Former President Donald Trump was given a hero’s welcome at First Baptist Church in Dallas as thousands of Christians welcomed him with fierce applause.
The former president praised Dr. Robert Jeffress and the congregation for the impact their ministry has had on the nation.
“The love in this room is incredible,” he said.
The president told the crowd of thousands that he was going to deviate from prepared remarks and instead “speak from the heart.”
He quoted briefly from the New Testament about how an “angel of the Lord appeared to humble shepherds and proclaimed the reason for our Christmas joy.”
“For unto you his born today in the city of David a savior which is Christ the Lord,” the president said, quoting Scripture.
The former president acknowledged that in recent days our nation has descended into darkness, but he said there is hope.
‘Our country needs a savior right now. Our country has a savior. And It’s not me,” the president said. “It’s someone much higher up than me. Much higher up.”
Thunderous cheers filled the cavernous auditorium.
“The life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ forever changed the world. It’s impossible to think of the life of our own country without the influence of His example and His teachings,” the president said. “Our miraculous founding, overcoming civil war, abolishing slavery, defeating communism and fascism, reaching boundless heights of science and discovery.”
He said the United States became a great nation because we followed the teachings of Christ.
“None of this could have ever happened without Jesus Christ and his followers and his church – none of it. We have to remember that Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of our strength and our hope. And here and everywhere and for all time Jesus Christ and we just want to thank everyone who believes,” he said.
Todd Starnes
The war between God and the Devil is essentially a legal battle. Why? Because Adam and Eve handed sovereignty over to the devil. The devil came into 'legal' possession of humanity via the compact that humanity created with the devil through sin.
Why else would a price have to be paid? Why else did Christ have to pay the cost? Because the devil came to have a legal claim on human beings, according to God's own principles and law. If a person chooses the devil, God cannot simply intervene, because of God's own law. God would have to violate the law of human free will in order to force humanity to choose him. So he does not.
The sacrifice on the cross restored God's sovereignty over our spirit, but not our flesh. This is why each new human child is born in sin, and has to be reborn. When we receive Christ, we are reborn to God spiritually, but the devil still holds a claim over our flesh and over the world. That is why even though Christ delivered spiritual salvation via the cross, He must return. To complete the restoration of the flesh back to God, and this world back to God, in both spirit and in the flesh.
Of course, it's not trivial, but it is real.
Your last sentence was the clincher for me, I understand what you're driving at. My point, however, is that evil men can be used by God for His purposes.
One of the most powerful "koen"s of faith that I either stumbled upon or the Holy Spirit put into my heart is encapsulated in the following:
Satan works to turn our strengths against us, to undermine and use our strengths against us. But the Father works and uses our weaknesses to make us greater, and better, before him.
The way I understand this is for example, a person who is naturally artistic and sensitive to beauty, for example, the devil will attempt to undermine that sensitivity by tempting such a person into base depravity, debauchery, etc. On the other hand, The Lord will take a person who is weak without confidence, courage, and very timid, and by putting them through trials, make that person the most courageous and strong-willed person internally. By leading him or her through trials that weakness naturally encounters.
"My point, however, is that evil men can be used by God for His purposes."
Hmmmm. I don't really know that I agree with that. I would express things in a different way: God takes evil and turns it into good.
For example, I firmly believe that it was not God's will that Christ be crucified on the cross. At Least that was NOT the Father's original purpose to send Jesus. (there are, we can see, dual prophecies regarding what would happen when Christ arrived - man of suffering? or man of glory? Rejected, or recieved?
And note, Christ himself is recorded as having stated for the record: "All the prophets prophesied until John" (emphasis added). Which means, as I understand it, the dual prophecy is NOT one for the first coming and one for the second (Revelations and Gospel also display a similar dual prophecy trend).
The reason there is a dual prophecy is because it hinges not on God and not on Christ, but on man (specifically, at Jesus' time, it hinged on Israel) whether they would honor God's son and raise him as their offering to the Father in unity, or reject him, creating a situation where the Cross became necessary.
