Are Christians Who Support Trump Abandoning Their Faith?

Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Ohio. (Reuters)

 

Donald Trump's candidacy has sparked a civil war inside American Christianity.

Trump's popularity among self-identified evangelical Christians has led national figures in American Christianity toquestion whether large swaths of the church even know what their faith teaches, and how it applies to public and political life.

The split is between a subset of evangelicals best categorized as "creedal"
believers—those who take their faith most seriously and who oppose
Trump. Less devout Christians, often described as "notional" or
"cultural," are more open to the businessman and GOP front-runner.
The majority of national evangelical leaders are on the side of creedal
believers.

If Trump becomes the Republican nominee many of these creedal evangelicals who have traditionally voted Republican say they would distance themselves from the GOP. But nobody knows whether this would result in evangelicals moving over to vote for the Democratic nominee or whether there would be a broader movement among conservatives to form a third party.

Nonetheless, many anti-Trump Christian leaders believe that the American church has been in decline for decades, leaving many casual Christians — for whom faith is more of a cultural identity rather than a day-to-day experience — vulnerable to Trump's appeals to anger and resentment.

 

Easter, Some thoughts

I love Easter,  It was at Children’s Service in 1981 at Neath,  that an 11 year old boy although raised in a Christian Family and to be honest had never known a life outside Church,  give his life to Jesus,  that 11 year old was me, that day was over 30 years ago and I remember as if it was yesterday.

A lot of things have happened in the meanwhile, and a lot of water has passed underneath the Bridge, times have been enjoyable and times have been  less than enjoyable, yet that 11 year boy has grown up and hopefully matured and has become a 46 year old man.  When I look back with hindsight and I see the highs and the many lows, the times that yes it’s been difficult.

Lamentations 3:22-23

English Standard Version (ESV)

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;^[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Some 2,000 years ago, a man was lead to his death by an occupying army to die a death that was both humiliating and agonizing  both the political and religious authorities had conspired to end the live of this one man because they felt threatened by his message and popularity his friends had run away from him and where now in hiding.

 One of his friends had betrayed him and one of his closest friends had denied him, he was beaten and bloodied, and was led to certain death by public execution, of all the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands who shared his fate or will share his fate including some of his latter disciples, this one death out of thousands of similar deaths of those who had been crucified on a cross of wood,

 This one death was and is of eternal significance, this death bought God’s Gift of Salvation, the forgiveness of sins, The Redemption of Mankind.

When our Lord Jesus came, He had one mission in mind, he voluntary laid aside his divine attributes and was born by a woman, he lived a normal life in seeming obscurity, he launched his mission by these words The Spirit of the Lord is upon me see Luke 4:18-19, he had been tempted to sin by the deceiver and accuser Satan, yet had not sinned, indeed there was no sin found in Him, his mission then and now is to save sinners. John the Baptist said these words when Jesus came to him to be baptised in Water, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and see John 1:28-30

In 1904, The Lord moved mightily in the land of Wales and tens if not hundreds of thousands give their live to the Lord and became followers of Jesus, one of the most famous hymns to come out of that time was Here is Love vast as the Ocean or Dyma Gariad Fel Y Moroedd

Dyma gariad fel y moroedd,

Tosturiaethau fel y lli:

Twysog Bywyd pur yn marw—

Marw i brynu’n bywyd ni.

Pwy all beidio â chofio amdano?

Pwy all beidio â thraethu’I glod?

Dyma gariad nad â’n angof

Tra fo nefoedd wen yn bod.

Ar Galfaria yr ymrwygodd

Holl ffynhonnau’r dyfnder mawr;

Torrodd holl argaeau’r nefoedd

Oedd yn gyfain hyd yn awr:

Gras â chariad megis dilyw

Yn ymdywallt ymâ ’nghyd,

A chyfiawnder pur â heddwch

Yn cusanu euog fyd.

Here is love, vast as the ocean,

Lovingkindness as the flood,

When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,

Shed for us His precious blood.

Who His love will not remember?

Who can cease to sing His praise?

He can never be forgotten,

Throughout heav'n's eternal days.

On the mount of crucifixion,

Fountains opened deep and wide;

Through the floodgates of God's mercy

Flowed a vast and gracious tide.

Grace and love, like mighty rivers,

Poured incessant from above,

And heav'n's peace and perfect justice

Kissed a guilty world in love.

Let me all Thy love accepting,

Love Thee, ever all my days;

Let me seek Thy kingdom only

And my life be to Thy praise;

Thou alone shalt be my glory,

Nothing in the world I see.

Thou hast cleansed and sanctified me,

Thou Thyself hast set me free.

In Thy truth Thou dost direct me

By Thy Spirit through Thy Word;

And Thy grace my need is meeting,

As I trust in Thee, my Lord.

Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring

Thy great love and power on me,

Without measure, full and boundless,

Drawing out my heart to Thee.

It's now  Easter,  a time of renewal and restoration, hope and transformation because Jesus paid the ultimate price and died for our sins and rose victorious from the grave and now is in Heaven.  I would ask you to think about the real reason for Easter which hasn’t nothing to do with Easter Eggs, Hot Cross Buns or indeed the Easter Bunny, but it’s because of Our Lord, Our Saviour, Our Redeemer Jesus Christ. I could continue but I will close with this video.

