CHRISTIAN
NATIONALIST ELECTED SPEAKER OF HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
(Delusional Plans for
the Nation - Destructive of Religious and Civil
Liberties)
Mike Johnson sees himself as ordained by God! The same is said by the Religious Right about Donald Trump, who has also set himself up as one chosen by God but manifests the very spirit of the devil. This reveals a most appalling corruption of the Christian Bible, and blasphemy against the God of Heaven - in particular the Third Commandment (Exodus 20:7.) This is also arrogance personified:
Mike Johnson, pedigreed evangelical, suggests his election as House speaker ordained by God
Johnson, who peppered his first speech as speaker with religious references, has a history of challenging interpretations of the separation of church and state.
After weeks of turmoil, House Republicans elected Rep. Mike Johnson on Wednesday (Oct.25) as the new speaker of the House, an act the Louisiana congressman suggested was ordained by God.
“I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear: that God is the one who raises up those in authority,” Johnson said in his first speech after being elected speaker in a 220-209 vote. “He raised up each of you. All of us.” . . .
What Do You Hear When the New House Speaker Says He’s Been Ordained By God?
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t hide his religion or his belief in the primacy of his Christian beliefs. Quite the contrary. Here’s what he told Sean Hannity Thursday on Fox News: “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview. That’s what I believe.’”
This came the day after he used his precious first remarks as speaker to tell the House and the country that he believes God has ordained him. “I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear: that God is the one who raises up those in authority…I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time.’”
(He also introduced his “dedicated wife of 25 years” to the nation—and her absence at his acceptance speech—like this: “She's spent the last couple of weeks on her knees in prayer to the Lord. And, um, she's a little worn out.”)
In this speech, he highlighted British writer and Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton who, Johnson said, asserted that America is “the only nation in the world founded upon a creed,” which is “listed with almost theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.” That is, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”—“created,” Johnson emphasized, not born. He also noted that the motto, “In God We Trust,” added to the Capitol’s rotunda in 1962, was meant as a rebuke to the Soviet Union, Marxism and communism, “which begins with the premise that there is no God.”
Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, who studies evangelical Christianity and politics, told Politico this week, “Christian supremacy and a particular type of conservative Christianity is at the heart of Johnson’s understanding of the Constitution and an understanding of our government.”
Johnson calls himself a “bible-believing Christian.” He has been called a Christian nationalist, convinced of the centrality of his faith in the founding of America, which he believes is under attack. In the podcast he produces with his wife, Kelly, he said, “What we found was often the Christian viewpoint is not given equal treatment and equal platform and equal chance. Very often religious viewpoints, specifically Christian viewpoints, are censored and silenced.”
In his rejection of abortion and homosexuality in a 2006 article, Johnson criticized “the earnest advocates of atheism and sexual perversion,” adding, “This sprawling alliance of anti-God enthusiasts has proven frighteningly efficient at remaking America in their own brutal, dehumanizing image.”
Surely, then, when asked about the mass shooting in Maine, this would be a chance for him to speak out against the most sacred commandment—Thou shalt not kill—and use his new divinely ordained power to speak to the need to address the availability of weapons that make murder possible on a quick and massive scale. Right? Nope.
“The problem is the human heart,” he told Hannity. “It’s not guns. It’s not the weapons. At the end of the day we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves and that’s the Second Amendment…This is not the time to talk about legislation.”
Mike Johnson is now second in line to the presidency. I worry that he puts his religion to the forefront of his efforts to remake government and America. This is a man who, benefiting from a courtly demeanor, rejects a clear separation of church and state.
Noteworthy is Johnson's reference to G. K. Chesterton's view of the American Declaration of Independence. Chesterton was a world famous author who became a dedicated Roman Catholic (Cf. G.K. Chesterton Became Catholic 100 Years Ago, Drawn in by Jerusalem and Our Lady.) Here is an indication of Roman Catholic influence on Johnson's personal and political beliefs. (There is more to come in this study paper.) (Cf. Evangelical Mike Johnson ‘Raised Up’ as House Speaker.)
Also noteworthy is what Johnson said about his wife: “She's spent the last couple of weeks on her knees in prayer to the Lord." Had she been praying for what should have seemed the unlikely event of his election to the House speakership? Had this been on his agenda, and if so for what purpose? He provided the answer to this question a little over six weeks later:
You’ll Never Guess Who Mike Johnson Compared Himself To
A hint: He’s a character in Johnson’s favorite book.
Mike Johnson compared himself to Moses and said that becoming House speaker was part of God’s plan.
Johnson was the keynote speaker at Tuesday evening’s National Association of Christian Lawmakers’ annual gala. The NACL is a Christian nationalist organization that says its goal is to codify a “biblical worldview” into law. Both its founder and Johnson are big fans of the “Appeal to Heaven” Christian nationalist flag.
During his speech, Johnson said that a few weeks before Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the speakership, God told him to “prepare and be ready.”
“We’re coming to a Red Sea moment. What does that mean, Lord?” Johnson said, referring to when God parted the Red Sea so Moses could lead the enslaved Jews out of Egypt.
