Category: Politics

Four Things the 2020 Election can Remind us About Evangelism

“Evangelism” is a word that often carries a negative connotation—of angry street preachers, or of post-church restaurant patrons who leave gospel tracts instead of tips. Be that as it may, evangelism simply defined is the act of telling others about the gospel/good news of Jesus and his Kingdom. In fact, evangelism of some form or another is commanded for every Christian! (For me personally it’s part of my job with InterVarsity to help give staff and college students a vision for evangelism, as well as the tools and techniques to do it skillfully in the context of a 21st-century university.) Recently, as I’ve been reflecting on the past few months, I believe there are four truths that we can observe about the 2020 election that also point to important lessons about evangelism.

1. Just like political advocacy, evangelism works best person-to-person in your current relational networks.

As part of my job, I often invite young adults to prayerfully consider who in their friend groups might be interested in discussions about faith and spirituality. The idea is that evangelism isn’t always about going up to strangers in grocery stores, but more often simply recognizing that God has already placed people in our lives with whom we have the opportunity to share his love and grace. To help students better understand this, I frequently ask them to physically draw a “network map” of all the people they’re connected to on campus (from their dorms, classes, clubs, sports, sororities, etc.), and to pray about who among them might be intrigued by Jesus. Invariably, students are surprised when they are drawn to someone they never dreamed would be interested in spiritual conversations, who ends up responding enthusiastically! Relational evangelism works because it builds on the foundation of your current friendships and relationships.  

Thus I nearly laughed aloud when I read a news article about the 2020 election touting the benefits of “relational organizing,” which is functionally a very similar strategy to doing relational evangelism! To quote the article (which is lengthy and left-leaning but very interesting), “At its most basic, relational organizing is simply facilitating conversations between friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. Instead of relying on traditional strategies like door knocking, phone calls, or texts from strangers, it harnesses existing relationships to mobilize voters….[one] meta-analysis of voter turnout studies found that outreach from friends and family was three times more effective at mobilizing voters than a door knock.” While the article I linked to focuses on progressive groups, this political strategy is not inherently liberal or conservative. Instead, it relies on a simple truth: people trust people they know over anonymous phone calls or ads that they see online.

In fact, while the 2020 election has inevitably included more anonymous digital ad campaigns than ever before, there’s more and more evidence that these are not what made the difference in the end (for either party!). Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale’s much-vaunted “Death Star” digital ad strategy ultimately ran out of money months before the election, with little to show to it. On the flip side, in Miami-Dade County, Republicans utilized in-person, door-to-door canvassing of predominantly Latino neighborhoods while Democrats practiced social distancing and relied solely on digital communication. The results were clear, as Republicans racked up a surprisingly high number of votes in this historically blue community. Whether in the domain of spreading the good news about Jesus or a piece of good news about a political candidate, it is clear that in-person, relational organizing is supremely better than trusting to digital campaigns and algorithms. Those tools have their place, but should not replace the work of in-person organizing.

An example of a network map

One final note on this topic–both relational evangelism and relational political organizing have as their key premise that each of us have within our friend groups people who disagree with us. Unfortunately, as people isolate more and more within their own bubbles, that becomes less and less true! There’s a sad reason behind why some Christians tend to evangelize their restaurant servers and people they meet on airplanes: those are literally the only non-Christians they encounter on a regular basis! Similarly, many Republicans and Democrats don’t have a single close friendship with someone of the other political party. If you’re seeking to be personally comfortable and never have meaningful interactions with people who are different than you, then that’s fine. But if you actually want to see other people understand and perhaps believe your viewpoint, then it is important to intentionally expand your networks to include more people who think differently from you.

2. As in politics, evangelism requires compelling communication and meeting people where they’re at

Another piece of my job involves helping staff and students know how to share the story of Jesus and his Kingdom in ways that make sense to the people they are communicating with. This can take many forms, such as asking good questions, listening well, sharing personal stories, eschewing confusing “Christianese jargon”, and knowing how to communicate core truths about Jesus in clear and concise ways. Perhaps most importantly, you need to communicate the next step for that person to make on their faith journey-which might be very small! A next step may be to try praying, to check out a church or Bible study, to ask a friend about some tough theological questions, or to do some more personal reflecting (and of course, some people are ready and excited to make a public decision such as becoming a Christian or being baptized, but these steps can’t happen unless these foundations are there).

