Let us (together) break the fetters of the godly and His/their Anointed King” (See Psalm 2:1-3)

Both the beginning of humanity and the end of humanity will entail God needing to come against CULT, and CULT THINKING in order to save humanity from the wiles of the one who is both filled with murderous rage from the beginning, and the father of all lies; and who cannot even speak the truth.

In John 8 Jesus gives humanity important information about what’s really going on beneath the CULTISH dynamics of the human heart; information that Jesus has had a front row seat to since the beginning: “43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

In these few comments Jesus asserts that

A. those who were opposing His Words and His ways were, in fact, UNABLE to hear what Jesus was saying (v.43) because their hearts had already been filled with false narratives.

B. Therefore, their ears did not “itch” for the life-giving Words of Jesus. The CULT thinking made their ears “itch” for words that fueled their hatred.

C. Their hearts had become addicted to the food of the devil; who only had hatred and murder within him, and could only give what he was: a deceitful murderer who opposed the ways of life and truth at every turn.

D. Jesus alone has the Words of life. And everyone who hears His Words, and receives His Words must be ready to do more than disavow themselves of the devil’s lies; they must acknowledge that they themselves are hostage to, and stirred to murder, on account of the devil’s lies.

E. Jesus maintains, “only those who are OF GOD” can receive Jesus’ way of life and truth. Only those who are both willing to admit that they desperately need God, and those who look to God alone for life and truth can hear what God is saying. (OF GOD is also a reference to those who have been “tenderized” by the prevenient Voice of the Holy Spirit, Who prepares the heart of women and men to be able to both let go of the lies, and receive the truth that will bring eternal life to the human soul)

But this DECEIT isn’t just a factor in our conversion to Christ. Because “the whole world is filled with the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) our hearts and minds will perpetually need to deal with the falsehoods and enmity that the evil one sows. This is why Paul exhorts the believers in the city of Corinth to “take every thought captive to Christ!” (1 Corinthians 10:5) This is a call for more than true facts about God and our world. Our minds are to be filled with both God-exalting truth, and human abasement to the God of all truth.

It’s only when both of these elements come together; receptivity to the revelation of Truth, and a humble posture that is willing and ready to let that Truth cleanse our hearts, that the Truth will profit us at all.

Unless we respond to these generous, and gracious movements of the Spirit, we WILL live – and encourage others to live – in the land of DECEIT.

“Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captives, but have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.” (Lamentations 2:14)

“You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” (Psalm 5:6)

“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jeremiah 5:31)

“In their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.” (Revelation 14:5)

“For all this her treachery has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:10)

“Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” (Psalm 31:18)

“Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.” (Ephesians 4:25)

(Part 3)
OUR RAGE AND DECEITFUL NARRATIVES JUSTIFY BETRAYAL

Once our RAGE has found its JUSTIFICATION in FALSE NARRATIVES and HALF-TRUTHS, it is an easy matter for us to then also JUSTIFY disobeying, or “suspending” (often even the clear) admonitions of CHRIST. Our heated emotions, our stoked hatred, and our minds, having become fixed on a false storyline, are easy prey for the one who was a murderer from the beginning, and the father of all lies.

The best example of this dynamic is a rhetorical rebuttal that we’ve heard for the last ten years: “We don’t need the Beatitudes. We’re electing a President, not a pastor.” The argument here being, “In this dire situation, we believe that operating in direct disobedience to Jesus’ beatitudes will produce better results in our society than obeying them, and encouraging our political champions to obey them.

Essentially what we are saying is,

v.3 “We don’t believe humility will bring ourselves, and/or our neighbors into His Kingdom.”

v.4 “We don’t believe that weeping will salve our painful groan as we long for what Jesus longs for.”

v.5 “We don’t believe that meekness will inherit anything of value.”

v.6 “We don’t believe that He’ll hear our hunger for and thirst for justice without compromising His power and His ways.”

v.7 “We don’t believe being merciful will be a gateway to increased mercy. (Heck. Who wants mercy at all??)

v.8 “Who needs to be pure in heart??? NO ONE is really pure in heart…”

v.9 “We don’t believe this is a time to be a peacemaker. We need someone who will relentlessly declare war on evil, and everyone who champions whatever we deem to be “evil”.

v.10 “And when we get persecuted for championing the very opposite of what Jesus encouraged us to champion in the Beatitudes, we’ll cry ‘We’re being persecuted for the sake of Christ’!!”

