Many Christian supporters of now-former President Donald Trump were doing so because they believed that he was going to spark a religious revival. That was always false on its face because God doesn’t work the way they want, primarily by reestablishing laws, most notably restrictions on legal abortion.
What has surprised — and dismayed — me is the amount of bitterness many are spewing these days in the aftermath of the election, what with complaints about the election being “stolen,” even though it wasn’t; their willingness to insult political opponents such as Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris; and even their participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
And that says something pretty telling: Their faith was always in the political process, never truly in God. And that’s why they are in fact sabotaging the revival they say they want.
For “Christianity” has for many become little more than a set of political positions independent of following Jesus — imitating His character, rejecting worldly ways and seeking reconciliation. Nor is there any emphasis on cultivating the “fruit of the [Holy] Spirit,” mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 — “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
As a result, following Ezekiel 36:20, “But when [Israelites] came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned [My] holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of [His] land.’ ”
That is what Trump represented — profanation of God’s holy name. It would be one thing if they voted for him but held him accountable for his racism and divisiveness and threatened to withhold their votes if he didn’t shape up, but they didn’t.
In other words, Trump became an idol in his own right, and we know how God feels about idolatry. The fact that so many Christians are enraged with by his defeat shows that they haven’t gotten the message — and will suffer more defeats in the near future.
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