In many ways, I would argue, these truths are also true when it comes to inviting people to consider supporting/voting for the political candidate/values you care about. We need to be able to communicate passionately but winsomely, inviting others to align themselves with our core beliefs without alienating them. One blogger writes:

“About the most significant election in modern American history, there is much we still don’t know. But some things are already becoming clear….Too many of us are not only unable to persuade people on the other side but also unwilling to try, uninterested in winning people over. Movements that agree on fundamental values need to learn to be better coalition allies to each other in spite of their differences….The fantasy that incremental change is most appealing to most people must be buried, and the prophets of real change must find the language and candidates to make the cause of social democracy less frightening to many Americans than it now is….We have ceased to be a country in disagreement; we are now a country of mutual disgust; and these widespread feelings of disgust essentially shut down politics. …The way out of this cold civil war is a politics that is thrilling, inclusive, substantive, visionary, galvanizing, empathetic, tolerant of different degrees of on-board-ness, and deft at meeting people where they are. Democracy is not a supermarket, where you pop in whenever you need something; it’s a farm, where you reap what you sow. Let’s plant.”

There’s a lot of great points in this paragraph that can also make connections to evangelism, but I especially love the farming metaphor at the end, which is a metaphor Jesus uses over and over. There is no magic factory or technique for introducing people to Jesus; like farming it takes hard work, time, maintenance, and in the end is a bit mysterious. Yet if we are faithful to do the work in casting a compelling vision and meeting people where they are at, whether in building our democracy or in introducing our friends to Jesus, there is certain to be a harvest.

White already for harvest. | Imprints of Light
“Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” John 4:35

3. Evangelism, much like political advocacy, is ultimately the pronouncement of a new ruler and a new Kingdom

Despite being a common term, most Christians are unaware of the original political and cultural connotations of the word “evangelism.” The Greek word from which we derive evangelism is evangelion / euangelion (note the root words eu = good, angelion = message.) One scholar defines it thus: “The original meaning of the word evangelion, “gospel,” is a technical term in Greek, meaning the announcement of a great military victory, or the rule of a new king or emperor. It’s the PR of empire, the announcement of good news of victory. As the imperial cult took hold, it was the standard word for any announcement of auspicious news about the emperor and the imperial family. This term figures in the vocabulary of the Roman emperors, who understood themselves as lords, saviours, and redeemers of the world. The messages issued by the emperor were called evangelion, regardless of whether or not their content was particularly cheerful and pleasant. The idea was that what comes from the emperor is a saving message, that it is not just a piece of news, but a change of the world for the better.”

Knowing this context, it thus becomes incredibly significant that Jesus and his disciples use this wide-spanning political terminology to explain the Kingdom of God. Following Jesus is not just a personal decision, nor one that only has private effects. To believe in Jesus is to believe that one now lives in a fundamentally different world, similar to (but much bigger than) the differences between a Caesar Augustus and a Caesar Nero, or between a President Trump and a President Biden. It’s not just about a new person in power, it’s about everything that new person represents.

Related to that, to proclaim a new ruler will be good news to some but bad news to others. When President Trump was declared president late on the night of Nov. 8, 2016, the next day was dark and mournful for many people (and joyful for others!). When President Biden was declared president at noon on Nov 7, 2020, thousands of people flooded the streets to celebrate (while others mourned or fumed privately). For Jesus, it’s clear for whom the announcement of his Kingship will feel like good news—it’s the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. For his very first sermon in Luke 4, Jesus quotes Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The flipside of that of course, is that Jesus’ Kingship is not automatically good news to those who are rich, comfortable, and powerful. In Luke 6 Jesus warns: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” And that is why Jesus says that to follow him is to forsake comfort and ease, and instead embrace the way of suffering, the way of the cross.

Now granted that there are ways in which Jesus statements can also be interpreted metaphysically and not solely literally, the basic premise remains the same: sharing the gospel of Jesus should not be a story about a Santa Claus in the sky who wants to only live in your heart and give you a free ticket to heaven. Instead, it’s a radical pronouncement of the true ruler of the heavens and the earth, who is completely different than any other ruler, and calls us to live differently. Which brings me to my final point.

4. Like a president who’s been elected but not yet inaugurated, we too live in a transitory, in-between time where Jesus has already been declared King but has yet to return in his full power and glory.

