THE DYING LITTLE GIRL AND THE DYING ATHEIST

   Part of that title may not be completely true.  Sasha Taunton is a teenager and doing well I found out.  However, since she has been HIV positive since birth you can see why I called her a dying little girl.  Most HIV positive people do not have a long life expectancy.  The other half of the title was true five years ago.  Christopher Hitchens, a world famous atheist, died in December 2011 after spending hours talking with Sasha.  He is, of course, no longer dying.  But we are a little ahead of the story.
   Let us travel in time to around 330 B.C. and watch the armies of Alexander (The Great) conquer the middle east and much of the Mediterranean world.  You may recall that this resulted in Greek culture and language being imposed on all the conquered countries.  This would prepare the way for the spread of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The common language of that entire part of the world in the first century A.D. was the Koine (the 'e' is a long 'a') Greek.  The books that make up our New Testament were written in this language and one of the three inscriptions on the Cross of Christ was in this language.  For the purposes of this true story we are interested in two important words that come to us from that language: atheist and apologetic(s).
   The first of those words is formed from the word for God (theos) combined with the Greek letter alpha (a) which indicates "no".  The second word (apologetic) is derived from "apologia" which means to "defend".  It did not originally mean "I'm sorry".  Christians use the word to mean "defending the truth".  An "apologist" is a Christian speaker who shows the reasonableness of believing in a Personal, Infinite God and in the claims of Christ, especially His resurrection from the dead.  We will need both of those words to tell this story.  Now, back to Sasha and Christopher.
   Larry Taunton is founder of Fixed Point Foundation, a Christian apologetic ministry which, among other things, sponsors debates between well-known atheists and Christian speakers.  Larry and his wife (whose name I wish I knew but could not find) found Sasha while on a missions trip to Russia in 2008.  Sasha, as we previously mentioned, was born HIV positive.  She was abandoned at birth and passed through three orphanages.  She prayed for God to send her a family.  He heard her cry.  When the Tauntons found her she was in an orphanage that had for a "bathroom" a hole in the ground -- with no paper!  Since adopting Sasha the Tauntons have founded Sasha's Hope to send help to orphans like her around the world.
   When Larry invited the famed atheist Christopher Hitchens to debate a Christian apologist on the Fixed Point Foundation television broadcast it resulted in Hitchens becoming friends with the Tauntons, especially Sasha, and spending much time with them.  This was Hitchens first real contact with Evangelical Christians and he found them to be refreshingly different from the merely nominal "Christianity" he had grown up with in England.  In his recent book, The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World's Most Notorious Atheist, Larry Taunton tells in detail how he discussed with Christopher the possibility of becoming a Christian.  If you know anything about Hitchens' blasphemous hatred of anything to do with God and Christianity you see how radical it was for him to even discuss conversion.  Larry is emphatic that, to the best of his knowledge, Hitchens never did cross over to Christ.  Hitchens was dying of esophageal cancer.
   He once actually asked Larry, "Why do you think I do not convert?"  Larry answered, "You've created a global reputation as an atheist.  Your fortune, your reputation is based on it.  I can't imagine how hard it would be to admit you were wrong.  You created a prison for yourself."
   Sasha's impact on Hitchens was huge.  He was visibly moved by the love and faith of this little girl.  Brilliant apologists could refute him in debates but Sasha won his heart.  We can only hope that he crossed over to Christ before dying and escaped his own prison.  Larry said, "At the end of the day, the most powerful apologetic is love". 
   I am confident that you will remember this the next time you are tempted to argue someone to Christ.  Instead, be another Sasha.
  
