I still consider myself an evangelical—although most of today’s MAGA-obsessed evangelicals would find my beliefs and convictions repugnant, and probably heretical. That’s okay, MAGAs, right back at ya.
With that caveat out of the way, here’s my take on the current state of the (white-dominated segment of) today’s evangelical church. Wait, first I must include one more caveat, and here it is: A significant minority within white evangelicalism has not been infected with the MAGA pox; among them are notables such as Russell Moore, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and best-selling author Max Lucado.
Fortunate to be Wrong
Now back to my take on the current state of the today’s evangelical church: They should be grateful they are wrong about hell and the Final Judgment. Yes, that’s one of the two key issues about which I am diametrically opposed to today’s mainstream evangelicalism. I won’t go into a long explanation here, but I am categorically convinced that the common view about end times that most evangelicals tenaciously cling to is mistaken—not to mention horrid.
The Bible does not teach that “sinners” will burn forever in a place called hell. If evangelicals would set aside their faith in tradition and institutions and believe the Bible instead, they would see the observable truth, right in front of them, that their favorite “soul-winning” verses teach the polar opposite of their commonly held belief. Here are some examples:
1. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The contrast is between life and death, not about burning in hell.
2. Romans 3:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The contrast is between life and death, not about burning in hell.
3. 1 John 5:12: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” The contrast is between life and death, not about burning in hell.
These are but a few of dozens of such passages. I have an extensive PowerPoint presentation detailing the many misinterpretations and misrepresentations regarding the common beliefs about judgment and a fictious place called hell.
Succeeding Where Jesus Failed
The other central subject about which I am utterly opposed to the new evangelical orthodoxy is its fealty to the new evangelical messiah, Donald Trump. According to a recent poll of evangelical Trump supporters, “71% feel that what he tells them is true—higher than the results for friends and family (63%), conservative media figures (56%) or religious leaders (42%).” And, of course, it goes without saying that they trust their new messiah more than they trust mainstream media or any other person or institution.
Robrt Jeffress, pastor of the massive First Baptist Church of Dallas sums up white evangelicals’ adoration of Messiah Trump when he says, “He [Trump] may not know the Bible as well as all of us, but he loves God, he loves Jesus, and he’s a leader, and he’s going to lead us into great things, in helping and saving Christianity.” Apparently, Jesus lacks either the desire or the aptitude to save the faith ascribed to Him, so the new messiah will succeed where his predecessor has, apparently, failed.
Gross Misrepresentations
So, here is where the two topics converge: Both grossly misrepresent the true God. Both paint a hideously distorted picture of the God represented in the Bible. And misrepresenting God is, apparently, a serious topic, serious enough to be included in the Ten Commandments. Yes, those Commandments that MAGA folks want inscribed in government buildings across the land. The Commandments they want taught in public schools. The Commandments they want as the basis for this nation’s government and laws. The Commandments that should apply to everyone except Trump … and to the person promoting them.
(Think of Lauren Boebert on stage at an evangelical church praying piously and calling for an end to church-state separation. Soon after, she's filmed in a skimpy dress at a live theater performance where she disobediently vapes, and where she and her date stage a fondling performance that eclipses the show the paying patrons had expected to see.)
The third of those above-referenced Ten Commandments warns, “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name” (Exodus 20:7). “What,” one might ask, “is God’s name?” That name is revealed earlier in Exodus, chapter 3. There, an exchange is recorded between God and Moses. God tells Moses to go to the Egyptians and demand the release of the Israelite captives. Moses then asks, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God’s answer to Moses is that His name is, “I am who I am.” At first the name sounds odd. But the point God was making was that there is no disjunction between His name and his character. Combine this revelation with the Third Commandment’s prohibition against misusing God’s name and we see God telling the Israelites not to misrepresent His character. Ironically, misrepresenting God’s character is exactly what the MAGA Christian nationalists are doing. They’re turning people away from God by misrepresenting Him as a callous, judgmental, unforgiving monarch who sent an ignorant, arrogant, selfish, greedy narcissist to save the world in general—and old-fashioned, white-dominated evangelical Christianity specifically—from the evil machinations of the demonic Democrats.
These angry, misguided MAGA minions are indeed fortunate that they are wrong about hell, for if it really did exist as they portray it, they—who grossly misrepresent God—would be the ones facing eternal agony.
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