A fourth thing we can learn about evangelism via the 2020 election comes from the period between the election and inauguration day. As is clear now (to most people), Joe Biden won the 2020 election but does not have yet full authority of the president. He is the “president-elect” which means that the authority is there waiting to be claimed and picked up on January 20, but constitutionally he is not yet the president-it’s still Donald Trump and he still has immense power! Now this of course is not unique to 2020; it has been true of every presidential transition. (In fact, in the early days of the United States, this interregnum period used to last until March, until the 20th Amendment was in 1933 passed to shorten it to January.)

In some ways, this in-between period can remind us of the state that we are in right now as Christians. Jesus 2000 years ago totally defeated sin, death, and Satan through his death on the cross and his resurrection three days later. However, although his kingdom was ushered in and initiated in many ways on that day, he has not yet taken full control of this world. In a sense he is president-elect and we are in the in-between period, the interregnum. Jesus has the rightful authority and is one day going to physically come back to earth, be fully inaugurated, and his kingdom will be fully present. But that is not yet the reality; we are still under the partial control of sin, death, and Satan (who is in this analogy a lame-duck president).

Moreover, similar to those in our world who still refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden as president-elect and may continue to ignore his authority after Inauguration day, there are many who don’t acknowledge Jesus as the as the Lord Savior and God of the world. (This analogy of course is NOT to compare Joe Biden to Jesus! Rather it’s just an illustration—one could have made this same analogy about Donald Trump back in 2016.) However for those of us who follow Jesus, we are called to pre-emptively consider ourselves citizens of his kingdom and to live as if we are already under the full reign of Jesus Christ. In a sense, just like President-elect Joe Biden has a “transition team” to help prepare the way for him being President, us Christians are essentially called to be a “transition team” to prepare the way for Jesus’ return. Among other reasons, that is why Christians are called to reject violence, greed, hate, and selfishness, and instead embrace the values of Jesus’ kingdom: generosity, sacrificial love, and selflessness. We’re preparing for the future ruler. That’s not the way the world works right now, but it’s a way of living that embodies what will be true in Jesus’ coming Kingdom.

For me, I would much rather be a part of Jesus’ “transition team” helping make this world ready for his reign than I would be part of Satan’s lame-duck regime, bitterly clinging to power and privileges that will soon disappear. If you’re not already, I invite you to considering joining me on Jesus’ “transition team”–let me know if you’d like to learn more about it! 🙂

Some Pre-Election Words of Wisdom

This week I got to have a great conversation about politics with a young man who just graduated from college this past May. He was concerned about casting his vote, not feeling enthusiastic about either major party candidate, but also knowing that the stakes for this election were high. I got to talk through a few things with him, and he felt greatly encouraged and ready to vote. Here are a few pieces of wisdom that I shared yesterday, and I hope they may be of some use to others.