     

STATEMENTS YOU ARE NOT LIKELY TO HEAR

"I now believe that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble."  (Donald Trump)


"My statement about 'New York values' was utterly thoughtless.  It could cost me the Presidency."  (Ted Cruz)


"It's about time I admitted my arrogance and dishonesty and trust the American people to forgive me."  (Hillary Clinton)


"Abraham Lincoln was right when he condemned people who want to get their bread from the sweat of other people's faces."  (Bernie Sanders)


"The text for my message today is 'Unless you repent you will all likewise perish' ."  (Joel Osteen)


"Our greatest problem as African-Americans is not white people.  It is having babies outside of marriage.   Three fourths of black children are growing up without fathers to guide, discipline and love them.  That is our problem."  (Al Sharpton)


"I have accepted an invitation to speak at the world congress of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians.  I have spent forty years telling these brothers in Christ what they are doing wrong.  Now I want to encourage them and tell them what they are doing right."  (John MacArthur)


"I have repented of the sin of turning the sacred event of being filled with the Holy Spirit into television entertainment and a means of making myself rich."  (Benny Hinn)


"God may never heal you.  Instead He may say to you 'My grace is sufficient for you'."  (Richard Roberts son of Oral Roberts)


"I should have read more of John Wesley and less of John Calvin."  (R.C. Sproul)


"My policies have been nothing less than sin against the Most High God.  Pray that He will forgive me."  (Barak Obama)


"I am going to be more honest about the enormity of evidence against my belief in 'young-earth-flood-geology' and be much more charitable toward Christians who disagree with me."  (Ken Hamm)


"It is time to admit that Christians like William Lane Craig have shown the fallacies in my atheistic beliefs.  I may be an agnostic but atheism is clearly untenable."  (Richard Dawkins)


"I am going to quit writing blogs."  (R.D. Enzor)

ONLY SEVENTY-SEVEN PAGES

"Fear the Lord . . . seek the Lord . . . whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days . . . turn from evil and do good . . . ."  Ps. 34:9-14


". . . all who hate me love death."  Prov. 8:36


     Only 77 pages separate those two Scriptures but they are the widest possible distance apart.  To be true to context the Proverbs passage is a personification of wisdom but, since all true wisdom is from the Living God Himself, the passage ultimately speaks of Him.  Lately I have thought almost daily that this Proverbs passage, more than any other, describes where America has come in the last half century.  One of the best phrases from the writings of the late Francis Schaeffer was "the death wish of modern humanism".   We are beholding the love of death, and hatred of God, to a degree unknown in the history of the United States.


     By the grace of God I, my wife Susan and our family are living the Psalm 34 passage.  We are loving life and seeing good days in the midst of a culture that is loving death and seeing worse and worse days.  To love life has meant for me to experience the life that is truly life in Christ and as a gigantic bonus to have had a life also full of rich sensory experiences.  From childhood I was privileged to hear the Word of God from many anointed messengers; to hear both great sacred music and the great classics; to be surrounded by loving and God-fearing people; of having now a place of service and fellowship in a loving church; and . . . I could go on and on.  All that would have been more than anyone could ask but a merciful Heavenly Father poured on top of all that the rich sensory experiences of the woods and fields; of hunting trips; of fall beauty and winter's white splendor; of the joy of maple sugar making in many springs; of the delightful foods from the kitchens of my mother, grandmothers, mother-in-law, and wife; the pleasures of owning rare and classic firearms; of loading ammunition and target shooting; and . . . once again I could go on indefinitely.


     In contrast to all this is the spectacle of millions of Americans hating the life that is truly life and, somehow, loving death.  Consider the love of death in the physical realm.  Since at least the late sixties popular culture has, like the ancient Roman Empire, had an increasing obsession with death as a  perverse form of entertainment.  This is true in both music and cinema.  Loving death is a mark of the dietary habits of millions.  They have all the science that tells them what a life extending diet consists of but they choose a diet of death.  Thus, obesity is at epidemic proportions as are diabetes, cancer and coronary problems.  (We are not speaking here of people with hereditary conditions totally beyond their control.)   Many continue to text and drive and kill themselves and their neighbors.  Many prefer sitting and riding over walking and exercising.  These are areas where many professed believers in Christ are also loving death.  This love of physical death tends to enlarge itself and spread in surprising ways.  With fewer and fewer trying to maintain their health, and more and more of them believing that "health care should be paid for by taxing 'the rich' ", how will the collapse of the health care system be avoided?


