“I want to give power back to the church” Trump in 2016

Koot van wyk (Dlitt et Phil; ThD) Visiting Professor, Department of Liberal Education, Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia

The Calvinistic Churches are in essence political-churches and the pulpit was regularly used by them to “create” or “modify” social structures of society, especially the political powers of their day. Until Lyndon Johnson took office as senator and made an Amendment to the situation by prohibiting pastors to speak from pulpits in their sermons about political figures and candidates. If they do, the Johnson Amendment to the Tax Law would change their classification to be politically involved and thus they lose their status to be exempt from Tax for religious purposes. What Johnson was getting at, is that politics and religion should not be mixed. That was in 1954. More than 1800 pastors started campaigning in October 2014 for political speech rights in church. They claimed that the IRS does not have the power to control the content of their sermons and thus they wish for the Johnson Amendment to be repealed since they consider it unconstitutional.  

It is here that Trump appeared on the cloud. Ellen White predicted in her book, The Great Controversy that “Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel’s message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd” (Ellen White, Great Controversy, 605).

Trump explained that he is a Christian, a Presbyterian. This is a Calvinist. He also explained that he is against the Johnson Amendment and he wants to give power back to the pastors and the church.

“I'm a Christian. I'm Protestant. I'm Presbyterian. I think that Christianity frankly, I think Christians in our country are not treated properly. The bill that was passed during the Lyndon Johnson era is horrible because I see churches where they're afraid to be outspoken because they don't want to lose their tax-exempt status and I realize that is one of the problems. I know people who want to endorse me but they're afraid to endorse anybody because they don't want to get political so essentially they've taken a lot of the power away from the church. I want to give power back to the church because the church has to have more power. Christianity is really being chopped; little by little it's being taken away.”

Trump said that “I want to give power back to the church because the church has to have more power.” For Calvinists and their power thirst, especially utilizing political power for parochial purposes, this agenda of Trump sounds like dessert after cucumbers.

The implications are loaded with the potentials of bringing to fulfillment the prophecies of the Bible regarding the Second Beast that gave power to the First Beast and making the whole world worship the image to the beast, after he made an image for the First Beast (see Revelation 13).

Church of course will not be only his Presbyterian church or the Calvinists, it will roll out the carpet also in the direction of the most powerful political-religion on earth, the Catholic Church who are now 1.2 billion members. The power engines of the globe is: China 1.3 billion; Africa nearly 1 billion, Catholics 1.3 billion, Islam 1.2 billion.

The brushing aside of journalists, the dogmatism, the autocratic stage setting style of Trump, the bashing of opposition, the favoritism of cronies and self-selected icons, the excessive push for the own idea, are in history familiar figures in people like Justinian in 527 and later. He also had this “unite” mania as agenda. He built churches left right and center to please them. From 538 for 1260 years, the institutionalized and favorite church of the empire became the greatest tool for persecution for the longest period in history until 1798 when Napoleon took that pope hostage to France, and the First Beast of Revelation 13 received his “deadly wound”. But it was healed and Trump may be instrumental for the creation of that image to the First Beast. We stand on the brink of great events of prophecy to be unfolded.

Sources:

Brittany M. Hughes, “More Than 1,800 Pastors Advocate For Political Speech Rights in Church,” CNSnews.com (13^th October 2014) downloaded from http://cnsnews.com/news/article/brittany-m-hughes/more-1800-pastors-advocate-political-speech-rights-church

Ellen White, The Great Controversy 1888.

David Brody, “Donald Trump: ‘I want to give power back to the church’” CBN News (18 February 2016).

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