Trump Exploits Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Donald Trump\u2014the former U.S. president and now Republican nominee for the presidential election in November\u2014spoke at a political rally in West Palm Beach,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2024\/07\/trump-exploits-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Exploits Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Donald Trump\u2014the former U.S. president and now Republican nominee for the presidential election in November\u2014spoke at a political rally in West Palm Beach,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2024\/07\/trump-exploits-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kermit Zarley Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kermit.zarley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-27T09:45:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-28T20:20:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/347\/2021\/09\/FrontCover.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kermit Zarley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kermit Zarley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2024\/07\/trump-exploits-christians\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2024\/07\/trump-exploits-christians\/\",\"name\":\"Trump Exploits Christians\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-27T09:45:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-28T20:20:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/#\/schema\/person\/8393f2e63455a2915f7ca277bf5a5d02\"},\"description\":\"Donald Trump\u2014the former U.S. president and now Republican nominee for the presidential election in November\u2014spoke at a political rally in West Palm Beach,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2024\/07\/trump-exploits-christians\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2024\/07\/trump-exploits-christians\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2024\/07\/trump-exploits-christians\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trump Exploits Christians\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/\",\"name\":\"Kermit Zarley Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/#\/schema\/person\/8393f2e63455a2915f7ca277bf5a5d02\",\"name\":\"Kermit Zarley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bf8e1a5dcb179e76f0c39d3d75e849bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bf8e1a5dcb179e76f0c39d3d75e849bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kermit Zarley\"},\"description\":\"Born & reared in Seattle, WA., Kermit lived 38 years in metro Houston, now in Scottsdale, AZ. 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{"id":19908,"date":"2024-07-27T02:45:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-27T09:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/?p=19908"},"modified":"2024-07-28T13:20:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T20:20:01","slug":"trump-exploits-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2024\/07\/trump-exploits-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Exploits Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>Donald Trump\u2014the former U.S. president and now Republican nominee for the presidential election in November\u2014spoke at a political rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Friday in which he told Christians to vote for him so he could become a lifetime dictator by overthrowing the U.S. Constitution. The rally was conducted by Turning Point Action, a politically, right-wing, conservative group founded by billionaire Charley Kirk that supposedly was attended by many professing Christians.<\/p>\n

Trump hammered his constant lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him due to voter fraud and then said, \u201cChristians, get out and vote. Just this time. You won\u2019t have to do it anymore,\u201d insinuating that he will overcome the stipulation in the U.S. Constitution which limits presidents to two terms.<\/p>\n

Trump continued saying to the Christians, \u201cFour more years. You know what? It\u2019ll be fixed. It\u2019ll be fine. You won\u2019t have to vote anymore my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians. You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don\u2019t have to vote again. We\u2019ll have it fixed so good, you\u2019re not gonna have to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

By \u201cfixed\u201d he meant he will get the Constitutional two-term limit abolished. How? Trump never gives details. He talks to people like he expects them to believe him whatever he says without having to prove it or support it with facts. In my opinion, that Trump habit, which is his strategy, is an insult to human intelligence. Some people are suggesting Trump will get it done by installing more conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court as he did during his first term. And his saying, \u201cyou\u2019re not gonna have to vote,\u201d meant there would be no more voting because he will be a lifetime dictator.<\/p>\n

Remember Trump\u2019s main shtick when he campaigned for the U.S. presidency in 2016? He said of the immigration problem on our porous southern border, \u201cI\u2019ll build a wall and Mexico will pay for it.\u201d That was his constant refrain. Yet he would never say how he would make Mexico pay for that very expensive, 2,000-mile wall even when the media would ask him about that.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump has made much of his philosophy known about how to influence people. He told it to Billy Bush, that guy who was with him on the Access Hollywood tape when he bragged about grabbing women\u2019s genitals without their approval. On another occasion he said about lying, \u201cBilly, look, you just tell them and they believe it. That\u2019s it; you just tell them and they believe. They just do.\u201d I\u2019ve got that quote on p. 14 of my book, Bible Predicts Trump Fall<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

People are fools to vote for Donald Trump for president. And Christians doing so makes them even more foolish because they should have access to the wisdom of God, which would steer them away from this lying charlatan. But then, are these people who say they are Christians genuinely so? People show they are true believers in Jesus, not by simply making a profession about it or attending church, but by honoring the teachings of Jesus by trying to follow him.<\/p>\n

When it came to lying, Jesus didn\u2019t mince any words about that when he once said to his interlocutors, \u201cYou are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father\u2019s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according his nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies\u201d (John 8.44).<\/p>\n

Donald Trump is biggest liar I have seen in my lifetime. My book critiquing him consists of 200 posts on my Kermit Zarley Blog during his presidential campaign in 2016 and his four-year presidency, thus mid-2015 to January 2021. I did it to warn people of this lying conman because I kept saying he was a threat to our democracy. Every day since then that becomes more and more apparent. I posted on my blog on May 20, 2016, \u201cI think Donald Trump is a big bag of hot air ready to blow up like the Hindenburg blimp if he becomes U.S. president.\u201d On June 1, 2016, I posted, \u201cI think he\u2019ll bring America down, not Make America Great Again.\u201d And on July 21, 2018, posted, \u201cI think Trumpgate will make Watergate look like a Sunday school picnic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man was impeached by the House twice, which had never happened before, and he has been indicted four times, two federal and two state, being charged with almost a 100 crimes. Last year, an elite group of authors who have written biographies of U.S. presidents unanimously declared Donald Trump \u201cthe worst president in U.S. history.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, Donald Trump has some characteristics similar to the final antichrist prophesied in the Bible. The two most prominent are his lawlessness and lying. The apostle Paul writes in his second epistle to the Christians at Thessaloniki about these two features of the Antichrist, whom he calls \u201cthe lawless one.\u201d (It seems Christians had not created the term \u201cantichrist\u201d until after the time of the apostle Paul\u2019s writings as indicated in the later letters 1 & 2 John, where the term \u201cantichrist(s)\u201d appears 5x and nowhere else in the Bible.)<\/p>\n

Paul predicts concerning Jesus\u2019 second coming, \u201cLet no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction\u201d (2 Thessalonians 2.3 NRSV). Paul says people will be deceived by this Antichrist \u201cbecause they refused to love the truth and so be saved\u201d (v. 10). They will \u201cbelieve what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned\u201d (vv. 11-12).<\/p>\n

For me, Donald Trump has some characteristics that make him a forerunner of the final Antichrist. Perhaps the main one is his power to deceive people to believe lies.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"