Pastor Chuck Baldwin, Tea Bag Party Evangelicals, and the Lies
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/apostasy-watch/373-pastor-chuck-baldwin-tea-bag-party-evangelicals-and-the-lies.html
Kato Mivule | September 14, 2009
If there is anything in Evangelical America today, it is that Evangelical Christians are being ‘used’ and turned into political pawns by the Political Right in America simply bent on regaining and retaining Political Power.
Take for instance the so-called Tea Bag Party Protests that some Evangelicals in America are getting embroiled in, none of these so-called Tea Bag Parties have anything to do with Christianity or Jesus Christ, and neither do they preach the Gospel. Rather they have become places through which hate, fear, paranoia, folly, ignorance, and Dominionist Theology are displayed.
Many Christian Evangelicals who engage in these ‘Tea Bag Parties’ claim that the USA is being taken over by Moslems, Marxists, Socialists, and Nazis. Therefore it is their duty to fight against the “Government Takeover” by the ‘Moslem Socialist Marxist Nazi’ Obama Administration and “Retake America Back”.
Pastor Dr. Chuck Baldwin
Such ‘thinking’ finds its roots in Dominion Theology and “American Evangelical Exceptionalism” with roots in John Calvin’s Predestination Theology, which unfortunately has become very popular among some American Evangelicals today ever since Obama came into Office.
Yet nauseating is the lack of discernment among ‘Tea Bag Party Evangelicals’ that the American Political Right backed by Corporate interests are ‘using’ the Evangelicals to simply promote the Political Right’s agenda for power, using free speech as a pretext with subtle and overt racial and hate undertones that we have seen displayed on signs and placards in protests across the USA.
Yet even what is more disturbing is that some Preachers and Pastors are forsaking the preaching of The Gospel and instead resorting to ‘Tea Bag Party Theology’. Other preachers are getting more radical and arming themselves to the tooth and threatening to join armed insurrections and rebellion against what they perceive to be a ‘Moslem Marxist Socialist Nazi’ takeover of their “Christian Nation”.
The central theme among the American Evangelical ‘Tea Bag Party Theologists’ is that America was founded as a ‘Christian Nation’ and therefore America should be governed as a Christian Theocracy with ‘less government involvement’, a terminology ‘channeled’ through them by Corporate Interests and the Political Right.
Of course such notions cannot be defended in New Testament Scriptures. Such undiscerning Christians often turn to the Old Testament to defend their reasoning and paranoia. They often site Old Testament Scriptures of The Lord giving the Promised Land to Israel and therefore equate themselves to Israel of the Old Testament in today’s world.
Yet worse is that the secular world in America is amazed as such display of ignorance, outright stupidity, idiocy, and lack of knowledge concerning historical matters such as when ‘Tea Bag Party Evangelicals’ mix Socialism, Marxism, Nazism, and Islamism as one and the same thing…and seem to deviate from the context of the original Boston Tea Bag Party. The same ‘Tea Bag Party Evangelicals’ seem to allow themselves to be hoodwinked by Kenyan con artists who offer them fake ‘Kenyan Obama Birth Certificates’ that they intern circulate around email lists on the web. One wonders when such insanity will stop.
Yet still much more frightening is the fact that the Pure Gospel of Jesus Christ is being lost in America as Christians forsake the Preaching of the pure Gospel in search for Christian Political Power.
The Testimony and Witness of Jesus Christ in America is being obstructed, misrepresented, distorted, and hindered by the now ‘Tea Bag Party Evangelical’ Christians who see the Obama administration as the Devil Incarnate.
One Baptist Pastor recently preached a whole sermon titled “I hate Barrack Obama”. Clips of the Pastor’s “I hate Barrack Obama” sermon made its way on Cable News Networks and YouTube, and the last I heard was the same Pastor was a guest speaker at one of the ‘Tea Bag Parties’…that is the Gospel being preached now in America by some USA Evangelicals whose repository is Fox News and the Glen Beck Show.
