Alan Keyes
Whom should we trust: Hillary, Trump, or God?
Alan Keyes rebuts Pastor Carl Gallups' call for Christians to choose Donald
By Alan Keyes
In a recent article, WND reported that Pastor Carl Gallups is asking Christians who reject Donald Trump: "Can you live knowing you allowed a President Hillary?" Strange that a pastor should think it proper for Christians to fear the one who can only destroy our bodies more than we fear the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
Truly living by God's grace, we see a life before us no human power can mar. So no matter how the Father of Lies appears to limit our choice in terms of material destruction, we can stand by our choice of Christ, who dwells within, even if it means being rhetorically crucified by such pastors as Carl Gallups, or actually crucified by such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Christ came to prove that, by the mercy of God, what is more or less evil is not our only choice, no matter how the world sees it. Even if Pastor Gallups is saying, "Let's us do evil that good may come of it," it is logic the Scripture declares to be justly condemned (Romans 3:8).
It does not matter how hopeless it looks to cast our lot with God and His Son. "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength" (1 Corinthians 1:25). By upholding God's standard, therefore, we bear witness to the fact that we live by the certainty (which all Christians are supposed to share) that God's standard has already and always prevailed. All we are called to do, in every circumstance, is to prefer His will.
In light of that truth, Donald Trump's candidacy is a palpable lie, a transparent con game intended to lure those susceptible to what his lawyers have called "sales puffery." He said in his acceptance speech that he is not sure he deserves the support of people who profess to live in Christ. If he's not sure, it's a wonder that pastors like Carl Gallups can be. But Trump's sly confession means that they are forewarned, and without excuse. What will they do if and when Donald Trump reverts to type as a leftist, socialist promoter of the libertinism that is destroying the nation's soul, who believes, as he has said repeatedly, that he has no need of God – and therefore of Jesus Christ – for the forgiveness of sin? Will they speak out forthrightly, or parrot the line that "he's the only choice we've got, therefore we must support him"?
Consider the truth of Scripture: "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord will have them in derision." Christ did not tell us to "support whatever evil we must" to win worldly victories. He told us to "Seek first the kingdom of God," and let God take care of the rest. But this is not good enough for today's worldlings. They must rely on the calculus of evil. Even more, they must browbeat and ridicule the faithful-hearted people who refuse to imitate them.
So God will hold us responsible for Clinton's evil because we refused to embrace Trump's? Or did Christ say that we should strive to "Be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect" – so that even in our weakness and incapacity, we should bear faithful witness to the standard of God and let Christ's sacrifice, already complete, make up for our shortcomings? By God's gift of Jesus Christ, Donald Trump doesn't enter into that picture.
Meanwhile, even the worldly calculus of these champions of lesser evil misses the mark. Pastor Gallups relies heavily on the assertion that Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominees will restore SCOTUS's respect for the Constitution's provisions. But William Pryor is reportedly high on the list of people Trump says he is likely to nominate for the U.S. Supreme Court. That fact suggests the anti-constitutional jurisprudence of the court's judicial tyrants will continue unabated. As Alabama Attorney General, Pryor prosecuted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in 2003 for refusing to remove a display of the Ten Commandments from the grounds of the Alabama Supreme Court at the behest of a federal judge. Why does Pastor Gallups believe that Pryor will suddenly discover the provisions of the Ninth, 10th, and 14th Amendments (not to mention the First) that made that judge's order a blatant attack on the Constitution's authority?
Why indeed, given Mr. Trump's lame response to SCOTUS's Obergefell decision, in which he parroted the lie that the court's opinion is the "law of the land." He didn't even try to address the court's abandonment of the Constitution's provision prohibiting constitutional constructions that deny or disparage rights retained by the people, not to mention its subversion of the premises of God-endowed right and rights our nation, and its Constitution, are founded upon.
Donald Trump is not a flawed candidate. His is a phony, false candidacy, precisely intended to set the stage for the abandonment of the God-revering premises of America's founding, no matter which way the election turns out. True Christians should be immune to such falsehood, for Christ warned against those who vainly mouth the name of God, but deny His power. Is it just a "flaw" that, like Hillary Clinton, Trump did not evoke the authority of God's justice anywhere in his acceptance speech? – and did not even speak His name but as an afterthought at the end, as if God's blessing comes at the command of human power, not as a consequence of our regard for the standard of His will?
Clinton and Trump both represent the self-idolatry of human will and power that is the besetting sin of our time. What sense does it make to suggest that Christians are called to choose one or another form of this idolatry, instead of doing what they must to bear witness to the simple truth: Unless America finds a way to restore God's standard of right by rejecting both forms of idolatry, the way of life that once flourished in light of that standard must wither like the grass, and like the flowers fade away (Isaiah 40:8). For, once removed from the light of God's Word, that way of life shall not stand, neither shall it endure (cp. Isaiah 7:7).