Yours because of his Salvation

Waiting Here For You (Live) (Passion:Here For You Video)

Los Lobos - La Bamba (HQ,16:9)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer | Official HD

All we need is a love that changes everything

1 Corinthians 13 :1- 13

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Excellence of Love

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In an email to my friend Geoff Grice earlier today,  I briefly made a reference to the story of Cindrella, I’ve always wondered why Cindrella never feel in love with Buttons,  Buttons loved Cindrella for she was, but Cindrella didn’t love Buttons in the same way, she chased the myth of love with Prince Charming, yes she lived happy ever after, for many of us we need to stop chasing the myth of love with prince or princess charming and find true (real) love with buttons.

How the New Testament defines love

From http://biblemegasite.com/love.htm

New Testament love is different from the love most people think of when they think of "love". Most English Bible readers think that "love" has the same meaning throughout the NT. Most believe that love simply means "to have great affection for." Actually the New Testament Greek language has 4 different words for "love" and each has a different meaning. Don't worry about the Greek, I will explain them well.

1. eros - Physical attraction. Strawberry Shortcake love: "I want the shortcake. I want it bad! I will consume it without giving it a thought about how the shortcake feels" Eros doesn't appear in the New Testament, but is mentioned in the Greek Old Testament. Eros can often be selfish in the form of lust. A healthy eros would be a physical attraction between a married couple. But having this love and no others would make a mockery out of true love.

2. storge - Family love. We don't love Aunt Minnie because of her eros (physical attraction), but because she is our Aunt Minnie, a part of our family, even though she is blind, deaf, and senile. Storge appears 3 times in the NT, twice in its negative form (astorge - "without family love"), and once combined with phila ("be devoted"). A mother who has her baby and throws it in the trash can is showing astorge. I storge a Christian because he/she is a member of my spiritual family. But what if said Christian renounces Christianity? Could I still love him/her if storge was the only form of love I had?

3. phila - Friendship love. It is warm feelings and affection. It is liking someone. Philia is emotional, spontaneous, and instinctive. The weakness of this love is that in order to show it, it has to be shared. Your phila for me is damaged if I don't show phila for you. I call the weakness of phila "bowling partner" love: "I love you if you keep bowling strikes, but start throwing gutter balls and I'll find a new bowling partner." Many couples make this the main love in their marriage, and the marriage doesn't survive the gutter balls of life. I phila my friends, I have feelings for them, but that isn't enough to truly love them, especially if they don't show affection to me.

4. agape - A desire to do what is best for another. This Greek word is rarely used in other Greek writings and used in a colourless way. The New Testament gives agape a wonderful new meaning. Agape does involve a desire and a devotion, but doesn't depend of affection received from another in order to exist. Its purpose is to treat his fellow man with esteem and respect, even when rebuking someone who has done wrong. Christ said if we love (agape) Him, we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). We are commanded to display agape with all of our heart, soul and mind to God and to show agape to our neighbor as we would do for ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).

 We are told by Paul to walk in the way of agape (Ephesians 3:16-19). Agape is the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 13:8-10). John stated that agape expresses itself in word and deed and that without agape, we don't know God, who is the very definition of agape (1 John 3:16-19, 4:8). Agape is the word used as love in John 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 13. In 1 Corinthians 13, it says that "love bears all things." The Greek word for "bear" can also mean "cover," as in agape throwing a cover of silence over the faults of others. I can even agape my enemies, I can desire and act for what is best for them, regardless of their feelings for me. Agape is an act of the will. I truly agape people, and I will do what is best for them, even if they had no eros, storge, phila, or agape for me. What people don't realize is that while eros, storge, and phila come naturally to humans, agape is not, for it is divine. Agape has to be learned, from God's Word.

The Bible is not just a rulebook, but it is the dictionary of agape, whether agape defines how we worship God or how we interact to one another. If we master agape as defined in the Bible, we need nothing else to be more like God, for God IS agape (1 John 4:8)

Eros - Based on the glands. "I love you because I am attracted to you.

Storge - based on genetic ties. "I'm love you because we are kin to each other"

Phila - based on emotions. "I really like you, I love you because I enjoy being with you."

Agape - based on a decision, an act of the will. "I love you", not "I love you if....", not "I love you because....", just simply "I love you".

1 John 4:7-21 New American Standard Bible

God Is Love

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

The life that I have

Is all that I have

And the life that I have

Is yours.

The love that I have

Of the life that I have

Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have

A rest I shall have

Yet death will be but a pause.

For the peace of my years

In the long green grass

Will be yours and yours and yours.

Leo Marks, taken from Carve her Name with Pride the story of Violette Szabo

6 Warning Signs of Spiritual Abuse

6 Warning Signs of Spiritual Abuse

The church is called Word of Life Christian Center, but the tiny Pentecostal congregation in New Hartford, New York, is now known for death. It made headlines earlier this month when a 19-year-old member, Lucas Leonard, died during a so-called "counseling session" that involved 10 hours of beatings and interrogation.

Six members of the church now face criminal charges for the incident, which also left Lucas' 17-year-old brother, Christopher, hospitalized. Most of the group's 20 members were afraid to speak to the media. But a former member, Chadwick Handville, who now lives in Arizona, told The New York Times that the church had become a cult.