Dangerous Instruments to Play With

The other day I noted a phenomenon that made me recall Trump’s early campaign quip about the extreme loyalty of his base. I posted on Facebook:

Trump once bragged that he could stand in the middle of 5th Ave and gun someone down in broad daylight and his followers would still remain loyal to him. . . .

From what I am seeing now, he could simply ask any number of them to gun someone down like that for him, and they would do it no questions asked.

I received some pushback on that, rightly I suppose for being provocative-while-vague. Also, people seem to think this is absurd, but this is not absurd.

The reason I said that some loyalists would do the president’s dirty work is because they have said so. A recent article by U.S. News relates such stories. Take for example, one representative Trump supporter, a chiropractor from Texas, a professing Baptist, who recently joined a militia willing to fight for Trump. The dude told reporters, “If President Trump comes out and says: ‘Guys, I have irrefutable proof of fraud, the courts won’t listen, and I’m now calling on Americans to take up arms,’ we would go.”

Note that the guy doesn’t care what legislators or courts say. Nor does he care what any critical review of any evidence actually says. He has one trigger that will send him to arms, “If Trump says. . . .”

This is a constituency ripe for a dictator, and ripe to do a dictator’s dirty work.

An alarming number of Trump loyalists seem perfectly OK with using military force to impose new elections. I have seen some quite eager for him to do so.

There is even a strain of charismatic Christians who seem to think it is a prophecy that such a thing will come to pass.

Although there is a tremendous amount of confusion and bluster about what powers Trump actually has through things like the Insurrection Act or his 2018 Executive Order 13848 on foreign election interference, commenters and leaders like lawyer Sidney Powell seem to assume it is enough for him to impose military force to whatever extent is necessary to get the revote he wants.

In a recent interview, Powell comments that the level of foreign interference she allegedly documents is “more than enough to trigger the president’s executive order from 2018 that gives him all kinds of power. . . . He can even appoint a special prosecutor to look into this, which is exactly what needs to happen.”

Former trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn seemed eager for such a military push, and in a recent meeting of such folk with Trump, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne says he was driven to a shouting match because some of Trump’s White House advisors oppose such measures.

Flynn has been quite dutiful in tweeting his approval of such measures. Of course, Trump and others have tweeted distancing themselves from official “martial law,” but the number of executive-power measures they have openly endorsed are just as worrisome. Nevertheless, a host of Trump supporters are advocating such measures.

The Trump faithful pick up on this hype and hubris. One random Facebook friend echoed that lawmaker’s call:

While he makes sure to add the “I do not seek this” for good measure, the fact that he nevertheless thinks this is indeed an “option” is alarming—especially given the fact that no fraud or foreign interference has even been proven.

Other enthusiastic Trump crusaders can exhibit far less caution. One lady I know who is indeed an enthusiastic personality, but is normally rational, exemplifies this. In the spirit of this “Trump must win at all costs” and “opposition is satanic globalism” mentality, reason and facts go out the door, and the army seems welcomed right through it:

Notice the enthusiastic approval in the comments and the healthy number of likes. The pro-military approach for reversing the election is no sporadic or random idea. These people may be excitable, but they are not fringe activists; they are mainstream conservatives.

The Prophetic Element

I have known about a dangerous combination of ideas brewing amongst a broad swath of Christian conservatives for some time now: a loose mixture of “Christian America” beliefs, millennialism-fueled, anti-globalist conspiracy theories, a call to political activism, and Charismaticism.

It is an odd mixture. Premillennialism as we have known it usually tends towards escapism. The “rapture” thinking has dominated. But there are other strains that emphasize duty in the face of persecution. Premillennialism also however emphasizes the growth of an antichrist-driven globalist empire, and this view sticks hard today. On the duty side, some of these guys have picked up on “dominion” thinking, and thus work hard to engage culture. But as I have documented before, much of this is the top-down, power-driven “Seven Mountains” variety. This viewpoint is too often focused on capturing power, and when capturing seats of power becomes the focus, it lends itself to lawless compromises with tyranny.

Hardly any of this, however, is well-formulated. Many such Christians are simply tired of seeing liberals dominate everything and the “LGBTQ agenda” take over their culture, and they with 2 Chronicles 7:14 echoing in their heads:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

But it is twisted. By “humble themselves” they really hear “humble those people doing things we don’t like.” By “turn from their wicked ways,” they hear, “Throw out the liberals.” They will support any politician who promises to help them with this agenda, despite his other flaws. The quest for the political power rules.