August 15, 2016
In a recent article, WND reported that Pastor Carl Gallups is asking Christians who reject Donald Trump: "Can you live knowing you allowed a President Hillary?" Strange that a pastor should think it proper for Christians to fear the one who can only destroy our bodies more than we fear the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
Truly living by God's grace, we see a life before us no human power can mar. So no matter how the Father of Lies appears to limit our choice in terms of material destruction, we can stand by our choice of Christ, who dwells within, even if it means being rhetorically crucified by such pastors as Carl Gallups, or actually crucified by such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Christ came to prove that, by the mercy of God, what is more or less evil is not our only choice, no matter how the world sees it. Even if Pastor Gallups is saying, "Let's us do evil that good may come of it," it is logic the Scripture declares to be justly condemned (Romans 3:8).
It does not matter how hopeless it looks to cast our lot with God and His Son. "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength" (1 Corinthians 1:25). By upholding God's standard, therefore, we bear witness to the fact that we live by the certainty (which all Christians are supposed to share) that God's standard has already and always prevailed. All we are called to do, in every circumstance, is to prefer His will.
In light of that truth, Donald Trump's candidacy is a palpable lie, a transparent con game intended to lure those susceptible to what his lawyers have called "sales puffery." He said in his acceptance speech that he is not sure he deserves the support of people who profess to live in Christ. If he's not sure, it's a wonder that pastors like Carl Gallups can be. But Trump's sly confession means that they are forewarned, and without excuse. What will they do if and when Donald Trump reverts to type as a leftist, socialist promoter of the libertinism that is destroying the nation's soul, who believes, as he has said repeatedly, that he has no need of God – and therefore of Jesus Christ – for the forgiveness of sin? Will they speak out forthrightly, or parrot the line that "he's the only choice we've got, therefore we must support him"?
Consider the truth of Scripture: "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord will have them in derision." Christ did not tell us to "support whatever evil we must" to win worldly victories. He told us to "Seek first the kingdom of God," and let God take care of the rest. But this is not good enough for today's worldlings. They must rely on the calculus of evil. Even more, they must browbeat and ridicule the faithful-hearted people who refuse to imitate them.
So God will hold us responsible for Clinton's evil because we refused to embrace Trump's? Or did Christ say that we should strive to "Be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect" – so that even in our weakness and incapacity, we should bear faithful witness to the standard of God and let Christ's sacrifice, already complete, make up for our shortcomings? By God's gift of Jesus Christ, Donald Trump doesn't enter into that picture.
Meanwhile, even the worldly calculus of these champions of lesser evil misses the mark. Pastor Gallups relies heavily on the assertion that Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominees will restore SCOTUS's respect for the Constitution's provisions. But William Pryor is reportedly high on the list of people Trump says he is likely to nominate for the U.S. Supreme Court. That fact suggests the anti-constitutional jurisprudence of the court's judicial tyrants will continue unabated. As Alabama Attorney General, Pryor prosecuted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in 2003 for refusing to remove a display of the Ten Commandments from the grounds of the Alabama Supreme Court at the behest of a federal judge. Why does Pastor Gallups believe that Pryor will suddenly discover the provisions of the Ninth, 10th, and 14th Amendments (not to mention the First) that made that judge's order a blatant attack on the Constitution's authority?
Why indeed, given Mr. Trump's lame response to SCOTUS's Obergefell decision, in which he parroted the lie that the court's opinion is the "law of the land." He didn't even try to address the court's abandonment of the Constitution's provision prohibiting constitutional constructions that deny or disparage rights retained by the people, not to mention its subversion of the premises of God-endowed right and rights our nation, and its Constitution, are founded upon.
Donald Trump is not a flawed candidate. His is a phony, false candidacy, precisely intended to set the stage for the abandonment of the God-revering premises of America's founding, no matter which way the election turns out. True Christians should be immune to such falsehood, for Christ warned against those who vainly mouth the name of God, but deny His power. Is it just a "flaw" that, like Hillary Clinton, Trump did not evoke the authority of God's justice anywhere in his acceptance speech? – and did not even speak His name but as an afterthought at the end, as if God's blessing comes at the command of human power, not as a consequence of our regard for the standard of His will?
Clinton and Trump both represent the self-idolatry of human will and power that is the besetting sin of our time. What sense does it make to suggest that Christians are called to choose one or another form of this idolatry, instead of doing what they must to bear witness to the simple truth: Unless America finds a way to restore God's standard of right by rejecting both forms of idolatry, the way of life that once flourished in light of that standard must wither like the grass, and like the flowers fade away (Isaiah 40:8). For, once removed from the light of God's Word, that way of life shall not stand, neither shall it endure (cp. Isaiah 7:7).
To see more articles by Dr. Keyes, visit his blog at LoyalToLiberty.com and his commentary at WND.com and BarbWire.com.
© Alan KeyesThe views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
