LOVING SINNERS & LOVING SIN TOO?
YES, WHEN YOU'RE "OF THE WORLD"
TWO APOSTATES SEE EYE TO EYE, EVEN WITH AN OPENLY GAY PERFORMER; PUBLICLY PUT STAMP OF APPROVAL ON GAY LIFESTYLE
CONFIRMS LIBERTY IS ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT "CHRISTIAN" UNIVERSITIES,
& NOT FUNDAMENTAL
THE BUDDING FRIENDSHIP BASED ON LOVE OF THE WORLD
TRUMP & FALWELL ADMIRE ELTON JOHN'S "TALENTS" ?
ELTON JOHN WITH GAY PARTNER, DAVID FURNISH, LESS THE KIDS
TRUMP WITH MICHAEL JACKSON ON PLANE
FALWELL'S UNBIBLICAL, LUDICROUS COMPARISON
JERRY FALWELL, JR. COMPARES DONALD TRUMP TO KING DAVID, TALKS ABOUT WATCHING ELTON JOHN TOGETHER ON PRIVATE JET
BY HEATHER CLARK
With presidential campaigning in full force, Jerry Falwell Jr., president of what heralds itself as the world’s largest Christian university, is defending and cozying up to the lead contender on the Republican ticket, recently recalling to the university newspaper how he and Trump watched an Elton John concert together on the billionaire’s private jet—a man whose sins he dismissed by comparison to God’s appointment of King David.
As previously reported, Falwell has repeatedly sought to assure the American people of the mud-slinging, foul-mouthed candidate’s Christianity, pointing to the candidate’s good deeds as being the “fruit” that Jesus spoke of that characterizes a man who is born again.
“I’ve seen his generosity to strangers, to his employees, his warm relationship with his children,” he said on CNN’s “Legal View With Ashleigh Banfield” last month. “I’m convinced he’s a Christian. I believe he has faith in Jesus Christ.”
“I’ve had conversations with him just within the past few weeks about his faith, and I have no doubts he is a man of faith and he’s a Christian,” Falwell also stated on Fox’s “Hannity.”
“Matthew 7:16 tells us that ‘By your fruits you shall know them.’ Donald Trump’s life has borne fruit,” he told students during Trump’s appearance at Liberty University in January. “Fruit that has provided jobs to multitudes of people, in addition to the many he has helped with his generosity.”
“In my opinion, Mr. Trump lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the Great Commandment,” Falwell declared.
In a recent interview with the Liberty University newspaper, the Liberty Champion, Falwell explained his endorsement of Trump, and recalled the time he spent with the presidential candidate on the campaign trail in Iowa—including on his 757 jet, where the two watched an Elton John concert together.
“He’s got this big living room with this big screen TV. He’s got a master bedroom he showed us,” he remembered. “Then he let my son and his wife actually sit in the cockpit to take off because my son’s a pilot. Then we sat there with him the whole time, just across the table.”
“[W]e ate cheeseburgers. Then he put on a concert,” Falwell said. “He found out that when I grew up in the 70s, I was an Elton John fan. So, he put the concert on the big screen.”
As previously reported, Trump, who states that he personally believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, celebrated Elton John’s “marriage” to his same-sex partner in 2005.
“I know both of them and they get along wonderfully. It’s a marriage that’s going to work,” he wrote on his Trump University blog. “In any event, I’m very happy for them. If two people dig each other, they dig each other. Good luck, Elton. Good luck, David. Have a great life.”
In Falwell’s interview with the university newspaper, he asserted that Christians shouldn’t be concerned about a candidate’s sinful lifestyle as much as the need to “save the country.”
“Jesus said, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged. Let’s stop trying to choose the political leaders who we believe are the most godly because, in reality, only God knows people’s hearts. You and I don’t, and we are all sinners,” Falwell contended.
He acknowledged that some disagree with his endorsement of Trump.
“It is sad to see Christians attacking other Christians because they don’t support the same candidate or the candidate who they believe is the most righteous,” Falwell stated.
He pointed to King David in his reasoning, asserting that God still used him as a leader despite his sin.
“God called King David a man after God’s own heart even though he was an adulterer and a murderer,” Falwell said. “You have to choose the leader that would make the best king or president and not necessarily someone who would be a good pastor. We’re not voting for pastor-in-chief.”