Most of this type of faith is more enthusiastic and broadly thematic than detailed and exegetical. But that’s a huge problem, especially when you add the charismatic element to the mix.

I noted a particular danger among some “Seven Mountains” leaders years ago. At the time, I was alarmed by the professing prophet Rick Joyner’s idea of a future “kingdom of God” that “At first it may seem like totalitarianism, as the Lord will destroy the antichrist spirit now dominating the world with ‘the sword of His mouth’ and will shatter many nations like pottery.” Further, “the kingdom will move from a point of necessary control while people are learning truth, integrity, honor, and how to make decisions. . . . The kingdom will start out necessarily authoritative in many ways, or in many areas.”

In other words, his view of the “kingdom of God” requires Christians to take top-down political control at first and impose a confessedly totalitarian order, destroying a globalist empire of antichrist “enemies,” with the belief that their own benevolent dictatorship will be able to train people eventually to love it.

Not long after that, Joyner announced a prophecy (not a teaching or opinion, mind you, but a prophecy) that America will get so bad that martial law will be the only hope to rescue it. The current bad leaders (this was pre-Trump) are not defending our borders and such things, and will lead to trouble against which “martial law” will seem like a reprieve. He adds, “In extreme crises, sometimes you have to do extreme things.”

Putting all this together, you have people who believe:

1. There is a globalist, antichrist conspiracy to take down America.

2. We must stop this in the name of God.

3. We will need martial law to do stop it.

4. It is OK to use the military to stop it and impose Christian values.

4. Military force has in fact been prophesied to occur. (It is thus inevitable.)

5. God is on our side in doing this.

On its face, this is obviously a very toxic combination. It gets worse the more you consider it. Among other things, these tenets imply that:

1. Anyone opposing our agenda is part of the globalist conspiracy. Some loyalists take this further to mean that anyone who disagrees with them must be satanic conspirators, or something close.

2. Anything that stops this conspiracy or fights against it (or against its main aspects, like “globalism” etc.) is acceptable to support, no matter how immoral and flawed in and of itself.

This aspect opens loyalists wide to a barrage of schemers, many of whom immediately spot the opportunity that an unquestioning, loyal mass of followers presents, and many of whom have already swooped in to fleece these unsuspecting faithful for hundreds of millions.

This aspect also destroys our witness. What little moral high ground we could once pretend to have has been obliterated by the unquestioning support of lies, conspiracies, narcissism, bombast, double standards, personal betrayals, power trips, strong arm tactics, and more, not to mention the personal vulgarities and infidelities (at some point, the costs of the “yeah he’s flawed, but he’s the right man for the job” argument will outweigh the perceived benefits).

3.—4. On the appeal to martial law, see below.

5. The “God is on our side” belief is always assumed in this scheme, if not always openly boasted. It is highly dangerous. This mentality short-circuits any critical thought or sound judgment. When contrary evidence---even crucial and clear contrary evidence is introduced—the assumption of divine sanction (untested, mind you) cuts it off in the bud without question.

The problem here is that far too often, those professing to have special revelations about such things are proven wrong. While I believe in some continuing revelations, I also believe that the majority if not all of those making great public pronunciations and shows of them are usually posers or deluded. We could all list a string of instances, not the least of which is the recent about-face by Pat Robertson, who prophesied the re-election of Donald Trump, and only this week came out and said Trump lost, it’s time to move on and that the President is living in an “alternate reality.”

The “God is on our side” belief also acts as a powerful basis for confirmation bias. Loyalists tend to believe any report that confirms their preferred narrative. It does not matter how shady or disreputable the source may be, or how obvious its agenda (something like “EndTimesNews.com” or “TrumpWinsAgain.org,” etc.). I cannot count the number of conspiracy claims I watched appear and then spread like wildfire through these circles only to find some clear, reasonable explanation shoot them down. Then another appears to take its place, and the old one is either forgotten or tucked away into the files (and reappears again in the next Sidney Powell court filing).

When you ask, “What about the last multiple smoking guns that turned out not to be smoking guns?” you will be met with derision and condemnation as a commie enemy.

Any evidence presented to the contrary has utterly no effect on this mindset. If the evidence is acknowledged, it is brushed away as fake news or part of the lies of the globalist conspiracy. Even if someone within the trusted circle is to give credence to contrary evidence, that individual will be rejected as a compromiser and now-evil globalist, no matter how formerly central and trusted. Loyalists will look to dig up dirt on them to explain why he or she “sold out.” They will never give the further contrary evidence itself any merit.

