A mob mentality governs a nation that despises scripture and demands a king for it’s ruler.
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.
The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty….
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens….” – George Washington’s Farewell Address
Few will read the above quote from our First President and let his warning sink in as we watch the spectacle and debacle of this election cycle play out in front of us.
It’s 2008 all over again, except this time, instead of the mob ascribing all their hopes for change on a man running with a ‘D’ after his name, they do so with a man running with an ‘R’ after his.
As with the author of the following essay writes, I’m alarmed at the mentality that has swept up the people of this nation. Not so much over a single candidate , rather the insistence that a single man running for office is somehow going to save us all from the consequences we have sown for ourselves so handily in the past several decades. This is not a hit piece on The Donald, as this author has been appreciative of the ass-kicking Trump has been giving the Establishment. I’m worried over the mentality that has taken hold of those I at one time thought were on ‘my ideological side’ of the equation.
I ‘m convinced that the Executive will forever now be seen as either a Monarchy or a Dictatorship in the minds of those seig-heiling whatever vaunted political candidate is their messiah. And this is beyond dangerous for what remains of liberty and the tatters of the Constitution that still remain to restrain a federal beast.
For such a people are not capable of freedom or liberty. I perceive this people do not want a Republic or the foundational principles that founded it. They want a king. They want a savior, and they do not want any of us bringing God into this. They tell me to leave God in a box at church and shut up about the bible. They say this is about saving the country, not going to church. We are electing a president, not a pastor they insist.
As if choosing a leader who is not governed by biblical and moral principles is a good thing.
As if there was a shred of hope in saving the country devoid of God or the bible.
Fools.
This people will not accept the fact that if we are not governed by God, we will be ruled by tyrants. Under the delusion that this people willingly accept, they do not recognize tyranny anymore than they recognize sin. They justify both as good and right and normal, and who the hell are we to judge?
So they rally to men whom they think will save us and make us great again without the need for any kind of national repentance.
Where I disagree in part, with this author’s position – is the focus of his realization of strong delusion on the meteoric rise of Trump. I think if you replace Donald Trump with Barack Hussein Obama – you will conclude this nation has been under strong delusion for some time.
Half the country wants Communism/Socialism.
More than half are comfortable with making a man a dictator or king in order to achieve what they expect their Deliverer to accomplish on their behalf.
America Under A Strong Delusion
… Recently, I have reluctantly come to the realization that Americans, with very few exceptions, are really not interested in facts or logic. We are living among a generation where facts no longer seem to matter.
The truth of the matter is that America is finally under the judgment of God. Our nation has been given over to what it wants. America is under a deluding influence.
Such a deleterious condition cannot be remedied with better and more aggressive public policy arguments. The Scripture teaches that people can go so far in their sin that God finally removes His hand of restraint upon them and finally gives them over to what they want to do. This is the very thing that happened to Pharaoh in the Old Testament. After hardening his own heart several times against God (Exod. 7:13, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7), God finally hardened Pharaoh’s heart and gave Pharaoh over to what he wanted to do (Exod. 4:21; 9:12).
This removal of divine restraint as a sign of judgment upon a culture is also the key theme of Romans 1:18–32. In this troubling section of the Bible, after people no longer see fit to retain the knowledge of God (Rom. 1:18-23), God is said to repeatedly give them over (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28) to the sins that they are so eager to commit. The prophet Jeremiah anticipated that same type of turning over by God in his own day when he recorded the following chilling words from the Lord, “As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you” (Jer. 7:16). We see the same type of judgment predicted for the end times as people will be given over to a spirit of delusion that will cause them to embrace the antichrist. Second Thessalonians 2:11–12 says, “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”
Why do I believe that America is now at this delicate tipping point? Largely, it is because of the meteoric rise of a person like Donald Trump in American politics. The man is a moral and verbal sewer. He has no political resume. Rather, his campaign has been buoyed by empty promises devoid of any real substance or meaningful content. He merely repeats mantras that the voters want to hear similar to the types of statements that Barack Obama gave us back in 2008.
You know the rhetoric: “I’m going to build a wall around America and make Mexico pay for it.” “We are going to make this country great again.” “Believe me, Americans are going to win again.” “We are actually going to win so many times we are going to get tired of winning.” “Trust me, it is going to be great.” This type of rhetoric seems more akin to that of a used car salesman rather than that of a serious presidential contender.
These sentiments are nothing more than empty slogans since they never reveal exactly how Trump plans to accomplish these great exploits. These are the sorts of trite statements that third world dictators endlessly propagate upon their beleaguered people. In fact, according to Imelda Marcos, the public expression “we are going to make this nation great again” is the very slogan that Ferdinand Marcos articulated just prior to coming to power in the 1950s in the Philippines and prior to Marcos’ imposition of martial law.1
The fact that all the evidence indicates that Trump throughout the course of his entire life really never believed all of the conservative positions that he now supposedly holds2 is really of no consequence to people. When anybody dares to shed light on Trump’s longtime liberal worldview by pointing out that “the king is naked,” they are simply shouted down as a “liar” or victimized by various other ad hominem attacks.
Such was the sum and substance of last Saturday’s Republican Primary debate in South Carolina. The masses really are not interested in information related to Trump’s liberal worldview since they have already made a decision to blindly follow Trump on the basis that he tells them what they want to hear. In fact, the bigger a fool Trump makes of himself on the national stage, the larger his poll numbers seem to climb. This, in and of itself, is perhaps the greatest evidence of the deluding influence that is now descending upon America.
Ask yourself a simple question. How is it possible for Trump to repeat the Michael Moore and Code Pink left wing lunacy that former President George Bush intentionally misled the American people about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in a recent Republican primary debate and in a conservative state like South Carolina, and have his poll numbers rise and not fall as a result? Such public folly would have been sufficient to derail any Presidential aspirations in prior generations. The only explanation is that the voters are no longer being driven by their mental and rational faculties. Rather, they are being primarily fueled by irrational emotion due to a deluding influence.
I realize that a recent poll showed Cruz leading his primary challengers nationally.3 However, this poll is an aberration with the majority of them showing Trump clobbering his opponents in upcoming primaries.4 What Republican primary voters are apparently on the precipice of doing, if the present poll numbers are an accurate indication, is to reject a Senator Ted Cruz Presidential nomination in exchange for that of a show man and a game show host.
Think about how monumental this is. Ted Cruz is an articulate conservative who has a track record of opposing progressivism not only within the Democratic Party but also in his own Republican party. …..Yet, this kind of man with this kind of record is no longer attractive to the majority of Americans voters. They would much rather embrace the progenitor of a reality TV show. What further evidence do we need to confidently say that America is now under a deluding influence given by God himself as a judgment upon this nation?
Further evidence of God withdrawing his hand from America might also be found in the recent deaths of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Theologian Dr. Charles Ryrie. Both of these men were similar in their ambition to honor authorial intent. They were both giants and sources of great spiritual light in their respective fields. What Scalia was to the field of Constitutional interpretation, Ryrie was to the field of biblical theology.
Yet, within the span of a few days, as both men passed, these lights to the culture were removed by the hand of God. In fact, it very well may be that God has raised up Ted Cruz only for the single purpose of being rejected by voters in order to demonstrate once and for all that Americans are under a spiritual delusion.
Like the Ninevites of old, the current generation of Americans apparently are no longer capable of discerning their right hand from their left (Jonah 4:11). Of course, in my heart of hearts, I want to be wrong about all of this. I want to believe that there is still hope for this once great nation. I want to once again trust the good sense of the American electorate.
However, as explained above, I have my doubts.
Sword At-The-Ready 