If you search engine “The Gospel Coalition Cult of Christian Trumpism,” you will find what I am responding to here. It is another hatchet piece by Mike Horton. I’m not linking TGC to my site because I don’t want to increase their traffic. The points below speak to the article in question and follow the flow of the article — generally speaking.
Michael Horton is the J. Gresham Machen professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary California and if J. Gresham Machen were alive he would kick Horton’s backside out of his endowed Chair since Machen would not have agreed with a ruddy word Horton says in advocating surrender in the common realm.
1.) Please understand that I have absolutely zero tuck for the lunatic Evangelical “conservative” movement. I would rather gargle glass than being caught dead in a photo with some whack job blowing a shofar or standing listening to some unexploded Dispie pimple explaining that Trump is God’s answer for America. I have never voted for Trump because he is not a conservative and I certainly don’t think he is some kind of Protestant version of the coming Mahdi. So, unfortunately, I have to agree with Michael a little bit on the whack-a-doodles who show up at these rallies. But unlike Michael, I don’t label these people as Christians unless there is a category of “Christian dupes.” Michael seems to think that anybody who says “Lord Lord,” ought to be considered a Christian.
2.) However, unlike Michael, I don’t dismiss the idea of Christians supporting Trumpism as an ideological movement that includes the ideas of Nationalism, (MAGA) isolationism, and hatred of Globalism and I don’t think that somebody who supports that set of ideological convictions to be members of a cult, and I don’t think that if one attended such a rally that therefore that said person is automatically an idolater. He may simply believe that “Thou Shalt Not Steal” applies to election 2020 and that Trump is the genuine President.
3.) Michael seems also to miss the Schaefferian idea of co-belligerence. Francis Schaeffer taught that people from other expressions of faiths can come together to support particular issues or candidates as long as they understood that their agreements only went as far as the particular issue or candidate at hand. This means that sacerdotal brained Roman Catholics and comic book eschatological Dispies, as well as glossoholic Pentecostals, can hold hands with dour Reformed types and together support an issue or a candidate at a rally without surrendering their conviction that the other chap is an idolatrous son of a mother without a father — religiously speaking. Why, even humorless R2K theologians like Michael could attend one of these rallies he laments without having to worry about being painted as an idolater all because other looney-tune idolaters were at the same rally with their shofars, prayer beads, and Mahdi obsessions.
4.) Michael invokes Rod Dreher, Beth Moore, and David French as profound gurus.
And Michael wants to complain about Evangelical asylum escapees at these rallies? Michael … Dude… something about casting stones while living in a glasshouse.
5.) Here’s a question to ponder. Why is it that Michael and the R2K wonder boys never punch left. It seems to me that these theological tykes are forever punching right but seldom if ever punch left. This would fit my theory that the R2K boys are in point of fact leftists wearing the brilliant disguise of Karo syrup piety.
6.) One chief problem of R2K is it seeks to reduce Christianity to “the Gospel,” (Horton’s ‘good news’ in the article) as if Christianity has nothing else to say to Christians except as it pertains to learning that Christ will receive sinners. Doubtless “the Gospel” is the centerpiece of Christianity but to suggest, as R2K consistently does, that Christianity = narrowly defined Gospel is a gross reductio ad absurdum. So, while the good news, narrowly defined is certainly not a Christian society or any political system as Michael says, that doesn’t mean that the good news of Christianity does not multiply so that it has far-reaching implications that touch the issue of Christian social order, or Christian political systems.
7.) Michael says in the article,
“The Lord gave us Christian freedom to vote our conscience.”
Is Michael really suggesting that Christianity as a faith system has nothing to say about the wickedness of Totaltairan Socialist political systems? Is Michael saying that voting for a Totalitarian Marxist is acceptable for a Christian since doing so would not violate their conscience? And this man has the chutzpah to complain about Dispies blowing shofars?
8.) Michael doesn’t say it explicitly here but the implications of what this child theologian is saying is that the third use of the law is mute. Now, Michael would say here that he supports the third use of the law but not as applied to the civil realm. The third use of the law is for Christians in their personal individual lives but Christians should not apply the third use of the law to the public square. This is a feature of R2K’ism and is one reason why R2K is heretical.
9.) Horton proclaims his credentials as a minister in order to speak out against idolatry. Who will speak out about Horton’s and R2K’s idolatry of allowing for other Kings in the common realm other than King Jesus? Dr. Michael has eyes full of beams while complaining about sundry motes elsewhere.
10.) Michael complains about Evangelicals marching on Washington to perpetuate a cult. But what of the R2K cult of which Michael is a leading guru? How many Reformed churches have wannabee Hortons in their pulpits because of the pablum being spit out at Westminster West and like Seminaries across the country?
11.) Michael’s leftism comes out with this statement;
We might have ignored this as a spectacle, a performance by a handful of voices in opposition to the Constitutional system of our republic.
Opposition to the Constitutional system of our republic? Has Michael given up on the Eighth Word? Why isn’t Michael writing articles about how God hates theft, cheating, and chicanery? Instead, we get from this Boy Wonder a statement that suggests that what is happening in Election 2020 has anything to do with the Constitutional system of our republic.
Michael Horton then gives three reasons why this spectacle has arisen within the Church of Christians being political in a direction he does not like. I will deal with those three reasons in part II. Can anybody tell me what Michael wrote when America’s cities were burning down this past summer as pursued by the Christian left?
Thank you for your response to the Horton article. I am a Reformed believer and a Trump supporter. I do not want to be considered some kind of crazy for desiring a return to a sense of pride in our country and its Constitution, the rule of law and an end to nation building around the world. I also do not want to see socialism and/or communism established in this land. Trump is not my savior and I resent the condescension that attends that charge from the evangelical left establishment who appear to be moving in the woke direction more and more each day. Many true Christian believers have been swept up in the Christian NeverTrumpers’ broad brush. Sadly, I’ve found it necessary to distance myself from many teachers and authors who, over the years, had been sources of encouragement and enlightenment to me but who have recently taken the downgrade path toward heresy with their illicit love affair with CRT, so-called “gay Christianity” and feminism. They have shredded their ministry vows and I can no longer countenance them.
Thanks, Tim for your comment here. I suspect that your comment reflects the sentiments of a large swath of people in the Reformed world. God is shaking things up again and only that which is permanent will remain.