Here, as our hearts are betraying the Words of our King, we do well to listen to the words of Peter:

“14 If you are insulted and reviled for [bearing] the name of Christ, you are blessed [happy, with life-joy and comfort in God’s salvation regardless of your circumstances], because the Spirit of glory and of God is resting on you [and indwelling you—He whom they curse, you glorify]. 15 Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or a thief, or any sort of criminal [in response to persecution], or as a troublesome meddler interfering in the affairs of others; 16 but if anyone suffers [ill-treatment] as a Christian [because of his belief], he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God [because he is considered worthy to suffer] in this name.” (1 Peter 4:14-16)

It’s important to note the converse of what Peter is stating here. Should we be reproached by our world on account of our pursuit of murder, criminal activity, and creating trouble in our culture, and still CLAIM the glory of PERSECUTION, we are actually bringing dishonor to God, and not sharing in His glory at all.

This is a real-time issue in the culture of the American Church in this hour – one that we would ALL do well to bring before the leveling perspective of the Spirit of the Lord, where we can thoughtfully and soberly ask the question of David: “Search me, and analyze me O God; and see if there is any wicked, rebellious, idolatrous, or hurtful way in me.” (Psalm 139:24)

5 ways that CHAMPIONING MAGA CAN BE a BETRAYAL of the way of CHRIST.

These 5 ways will most apply to those who are:

Voting but not speaking…

Voting, endorsing and not speaking…

Voting, endorsing, not speaking, and defending…

Voting, endorsing, not speaking, defending, but assailing others who are speaking

If you find yourself in any of these four above categories, I urge you to take some, or all of these WAYS of BETRAYAL before the Spirit of the Lord yourself:

1. MAGA has become a pathway to IDOLATRY.

2. MAGA asserts a way to RIGHTEOUSNESS that has no need, value or respect for JESUS’ WORDS in the Sermon on the Mount.

3. MAGA is wholly REPENTANCE RESISTANT.

4. MAGA refuses to LOVE, BLESS and/or FORGIVE its ENEMIES. In fact, it thrives on CURSING its ENEMIES.

5. MAGA is a siren call to LAY DOWN ONE’S CROSS. There is NOTHING about MAGA that values taking up one’s CROSS for the sake of the amplification of Jesus, His glory, and/or the REIGN of the JESUS of the Bible.

Again. These five WAYS of BETRAYAL are on a sliding scale. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ (who ARE IN Christ) are at different levels on each of these evaluative points. Some are barely on the spectrum at all – while others are nearly at 100% on each of the matters.

These points are vital for us to get a grip on. They aren’t a MENTAL CHECK-LIST. They’re an INTERNAL PRAYER-LIST for ourselves. They point the way AWAY FROM FAITH in Jesus. And TRUE, “I am trusting Jesus for the way through life and the tribulations of life” FAITH is what Jesus is looking for within us as He returns to our blind and rebellious world.

“When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8) [NKJV]

(Part 4)
THE CAPSTONE OF IDOLATRY

Once the rage, the false-narratives, and the will to compromise the way of God is in place, the devil confronts the heart with the way and spirit of IDOLATRY.

IDOLATRY is simply any person (apostle, prophet, president, angel etc), power or process that we look to in order to establish our way in the world; minimizing the bad, and maximizing the good; we willfully give this entity our allegiance, obedience and/or no dissent, and view it/him/her as a bonafide embodiment of that which our uncrucifed self is seeking to gain from the world.

IDOLATRY is resoundingly condemned in both the Old Testament, and in the New. The Lord is jealous for our direct reliance, and intimate communion. He will suffer no inferior surrogate “god”. No intermediary to the skin-to-skin reign of His own Son.