     Consider also the rampant dishonoring of the human body.  From pornography to immodesty; from disfigurement to non-Christian funeral and burial practices; from slovenly dress to bizarre fashions; all of these speak of the death of the dignity of people who no longer believe they are created in the Image of God.  You will often hear the phrase "quality of life" but that is a misleading phrase that covers a multitude of lies; notably the lie that all pain is bad and should be avoided at all costs.


     Now go beyond the purely physical to other realms of life and witness the love of death.  Behold in disbelief the forms of death that are now loved: there is no final, absolute standard of judging what is right or wrong; right and wrong are determined by majority vote;  all forms of sexual pleasures are alright "between consenting adults"; marriage can be defined in "any way we choose"; the "fetus" is not a human being; if someone "feels like" they are the opposite sex then they really are the opposite sex and the rest of us should be forced by law to recognize it; the government can borrow and spend trillions without the most dire consequences; all religions are equal; and (this one takes the prize) this generation is more moral than past generations.  Did you notice how the love of death is the love of the totally irrational?


    This love of the irrational has not remained within college class rooms.  The death flowing from these ideas is very real.  There is the death of marriages; the death of family life; the death of safety in schools, homes and streets; the death of childhood and innocence; the death of decency and wholesomeness; the death of respect and civil language; the death of political and economic stability;  the death of commitment to one's spouse, children, church, and to God Himself.


     We will hear more and more the question "can Christians work and pray enough to save this country?"  A good question indeed but it is not the basic question.  "Can we work and pray enough to see millions turn from death to the Lord Jesus who is THE LIFE?"  The issue before us is essentially the same as when a young Billy Graham held his first large evangelistic crusade in 1949 in Los Angeles.  America still had a Christian consensus and most of the forms of death that I have outlined here were nonexistent.  But there were still millions of Americans who desperately needed to be made right with God through the finished work of Christ.  They also needed the moral certainty of knowing that God had not been silent.  They needed the Word.  People are the same and the need is the same.  Escape from death in ALL its forms is a consequence of turning to Christ and living under His Lordship.  We will never have the fruit until we have the root.


    


    


    


    
  
    