  1. While this election is important, it will not solve America’s problems (however you define those). If Joe Biden is elected president, there will still be COVID-19, racism, police brutality, corporate greed, etc. And if Donald Trump is re-elected, there will still be abortion, “cancel culture”, “fake news”, affordable housing projects in the suburbs, etc. This is not to say a president has no power, of course they do (particularly in terms of things like executive orders, foreign policy, and in deciding how many refugees to accept each year). But a lot of these other issues are incredibly wide-spread, systemic, and deeply engrained at the local level, many of them going back hundreds of years. To think that a single vote in a single national election would somehow solve all these issues betrays a severe lack of knowledge about how America works. Which brings me to #2.
  2. If the only political action you take is to vote every 4 years, you’re doing it wrong. Some people hate “politics” and treat it as a dirty word, but in reality its definition is simply this: “Politics (Greek: politiká, ‘affairs of the cities’) is the activities associated with making decisions in groups, such as the distribution of resources or status.” Politics is thus the outworking on a bigger scale the same type of decisions that we make every day on an individual level: questions about right and wrong, spending money, deciding what behaviors to tolerate or not, etc. If you are a Christian, you are required to “love your neighbor as ourself” and to “seek the shalom/peace/welfare of the city” in which we find ourselves (Jeremiah 29). That means political engagement is not supposed to be optional or occasional–it goes far beyond just casting a ballot! Each of us who claims to follow Jesus is commanded to care about issues that affect our communities and neighbors (rather than solely focusing on our own self-interest). As an example, for a person who is passionate about poverty, or abortion, or immigration, that person should not only be addressing those issues in a national election–there are tons of steps that person can take in their daily, local life to be a part of alleviating them. Demonstrations, protests, advocacy, showing up for school board meetings–the list goes on and on. All of these are political actions where you can arguably have a bigger impact than in a national election.
  3. If you choose to be a single-issue voter, you’ve chosen to cede your ability to effectively pressure/encourage candidates on other issues. Once you indicate that you’re a single-issue voter on a certain issue, it means that the politician you’re voting for no longer has to do anything to win your support on any other issue! For example, if your only issue is “abortion“, it means that you don’t care if your politician lies, cheats, steals, kills, or passes awful laws on any other issue, so long as that person claims to share your views on abortion. This eliminates your ability to have bargaining power to move a politician on other issues–the politician knows at the end of the day you’re in his control because you’re a single-issue voter. To avoid that, you’ll want to practice tip #4.
  4. Even if your candidate wins, you need to still hold them accountable. Many progressives fear that if Joe Biden is elected and Donald Trump leaves the White House, a lot of momentum for antiracist and antipoverty initiatives will disappear. I could imagine the same would be true for conservatives if Trump wins–after all, as a second-term lame duck President who can’t be re-elected, what incentive would Trump have to work hard on conservative issues in a second term? Thus it is important that no matter who wins this November, you keep the pressure high to move forward on the issues you care about.
  5. I really hope that this election is a massive landslide. It is scary to think that in a close election, one of the candidates (especially Trump, though I could imagine other scenarios too) could declare a pre-mature victory, and then mobilize his supporters to intimidate vote counters, mail workers, or others who are still working to count the remaining votes. [Just earlier this week, Donald Trump said that he hopes the Supreme Court will ban any votes from being counted after November 3rd–which is insane, because where I live in Pennsylvania, Cumberland County, announced they won’t even start counting mail-in ballots until November 4th! Does that mean that all those votes–from soldiers overseas and elderly people stuck at home–will be thrown out? Maybe! It is entirely possible that with a conservative Supreme Court and all the forces of the presidency at his command, Donald Trump can seriously mess with the margins of the votes. Voter suppression is an American tradition, and it’s only increased in recent years.] Perhaps even worse yet, is the threat of violence after the election. Far-right militia groups have been agitating for a civil war for decades now, and many of them operate throughout Pennsylvania and many others states. What happens if they think that the election was stolen from them? (One might argue that far-left groups might react similarly to a Trump win, but in my experience leftists don’t own AR-15s). My only hope is that despite the voter suppression, there’s a clear and massive winner on November 3rd that forces the other side to concede defeat and decide not to initiate violence.
  6. If Trump does lose in a landslide, his presidency will have proven to be a misguided Faustian bargain for Republicans. Donald Trump has had a number of moderate policy wins for Republicans over the past four years, but I think any Republican could have achieved them–without inciting the left’s fury as much as Trump has. I think that the few major policy victories that Trump has won are not worth the cost that Republicans will pay going forward. If the polls are correct, even states like Texas and Georgia are threatening to turn blue–indicating that Trump has tarnished the Republican brand, perhaps for a generation. [Moreover 2020 is the worst possible year for Republicans to lose in a landslide, because there will be redistricting happening in the wake of the Census. If Dems sweep nationally, they will be able to remake congressional districts to undo Republican gerrymandering and perhaps even incorporate some gerrymandering of their own – which is what Republicans did in 2010 after they swept the midterms during the last Census.] In contrast, imagine a different world for Republicans right now if Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, or even Jeb Bush had become the Republican nominee in 2016. Best case scenario–they beat Hillary, pass the same corporate tax cuts and get the same Supreme Court justices, but without triggering the left so much as to create a massive pro-Democrat backlash. Worst case scenario, Hillary would have won in 2016, but now would be in the same rough position that Trump is in now–facing a potentially historic loss as an incumbent in a redistricting year. All that said, I think that embracing Trump was a strategic mistake for Republicans, as he has been a relatively ineffective politician compared to what could have been achieved, especially when you consider he controlled all 3 branches of government for the first half of his term.
  7. Do you want your vote to matter? Move to a swing state–it’s so fun being the center of attention! Right now according to election website fivethirtyeight.com, Pennsylvania is the state most likely to decide the election due to the vagaries of the Electoral College. As such there are so many texts, calls, campaign rallies, and promises being made to Pennsylvanians right now. It’s overwhelming but I like it! In contrast, imagine if you are a conservative living on the East Coast or West Coast, or a liberal living in the Deep South–not only does your vote not matter, but no one cares about your issues because you don’t live in a swing state! Of course, if we somehow were to eliminate the Electoral College and elect people based on the popular vote, then presidential candidates would start to care about conservatives in upstate New York, or about liberals in southern Alabama. But until then, if you want your vote to matter, you should consider relocating to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Arizona or one of the other swing states. And that brings me to my final point.
  8. Vote for who you want. There’s a lot of pressure from both sides of the political spectrum to vote for either Trump or Biden, so as not to “waste one’s vote.” And there is a certain level of truth to that, especially in a swing state. The reality is is that until America moves away from a first-past the post, winner-takes-all electoral system to something like other countries have (such as a parliamentary system), we will always be stuck with two parties. It’s like a game of chess –in chess the rules are designed for only two players, there’s no way for a third player to play/win unless you change the rules. This article has some great suggestions for how to alter American elections to enable more parties to bloom, but it’s hard to imagine either major party agreeing to any of these changes…. Now, all that said though, if you refuse to vote for Biden or Trump I believe you have a few options. You can leave the choice of President blank and just vote for the local/state races. You can vote third-party, or write someone in. Recall from my Point #2 that there are so many other ways to make change in this world besides just one vote. If your conscience does not allow you to choose one of the two major candidates, then don’t feel like you absolutely have to. Although that reminds me of a line in the TV show 30 Rock:

