A variety of coalitions have formed to engage in efforts for the re-election of President Donald J. Trump. These groups consist of like-minded individuals who have a huge reach into their constituencies where they can rally votes for the November showdown.
Trump’s official website lists them: Women for Trump, Veterans for Trump, Cops for Trump, Democrats for Trump, Pro-Life Voices for Trump, Workers for Trump, Lawyers for Trump and a host of others. These include people from all walks of life coming together for political reasons as conservative Americans hoping to hold back the tide of Liberal anarchy.
But only one coalition on the list promises to invoke the help of the Almighty for the task: Evangelicals for Trump. They will be having a rally in Las Vegas on August 6th at the Ahern Hotel & Convention Center they call: “Evangelicals for Trump: Praise, Prayer, and Patriotism.”
“Evangelicals for Trump will engage the Christian community to help re-elect President Donald J. Trump in 2020. Through re-affirming support for President Trump, evangelicals across the country will work to deliver a second term – ensuring that pro-life initiatives, religious freedom, and the appointment of conservative judges are kept as a top priority for four more years.” [Source: https://evangelicals.donaldjtrump.com]
Paula White, the prosperity gospel televangelist, heads the White House’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative, that is sponsoring the rally. So as not to give the wrong idea that this event could just be her latest ploy to fleece people out of their hard-earned money, the following disclaimer is seen in fine print at the bottom of the registration page:
“Pastor Paula White is a special guest for this event. Her participation is not a solicitation of funds.” [Source: https://events.donaldjtrump.com/events/evangelicals-for-trump-praise-prayer-and-patriotism-las-vegas-nv-august-6]
The speakers at the event are listed as: “Pastor Paula White, Pastor Jentezen Franklin, Pastor Paul Goulet, Pastor Tony Suarez, Pastor Jack Hibbs, Bishop Harry Jackson, Ralph Reed, and Todd Lamphere.”
Many of these names are also listed on Paula White’s prayer team that Jack Hibbs encouraged his followers on Facebook to sign up for. They have started a weekly prayer meeting every Thursday for Christians to agree in prayer for Trump and revival with one of their team members. You just may hear the voice of one of these “Christians” when you dial in with your special pass code:
“A strategic new Governmental Prayer Movement is launching called ONE VOICE PRAYER MOVEMENT chaired by Paula White-Cain, Todd Lamphere, Dave Kubal, and Jon & Jolene Hamill. Mike and Cindy Jacobs, Dutch Sheets, and others help to comprise the core team for this valiant new prayer initiative.” [SOURCE: New York Times, November 2019]
That list looks like the Who’s Who of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a group of today’s supposed new apostles and prophets whose vision is to take back America by invading what they term The Seven-Mountain-Mandate of culture. To use the term “Evangelical” to describe most on the list expands the term to include just about anyone who names the name of Christ. They have here-to-fore been referred to as “charismatics” or “charismaniacs” as some have called those who are known for extreme metaphysical manifestations in their meetings such as holy laughter, slain in the spirit, uncontrollable shakings and senseless babbling of syllables no one can interpret.
Pastor Jack looks like the odd man out in Paula’s White House Faith Initiative. He has a different view of Bible prophecy than the core of the group. He preaches the soon rapture of the Church, while the NAR teaches world dominion and see those anticipating the rapture as what they term “escapists.”
But the question is: have they won Hibbs over? He has added his voice to the movement that promotes the idea that Trump is a prophetic fulfillment of Persian King Cyrus, who gave the order for the rebuilding of the temple in the book of Ezra. However, nowhere in Scripture does it indicate that there would be anyone coming in the spirit of Cyrus. To continue with this theme, Hibbs’ assistant pastor, Josh Blevins, preached this morning at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills from the book of Nehemiah from which the king gives permission to the prophet to rebuild the broken-down walls of Jerusalem.
But the main theme of Blevins’ sermon was to warn the congregation not to listen to any critic of the senior pastor’s ecumenism with false teachers. He prophesied that they would arise and criticize God’s work like Nehemiah’s enemies, Sanballat and Tobiah. In logic, the fallacy is called muddying the waters. Anyone taking issue with this mixed multitude of a coalition are now labeled as such.
If you choose to join the Thursday night prayer team, be advised. You are required to provide your cell phone number in order to enter in. And after that, you will receive endless beeps from your phone from the Trump campaign with pleas to contribute money. It looks like the president will not be funding his own campaign this election year.
The Real Calvary Chapel Traitors
Calvary Chapel Chino Hills is a mega-church in Southern California well-known for its well-attended Bible prophecy conferences. It is associated with the late Chuck Smith who pastored Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa until his death in 2013. Pastor Chuck always emphasized the soon-return of Jesus and the rapture before the coming final seven years of the Great Tribulation.
Controversy has surrounded Hibbs since he started inviting local politicians onto his stage during his regular services. He has had politicians such as former Congressman Michele Bachmann speak at his special events, but it was a new thing for him to take up tithes and offerings at a Wednesday night service featuring politics. That didn’t sit well with many of his fans.
