Fight! Fight! Fight!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
~Donald Trump's First Words to the Crowd After Being Shot, July 13, 2024
I get choked up every time I watch the video of Donald Trump rising from the platform in the arms of Secret Service agents after being clipped by an assassin's bullet. In this iconic moment for the ages, Trump exudes indefatigable certitude as he instinctively did what he always does: He took control of the moment.
The Secret Service's job is to immediately swarm, cover the subject, and get him into the waiting vehicle as quickly as possible. However, as the frantic agents tried to get Trump up and moving, he appears to take time to collect himself first.
As he stood to his feet, you could feel the eyes of a relieved nation lock upon him with astonished bewilderment. Still trying to whisk Trump to safety, we hear an agent sternly assert, "Sir, we've got to move to the car, sir!" But Trump stands resolute without a hint of fear in his eyes.
Let me get my shoes. Wait, wait, wait.
As children, we played war all the time. Whether strategically advancing brigades of plastic army men while mimicking the sound of machine guns or using trees as shields while firing paintballs at each other, I was always a brave, invincible hero. I never imagined playing the role of a cowering chicken—until I watched Saving Private Ryan.
When Private Upham freezes in terror on the stairway, listening to his comrade Private Mellish die slowly in an agonizing knife fight at the top of those stairs, I am moved to tears.
How do I know I wouldn't freeze with fear in the heat of battle?
Trump will never have to ask himself this question as the Flight Response is not wired into his alpha-male nervous system. Triumphant and determined, he raised his exulting fist above his bloodied head and delivered the triumvirate war cry of the century:
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Yes, it was a war cry. And as the crowd roared in eruptive celebration, I wondered how many truly understood who the enemy in this war was.
I will leave the political analysis to those who do this for a living. Suffice it to say: No American President has been so viscously vilified by his political enemies since Abraham Lincoln. If you call someone Hitler long enough, you will undoubtedly inspire a demonized lunatic to think he is doing a good deed by killing Hitler.
And while the initial scenes appear to show a swift-moving Secret Service, there are now so many head-tilting anomalies and gross protocol violations that Grassy Knolls and Warren Commissions will be center-stage for our extended future.
However, unlike the Kennedy Assassination, the country will not be thrust "Back, and to the left" but instead "Forward, and to the right. Forward, and to the right."
And make no mistake: Merrick Garland, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Christopher Wray must immediately recuse themselves from any investigative roles in this assassination attempt. The HQ of the DOJ, DHS, and FBI are proven to be notoriously biased and unimaginably corrupt and, therefore, can not be trusted in this probe.
Thirty years ago, I was voir dire'd for a jury and pressed by the Attorney to admit that a law enforcement officer could lie under oath. I defiantly said, "No. If we can't trust law enforcement, little else will matter in our country."
Well, here we are.
While I have written a great deal about the culture wars and the perils of political corruption, it is always with a pulse on the church and an eye to the Kingdom of God. We didn't need supremely gifted prophets to tell us Donald Trump's life was in danger. It was not only evident, it was expected.
Damning compilations of campaign rhetoric and cable news clips castigating Trump as Adolph Hitler, an evil dictator, and a fascistic threat to our democracy are constant and plentiful. So when Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office and urged everyone to "lower the temperature in our politics," I didn't believe him. If he truly meant it, he would have included, "And that begins with me."
But despite all of the hair-on-fire preening and doomsday bloviating, the four years under Trump were far from representative of a malevolent despot's rule. No, we enjoyed a prosperous economy, no new wars, and a leader who fought for We The People.
So why is he so hated?
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
~ The Apostle Paul to the Church at Ephesus, 6:12
And while Paul is plainly telling us who the enemy is, here is where Christians are fiercely and immovably divided. For some, Trump is God's anointed leader. For others, Trump is Satan's leader of choice. How can believers, endowed with the gifts and insights of the Holy Spirit, be so heels-dug-in divided?
As I grapple with this phenomenon, you can read more of my thoughts in this recent piece: Can Believers Be Divided in Their Beliefs About Donald Trump? The double use of "belief" was intentional.
Nights before the shooting, I had "extended, robust fellowship" with a friend who firmly believes Christians should not engage with culture and politics. I genuinely could not disagree more. His interpretation of the Book of Revelation landed him on two main points; points which conveniently abdicate him from having any responsibility to fight for his Kingdom or his country.
First, America is absent in his prophetic end-times timeline. And second, the church is absent as well.
In his biblical worldview, the battle is not between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil. Therefore, believers should not trouble themselves by trying to stave off wickedness, restrain evil, or inject the leaven of the Kingdom into the social landscape.
If true, why would Paul, arguably the most politically active apostle, share with us the nature of the battle every one of us is in? And it's not a grudge match between personalities, policies, principles, or parties. It is a battle against unseen powers of evil and rulers of wickedness in high places. It is a battle against principalities
Fight! Fight! Fight!
The Great Awakening and The Revolutionary War preachers would know nothing of my friend's brand of faith. While Wesley, Edwards, and Whitfield are indelibly etched in the Christian ethos of great pulpiteers, the lesser-known clergy of the colonies were just as effective at garnering faith and action among the people.
Some clergy, known as the Black Robe Regiment, would finish preaching their Sunday sermon, unbutton their vestments, pick up their musket, and head to the battlefield to fight in the war. Imagine if our pastors today preached the Bible on Sunday and then debated ethics in the State Senate during the week.
Too many of today's churches treat revival solely as a private and personal endeavor. By not charging believers to spread their salt and shine their light into every corner of the public marketplace, the church risks becoming something akin to a biosphere experiment: Wonderful to spend time in but wholly insulated and detached from life here on earth.
The church should be the filling station. The place where we come to be restored, trained, and well-supplied for the next incursion God calls us to. But all too often, we stash our supplies safely under the seat and leave the arena with little to offer the dying world but a forgettable cup of coffee.
Clergyman John Witherspoon (1723 - 1794), a signer of the Declaration of Independence and President of Princeton College, was a member of the Continental Congress and served on over 100 Congressional Committees. He was an American Revolutionary patriot, and his emphasis on Biblical principles impacting government was tremendously felt in the Colonies during the foundation of America.
Witherspoon stated:
It is in the man of piety and inward principle, that we may expect to find the uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and the invincible soldier. God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.
I imagine a sermon from today's pulpits that references piety with patriotism, principles with citizenship, and the inseparable nature of religion from civil liberty. It is all very plain and holistically simple when read through the pages of our Founders. But in today's artificial climate of social justice, microaggressions, and perceived offense, preachers are playing Operation in the pulpit, being overly cautious of nicking a trip wire, setting off the alarms, and losing the game.
It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.
~ George Whitefield
Trump is not Jonathan Edwards and Biden is not King George, but the obvious parallels of the battle for America's soul are evident. And while Christ is her only answer, our first charge given in The Garden remains active today. The game plan has not changed: "Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it.”
The word here for subdue means; to subject, force, keep under, make subservient, and dominate. And when we abdicate these God-given responsibilities, confusion, chaos, and calamity ensues. In other words, we are charged to, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.
~ Charles Finney