Yet still Chuck Baldwin pens an article in which he tries to distance himself from such lunacy yet at the same time maintains the very ideology that the ‘Tea Bag Party Evangelicals’ uphold…that is the notion that America should return to being a “Christian Nation”.
It is the same Chuck Baldwin who continuously writes articles trying hard to spin Romans 13 and create his own theology concerning local governments and their relationship to Evangelical Christians.
It is Chuck Baldwin that insists that it is OK for Christians to take up arms and rebel against their “repressive” governments. He claims that if the Founding Fathers did not take up arms against the British, then we would not enjoy ‘Liberty’ today. He claims that America was founded as a “Christian Nation” by Christians and for Christians who sought ‘Liberty’.
Chuck Baldwin goes on to tell and document his fabrications by quoting and paraphrasing the Old Testament scriptures that as Canaan was the Promised Land to the Israelites of the Old Testament, so America is the Promised Land to Christians of Today…
"...If Canaan was the Promised Land for Old Testament Israel, America was an earthly Promised Land for Christians and lovers of liberty. In the Providence of God, America was established by the right people, at the right time, and for the right purpose. With all its shortcomings, the U.S. Constitution--along with the Bill of Rights--is the greatest governing document ever devised by man. And the Declaration of Independence is thegreatest birth certificate a nation ever had."…"I do find it demonstrably hypocritical, however, for these 21st Century preachers to condemn America's Founding Fathers as being disobedient to Romans 13, only to turn around and celebrate Independence Day--and even conduct patriotic services in their churches. Even more egregious is the way these same preachers who condemn the 13 colonies in their fight for independence against the British Crown so quickly take up the war cry for military aggression all over the world. Obviously, inconsistency is one of the most consistent trademarks of Pharisaism..."
Hate America? Count Me Out! | By Chuck Baldwin | September 11, 2009
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090911.html
Chuck Baldwin cannot at anyone time quote scriptures in the New Testament to back him up. His resource is the Old Testament and the occasional spinning of Romans 13 to backup his own erroneous theology when it comes to local governments and Christians. Chuck Baldwin claims that he is no Republican and no Democrat, yet the very theology he espouses is no different from the ‘Tea Bag Party Evangelicals’.
Lastly Chuck Baldwin makes himself the master of American History and therefore to his readers, it is Chuck Baldwin who dearly has full knowledge of American History and everyone else is a dupe who cannot read or research for themselves. To Chuck Baldwin, Christians left Europe and came and Founded America as a “Christian Nation” and declared America’s independence on grounds of Christianity.
Such deliberate distortion of historical facts and hijacking of the Bible Scriptures to promote a Christian Utopia makes Chuck Baldwin’s views deliberately spurious and having nothing to do with New Testament Christianity but armed insurrections, rebellion, politics, and the creation of a ‘Christian Utopia’ which any thinking Christian should have nothing to do with.
So, what does Chuck Baldwin expect Christians in Africa to do? Rebel against their governments? Should we Christians from Africa add to the already unfruitful rebellion, insurgencies, and many wars that have left Africa bleeding to this day? Is that Chuck Baldwin’s solution to many Christians who are persecuted for their faith around the world?
If Chuck Baldwin’s ‘Christian Political’ Theology is correct, then it must work in America and therefore must be a standard for Christians around the world since he bases that kind of Theology on Biblical Scriptures; since there are no special scriptures for American Christians and other scriptures for None American Christians, the standard must be the same…
But Chuck Baldwin’s ‘Exceptionalism’ Theology does not give him room to maneuver; it is constrained to American Evangelicals only; thus making the Bible and Salvation to have been written to an American Audience only…he finally has to call upon all Christians around the world to take up arms and fight a war of flesh and blood against the Infidels who he perceives as a threat to America and her interests, since arguably, America and her foreign interests are part and parcel of the “Promised Land” that Chuck Baldwin agitates for. Is this not the same Neo-conservative a.k.a. Neocon ideologies that the Political Right in America employed to lead up to the Iraq war?
Are the Neocons not the very same people Chuck Baldwin says he is not part of, yet hypocritically he promotes the same ‘John Calvin Exceptionalism’ ideologies that Neocons employ?
