There is a
beautiful peace that belongs to the children of God, those who belong to Jesus,
who are held within His redemptive kingdom, who wear the blood washed garments
of grace. They are yoked to Jesus’ easy yoke even in the midst of suffering. But
there are those meddling with evil, pushing, or believing lies, who end up
substituting idols for Jesus. And sometimes those who meddle in heresy reach demonic
depths.
The leaders
of the MAGA movement, (Trump’s movement), and leaders of the New Apostolic
Reformation movement are growing in their vengefulness’ and verbal abuse. I
have been listening to various videos, one of Eric Metaxas on Steve Bannon’s War
Room, “Eric
Metaxas on Loving Your Country Too Much,” a putdown of Tim Alberta’s
book, The
Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism,
and his many interviews. And many of Julie Green’s videos. She is considered a
prophet within the NAR movement. Green gives supposed prophecies almost every
day. The prophecies are offered as though Jesus is speaking directly through her
as though she is a medium.
Bannon and
Metaxas refer to Alberta as a Marxist, globalist, and his book as coming from
the “pit of hell” insisting that it is meant to silence the Church. But,
instead Alberta’s book is a warning and a gift to the Church calling us back to
faithfulness, not to the kingdoms of this world, but to the Kingdom of God and
to the King, Jesus.
Green’s
prophecies have mostly, seemingly, been calls to stand up for God; but one does
not listen long before hearing political messages. Trump is referred to as God’s
David and the people of God are interchanged with God’s United States. God will
punish His enemies referring to their actions as infiltrating all American
institutions and stealing elections. Green mentions what some of these two
movements are calling the Haman effect, which refers to the biblical Haman who
planned to have Mordecai, Queen Esther’s uncle, hanged but was himself hanged
on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. The belief is that many of the enemies
of the two movements will be hanged or imprisoned.
Probably the
worst of the prophecies Green has released was, at my writing, less then a day
ago. The video is entitled Judgement
is Here and Judgement is Clear. I am focusing on this video because it
has a demonic quality to it. As Green supposedly begins to allow Jesus to speak
through her, her voice becomes harsh and loud and her face begins to be
contorted. It is frightening, not because I am frightened by God’s judgment—after
all, I belong to Him; but I feel deeply sorry for Green who has allowed herself
to be pulled into a very dark world for the sake of a very bad man. And she and
others, Metaxas for one, are pulling many lost sheep into this dark world.
The messages
coming out of these videos and also the conferences are about enemies, who want
to destroy America and Christianity. But the words one hears are about judgements
on those Christians who don’t agree with either the MAGA leaders or the NAR
leaders. And there is nothing about loving enemies. When writing a review of Metaxas
book, Letter
to the American Church, I quoted
Barth which I often do—it speaks so well to the real need and purposes of the
Church in the middle of trying times:
Of course something has to be done; very much so; but most
decidedly nothing other than this, viz. that the Church congregations be
gathered together again, but aright and anew in fear and great joy, to the Word
by means of the Word. All the crying over the Church will not deliver the
Church. Where the Church is the Church she is already delivered. Let
persecution be never so severe, it will not affect her! ‘Still’ it
is said, ‘still, shall the City of God abide, lusty beside her
tiny stream’ (Psalm xlvi. 5; Luther’s translation).[1]
[1] Karl
Barth, Theological Existence To-Day: A plea for theological
freedom, ( Hodder and Stoughton: London 1933) 77,78.