THIS DESERVES BETTER

     You may never have used or even read the King James Version of the Bible.  Or, you may have grown up in one of the independent Baptist churches that uses only the KJV.  You may, like me, have used it early in life but then moved on to a new translation.  It is called "The Authorized Version of 1611" but the KJV we grew up with is actually the third one and dates from the mid 1700's.  I once had a reprint of the original 1611 and the spelling was so different that it was barely readable.  It was THE Bible of English speaking people for at least 350 years.  It slowly fell out of use for two reasons:  1) archaic words (out of date words like 'kine' for cattle); and 2) discovery of much older and therefore more accurate manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament.
     However, we should not minimize the fact that we have suffered a great loss in no longer having a common Bible.  But that is the price we have paid for better understand and accuracy.  I sympathize with those who miss the KJV.  I still quote from it frequently because I memorized seven entire books of the Bible from it and many other passages before my 18th birthday.  I do not sympathize with those who claim that the late manuscripts, from which the KJV was translated, were more accurate.  Some "KJV only" people, when you examine their beliefs closely, do not actually believe in the inspiration of Scripture.  They believe in the inspiration of the KJV.  There is a difference and it is extremely sad.
     Some of you have come to this blog because you saw a photo I posted on Facebook and you are wondering what it has to do with the KJV of the Bible.  That group of men, photographed in the spring of 1967, had just completed over ten years of work producing, what I strongly believe to be, the most useful edition of the KJV ever printed.  It was called The New Scofield Reference Bible.  It is out of print now and there is something called the Scofield III in its place.  I have never examined Scofield III so I cannot comment on it.
     Before I go further I must recognize that some readers of my blogs may be from church backgrounds where they have heard only negative things about the original Scofield Reference Bible of 1909/1917.  I have defended that edition of the KJV (in general, not in all its details) in an earlier blog and I am not returning to that issue.  I believe I can show that whatever church background someone may have been from in 1967 (or now) the New Scofield had (and still has) much to offer.
     Now, who are the men in that photo, the men who revised the original Scofield Reference Bible and who produced what I believe to be the best form in which the KJV ever appeared?  Back row left was (I believe) a representative of Oxford University Press, the publishers.  Second from left was Frank E. Gaebelein who, like others in this group, was among the cream of biblical scholarship in the mid 20th century.  He went on to be editor in chief of the monumental 12 volume Expositors Bible Commentary which I consider to be the very best.  Third from left was Clarence Mason from Philadelphia College of Bible.  He was a good man but I had an unpleasant experience with him when I was a senior at Toccoa Falls Academy and I would rather relate that to you in person if you are interested.
     Fourth from left was John Walvoord the president of Dallas Theological Seminary.  Next man was (I believe) Allan Mac Rae of Faith Theological Seminary.  And on the far right of the back row was William Culbertson, president of Moody Bible Institute.  I listened to him in many chapel services.  Front row left was Wilbur M. Smith of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and another of the cream of biblical scholarship of the mid 20th century.  Second from left was (I believe) E. Schuyler English, the chairman of the group.  Third from left was Charles Feinberg of Talbot Theological Seminary.  Finally, on the far right of the front row was Alva J. Mc Clain the first dean of Ashland (Ohio) Seminary in 1930 and the founder of Grace Seminary (and later college) in 1937. 
    You may be thinking at this point that I am urging appreciation for the Bible this group produced because of the footnotes they placed throughout the Bible.  That is not at all my main reason.  Those footnotes are very much an improvement over the original Scofield footnotes and are probably the most thoughtful presentation of what is called the Premillenial, Dispensational view of Scripture.  They are also especially good on the first chapter of Genesis in pointing out the several meanings of the word "day" and cautioning against using Genesis to calculate the age of the earth.  Their footnotes, however, lean further toward Calvinism and toward cessationism regarding some gifts of the Holy Spirit than I would.
     Even though I believe the footnotes are generally quite helpful I most appreciate this Bible for how the text of the KJV was made more understandable but still preserved.  If you read the New Scofield Reference Bible of 1967 (and I would buy one on Ebay if I were you) you will see now and then a word in brackets.  That means that the committee has 1) updated an archaic (out of date) word; or 2) corrected a badly translated word.  The brackets indicate the word the committee substituted and the original KJV word is given in the margin.  Because of this, people who wanted to keep the KJV should have flocked to the NSRB instead of going to something that came along later called "The New King James Version".   It is not the KJV at all and the title is misleading.
     Just as I urge an appreciation for the original KJV and how it served the English speaking people for many years, so I have here urged an appreciation for the most helpful edition of the KJV.  The New Scofield Reference Bible of 1967 does indeed deserve better.
    
    