"And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams." 1 Sam 15:22
I understand that this view crosses against a lot of traditional theology, but I believe that much of that theology was formed on a misunderstanding of the nature of the human role in God's work of salvation (namely, our responsibility to either accept God's word, whether in symbolic form (offerings, the Law), or in flesh (Christ), or to not accept. The same responsibility that Adam and Eve failed, each human must also face and then decide.
Notice that Christ ONLY began to talk about the Cross after about 2/3s the way through his ministry. Prior to that, he talked only about the Kingdom being at hand, teaching his disciples to pray, "on Earth as in Heaven".
Note also that Jesus could ALREADY forgive sins, before the cross. Forgiveness of sins comes not because of the cross, but because of Christ, the word in the flesh.
If God's purpose was for Jesus to be an offering on the cross from the first, it makes no sense to prepare Israel for 2000 years to receive and honor him.
But just as the Israelites fell into faithlessness many times, for example, on the course from Egypt, there was always a chance that even when God sent his holy and perfect son, that they would again fall into faithlessness. It's THEIR responsibility to respond to the Word (in flesh), or not.
Because God had prepared Jesus and his lineage for 2000 years, Satan thought he could destroy God's purpose by destroying Jesus body. Thus, Satan worked as hard as he could to undermine the people and turn them against Jesus, using the wickedness in their own hearts. Jesus, oppositely, did everything he could to cause them to repent of that wickedness, so that they would come to him.
This is why he wept when he stood over a Jerusalem that rejected him. It broke his heart. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those having been sent to her! How often would I have gathered together your children, the way in which a hen gathers together her chicks under the wings, and you were not willing!"
So turning the people and especially the jewish leaders against Jesus was the devils work and objective, to murder jesus. That was indeed evil. However, when it became clear that Israel passed the point of no return, and failed to believe, then the Father and the Son in unity determined to pay the highest price: to sacrifice Jesus flesh on the cross. God, because of the Son's unity and love for him, was able to turn evil into good, to bring good out of the worst evil.
If Jesus had been received, then the kingdom would have come on earth and in heaven at that time, and the glorious prophecies of Isaiah, for example, would have been fulfilled. But when Israel rejected Jesus, it was in fact all of humanity rejecting Jesus, because Israel was the representative of ALL fallen humanity.
Because they rejected Christ, as a whole, then all humanity should have been lost to Satan forever. But God and Jesus determined that instead, they would sacrifice Jesus body, through the crucifixion, and thereby accomplish spiritual salvation, with the physical salvation to be delayed, unavoidably, until the second coming.
When you re-read scripture from this viewpoint, many many things that were previously unseen will appear. One of those is the change in emphasis by Jesus, from the Kingdom is here, now, repent, to the Cross is coming. How the turning point came at the Mount of Transfiguration, when Christ consulted with Moses and Elijah in the spirit. How Jesus rebuked Peter when peter then spoke against the cross, because the Will had been modified in a way that the cross became necessary. How Christ worked so hard to be received by the people, and warned them to repent to receive him. How there are in fact dual prophecies in scripture, because which way the Will unfolds depends in the moment on the human fulfillment of OUR responsibility (to either unite or not unite with the word). Not unite > faithlessness > disaster, prolongation, difficult suffering course. Unite > faithfulness > fulfillment, glory, fulfilled Will.
The Will never changes - it is absolute, but the role individuals or families or nations play, this depends on us. When Israel failed, the result was disaster, suffering, and the blessing moved to Christianity (parable of the vineyard). When Abraham failed in his first offering, he then had to make a second harder offering, and the mission to establish a family in unity with the Word moved through Isaac to Jacob, who fulfilled. Etc.
I'm not attempting here to say that other's views of scripture aren't valid. I firmly believe that ultimately, God guides each one of us through our unity with him in heart, and that our belief will always be limited and imperfect, because the real purpose is not the belief, but the relationship it allows us to build with God and Christ. Belief is the doorway, but the relationship with Christ is the mansion that the doorway leads to.
This is why there has been so much variance in how (what exactly) Christians believe, but still God has been able to build the relationship. A pious person with a sincere heart can build his or her relationship with Christ, obviously, despite limited or even mistaken beliefs. It's not about what we believe, as much as it is about what relationship we build with Him through the belief we have at any given moment.