In writing for the National Review on Monday, attorney David French found Falwell’s comparison to be faulty, noting that God punished David for his sin, and the nation suffered as a result.
“To mention King David in the same breath as Donald Trump is to insult our theological intelligence,” he stated. “Yes, David did terrible things—among them, committing adultery and sending his mistress’s husband to die in war—but God imposed terrible punishment—a punishment that cost David his son and ultimately plunged his nation into civil war.”
“And while God forgave David—as He forgives us today—He did not spare David from the cost of disobedience,” French continued. “Ultimately, David’s story is a story of both the awful consequences of sin and God’s mercy in response to true repentance.”
He said that the same will happen if America elects a leader living in open rebellion against God.
“Trump will bring us sin without repentance and consequence without the mercy,” French opined.
“Trump’s evangelical cheerleaders aren’t leading a flock—they’re following the mob,” he declared, expressing dismay at Falwell and others. “And as they follow the mob, they engage in ever-more bizarre theological and intellectual gymnastics to justify the unjustifiable.”
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FROM DAVID CLOUD'S "WAY OF LIFE":
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
JERRY FALWELL, JR. COMPARES TRUMP TO KING DAVID (Friday Church News Notes, March 25, 2016,www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Jerry Falwell, Jr., Chancellor of Southern Baptist-aligned Liberty University, likens U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump to King David. In an interview with the school newspaper, Liberty Champion, he said that he has been friends with Trump since his first visit to Liberty in 2012 and has joined Trump on the campaign trail. He speaks of Trump as a down-to-earth guy who served Falwell and his family Wendy’s cheeseburgers and personally set up a big screen Elton John concert for Jerry, Jr., after learning that he is a long-time Elton John fan. The latter tells us a lot about Jerry, Jr.’s spiritual life as well as Liberty University’s true soul, and it goes far to answer why Falwell would be so enthusiastic about Trump for president. To love Elton John’s music is to affiliate intimately with the evil things of the world and is gross disobedience to God’s Word. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Eph. 5:11). “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). Falwell said, Trump “is the kind of guy that will walk into Washington, kick over the tables, kick over the chairs, throw the bums out, start over, and do things that a career politician would never do.” He said further, “God called King David a man after God's own heart even though he was an adulterer and a murderer. You have to choose the leader that would make the best king or president and not necessarily someone who would be a good pastor.” We would reply, first, that God called David a man after His own heart and called him to be king BEFORE his adultery and murder. Beyond that, while it is true that Trump will probably kick things around, and that is what his supporters want, since they are fed up with the status quo, this perspective does not take into account two fundamental issues: what will he kick? And how much power does a president have for kicking? Even the best president does not have the power to make substantive changes to the American government, let alone to America’s moral fiber. Such things would require overwhelming support from the American people, which does not exist on the good side, and an overwhelming majority in Congress, which is nowhere in sight. Substantial changes would require a massive dismantling of the incredibly bloated federal government and the welfare state. It would start with disbanding the Department of Education and putting education back into the hands of the families and communities. It would require impeaching hundreds of state and federal judges for ruling by fiat rather than according to the U.S. Constitution, for raising modern political correctness to the level of the Bill of Rights. It would require dramatic reduction of the power of vast bureaucracies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Homeland Security, and Occupational Health and Safety Administration. It would require the government to live within its means and not bankrupt future generations with a pile of debt so massive it can barely be conceived. Fundamentally, “winning American back” would require bringing the American people back to moral character and the fear of God. Can Donald Trump do any of that? Not a whit. I have never seen evidence that he aims to do any of that, even if he were dictator. A president is not a pastor, tis true, but a man lacking moral character will not make moral decisions nor promote national moral character. A man who vows “till death do us part” and breaks that holy covenant two times over has a serious moral problem. A man who signs his word on documents and then uses bankruptcy to back out of his financial obligations when things get sticky (which is legal but not moral), is a liar and a thief. Someone says, “But if not Trump, it will be Hillary.” That’s no choice at all, but though I might not have a choice at the ballet box, I am not left without a choice. I can pray to the One who has ultimate control over human affairs, and I can urge others to pray, and prayer is a powerful thing that has been known to change the course of nations. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).
