King David and Donald Trump

Timothy Birdnow

Here are some more thoughts on the Christianity  Today article calling for the ouster of President Trump.

First, Jerry Falwell tweets this:

Less than 20% of evangelicals supported @HillaryClinton in 2016 but now @CTmagazinehas removed any doubt that they are part of the same 17% or so of liberal evangelicals who have preached social gospel for decades! CT unmasked! https://t.co/O7WjyZSwiW

— Jerry Falwell (@JerryFalwellJr) December 20, 2019

Here are a few more:

Jack Graham, senior pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, aSouthern Baptistmulti-sitemegachurch in Plano, Texas:

First Baptist Church of Dallas Senior Pastor Robert Jeffress:

.@CTmagazineis a dying magazine that has been "Never Trump” from the beginning. They are going against 99% of evangelical Republicans who oppose impeachment. President @realDonaldTrump is the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-Israel President in history!

— Dr. Robert Jeffress (@robertjeffress) December 20, 2019

Christianity Today calls for impeachment, but they don’t critique the distorted moral narrative & immoral policy agenda that created Trump. https://t.co/nUzdk1WbMU

— Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (@RevDrBarber) December 20, 2019

I am mindful of the First Book of Samuel Chapter 24:

• After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, "David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” ²So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.
• ³He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. ⁴The men said, "This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said[b] to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
• ⁵Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. ⁶He said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” ⁷With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

David was ridden with guilt at just cutting the hem from Saul's robe. Now Saul had been trying to kill David for some time, being jealous of his former lyre player and fearing David would replace him. Saul was a bad king who disobeyed the Word of God in a number of ways. He executed all the priests at the temple of Nob because he suspected they were allies of David, for example. He disobeyed God's orders via Samuel on a number of occasions. He turned to necromancy and sought out guidance from the deceased Samuel via a medium.

The point is, Saul was not a good man or a good king, but it was incumbent upon David, the man often referred to as The  Apple of God's Eye, to not rebel against God's anointed.

Which appears to be what Galli and Christianity Today has just done. Trump has not attempted to murder anyone, or to trump up charges against anyone. His guilt is in seeking justice and in injudicious tweeting. But Galli is very quick to turn on the anointed of both God and America.

David himself was a murderer and serial adulterer and was so weak with his family his son murdered his half brother (who raped his half sister). David did nothing, neither to punish the raping son nor to punish the murdering son.

God punished David for his sins with Bathsheeba with the "sword not departing from his house" and in the end David's son rebelled against him and eventually David's lieutenant had to kill the boy.

But at no point was David impeached by his political enemies.

Strange how this liberal Evangelical demands President Trump's ouster. Would he have demanded Davids?

The moral of this story is that for Christians we are supposed to support our leaders and leave it up to God to determine their morality. That is clearly what Jesus said to do. Jesus wouldn't even allow His disciples to defend him from arrest. He ordered His men to stand down when the Sanhedrin came to arrest him.

That is not to say we shouldn't be politically active, nor to say that we shouldn't demand the removal of a criminal President. We have the Rule of Law, after all, and the Law trumps the man.

There are some criticizing Evangelicals for supporting the removal of Bill Clinton and not Donald Trump. But Clinton actually committed a crime, perjuring himself in a court of law (and being convicted of that crime in court) as well as tampering with witnesses (he tried to talk Monica Lewinsky into lying before Congress, as well as had someone slash the tires of one Kathleen Willey, and kill her cat.)

Donald Trump is not alleged to have committed any crimes that violate our laws. He is basically being accused of asserting his Executive Privilege and going to court to maintain it - despite Congressional demands he not do that, and for "abuse of power" a nebulous charge which would not hold up in any court of law.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:47 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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