Anyway, happy Election Day–see you on the other side!

Random Hot Takes

My brain and body are absolutely exhausted with our wonderful newborn baby (born last week! Praise God! What a whirlwind haha). But it doesn’t mean I haven’t had random thoughts and ideas. However rather than post them on Facebook (which could lead to blowback, anger, and people getting offended, which I don’t have energy to deal with right now), I’m just going to post them here. They are pretty stream of consciousness and not necessarily related to one another, so take it all with a grain of salt 🙂

  1. PARENTAL LEAVE. With one week of paid parental leave under my belt (I get a full month, Liz gets three–thank you InterVarsity!), I just want to say how incredibly ridiculous it is that the United States does not have any federally guaranteed paid parental leave for mothers (not to mention both parents). There are only 2 other countries on the entire planet besides the US that don’t offer any leave for mothers (Suriname and Papau New Guinea). Even comparatively poorer nations like Libya, Iran, Colombia, Ghana, and North Korea offer multiple weeks of leave! If we don’t want mothers to choose abortion, why isn’t our government doing something about this? It should have bipartisan support! And even Ivanka Trump supposedly was going to push for a plan for this. But of course Congressional Republicans seem to hate whenever government money goes to anyone that’s not a rich man or a corporation. And if Joe Biden becomes president, you can bet that they’ll automatically oppose any and every pro-family spending bill he puts forward for the sake of the “national debt”.
  2. DIAPERS. I was honestly worried about changing diapers of a newborn, as it’s not something I ever witnessed or did growing up. But while it’s a little stinky, it’s honestly not that bad at all. Which reminds me of a fact I read about Donald Trump: on multiple occasions he has bragged that he never once changed a diaper, despite having 5 children–I guess his wives or servants always changed them??… To me I think that says a lot about who he is and his character. Unwilling to be a servant, not a team player with his wives, and a hefty dose of pride. He also thus embodies toxic masculinity instead of healthy masculinity (I could go on and on about that topic, but that’s for another day).
  3. FREEDOM. In America, every citizen has the freedom/right to lie, commit adultery, be mean, curse people out, manipulate, be selfish, be greedy, hate others, take advantage of others, and generally do whatever we want. In certain cases (though not all) it is even legal to commit violence, kill, slander, and incite insurrection. Yet while an American has the right and freedom to do all of those things, in the Kingdom of God, Christians don’t have the right to do ANY them! Instead we are servants of Jesus, and only have the right to do the things he calls us to–which don’t include anything in that list. Thus it makes me sad when I see people who claim to be Christians get all up in arms about their “right” to do things like spread lies, share slander, or endorse violence. In an American sense, yes they have that right, but if they claim to be Christian then they ought not do any of those things, nor expect others to do so on their behalf.
  4. KILL vs. DIE. A big difference between true Christians and most other people is this: most people are willing and eager to kill for the sake of their core values (protecting their personal property, expanding their empire, etc), but usually not to die for them. For a true Christian, it is (supposed to be) precisely the opposite. We are called to be willing to die for Jesus daily, but to never kill for him. Whenever you see Christians more passionate about killing and dominating others than they are about suffering and serving, be sure that you are probably not in the presence of the Kingdom of God.
  5. ABORTION. This is a controversial topic, but I’m going to humbly put it forward. It’s a freaking baby. At the 12-week ultrasound our “Baby Yoda” was already kicking his feet, dancing around, and looking like a baby. It didn’t look like a fish or chicken or anything like that. Thus I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog, but I personally think certain progressive circles need to put a damper on the “abortion is wonderful!”-type rhetoric, which is admittedly rare but I have seen it. Anyone who’s had a birth, or God forbid a miscarriage, knows that there is something special about pregnancy and birth, and we should not be so flippant about that. Babies are not parasites invading a woman’s body; in fact there is something amazing and empowering about a woman who is able to carry a fetus to term and be a functioning, working adult at the same time (men can’t do that). NOW–that said, I think that abortion being legal, safe, and rare is the way to go, and that Democratic policies are actually the ones PROVEN to lead to a decrease in the abortion rate, while Republican policies are PROVEN to increase them (again, see blog). And of course there’s tons of gray areas like rape, incest, health of mother, etc. Thus my point is not about the actual policies, but about the rhetoric that is used. However since I’m not the person who actually has given birth or had an abortion, that’s all I’ll say on that topic for now.
  6. QANON & POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE. Despite recent social media crackdowns, Qanon is once again gaining in support and traction in American society. There will be Qanon believing members of Congress elected this November (it’s inevitable), who will then be in a position to begin The Storm–the part of Qanon where Donald Trump declares martial law, executes all his political enemies, and begins a new rule where all Jews, elites, and liberals are crushed. If Qanon is false, it is spreading a horrific worldview to millions of Americans, most of whom own guns and are ready to kill anyone who stands in their way. And if Qanon is true, we are just weeks away from Donald Trump declaring himself Supreme Leader and ending American democracy. Either way, it’s something to be aware of. As a Christian who takes Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount both seriously and literally, I know I cannot intentionally take another life. But with Qanon out there (and related militia movements like the Oathkeepers, 3 Percenters, KKK, Proud Boys, and myriad others), it is a bit scary to contemplate what might go down after November 3rd. Last month at a Black Lives Matter demonstration a middle-aged white man slowly drove by my wife and me and pointed his fingers like a gun at each of us, and mimed pulling the trigger. Typical toxic masculinity posturing? Probably. But knowing that he definitely owns a gun at home is a bit scary. We saw a different guy drive by, a neighbor with a loud pickup truck who proudly owns guns and supports Donald Trump, angrily filming the demonstrators. Did he see that we were there? Is our house on the kill list for after the election? LOL we’ll find out!