IDOLATRY is, at best, a filter between ourselves and the way of God. It interprets the way and voice of God to our itching souls. In truth, it perverts and turns our hearts from raw dependence upon God to a “necessary go-between”; often presented to us as a “necessary evil” in order to gain that which we’ve set our flesh upon.

But it’s also more than that. IDOLATRY is a demonic-pact, whereby needy humans promise to do, or give, or entrust some aspect of ourselves (we WHOLLY belong to Christ in our covenant with Christ) to the elevation, preservation, defense of, and/or exaltation of a medium entity. For the CHRISTian, IDOLATRY is establishing a COVENANT with the devil on the side. And it becomes a gateway to demonic influence within a person/family’s life.

“They set up their disgusting idols in the temple that I have claimed for My own and defile it.” (Jeremiah 32:34)

“They are all estranged from Me by their idols.” (Ezekiel 14:5)

“Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy.” (Jonah 2:8)

“20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (Revelation 9:20-21)

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21)

Friends. This is a hard thing for many within our evangelical family to hear, but, in our lifetime, there has been no other person, entity, or philosophy that’s done more to corrupt the way of Christ within the family of Christ than the words, the spirit and the machinations of Donald J. Trump. We take up his rage, we believe his narratives, we allow him exemptions from the way of Christ, and we cheer him, put his words in our mouths, hail him, pray for/upon him, and bless his ways – endlessly. His influence over the way we view our world, relate to our world, and project God into our world, is unparalleled. There is no close second.

Our relationship with this one man has become 100% idolatrous. We love what he loves; we turn a blind eye to his own boastful words of self-exaltation, and we make sacrifices to him, for his benefit – sacrifices of the character of Christ Who lives and dwells within us. We choose the way of Trump over the way of Jesus. And in our zeal we encourage, argue, fight and divide the body of Christ to do the same. Such is our fidelity to this idol.

Furthermore, and finally, the Lord Himself is behind this idol. There is a calculated reason why the Lord has allowed this man, who has lived his entire life contra-Sermon-on-the-Mount, to become a feature on the landscape of our culture unlike any man in our lifetime. The Lord is “judging” His house. He’s placing an idol directly in our path to see who will and will not bow before the power, wisdom and the beauty that this man declares that he has.

The cry of the Lord is clear to those who are listening in the Spirit: “Who will refuse this man their allegiance? Who will turn away from his carnal power? Who will see the ways of this man that exist in themselves and yet bow in repentance and obeisance to Me? Who, in this hour of great threat and need will bow their knee, their rhetoric, their narratives, their fearful and raging heart to Me?”

Beloved. At this point in our heavenly storyline, it is no longer possible to bow to Christ, and also serve as an apologist for Trump. To do so, is to say “yes” to idolatry.

THE HARDENING OF THE HEART

Once our rage has found a narrative to justify its endemic hostility against God and others, and the solution to the narrative is urgent enough to justify our compromise with the way of Christ, and our compromised solution finds a host who promises to lead us into (all) good and godly things, the CULT-CYCLE is fully established within our hearts. And our hearts begin to form a paradigm, or a prism, through which it (mistakenly) sees, internalizes and understands the whole of the rest of the world.

In this state, even Jesus observed that there is no hope to stave the pattern of destruction in their souls – like trying to lead a fall, down drunk to pray the sinner’s prayer, or a wealthy woman who is rushing through the mall to surrender her heart to Jesus. The feverish intoxication of their mind-set has become an impenetrable fortress.

“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’” (Matthew 13:15)

In this state; the state of years and decades of CULT THINKING, nothing can break the sedimentary cycle of the hardened heart – except the piercing power of the “unfamiliar” Word of the Holy Spirit.

It’s important to recognize that Jesus says that our hearts “GROW dull”. They don’t just get hardened, resistant and rebellious overnight. He knew the cycle gradually does its work: anger finds self-justification, narratives find compromised solutions, compromised solutions find heroes, and heroes stimulate more enmity and rage. And as the cycle turns within the person, it hardens the soul to external thinking. “Transcendence” is needed, but it cannot be conceived of, nor appropriated. 

Add to this cyclical process, relationship with significant others who ALSO internalize their worlds through the same cyclical pattern of thinking, and mutually reenforce each other’s cycles of rage, narrative, compromise, idol worship, and you have a full-fledged “CULT”.