However, if Chuck Baldwin’s Christian Political Theology does not work in America and has failed to work in America, how does he expect other Christians around the world to behave and adapt to his Romans 13 Theology spin? Should they pick up guns and fight the Chinese regime? Should they pick up guns and fight African despotic regimes that hinder free speech and freedom of religion?
Who is Chuck Baldwin fooling? When was the last time Chuck Baldwin was persecuted for his faith in America? It is certain that he is simply promoting ‘American Evangelical’ “Exceptionalism” steaming from John Calvin’s Theology and not New Testament Christianity.
If truly America is the “Promised Land” that God has given to Christians today, why not give free Immigrant Visas to all Christians around the World and mandate them to immigrate to their “God given USA”? Should all Moslems convert to Christianity and then immigrate to their God Given USA – the Promised Land as Chuck Baldwin calls it? Or is it that only “Exceptional” Christians were allowed to immigrate to the Promised Land and others even if they convert cannot do so? Is this thinking and theology not similar to Joseph Smith and the Mormon Theology? What happened to Chuck Baldwin the Pastor who used to rightly divide the Word of Truth?
It is a shame that a respectable man who used to teach the pure Word of God is engaging in silly and irresponsible theology and leading the American Evangelical Church astray even when he thinks he is simply helping Christians recover their “Promised Land”...
The very Dominion Theology that Chuck Baldwin seems to challenge and oppose at times in his articles is the very theology he supports and as such the display of total duplicity, leading many American Evangelicals off track.
Now don’t get me wrong, everyone has a right to air their views and their own opinion, and therefore Chuck Baldwin’s views should be seen as his personal opinions and not sold out as New Testament Truth that Evangelicals must adhere to.
However, when the likes of Chuck Baldwin hijack scriptures to support their own erroneous Theology and go ahead to condemn all who don’t support their Dominionist theology, then that is were the line in the sand should be drawn. Chuck Baldwin’s views do not represent New Testament Christianity rather they are a total distortion of New Testament Teachings and outright lies.
There is no New Testament scripture promising Christians in the world a physical “Promised Land”. There are no scriptures in the New Testament that state that America is the Christian Promised Land of today. There are no scriptures in the New Testament that state that Christians should take up arms and rebel against their local governments in search for Freedom.
There are no scriptures in the New Testament that state that God promised the Americas as the ‘Promised Land’ to Christians. There is no single scripture in the New Testament that states that Christians must be governed under a ‘Christian Theocratic Regime’.
On the other hand Christianity has flourished under the most repressive regimes on earth, from the Nero regime of ancient Rome to the Chinese oppressive regimes, the Russian Marxists regimes, Christianity has flourished and blossomed. Go to Africa and see how Christianity has never left Egypt despite the persecution of Christians in Egypt.
Visit Sudan and Christianity stood the test of time under the oppression and persecution of Sudan’s Islamic regime. Visit Iran, Iraq, and Syria, Christians under hash circumstances not even known to Chuck Baldwin have survived and still exist there to this day.
The arguments that Chuck Baldwin makes of freedoms going away are nothing but mere ‘cry baby tantrums’ being thrown by folks who hate endurance, patience, long suffering, and pain. If Christians in other nations suffer persecution for Christ Jesus, then not why endure a little persecution in America?
Chuck Baldwin’s ‘Christian Political’ views are his and should remain his and he should not equate them with New Testament Christianity; doing so is spurious, fake, and bogus. The best way for Chuck Baldwin to “Take America Back” is for him to repent, forsake his Christian Political Theology, and return to his calling, which is preaching the pure and simple Gospel of Jesus Christ as we have it laid out in the New Testament.
Millions of Souls in America are lost spiritually and what will save them is not Chuck Baldwin’s ‘Christian Politics’ or Tea Bag Party Evangelicalism, or even a “Christian President”. Unfortunately, the True Gospel of Jesus Christ that is able to shine light to the millions of dying souls is being obstructed by the likes of Chuck Baldwin and his ‘Christian Political’ Theology that he forwards as New Testament Truth.
In Christ Jesus
Kato Mivule
