In December, 2019, certain members of the Christian community (Christianity Today editorial board) called for the removal of Donald Trump from the Presidency because he did not meet their standards of morality. The editorial board of Christianity Today has lost proper perspective on what it means to be a Christian. They claim to maintain a publication created to preserve theological purity, but over time, the magazine has morphed into the visible arm of an exclusive club enabling Christian “insiders” to set themselves apart from the world. The common name for this malady is legalism and the insiders consider themselves “Christian elite.” Their self-proclaimed purity lifts them to a peerage above the just barely saved. It seems that regeneration by the Grace of God can never quite lift the ordinary repentant sinner to the peerage occupied by those who claim lives of moral purity. This is a slap in the face to God’s plan of redemption and creates an obstacle for the unsaved. The corruption that is Christian elitism is invisible to the self-proclaimed elite but clear as a bell to outsiders looking in.
Christianity is a redemptive religion based on confession of sin, remorse, repentance, faith and obedience continually reaffirmed and renewed. It is a daily dying to sin and living to pursue righteousness. You have no grasp on holiness except that given to you by the grace of God. God sometimes uses persons who have demonstrated a lifetime of substantial moral purity but, most often, He uses men and women who have desperately responded to the grace of God by confession of sin, remorse, repentance, faith and obedience. God does not generally use sinless people because He can’t find any! The Church is a hospital for the healing of sinners, not an introverted, self-serving country club for saints.
God used Paul the Apostle and John Newton the pastor, who were each accessories to multiple murders. God allowed Tamar, Rahab and Bathsheba to be part of the genealogy of Jesus. Scripture ruthlessly reveals the sins of great men and women of God – Noah lay drunk and naked in his tent, Abraham claimed Sarah was his sister, Sarah attempted to hide her laughter, Isaac imitated his father’s lie, Jacob cheated his brother, Moses angrily struck the rock, Aaron made a gold idol, Joshua did not drive out the Canaanites, Gideon made an ephod, Samson lived a licentious life, David had Uriah murdered, Solomon worshipped other gods, Elijah became utterly despondent and Peter refused to eat with gentile Christians. The Christianity Today editorial board may prefer that some of these men and women be removed from Scripture. It must be particularly embarrassing to them that promiscuous women are in the genealogy of Jesus.
God could have His hand on President Trump just as He had his hand on Joshua and Gideon.