NOAH WEBSTER’S WISDOM COMPARED TO THAT OF JERRY FALWELL, JR. (Friday Church News Notes, March 25, 2016, www.wayoflife.org,fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Noah Webster, author of the American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828, who knew many of America’s Founding Fathers personally and was one of the most influential voices calling for the Constitutional Convention and the creation of America’s federal government, believed that it is necessary to elect righteous men to positions of authority. “When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. ... When a citizen gives his suffrage [vote] to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country” (Noah Webster, Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education: to which is subjoined A Brief History of the United States, 1823).
REVIVAL COULD COME (Friday Church News Notes, March 25, 2016, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The America that exists today simply could not do what it did 70 years ago to save the world from oppression. What’s missing today? God’s blessing. This is the answer that secular libertarians and unregenerate political conservatives don’t understand. Though America was not a godly nation in the 1940s when measured by the perfect standards of God’s Word, she was a nation that loved Israel, and she was a nation filled with churches that were much more faithful to God’s Word than they are today, and she was a nation of people that were much more God-fearing than they are today. The unchurched generally believed in God and feared Him and respected the Bible and respected churches and pastors, which was the salty influence of God’s people. Even Hollywood was bound by a moral code. The military chaplaincy program was robust and nearly universally respected. What was true during the war in my mom’s Baptist church in Kathleen, Florida, was true across the land. The church was open every day, and every day people knelt before God and confessed their sins and begged His help. American’s victory in WWII was not a foregone conclusion. Had Hitler developed the atomic bomb first, he would doubtless have used it first on Russia and then on America, and it could have been America surrendering rather than the Axis Powers.
America’s root problems are spiritual, and the only real solution is spiritual. The only thing that will help America out of her terrible plight is a true revival, and there could be revival. Though the time on God’s prophetic calendar is late, there is no reason to believe that genuine revivals can no longer occur. But revival in America or Canada or England or other lands with anything like a biblical heritage will happen only on the basis of 2 Chronicles 7:14. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). In context, this is a promise for Israel, but it has application to the church age. See Romans 15:4 and 1 Corinthians 10:11.
Nothing like a revival and lasting change will happen through Moral Majority programs or Tea Parties or Chick fil-A Days or Duck Dynasty support campaigns or bombastic, foul-mouthed Trump candidacies. As these have been tried repeatedly and enthusiastically over the past few decades, the moral depravity has only increased and the power of the forces for right and liberty has only decreased because these are carnal weapons that deal merely with symptoms and cannot affect the fundamental spiritual issues. These are band-aids on cancer. They can win minor socio-political skirmishes but not spiritual wars. Keeping Duck Dynasty on the air two years ago was not a sign of moral victory at a fundamental level; it was a sign of the power of the almighty dollar. At the very time that A&E was being pressured into keeping Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson on the air by an outpouring of support via social networking and “new media” sites, federal judges were ruling against biblical marriage in Utah and Ohio, and the Supreme Court ruled against biblical marriage laws in New Mexico. Which of these events will have the most far-reaching and lasting consequences? The heart of the tree is being eaten away even as the watchers are rejoicing at supposedly keeping a few leaves alive.
Revival could happen if individual Christians and individual churches repent before God at a deep level, repent of their adulterous love for this God-hating world, repent of their spiritual carelessness and lukewarmness, and beseech His help.
If even 100 Bible-believing churches took 2 Chronicles 7:14 seriously, who knows what would happen? If they started a weekly prayer meeting specifically for revival, specifically to beseech God’s help for the nation, if they called for fasting and prayer, and if the members of those churches would spend time seeking God’s face in a persistent manner, who knows how far the forces of evil could be driven back? God has never needed a majority. Gideon’s brave and vigilant few are enough.
The very fact that it is unlikely that even 100 Bible-believing churches will call for such prayer meetings, and that the majority of the members would not attend such meetings even if the pastors exhorted them to do so, is evidence that what I have often said is true about the root problem being the churches themselves. Even the best, for the most part, are lukewarm, settled down and comfortable in the world, not pilgrims but dwellers, mighty for pot luck and parties but weak for spiritual warfare.