JOIN ME BY THE FIRE

     Before some of you were born, or at least too young to remember, was the Blizzard of '78.  Two massive fronts came together early on a Thursday morning in January and shut down the entire Midwestern United States for at least two days.  As the wind howled and the standing seam roof on our house sounded like it might let go at any time (but never did) I looked at the warm glow of the fire in our beautiful, white Copper Clad wood burning cook stove.  I was struck by the sobering realization that if the electricity went off, that stove was all that stood between my family and freezing to death.  At that time we had owned it for less than seven years and it was now at the third house we had lived in during that time.  I had acquired it well before the "wood burning fad" of the late 1970's had set in -- another evidence that the Grace of God had led Susan and I in many choices through the years.
     Why did I acquire it?  I had the most wonderful memories of days when I, as a twelve year old, had helped Susan's dad husk corn on his farm on chilly fall days.  Susan's brothers were good friends of mine and I spent a fair amount of time on their farm and hunting with them.  On those corn husking days we could come in for the noon meal (called "dinner" by farm folks) and Susan's mom would have the most wonderful smells of delicious food cooking on a small, white wood burning cook stove in their dining room.  They did not have that stove out of necessity.  They had an electric range in the kitchen.  They just appreciated the truly finer things of life.  And besides, it heated the house in cool weather and saved that expense.  They also had a wood burning cook stove (not as nice in appearance) in a small building just behind their home called the "summer kitchen".  Where, as you guessed, food could be prepared or canned in hot weather and keep the heat out of the house. 
     This was the origin of one of President Harry Truman's sayings:  "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".  Not only did I have fond memories of the smells of food cooking on those stoves but I often recalled coming in from work or hunting in the evening, pulling up a chair, and putting cold stocking feet on the open oven door.  As the tea kettle softly sang I drifted into dreamland.  That, my friend, is life at its best.  With all those memories still fresh sixteen years later, I mentioned to my mother that I was looking for a nice cook stove.  She, in turn, mentioned it to a friend of hers and that friend said, "My dad still has the stove he bought for mom around 40 years ago".  That was not unusual.  What was unusual was that the stove had been kept in excellent condition.  Many families, when they obtained a gas or electric stove, moved the cook stove to a barn or shed and let it rust.  These folks had moved it to a nice dry room behind their kitchen and there it sat for 22 years until I bought it one spring day in 1971 for $65.  Two of my students from MCS helped me move it. 
     At that time we lived on a farm on Woodville Road southeast of Mansfield.  There was a nice room on one end of a machinery shed with a concrete floor.   Even though Susan was only about two months away from having our first child she helped me clean and fix up that room and make it into a summer kitchen.  She put curtains on the windows, we got a table and chairs, and brought in our 'new' Copper Clad' stove.  My friend Charlie Atkins would come in the evenings and the two of us would sit and talk by the warm glow of that stove.  He told me that his father had said, "Copper Clad stoves are the best".  Next year we moved over onto a farm on Hanley Road and placed the stove on a porch off the kitchen.  Two years later we remodeled the kitchen and moved the Copper Clad into the kitchen.  It warmed us during the record breaking cold of the winter of '76-'77.  In the five years since we had bought the Copper Clad all three of our children were born.  In August of '77 we moved into the first home of our own here in Knox County and the Copper Clad found a place in the dining room.  There was a sound, safe brick chimney to connect the stove with. There it not only warmed us during that terrible blizzard of '78 but continued to warm us and cook hundreds of meals until the turn of this century.  More about that in a moment
     After one year at our own home God enable us to build an addition on the back.  We now needed another stove to go on the opposite end of the house. We built the safest chimney possible with cement block and clay tile liner. A new company had begun in Vermont (Vermont Castings) and the founder Duncan Symns  had designed a stove that was soon to make all other wood burning heating (not cooking) stoves inferior and/or obsolete.  That was the legendary Vermont Castings Defiant, the first all cast iron, air tight, stove ever made in America.  It had the long flame path and all the features to make it twice as efficient (not to mention more attractive) as previous stoves.  We bought one for our new addition and used it until we moved two years ago.  Our new home (next door) has the smaller version called the Vermont Castings Vigilant.  We sometimes miss having a cook stove.  Currently (2022) Vermont Castings has changed hands so many times that anyone looking for a good stove should get one of their older stoves that has been kept in good condition by a pevious owner.
   In the summer of '78, after the big blizzard, my parents wanted a cook stove like ours to go with their new Vermont Castings Defiant.  I knew an older couple in Wayne County who had a beautiful Home Comfort cook stove.  In their day the Home Comfort stoves were even more expensive than Copper Clad and had more 'bells and whistles'.  This lady's husband had just passed away and she sold me the Home Comfort which I bought for my parents.  About 15 years ago they gave it back to me and my daughter and her husband inherited the Copper Clad.  They moved into a new home last year and, with no place for the Copper Clad, they left it with me.  It is stored in a nice, dry place.  My youngest son Clayton has what was once his grandparents' Home Comfort Stove. 
     For the first time in many years of using wood burning stoves our insurance company is charging a 'penalty' of around $160 extra on homeowners insurance for having one.  I understand why.  Many homes have been burned because of improper stove installation or inferior chimneys.  Our chimney is the Chim-Tek, which is by far and away the safest chimney design, materials and construction to be had.  I would not think of having any other type or kind of chimney. With such a safe chimney one must then be sure that there is a safe hearth on which to place the stove and that the stove is far enough away from anything combustible.