This is because no amount of evidence could ever persuade them. When the starting point of your program is “God is on our side, and we are the side of truth,” then to doubt your program is to doubt God. To entertain information contrary to your narrative is to doubt God.

It is not so much that they won’t listen to facts, but that they will listen to only those facts they want. They will complain that no one has looked at the evidence, but this is not true. Many people have on both sides. They are upset instead that no one has looked only at the evidence they want and also concluded what they want.

When you add to this the belief that God has revealed and sanctioned the use of the military to obtain the preferred outcome, the God-revealed one, then you have an agenda bent on the use of military force, claiming divine sanction, and refusing to look at any contrary evidence.

I say again, this is dangerous.

That Dangerous Plaything

In Restoring America One County at a Time, I related a relevant anecdote from American revolutionary history:

[D]uring the so-called Newburgh Conspiracy of 1783, when the restless Revolutionary Army refused to disband without its long-overdue pay, Hamilton suggested that Washington take charge of the army and use the threat of force to persuade Congress not only to pay up, but to pass legislation to install his dream of a more centralized financial system. Washington, as much a statist but less foolhardy than his former aide-de-camp, read Hamilton’s letter “with pain . . . astonishment and horror.” He explained,

The idea of redress by force, is too chimerical to have had a place in the imagination of any serious Mind in this Army; but there is no telling what unhappy disturbances might result from distress, and distrust of justice. . . . The Army . . . is a dangerous instrument to play with.

Washington to Hamilton, April 4, 1783, The Writings of George Washington: Volume 29, January 1, 1783–June 10, 1783, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1938), 292, 293. (See Joel McDurmon, Restoring America One County at a Time, 2nd Ed. 124.)

Our first President, a deeply-loyal military man, nevertheless saw the danger of resorting to military rule to accomplish political ends.

“There is no telling what unhappy disturbances might result from distress, and distrust of justice. . . .”

Yes, no telling. It is bad enough that we are already so polarized that neither side can advance its agenda without the other crying “war,” and “treason.” This is extreme and dangerous political rhetoric. But the moment you threaten to put the actual military behind your side, you, as Washington suggests, threaten the end of justice itself. It may seem like justice in your mind, but it is the end of it. You are killing the due process and replacing it with coercion.

This would be not only the destruction of America in itself, but a precedent that would be turned against you at some point in the future. God’s kingdom is not established through force and coercion. If something called that is established, it is not God’s Kingdom and it will not last. It will be coopted and turned against those who first imposed it.

Conclusion

The military is a dangerous thing to play with. So are prophecies. Here are a couple good rules and recommendations to follow:

First, coercion is the devil, the way of antichrist. The Christian who builds with coercion erects his own guillotine. Don’t support it, no matter whose outcome it seems to favor. You may think our country is being destroyed already, but supporting a military option to prop up a favored president will in fact destroy it at its most central core.

Due process has had its course, generously. You may not believe this, but the vast majority of people trained or knowledgeable of the evidence agree. It is time to consider that you and your favored leaders are the ones who are wrong, and that the alleged dreams and prophecies are not so. It’s time to move on.

Second, I strongly recommend that anyone who prophesied something that did not come to pass be held accountable for exactly what they are: a false prophet. As hard as it will be for many of you to do, you need to mark that person and not listen to them again. The penalty for false prophets under the Old Covenant law was death. Today, we should at least shun them. This will be difficult because many of these charismatic teachers have a strong, emotional grip on their listeners’ hearts and souls. But you need to let go. If they were wrong, mark them now and move on.

The path forward for God’s people and His Kingdom is through acts and works of sacrificial love. Didn’t Paul teach us that all prophecy and all teaching (including end-times prognostications) pale in comparison to this? Are we not thinking like children still if we do not get it? It is time to put away childish things (including tantrums).

Shed these false teachers and get involved in some kind of simple, active work of love: food pantries, clothing ministries, water-well ministries, abused women’s and children’s shelters, rehabilitation camps, marriage counseling, feeding the homeless, racial reconciliation. Possibilities are endless. You will accomplish far more for the Kingdom through protecting or relieving the oppressed than by following the leadership and squandering your wealth on pompous, narcissistic, would-be prophets into the dead ends of false ideas or deadly military delusions.