Anyway, those are just a few random hot takes after not a whole lot of sleep! Please take it with a grain of salt; reach out if you have any questions.

Beware Jonathan Cahn and his event “The Return”

Hey friends, I need to write today to bring awareness and discernment about two Christian events that are happening in Washington DC this Saturday, September 26th. One I am mostly fine with, but the other I am quite concerned about. The first is Franklin Graham’s “Prayer March 2020,” which is a prayer gathering at the National Mall. I don’t have any major problems with this event and think that– all else being equal– more people praying is always a good thing. (I do have some significant disagreements with the ways that Franklin Graham has become blatantly partisan in his approach to faith and religion, in contrast to his father Billy Graham, but that’s a topic for another day).

However, the second event happening this weekend, which is being organized separately but has been approved of by Franklin Graham, is an event called “The Return” led by a pastor called Jonathan Cahn. “The Return” will be held both in person and simulcast to tens of thousands of homes and churches in the US. I am sure that many parts of this event will be fine, but I have major problems with Cahn’s leadership of this event. A Jewish convert to Christianity who often is given the title “Rabbi,” Jonathan Cahn has made numerous false prophecies over the past years, even one of which should be enough to permanently disqualify him from future leadership in Christian circles (see Deut. 18:20-22). Despite that, like many others before him, he has simply moved on and continued to publish NYT-bestselling books with new prophecies when the old ones didn’t come true. The question one must ask is: does the truth matter? If it does, then we must be very wary about trusting someone like Jonathan Cahn, who has promoted and written many, many untruths.

Some of Cahn’s recent books

What are these false prophecies?

