On September 10, I attended and participated in the “‘Get Louder’ Faith Summit: Fighting for the Soul of the Nation” at Liberty University with Mike Huckabee, Eric Metaxas, Mark David Hall, Jay Reynolds, Tom Ascol, Rod Martin, Ralph Reed, Virgil Walker, Aubrey Shines, Charlie Kirk, former U.S. Rep. Dave Brat, Kim Klacik, Jenna Ellis, Kathy Barnette, and many others.
The event was a great success because it ticked off a lot of people, in particular Messiah College historian John Fea who live-tweeted much of the event. Then there was this from Right Wing Watch:
Liberty University’s Falkirk Center held “Get Louder,” a day-long “faith summit” Thursday that included Christian Reconstructionist Gary DeMar among its speakers. DeMar’s presence at “Get Louder” reflects the widespread influence of Christian Reconstructionism and contemporary religious-right leaders’ embrace of Christian nationalism.
RWW was nice enough to include a screen shot from the panel discussion I participated in that was led by Eric Metaxas.
Gary DeMar on Panel Discussion at Faith Summit
with Eric Metaxas, Mark David Hall, and Jay Reynolds
If it were only so that the principles of Christian Reconstruction were influentical, except the “Christian nationalism” dig since I don’t know a single person who ever describes Christian involvement in every area of life in such a way. The kingdom of God is not defined by national borders. The United States is not the kingdom of God, but it is bound by God’s law as it applies to the civil magistrate. This is true for all nations.
**Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance** (Psalm 33:12).
The goal of Christian involvement in the civil sphere is to limit the power and authority of civil magistrates. Critics of Christian involvement want to empower the State to dictate and enforce a Secular Nationalism, something we are seeing in states like California, New York, and elsewhere.
For example, in addition to other secular initiatives, California’s legislature passed SB 145, a bill that is being sold as a way to give “judges discretion in cases of voluntary anal and oral sex between a teenager age 14 and 17 and an adult no more than 10 years older.” How many of you remember that a seemingly anti-abortion law was proposed and signed by then Governor Ronald Reagan that included an exception for the “mental health of the mother.”
This was a huge loophole that remains with us today. All a woman had to do to get a legal abortion was declare that going through with the pregnancy would result in her diminished mental health. New York, New Jersey, and Virginia have passed pro-abortion legislation that permits a woman to kill her unborn baby up until birth and in some cases even after.
Men who identify as women are beginning to dominate women’s sports. Try to refuse to make a cake for a same-sex wedding or photograph a same-sex wedding. Heavy fines will greet you with full force. The Secular Nationalists are against freedom of expression and deny simple biology and anatomy, and if you don’t agree with their insanity, you are a bigot, and this coming from those who are all about science.
Consider how the state of California has treated churches by threatening them with massive fines and legal expenses if they open their churches. Pastor John MacArthur is standing up to Secular Nationalism.
The participants at the Summit aren’t looking to swap power and control with those now ruling and ruining our nation. We aren’t seeking power and authority over other people. Personally, I am not working to take over public education and impose my religious beliefs of other people’s children. (That’s what Secular Nationalists are doing.) I want it out of the hands of civil governors and the bureaucrats.
Since the unborn child is a human being, and human beings are persons, therefore, killing a human being is murder. It’s no wonder that the unborn baby must be redefined like black people and Jews were redefined. Modern-day Secular Nationalists have a long history where laws are based on an established elite that redefines everything in terms of human autonomy. In fact, if the Bible had been followed instead of some naturalistic premise based on Aristotelianism in the West where some people are by nature slaves, there never would have been slavery since it’s a form of “manstealing” (Ex. 21:16).
One of my special interests is eschatology. The Summit hardly if ever mentioned that we are living in the “end times” or the “last days. The irony is that the event was held in a building built with Left Behind money. The thing of it is Tim LaHaye would have agreed with nearly everything said at the Summit, although he might not have been thrilled that I was asked to be a participant since I wrote the book Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction, critical of the Left Behind theology.
The Room Where the Faith Summit was Held
The pressure secularists are putting on Christians is forcing them to pick sides. We are seeing some bad reasoning from Christians who should know better. Some are calling on Christians to vote for Joe Biden and the Democrats, even though it is the Party of wholesale abortion, failed economic policies, sanctioning same-sex everything that will be forced on their children and grandchildren.
What they are voting for is a form of Secular Nationalism.