One more time:
Rage against God and others looks for a narrative that justifies not tempering the rage.
The urgency of the narrative provides permission to violate the ways of Christ.
The compromised way is championed within an individual, or collection of heroic individuals.
These “idols” promise us freedom from the things which have initially stimulated our rage.
And these promises are like carrots on a stick – always before us – always being thwarted by some version of “evil” that justifies filling ourselves with more rage toward “outside” others.

It’s a cycle that’s as old as the garden. And it’s a cycle that will lead to the destruction of billions of souls at the end of the age.

There’s only one solution. And it can only come as we pass through one door. And that door is held open by One Person: the Person of the Holy Spirit. 

But He not only holds the door open; He calls out to us; woos us, and then walks with each of us through the door, into the process of freedom. And it is a process…

THE WAY OUT: HOW TO BE SET FREE FROM THE POWER OF CULT

“Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and… you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord. 14 ‘Return, O backsliding children,’ says the Lord; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jeremiah 3:12-15)

There is ONE WAY to be SET FREE from the supernatural power of CULT. And there is ONE MAN WHO retains the authority and compassion to release the human person from the ravages of RAGE, DECEIT, BETRAYAL and IDOLATRY. It’s vital that we both acknowledge this, AND that we traverse the lengthy journey to freedom with this firmly rooted in our minds.

The ONE WAY to navigate to true freedom is to allow the Holy Spirit to bring our hearts to true humility, acknowledging that we NEED His illumination for every thought, every emotional response, every act, and every word of understanding and rhetoric. We are WHOLLY dependent upon Him for truth, the measure of truth, and the application of truth in our lives. We must “unhook” ourselves from our own incessant appetite to continue to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and allow the Holy Spirit to feed us as much as He will, when He will, and no more. We must affirm our need to be WHOLLY bankrupt of knowledge without Him; and without the revelations that He gives. And we must yield to His first truth: that we are all ignorant and devoid of the ability to distinguish light from darkness without His discerning aid.

Jesus indicated this ONE WAY succinctly in his first Words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for their’s is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) We have no hope of navigating the ways of His Kingdom without being made poor, and lowly and traveling at impulse-power, with Him leading us step-by-step, episode-by-episode, and analysis-by-analysis. This will be all the more true as Jesus (continues to) bring His Kingdom (closer) to the earth. He will not return to earth without a BRIDE who is “leaning on Him” in “the wilderness” of this age; praying, listening, responding in nimble faith, moving at His impulse.

The ONE MAN, therefore, is CHRIST JESUS. He Himself is our freedom. It’s as we WALK WITH HIM through the firestorms on the earth, in intimate dialogue about the issues that are in our heart, that we actually cultivate the liberty that allows us to break free from the shackles of the thought patterns of this world. JESUS set forth the pattern to freedom in His restating of the “She’mah” (Deuteronomy 6:4) in (Mark 12:30) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”

It is as we focus our gaze on the glorious MAN, JESUS that we find that CULT THINKING loses its “sticking power”. The more we behold the beauty of JESUS and allow our HEART to be drawn to His matchless character, the more our IDOLATROUS AFFECTIONS will lose their magnetism.

The more we surrender our SOUL-WILL to the leadership of JESUS, the more our ways of COMPROMISE and BETRAYAL will seem shallow, and tasteless.

The more we TAKE EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST, the less our MINDS will fall for, and accumulate the sensational DECEIT, CONSPIRACIES and NARRATIVES of the devil.

And the more we allow the STRENGTH of our FLESH to be CRUCIFIED unto HIS INCREASE, the less fuel we’ll have to stoke the flames of rage in our own lives.

It’s a day-by-day process, that must be undergone with as much sobriety as the detoxification of a drug-addict. And, NO ONE will do this deep, hard, honest work “on the run”. It will require intentional, focused counter-intuitive dialogue with the Lord in the place of much “poverty of spirit” prayer.

The good news is, Jesus is endlessly patient, and since He exists out of time as the Alpha and Omega, 😉 He has ALL DAY to walk with us in the deep, honest places of our hearts.