I’ll attempt to list some of the major untruths that Jonathan Cahn has promoted. To start with, Cahn claims that the United States has a unique covenantal relationship with Yahweh in the exact same way that ancient Israel had 3000 years ago. Building upon that false premise, Cahn claims that many hidden prophecies that he discovered in the Bible about ancient Israel are also true about the United States. Thus in 2015, Cahn became well-known in evangelical circles for proclaiming both in his books as well as on national TV programs that God was about to unleash a series of fierce judgments upon America as part of a 7-year cycle of judgment. Cahn proclaimed that September 2015 was the month of “the Blood Moon,” and it was supposed to be a time of major economic and geological catastrophe for the United States. Cahn also pointed to the birth of a couple of cows that had “7” birthmarks as further evidence of his claim that the judgment was nigh. At the time, right-wing Christian leaders such as Pat Robertson, Glenn Beck, Jim Bakker, John Hagee, Rick Wiles, Eric Metaxas, Sid Roth, James Dobson, Michelle Bachman and many others were swept into Cahn’s apocalyptic message and excitedly promoted his books and talks on their platforms. Most frustratingly for me was seeing a number of Christians I knew personally fall under Cahn’s spell; I even heard of one person who panicked upon hearing Cahn’s teachings and sold a bunch of investments in the stock market, fearing that the end was nigh.  

The cows that Cahn saw as a predictor of the End Times

Of course, when nothing major happened in September 2015 (the stock market actually went up, and there were no other catastrophic events), Cahn “insisted that the August 18 [2015] stock market selloff came close enough, and that a minor earthquake off the Mexican coast was also a sign that God is punishing the U.S…Cahn then claimed that if something — anything — bad happens between now and September of next year [2016], that will prove that his prophecy was right all along!” [Source] Of course, nothing majorly disastrous happened in that time period.

In addition to these predictions, Cahn also claimed that Trump’s election, September 11, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and Hurricane Harvey were ALL foretold in the Bible. (They weren’t). Further false predictions include his prophecy that a hurricane would hit Washington DC as part of “God’s judgment” for the legalization of gay marriage. (It didn’t).

Cahn’s errors aren’t just in biblical analysis and prophecy. He also makes basic errors about dates and facts. For example, he claims that his September 26 event “The Return,” is occurring 40 days before the November 3rd election. As anyone with a calendar knows, that’s only 38 days before the November 3rd election. Moreover, his claim that his event will happen 400 years after the sailing of the Mayflower, is only correct if one uses the old-fashioned Julian calendar, instead of our modern-day Gregorian calendar. [Source]. Clearly, Cahn is just fishing for any “proof” he can find to support his prophecies and ministry, no matter how tenuous or fake.

Jonathan Cahn, in a recent Youtube video advertising “The Return”

One could go on and on and on about all the false prophecies and bad theology that Jonathan Cahn puts forth, as this person and this person both do, but I want to reiterate: even just ONE major false prophecy should be a huge red flag that casts doubt on Cahn’s leadership, ministry, pastoring, and platform (Deut 18:20-22). Moreover, to my knowledge Cahn has never once repented or apologized for his public errors, and instead has sent cease-and-desist letters to people who challenge his work! Cahn’s teachings are reminiscent of the 1st and 2nd Century Gnostic heretics, who claimed that there was some “secret” knowledge that God was only revealing to a few people. Cahn claims to be the recipient of divine “downloads” that allow him to mysteriously cherry-pick random verses from the Bible and connect them to current events that he happens to have strong opinions about. In his American-centric, eisegetical approach to Scripture, Cahn is essentially playing the role of a fortune teller, making a number of fairly vague prophecies, some of which can be proven false, but others of which he can reinterpret as having came true in order to keep the money rolling in from events and book sales.

All that said, why does it matter if a man who’s made numerous false prophecies is organizing a national event this weekend? Here are a few dangers:

First, in many ways, Jonathan Cahn’s work is like the Qanon cult, which I have written about previously in this post and this post. Like Qanon (but as of now, unrelated to it), Cahn has slowly been gathering a large number of followers, donors, and partners around him to promote his particular notion of apocalyptic Christian nationalism. And also like Qanon promoters, Cahn and his fellow believers are skilled in utilizing new platforms such as Youtube to attract new followers by making more and more prophecies while retroactively “proving” past prophecies–it is likely that many people who will attend “The Return” this weekend have never read one of Cahn’s books, but instead encountered him through TV, online, or through a friend. In the same ways that Qanon has been splitting churches, families, and friendships, I have personally witnessed Jonathan Cahn’s teachings spark divisions in at least two churches so far. I have hesitated to speak out, not knowing if it was a big enough deal. I now see that it is.