   Vermont Castings stoves have thermostatically controlled dampers to keep them from overheating.  There are no 100% guarantees against having a fire in a home but I believe our installation comes the closest.  I have installed and used stoves for 51 years with no incident at all and with perfect comfort and safety. Once, however, on an early spring day I put the Definant stove in the long flame path mode and we went away for awhile. There was an air inversion in the chimney because of the spring weather and much smoke came back in the house. The walls had to be washed but there was no danger otherwise. In "milder" cool weather I now always leave the stove in the "updraft" position with the thermostat set accordingly.

     Additional safety measures involve using only sound, dry hardwoods as fuel and having a magnetic thermostat on the stove.  Do not burn too "cool". Below 300 degrees will tend to cause creosote buildup in the chimney; a great fire risk.  Much over 400 is too hot for safety.  If ashes are removed when hot they must go into a tight metal container and placed outside the house, otherwise one has to wait several days after a fire is out to remove them.  Stoves that burn only on "updraft", or connecting a stove to closely to the chimney, both tend to create chimney fires because the flames are directly entering the chimney.  This is another reason Vermont Castings Stoves are the best and safest.  When the temperature on the stove thermometer goes over 300 we turn it on "side (or long) draft".  Stoves must be watched and observed carefully to use them safely and efficiently. 
     I have sought in this blog to give some practical help.  But, what about the references to fire in the Bible?  The writer of the letter to the Hebrews said our God is a consuming fire.  Just like physical fire that works both ways.  Fire can warm, comfort, nourish and preserve our lives.  When foolishly or wickedly misused it can destroy our property and our lives.  My relationship to the Living God -- The Consuming Fire -- is my life, my comfort, my nourishment, my all in all.  But if someone foolishly rebels against Him, mocks Him, or wages war against Him, that person will, in that word from John 3:16, perish.  The books of Daniel and Revelation speak of a river of fire flowing out from the throne of God and of a sea of glass shot through with fire before the throne of God.
      You, and I, are going to one of two places for eternity.  Both of them are places where there is 'fire'.  The One Who is called 'a consuming fire' has called me to be His own and I will be nourished, sustained, and thrilled in His Presence for ever and ever.  The delightful fires in these stoves of ours all these years are a foretaste of that.  C.S. Lewis said that the person who spends their life without ever sincerely saying, "Thy will be done", will someday hear the Voice that will say, "Very well, your will be done.  You have not wanted my Presence; now you may have your choice and be shut out forever".   Jesus Himself called that destiny "eternal fire". 

WILL D.J.T BE NUMBER FOUR?

     Even though all the facts point to him being a degenerate demagogue, several high profile Christian leaders have endorsed Donald J. Trump.  A significant percentage of self identified Christian voters support him.  But a growing number of Christians agree with my opening description of Trump.  So, a major Christian magazine had an editorial pleading for believers to not allow Trump to divide the Body of Christ.  Somehow, at this point, I smell the activity of that "ancient serpent, the devil and Satan".   The question is:  how many more deep fractures can the Body of Christ in this country endure?   If Trump becomes the Enemy's tool to create another deep division it will be the fourth in my lifetime. 
     I gave much thought to what should be considered the first division.  Many would say it was the liberal/fundamentalist conflict in the first third of the twentieth century.  But this was essentially a division of believers from unbelievers.  Even though the word 'fundamentalist' eventually became associated with obscurantism and love of conflict, the men who wrote "The Fundamentals" (1910) were sober, rational and gracious individuals.  Limiting this to my lifetime I say the first major division was the Fundamentalist/Evangelical division of the late 1950's.  The Fundamentalists said:  "Even though you are a brother/sister in Christ, if you associate with people who may be theological liberals, I will not associate with you".  This was something like the accusation against Jesus that "he eats and drinks with sinners".  This division resulted in Fundamentalist leaders calling Billy Graham "the forerunner of the antichrist".  This division still runs very deep.
     The second division began with the publication of "The Genesis Flood" in 1961.  Those believing in "young earth/flood geology" divided from believers who take Genesis as history but seek to interpret it consistently with all branches of scientific discovery.  This division also runs very deep but the hostility is largely found in the first group whereas the second group says, "let's discuss these things and not hurl accusations at each other".
     The third major division of believers in my lifetime came about very gradually but was clearly visible by the end of the 1980's.  It continues unabated today.   It is not well understood by either side.  It is called by various names:  contemporary music; praise music; etc.  Some say it is only about the music and not the words.  But others point out the strong objection many have to the overuse of repetition.  This is usually a division between older and younger believers.  The same folks who consider themselves more Fundamentalist than Evangelical, and "young earth/flood geology", are usually the ones who "use only hymnals", and eschew any hint of rock beat in music.  Many wise believers are working to heal this division by attempting some blend of music in their churches.  But doing this successfully requires a knowledge of both music and Christian music history that few have. 
     Now, will Donald J. Trump become a fourth major and lasting division between believers?  If he does we will see again how utterly cunning the Enemy really is.  The reader of this blog can probably detect my position on each of the first three historical divisions just described.  I have ministered to individuals and churches on both sides of those divisions.  I know where each side is coming from because I was once on "the other side" of each of those.  I believe the Holy Spirit led me to change and, with His help, become more gracious.  But widespread Christian endorsement of someone like Trump may be unprecedented in American Christianity.   It is evidence that this country is under a judgment of God.  We call it 'Judicial Blindness'.  My goal:  do not make it too hard for those fellow believers, who are absolutely wrong headed in this matter, to repent.  I have repented of more than a few attitudes and remember with gratitude those who did not make my change of mind too difficult.
    

