Why Didn T Evangelicals See Him Coming

Why Didn't Evangelicals "See Him Coming"? is a hard-hitting, clear-eyed account of how American society, the political establishment, and the rule of law reacted to a sociopath president. After Donald Trump left office, Americans didn't "see him going" either. Trump came and went, yet millions of Americans were "clueless" about what happened because of his "gaslighting tornado." An evangelical Christian author explains why Bible-believing, church-going, Jesus-talking, America-loving evangelicals, along with other Americans, listened to, were enamored by, and elected an immoral sociopath. An unlikely combination of viewpoints--psychology, law, and biblical theology--provide a surprising, coherent picture of how Donald Trump deceived and inflicted devastation on democracy. His uncanny influence is chronicled by media reporting during his four years in office and afterwards in a "shadow presidency" at Mar-a-Lago. If Trump succeeded in anything, it was deceit. Psychologists rightly attribute this to his "gaslighting"; biblical theology probes deeper, to his corrupt human nature. An FBI search warrant at Mar-a-Lago revealed the inevitable truth: Donald Trump was a thief and traitor from the beginning; the law finally caught up with a long overdue, unaccountable serial criminal for crimes that America would not tolerate.

Why Didn’t Evangelicals “See Him Coming”? is a hard-hitting, clear-eyed account of how American society, the political establishment, and the rule of law reacted to a sociopath president. After Donald Trump left office, Americans didn’t “see him going” either. Trump came and went, yet millions of Americans were “clueless” about what happened because of his “gaslighting tornado.” An evangelical Christian author explains why Bible-believing, church-going, Jesus-talking, America-loving evangelicals, along with other Americans, listened to, were enamored by, and elected an immoral sociopath. An unlikely combination of viewpoints—psychology, law, and biblical theology—provide a surprising, coherent picture of how Donald Trump deceived and inflicted devastation on democracy. His uncanny influence is chronicled by media reporting during his four years in office and afterwards in a “shadow presidency” at Mar-a-Lago. If Trump succeeded in anything, it was deceit. Psychologists rightly attribute this to his “gaslighting”; biblical theology probes deeper, to his corrupt human nature. An FBI search warrant at Mar-a-Lago revealed the inevitable truth: Donald Trump was a thief and traitor from the beginning; the law finally caught up with a long overdue, unaccountable serial criminal for crimes that America would not tolerate.

Christians are constantly being accused of being too political or not political enough. Often, the accusations are fair. Christians tend to get stuck in one of two political ditches: we either privatize our faith or make it partisan. We think religion and politics should be separate and never intermingle, or we align so tightly with a political party that we conflate the gospel with a human agenda. In Political Gospel, Patrick Schreiner argues Christianity not only has political implications but is itself a politic. The gospel at its very core is political––Jesus declared Himself to be King. But He does not allow you to put Him in your political box. In a supercharged political climate, Political Gospel explores what it means for Christians to have a biblical public witness by looking to Scripture, the early church, and today. Should we submit to governing authorities or subvert them? Are we to view them as agents of the dark forces or entities that promote order? In these pages, we’ll see that Christians live in a paradox, and we’ll see how to follow Christ our King right into the political craziness of our day.

Have you tried purpose driven life-styles after Y2K, prayed the prayer of Jabez, and still find yourself empty and dissatisfied come credit crisis in 9/’08 or oil spilling off the Casino Coast? We have.Our journey takes us back to Christ—from Protestant “workaholic righteousness†—even from Mother Teresa’s revelations: how she lost the presence of Jesus in her life over sixty-six years of serving the poor in Calcutta, India. Could we find ourselves alienated from Christ too? Oh yes.Where’s the JOY and satisfaction we once knew? Is tithing by Law what God wants?Join us in finding out what Jesus Christ really has to say about trusting in ourselves, America, and easy step "What works for me" theology.

The former editor in chief of the acclaimed magazine Christianity Today offers a compelling look at the state of evangelicalism and hope for the future. In arguably one of the most divisive and polarizing eras, evangelicals are faced with a profound crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that has many dimensions―political, biblical, and theological―as well as a crisis of spiritual formation and discipleship. What ultimately is at the root of this crisis? Mark Galli encourages us to turn our attention away from the politics of the moment, the social issues being discussed online, and the debate du jour among Christians. He asks us instead to take a long and hard look at what’s missing in our spirituality. In an incisive and thought-provoking book, Mark Galli helps us slow down and spend time reflecting on our ultimate priority. A must-read for anyone interested in contemplating the future of the church.

When evangelicals make a mess, who cleans it up? Many today are discarding the evangelical label, even if they still hold to the historic tenets of evangelicalism. But evangelicalism is a space, not just a brand, and living in that space is complicated. As a lifelong evangelical who happens to be a biracial Asian/White millennial, Dan Stringer has felt both included and alienated by the evangelical community and has wrestled with whether to stay or go. He sits as an uneasy evangelical insider with ties to many of evangelicalism's historic organizations and institutions. Neither "everything's fine" nor "burn it all down," Stringer offers a thoughtful appreciation of evangelicalism's history, identity, and strengths, but also lament for its blind spots, toxic brokenness, and complicity with injustice. From this complicated space, we can move forward with informed vision rather than resignation and with hope for our future together.

Most observers explain evangelical Christians' bedrock support for Israel as stemming from the apocalyptic belief that the Jews must return to the Holy Land as a precondition for the second coming of Christ. But the real reasons, argues Stephen Spector, are far more complicated. In Evangelicals and Israel, Spector delves deeply into the Christian Zionist movement, mining information from original interviews, web sites, publications, news reports, survey research, worship services, and interfaith conferences, to provide a surprising look at the sources of evangelical support for Israel. Israel is God's prophetic clock for many evangelicals - irrefutable proof that prophecy is true and coming to pass in our lifetime. But Spector goes beyond end-times theology to find a complex set of motivations behind Israel-evangelical relations. These include the promise of God's blessing for those who bless the Jews; gratitude to Jews for establishing the foundations of Christianity; remorse for the Chu

"Ward is consistently clear-sighted and perceptive as he charts a genuinely fascinating personal and spiritual evolution."--Publishers Weekly Jon Ward's life is divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it. In Testimony, Ward tells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was seduced by materialism and other factors to become politically captive rather than prophetic. A respected journalist, Ward asks uncomfortable but necessary questions, calling those inside and outside conservative Christian circles to embrace truth, complexity, and nuance. He recounts his growing alarm and grief over the last several years as evangelical conservatives attacked truth, rejected personal character, and embraced authoritarianism and conspiracism. He shares his search for a faith that embodies the values he was taught as a child. Ward's experience and reflections will resonate with many readers who grew up in the evangelical movement as well as all those who have an interest in the health of the church and its impact on American life.