Secondly, a large number of “mainstream” evangelical Christian politicians, ministries, and organizations will be present for “The Return” this weekend. The most prominent ones I see are Ben Carson, James Dobson, Michelle Bachman, Tony Perkins, and Pat Robertson, but there will be many, many others (you can see a list of “The Return’s” speakers and sponsors here and here). If these people are completely unaware of Jonathan Cahn’s inaccurate prophecies, then we should really question their ability to discern truth from lies–in what other ways have they been deceived? Should we still trust their guidance on other political, cultural, and religious issues? But on the flip side, if these people and groups are aware of Cahn’s false prophecies, then it means that either they’ve decided the personal and financial gain is worth partnering with a false teacher, OR they actually agree with his lies. I’m not sure which of these scenarios is worse.

Just a handful of the speakers at Jonathan Cahn’s event, click the image to see more

Third, it’s clear that, unlike Franklin Graham’s ostensibly non-partisan prayer march this weekend (which explicitly forbids political signs on its website), “The Return” will be explicitly partisan and all about getting more Christians to vote for “God’s candidate”- Donald Trump, who they believe is the only human being keeping America from falling into God’s judgment. Frank Amedia, one of the speakers at “The Return”, prophesied that Saturday’s event would be “a pivot point for this election.” Harry Jackson had a similar message, saying, “We either make this turn all the way fully into the purposes of God​, or the whirlwind takes us out.” As important as the 2020 election may be, all of these messages are about promoting fear, trying to scare Christians into voting for Donald Trump lest America be destroyed by God’s anger. The truth is: God is neither Democrat nor Republican, and he’s not even an American for that matter! God is not going to send fiery brimstone if we don’t elect the right person to be our savior.

Lastly, and perhaps most worryingly, events like “The Return” continue to promote the idea that Christian revival comes through the election of political leaders, not through the power of the Holy Spirit. Mark Gonzales, a Republican political operative and featured speaker at “The Return”, had a very bold statement regarding the outcome of the Nov. 3 election. He explicitly said: “Revival is NOT coming through the prayer closet; revival’s coming through the ballot box!” [emphasis added.] I won’t mince words: this statement feels very close to blasphemy, and would be utterly inappropriate regardless of which side of the political spectrum it comes from. Revival comes from God alone, and while we can and should be active in political affairs, there is very little connection between a nation’s political direction and whether or not revival happens. If you doubt me, then just look at nations like China, Iran, or Nigeria, where Christianity is absolutely exploding right now despite facing heavy persecution.

Conclusion- how then shall we live?

The widespread fear that losing an election will somehow will usher in the End Times and spell the death knell of Christianity in America illustrates once again just how incredibly impoverished many Christians’ theological and biblical understanding of politics is. The solution to theological and biblical impoverishment, of course, is good theology and good biblical study. I am very blessed to have learned from many wise books, mentors, and teachers over the years, and I can share a few book recommendations below, but the truth about a Christian approach to politics is very simple if you read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) and Acts with a simple, plain view of Scripture in mind. In summary:

Jesus’ Kingdom is “not of this world,” and is radically different than any worldly kingdom- including America! Jesus demands His followers forsake violence, greed, grudges, self-interest, and power and instead seek to uplift the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized, and the least of these, boldly carrying the good news of the Gospel to the ends of the earth no matter what persecution may come. In the early Church we see gender and racial equality start to flourish, while poverty is (temporarily) abolished: all because followers of Jesus loved each other enough to sacrifice the things they held dearest, and to enact communal rhythms and policies that promoted God’s justice instead of human self-interest.

Thus for a Christian, politics (meaning the way a “polis“, or city-state, is organized) matters a lot! But NOT for the reasons that Jonathan Cahn thinks it does. Politics matters not to forestall some whacky prophecy of doom, but instead because it is one of the key ways that God’s love and justice can be promoted in the world. If cities and nations are organized by God’s values of love, justice, and righteousness, then the shalom /flourishing of that place will expand (Jer. 29). But if cities and nations are instead organized by values of bitterness, fear, anger, oppression, and violence, then the shalom of that place will shrink.

I know which place I want to live in. How about you?

PS: Below are just a few of the books that most impacted me as I learned about a Jesus-centered approach to Politics. In addition, stay posted to this blog as I share more about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s approach to politics, particularly in the context of a fascist state. You can read parts 1 and 2 by clicking on “September”.

The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church: Boyd, Gregory A.: 9780310267317: Amazon.com: Books

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals: Claiborne, Shane, Haw, Chris: 9780310278429: Amazon.com: Books
Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times: Rah, Soong-Chan, McNeil, Brenda Salter: 9780830836949: Amazon.com: Books