A QUIZ SHOW AND A PREDICTION

     "And now will contestant number three tell us a little about herself."  "I'm married to my wonderful husband _____.  We've been together ten years and been married four and a half years."  I switched to another station before I almost vomited.  So am I really old fashioned and puritanical?  It would be more accurate to say that I cannot bear the pain of watching people destroy themselves and destroy this country.  If there are no moral absolutes about marriage and sexual behavior then it can never be said that anything is absolutely wrong.  It can only be said that something is distasteful or repugnant or unpleasant or whatever.  But it cannot be said that something is finally and absolutely wrong because there is no recognition of any moral Law!  And it has all happened within my lifetime. 
     We now have two cultures; two societies.  One of them recognizes absolute truth and morality and rationally applies that truth to all of life.  To the other group everything is relative to experience and circumstances.  The first group is actually not all that large because many professing Christians are in the second group.  Being a Christian is, for them, not a whole lot different from the idealistic drug trips of the sixties; something outside of reason but it makes you feel like there is meaning to life.   How else can you explain  the thousands of  'Christians' who are voting in the Republican primary elections for an unrepentant serial adulterer? 
     Right about now is when someone will point back to the 1950's and say that there was plenty of sin in this country then.  True, but with one huge difference:  More than ninety percent of the country at least paid lip service to the absolute moral Laws of the Creator.  Although many did not act consistently they at least acknowledged the moral laws and thus there was a standard to which one could appeal when trying to right a wrong.  Take the example of the early civil rights movement.  Segregation and the horrible treatment of people of color was, perhaps, the overriding evil of that era.   The group led by Martin Luther King Jr. called itself The Southern Christian Leadership Conference.   The appeal was to the Biblical moral standard that millions of white Americans said they recognized.  Today there is no such standard recognized by which to decide what is actually evil.  As a matter of fact, the moral laws themselves are now considered evil.  Everything has been turned on its head.
     Will a majority ever hold to that standard again in this country?   The answer is in the hands of believers in Christ and whether or not they will pray and live by and under the authority of the Lord of lords.  History has precedents of very depraved cultures being transformed.  No example is more vivid than England in the 1700's during the time of John Wesley and the early Methodists.  People have not changed and God has not changed.  Technology only makes our era look radically different but the hearts of people are the same as throughout history and the Grace of God is as powerful as ever.  Several million fervently praying and consistently living believers will be heard by God and things will happen.  The Soviet Union collapsed by 1990 and shortly afterward you could pray and teach the Bible in the schools of Russia.
     With confidence I predict that the death of Justice Scalia is only the first of the upheavals and calamities that we will see this year as God sovereignly shows this wicked nation Who is really in charge.  He is about to shake all nations so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.  In the meantime, if you know the Lord, please be both joyful and very sober.  From eternity we will look back on this moment of time and be glad that we were both.