Trump, Prophets, Pharisees and My Crisis of Faith
When a spiritual mentor sent me YouTube link to a Christian prophet in early November it contributed greatest crisis of faith I’ve had in my life.
These struggles are multifaceted but a large part has been trying to reconcile what faith leaders in our country proclaim about the goodness of Trump, the outcome of the election, election fraud along with their outright desire to maintain a dominant Christian power in America.
(Before I go further I want to say that my mentor is and always has been a great friend to me: this essay is not about this person.)
The initial video was posted November 5, titled The Election is Not Over. In it, Dutch Sheets tells the story of how God called him to pray for Trump at the headwaters of the Allegany River, how there was fraud during the election — but failing to cite any actual evidence of fraud or even name the person(s) who told him about said fraud. The highlight of the video is a prophecy that the election will only be truly finished on January 18th, 2021 and he calls us to pray 15 minutes a day until then, essentially that Trump will be inaugurated again on January 20th.
Since that time, his videos have only doubled down, as he continues to cite massive fraud (again, those that I’ve watched had no evidence), and multiple dreams and prophecies that Trump has won and will be president again.
If in three days that happens I’ll eat my words.
To sum up the first part of this story, Christians who believe that they personally, directly and in reality have a special connection to God are loudly saying that God picked Trump, God is telling them that Trump really won and that God is telling them that Trump will be president again.
Sheets is hardly alone, of course. There are multiple “prophets” proclaiming the continuing reign of Trump, all of whom claim to hear this directly from God.
As a follower of Christ who also believes in a personal relationship with God in a life animated by an ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit, this is quite difficult for me.
Here people who claim to have a special gift to hear God’s voice are proclaiming that God is, essentially, a Qanon supporter. And I, who claim no such gift, can’t discern any grounding in reality for such claims.
Which one of us is crazy?
Or are both of us?
The story of a Jewish man born in Nowheresville Israel 2,000 years ago, who claimed to be God, died (it is generally agreed) and whose supporters claimed came back from the dead three days later (disputed) only to disappear into heaven before being seen by the masses is, well, on par with Qanon.
I believe that story. But it’s a lot harder to do so when my spiritual mentors also proclaim the truth of Qanon.
My struggles go beyond the prophetic: multiple well known and respected Christian leaders (at least respected within the evangelical community) have rallied around Trump for the last four years and continue to do so.
Their basis to support Trump seems to come down to four basic tenants:
- Trump is “the most” pro-life president we’ve ever had
- Trump champions religious liberties and promotes Christianity (evidenced by the White House invitations these leaders received)
- Trump puts America first and strengthens our military
- Trump has done great things for the economy
The first point is hard to reconcile with reality, the second three can’t be reconciled with Scripture.
In short, Trump may be antiabortion in his Supreme Court picks but he can’t be called prolife while he also:
- Endorses policies that help spread COVID, to the tune of over 300,000 Americans dead
- Executes prisoners at a faster clip than any other modern president
- Endorses white supremacists (hardly a prolife move if you are black)
- Continues to fight against health care for those Americans who are the poorest
Abortion, of course, is a huge issue and a moral stain. However, as Jesus said to the Pharisees over their tithing of mint — yet abandoned justice as a whole, “you should have done the former without neglecting the latter.”
As far as America first, religious liberties and a strong economy, well, Jesus literally didn’t endorse any of those. In fact, those are all literally anti-Gospel.
Instead of promoting religious liberty and access to power Jesus said, “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” (Matthew 5:4) and, “blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” (Matthew 5:11, Luke 6:23)
Instead of America first, Jesus said “If a [occupying Roman] soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.” (Matthew 5:41)
Instead of promoting a strong economy Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and money,” (Luke 16:13).
I could go on, there is no shortage of Christian leaders fighting to maintain Christian power in America, despite such desires literally being the opposite thing of what Jesus taught.
And so I finally have begun to make sense of my crisis of faith, as I return to the words of Jesus and leave behind so many that claim to represent Him.
As I recently began to go through the Gospels in their entirety I made sense of this mess. Spiritual men, with good reputations, mis-using Scripture both to maintain their access to power and to put down anyone who points out the injustice and deception of what they are doing: this is exactly what the Pharisees looked like 2,000 years ago.
They were the pastors, they were respected in the marketplace, they knew their Bible inside and out and they totally missed the message God had for them.
And that is where Franklin Graham, Dutch Sheets, et. al., are today. They are Pharisees. They know the Bible, they are well respected, they are “spiritual,” but they use their position to proclaim an American prosperity Gospel, which in the end, is no Gospel at all.