Our core, burning RAGE can’t hold a candle to the quasar of GOD’S LOVE. HE is FAR MORE COMMITTED to giving us GREATER GRACE than we are to stay ANGRY at HIM, to BELIEVE LIES, to REBEL AGAINST HIM, and to IDOLIZE the things of this world.

____________________
JSB • March, 2025

The Power of Narratives

/ JSB / 2 Comments

THE POWER OF NARRATIVES

Social Psychologists tell us that the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening in our lives have great power to shape our beliefs. These stories are called “narratives”. They help us make sense of our world, and when they are reenforced by significant others, they become powerful determinants of truth, and motivators for how we engage our culture.

Below are 26 of the (hundreds of) narratives that have grown up in our nation, and have fueled Trump’s popularity the last 9 years. These narratives were largely non-entities ten years ago. But since, they’ve been broadcast at rallies,
developed by political pundits,
sometimes embellished,
fueled pod-casts,
launched careers,
blogs,
articles,
and conventions.

They’ve been turned into chants,
bumper-stickers,
t-shirts,
songs,
videos,
hats,
flags,
cardboard cut-outs
and AI images.

Then they have been copied,
affirmed,
liked,
embellished some more,
and reshared billions of times on social media.

They have also found root, have been nurtured, encouraged and have produced fruit within our evangelical family.

How many of these narratives have you grown to believe?

A. The traditional media is biased to the left, and the alternative media is much more unbiased and fair-minded.

B. Trump did not engage in Quid Pro Quo w Zelinski. His first impeachment trial was a baseless witch-hunt.

C. The Muller Report exonerated TRUMP and his associates from campaign impropriety.

D. The many proLife, conservative staff, cabinet members, generals, and advisors that TRUMP either fired, or who resigned from his first administration were DEEP STATE operatives, or DEEP STATE dupes.

E. The DEMS and WORLD ORDER colluded to use COVID to dethrone TRUMP.

F. TRUMP wanted no masks, no restrictions, and no (rush to produce) COVID vaccines

G. TRUMP didn’t incite a violent riot on J6.

H. The 2020 election was stolen. The DEMS, DEEP STATE and WORLD POWERS produced votes that put Biden over the top in key states.

I. The DEMS and DEEP STATE were actually the ones responsible for the mayhem, and death on J6.

J. TRUMP didn’t violate federal law re the removal and storage of classified documents being kept a MaraLargo.

K. The FBI is being weaponized against TRUMP.

L. The DEMS and the DEEP STATE are responsible for his assassination attempts.

M. PENCE and 90% of TRUMP’s former cabinet members, White House staff and generals chiefs of staff who resigned and/or opposed TRUMP’S narrative after J6, are DEEP STATE traitors.

N. More than 1000 conservative, proLife (GOP) judges, governors, state officials, and state legislators who balked, objected and/or would not go along w TRUMP’S “stop the steal” campaign were DEEP STATE, or DEEP STATE dupes.

O. The prophets predicted TRUMP would be president twice.

P. TRUMP’S rape trial was a nefarious hit job orchestrated by the DEMS and DEEP STATE.

Q. TRUMP’S adultery pay-off trial w a porn-prostitute was rigged against him by the DEMS and DEEP STATE.

R. TRUMP never engaged in human trafficking, or other predatory sexual behavior associated w Jeffry Epstein

S. The J6 committee was a hit job coordinated by the DEMS and DEEP STATE.

T. TRUMP didn’t simulate oral sex on a microphone at a rally in Milwaukee.

U. TRUMP has never issued blasphemous statements about himself; claiming to be a messiah, or possessing God-like power.

V. TRUMP is a champion for the life of the pre-born.

W. TRUMP stands against same-sex-marriage, and values the sanctity of Biblical marriage.

X. TRUMP is, and will always be a friend of Israel.

Y. TRUMP is a baby Christian, and a man of Christian faith, who loves the Bible.

Z. It isn’t important when TRUMP behaves contrary to the Sermon on the Mount. We’re not electing a pastor.

____________________
JSB • November, 2024