"I never knew you."
I still believe. In God, Jesus, and the Bible, that is. But I am done with evangelicals, the people with whom I was most closely connected for most of my adult life. When the apocalypse begins, America’s white evangelicals will be the confederation most responsible. And then, as the world goes to hell and I mourn the loss, I suspect a tiny smirk will interrupt my somber visage as I ponder again the painful irony. “I told you so,” will be my small, sad consolation.
The common eschatological (end times) narrative among America’s evangelicals is that the sinfulness of unbelievers will escalate until it reaches a point at which God can no longer bear it. When that happens, God will pull away (“rapture”) the true believers, and then the many horrific events foretold in the book of Revelation will begin.
The Ironic Twist
I still believe that—but with a dramatic, ironic twist. It won’t be the MAGA-obsessed white evangelicals who will be saved from God’s wrath. Instead, it will be “the least of these”—the poor, oppressed, and dispossessed—the ones the MAGA messiah and his fawning followers callously shunned who will be “saved.” The malevolent MAGA beast and his mindless MAGA minions—who were certain of their special standing with the Almighty—will be the cause of the unprecedented calamity brought upon the world they will still inhabit.
Then these deceived disciples will cry out, “‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?”
And Jesus will reply, “‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”
How Were they Deceived?
How could these people have been so duped? How did they convince themselves to condone—and even celebrate—the disparagement of people with disabilities? How could they look the other way when their new messiah proudly spoke of capitalizing upon his wealth and fame to sexually abuse women? How were they able to choose their new messiah’s denigration of immigrants over the Bible’s many commandments to treat foreigners with care and compassion? How could they gleefully approve of their messiah’s adoration of cruel dictators? How could they cavalierly turn away from all the ideals and principles they previously claimed to cherish? And why—when their chosen emperor stands naked before them, exposed through unmistakable evidences—do they refuse to repent?
Each of those questions can be answered with three words: foolish stubborn pride.
Foolish Pride
As I’ve stated in previous posts, generally, America’s white evangelicals avoid taxing their brains with any kind of deep analysis or reflection. The Bible rightly refers to them as sheep that are easily led astray. Typically, they are foolish. But because they’ve been conditioned to believe that they are on God’s side—or more to the point, that God is on their side—they tend to be among the world’s most stubbornly proud people.
A case in point is a dear friend I’ve mentioned in previous posts. This person—a devout white evangelical—converted from a never-Trumper to a MAGA disciple during the 2016 presidential race. Now, any time I send her any article or video about the messiah’s misdeeds—which she’d never see on Newsmax—she ignores it and replies by sending me a Bible verse. And her latest reply was that she’d ask God to show her if she’s wrong, and unless that happens, I need to stop criticizing her chosen one.
That kind of irrational reply is at the heart of evangelicals’ stubborn infatuation with their new messiah. Would a rational person need to ask God if supporting a race-baiting, misogynistic, xenophobic, mean-spirited, ignorant, would-be dictator is the right thing to do? That question is, of course, rhetorical.
But it's this irrational, stubborn, foolish pride that has destroyed American evangelicalism—and that will bring about the destruction of the world as we know it. The cartoon character Pogo was as prescient as any true biblical prophet when he declared, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” America’s white evangelicals will, ironically, bring about and suffer through the end-times tribulation they’ve long warned the world about.