The relationship saves, the belief is the doorway to the relationship.
Anyway, I'm just sharing my understanding, because obviously, you have faith in God and see God's work in the world, and practice that faith.
Long story short, I don't think God uses evil people, because if God is using them, they are not evil. An "evil person" is one whom the devil uses and works through. However, God can and does use the outcomes of evil to turn them into something good, and works from there.
A blessing on you my fellow pede. Thanks if you read this far.
That might be one of the most well written thought process explanations I’ve ever read. Thank you for taking the time to type it out.
Thanks. I would adjust it upon reflection. I do think that God can use evil people or bad people, people under the devil's influence. However, it is a complicated topic, in my view.
"My point, however, is that evil men can be used by God for His purposes."
"Hmmmm. I don't really know that I agree with that. I would express things in a different way: God takes evil and turns it into good."
There's a lot of assumptions and surmising on your end. A lot of opinion. Luckily, your agreement or disagreement with the testimony of the scriptures doesn't matter to God.
You're denying the sovereignty of Jesus Christ as Lord. He is either in control or man is but which one do you think?
Let me be clear: all men serve God, whether for good or evil. Vessels of honor and dishonor. Proverbs? Isaiah? Pharaoh? Let's look beyond just the printed word of the Scriptures and discover the obvious examples given. I shouldn't have to sit here and pull verse after verse to show that you're wrong beyond hope, and I won't, but I get the notion that
You like to "talk" too much, whether it's to polish the shitty notions at which you arrive or in order to convince yourself or persuade others that what you're spewing is true when it is, in fact, bullshit.
You're grossly ignorant of the bible, though those who indoctrinated you did teach you some correct things. Still, that's not good enough for the Lord or anyone with a mind to utilize. A book is not just about the letter, son.
You think to know something but know nothing as you ought. You're no theologian or scholar, missing even the most basic of spiritual truths apparent in your posted drivel.
Jesus Christ is the author of evil, though He is not evil Himself. By Him ALL things consist. There's no wiggle room there for your ilk. Honestly, the false Christ that you people serve isn't doing you any favors if the world can see through the bullshit but I'm sure a self-righteous defense is on the way?
Just an honest observation from a non-Christian who knows that men can always be fooled but not God.
LOL. Well, that was quick.
"If you take away the Christian joy of holding Hell over other's heads and feeling special, you'll be met with pet verses and vehemence."
I get that you're just testifying to how you see reality, but its ironic how you stated this in a very recent comment, then turned around and pronounced judgment, declaration, and a lot of 'pet verses' (if not in letters, then in statements of doctrines/beliefs, which you have made) and a solid dash of vehemence.
I mean, wow. It almost reads as if you are being deliberately sarcastic in order to highlight the very behaviors you just criticized, but then, there is no indication of that except the extraordinarily contradictory nature of your two comments, or of your subsequent behavior with what you pronounced against a mere 40 minutes ago.
I was hoping to engage with you, but I think... no. It would be pointless, clearly.
I mean, for Pete's sake, contradiction?
"a lot of assumptions and surmising on your end. A lot of opinion" how this could apply any more directly to your own response here is beyond words.
And if you think my agreement or disagree with God's word is of no matter to God, then I wonder what on earth you conceive God to be.
I'll end here, except to say that I think you're pushing it in characterizing your vehemence and assumptions to be "honest". Seems very much dishonest to me. Do you notice how deftly you preempted any response or negation of your view by pre-labelling any response as "a self-righteous defense". Is this honest, or rhetorical maneuvering?
Either way, I don't expect you care and you seem far too full of yourself, evidently, even to equating yourself or your own beliefs to God.
My goodness. Recognize how clearly you reveal your own nature in your accusations and attacks on others. It's very, very clear, if only one has eyes to see.
Be well.
Edit: to paraphrase and borrow from you: You are welcome to your beliefs. Fortunately, your beliefs do not affect how God relates to me. They do, however, affect how he relates to you.
Be extra well.