In February, 2020, for instance Hibbs turned the microphone over to fellow Calvary Chapel pastor Rob McCoy. He came to introduce the Wednesday night crowd to conservative activist, Charlie Kirk, 26. McCoy made the opening remarks before he introduced the younger man who heads up a popular right-wing college organization called Turning Point USA. McCoy waxed eloquently about the biblical character Sampson and his weakness for prostitutes such as Delilah, as a sermon illustration to help his listeners understand why God chose Trump to be the modern-day Cyrus.
“Let’s look at moving that culture and let’s look at the current president. Arts and Entertainment: he had the number one television show in America. Media: he’s mastered the Twitter world. Politics: he took out seventeen Republican candidates and the most heavily funded Democrat candidate in the history of the nation. Business: Trump brand is world renown… This is a man who’s equipped. And if you don’t like him, fine. But you know why God picked him? Cause there were no Christians available. Now some of the candidates running were Christians. But were they equipped in every mountain of cultural influence? So, there are times where unless the body of Christ steps up and starts doing its job and encouraging people to engage in the public square and the work that Charlie’s doing that is political and the by-product, spiritual.”
McCoy was promoting the false theology that Christians should redeem the culture, forgetting that the Bible’s “Great Commission” is to preach the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ who saves us from our sins. That unfortunately now takes a back seat to the mission to somehow redeem society — which will never happen until Jesus returns and sets up His Kingdom on earth. The NAR wants the kingdom without the King.
With this Seven-Mountain-Mandate in mind, McCoy found a moonlighting job from his pastorate at Calvary Chapel of Thousand Oaks, and served on that town’s City Council from 2015 to 2020 when he tendered his resignation when the council opposed his plan to serve communion on Palm Sunday during the Coronavirus pandemic. I guess he was able to check one of the seven mandates off his list.
In a message to his church seen on YouTube, McCoy’s openly criticized the founder of Calvary Chapels for only preaching the true Gospel and not putting an end to the ills of society. Some would say this disqualifies him from calling his church a Calvary Chapel.
“So Chuck [Smith] stays away from politics and just teaches the bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, keeping the main thing the plain thing and the plain thing the main thing… But he stayed away from politics. So, we’ve doing this for fifty years. We’re now in 2018… So, what has been the impact of the Gospel because as I understand, Gospel transforms culture. But because we’ve been a-political, we are no longer the fifth largest GDP, we’re about the sixth or the seventh… we lead the nation in debt… Where’s the power of the Gospel? And I don’t say that to demean Calvary Chapel because Chuck gave me a systematic understanding of the scriptures which I’m grateful for. And he did an amazing work and God used it. But we’re now in 2018 and that Gospel needs to go into culture! (Applause, “Amen”s) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG1-nq1V3Tk]
Hibbs was no doubt emboldened by President Trump to bring politics into his church when Trump signed his executive order allowing churches to express their political views without risking the loss of their non-profit status. This only set off more liberals, who already suffer from the Trump Derangement Syndrome, for appearing to put and end to the separation of church and state.
“Since I took office, my Administration has been committed to protecting religious liberty. In May 2017, I signed an Executive Order to advance religious freedom for individuals and institutions, and I stopped the Johnson Amendment from interfering with pastors’ right to speak their minds.”
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2020, as Religious Freedom Day. “
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-religious-freedom-day-2020/
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” – John 15-18-29
“They are of the world. Therefore, they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” – 1 John 4:5-6
Jackie Alnor is a Christian journalist known for her in depth reporting on popular fads, gimmicks, and false winds of doctrine blowing through the church. She co-founded The Christian Sentinel in 1993 with her late husband, author Bill Alnor, as a vehicle to raise awareness of the latest trends endangering the fath of many. She is the author of the book, The Fleecing of Christianity, that unveils the tactics used by televangelists who use underhanded means to make themselves rich. Her testimony is included in the book, On the Wings of Grace, an anthology of ex-Catholics edited by a former priest, and she wrote a chapter in the book, The Challenge of Church Discipline Today, with an analysis of accountability among discernment ministries. Jackie has a BA in Communication/Media from Texas A&M University; she studied apologetics at Simon Greenleaf School of Law; and earned credits in church history and theology at Philadelphia College of Bible
[For further information see this reporter’s two-part series on Jack Hibbs and the NAR]
Jackie Alnor is a Christian journalist known for her in depth reporting on popular fads, gimmicks, and false winds of doctrine blowing through the church. She co-founded The Christian Sentinel in 1993 with her late husband, author Bill Alnor, as a vehicle to raise awareness of the latest trends endangering the faith of many. She is the author of the book, The Fleecing of Christianity, that unveils the tactics used by televangelists who use underhanded means to make themselves rich. Her testimony is included in the book, On the Wings of Grace, an anthology of ex-Catholics edited by a former priest, and she wrote a chapter in the book, The Challenge of Church Discipline Today, with an analysis of accountability among discernment ministries. Jackie has a BA in Communication/Media from Texas A&M University; she studied apologetics at Simon Greenleaf School of Law; and earned credits in church history and theology at Philadelphia College of Bible.