“When the speaker’s race happened and Kevin McCarthy, who’s a dear friend of mine, was deposed and vacated from the chair, oh wow! Well, this is what the Lord may have been preparing us for.”
“At the time, I assumed the Lord is going to choose a new Moses, and thank you Lord, you’re going to allow me to be Aaron,” Johnson continued, referring to Moses’s brother.
But as the votes dragged on, Johnson said, God told him, “Now, step forward.”
While Aaron did help Moses, he also nearly caused the destruction of the Israelites. When Moses went up Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments, the people grew tired of waiting. They convinced Aaron to make a statue of a golden calf, and Aaron was going to become the new leader. So really, Johnson said he was prepared to lead a rebel group that worships a false idol.
Johnson repeatedly eschews the separation of church and state, instead flaunting his extremist Christian beliefs. And yet he is still allowed to stay in power, despite the risk his ideology poses to the country. (Underscored emphasis added.)
The following article was written with superb satirical humor which exposes the mad delusions of Johnson and his Christian Nationalist cohorts:
Mike Johnson Claims God Told Him a 'Red Sea Moment' Was Coming, Whatever That Means
If true, the Eternal has taken what I consider an unhealthy interest in the doings of the Republican majority.
There is absolutely nothing crazy about this. No, sir. Perfectly normal behavior for a leader in a secular democratic republic. Completely grounded in sanity, especially coming from the guy a couple of offices short of being the president of the United States. I feel confident in saying this. From Right Wing Watch:
Johnson began his remarks by claiming that weeks before he became House Speaker, God began preparing him to lead the nation through “a Red Sea moment.” Johnson said he didn’t know what that meant at the time, but assumed it meant that he was to serve as an Aaron to someone else’s Moses. But, it turned out, God intended for him to be that Moses. “The Lord impressed upon my heart a few weeks before this happened that something was going to occur,” Johnson said. “And the Lord very specifically told me in my prayers to prepare, but to wait.”
"I had this sense that we were going to come to a Red Sea moment in our Republican conference and in the county at large,” he continued. “[God] had been speaking to me about this, and the Lord told me very clearly to prepare and be ready.” Johnson said that once Rep. Kevin McCarthy was removed as Speaker of the House, God began to wake him up in the middle of the night “to speak to me, [telling me] to write things down; plans, procedures, and ideas on how we could pull the [Republican] conference together.”
“At the time, I assumed the Lord was going to choose a new Moses and thank you, Lord, you’re going to allow me to be Aaron to Moses,” Johnson declared. As one candidate after another stepped forward to run for Speaker but failed, Johnson said that “the Lord kept telling me to wait” but “then at the end, when it toward the end, the Lord said, ‘Now, step forward. Me? I’m supposed to be Aaron,” Johnson said. “No. The Lord said, ‘Step forward.'”
The Speaker of the House of Representatives believes
he was in contact with the Eternal, who has taken
what I consider an unhealthy interest in the doings
of the Republican majority. I mean, what could the
Almighty have against Kevin McCarthy? The Lord told
Mike Johnson to be...Moses? Does that mean that the
Republicans now will wander 40 years in the
wilderness? (We can only hope.) Does that mean that,
one day, Johnson will strike Matt Gaetz on the head
and water will spring forth? What's manna going for
in the House cafeteria these days?
I forget who said it, but there is a formulation
that fits these circumstances perfectly.
If you talk
to God regularly, you're devout. If God talks back
to you, you're delusional.
But it was the author of
the Gospel of Matthew who passed along Jesus'
warning about this manner of sacred three-card
monte:
Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this also goes for Moses. Besides, Charlton Heston was better in the role anyway. (Underscored emphasis added)
Finally, the following report quotes a scathing analysis by Psychologist Mary Trump, of Johnson's fantasy:
Mike Johnson Slammed As 'Megalomaniac' for Comparing Himself to Moses
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is receiving a fresh wave of backlash for his alleged ties to Christian nationalism after a video was shared online of the Republican leader comparing himself to biblical figure Moses.
Several critics have raised questions about Johnson's Christian faith since he was elected speaker in late October. The Louisiana lawmaker has been open about his religious beliefs throughout his political career, although some have claimed that his previous comments echo those in support of Christian nationalism or the view that the U.S. is solely a Christian nation and that its government should be focused on the religion's values.
On Tuesday, the speaker was invited to give a keynote speech at the National Association of Christian Lawmakers' (NACL) annual meeting and awards gala, which was attended by the organization's members and supporters across 33 states.
What Johnson Said
A segment of Johnson's speech has since circulated online, during which he compared his path to speakership as a "Red Sea moment."
"The Lord told me very clearly to prepare. 'You ready?' 'Be ready for what?'" Johnson told the crowd, according to a clip shared to X, formerly Twitter, by the project Right Wing Watch Wednesday afternoon. "'We're coming to a Red Sea moment.' 'What does that mean?'"
The Crossing of the Red Sea is a story in the book of Exodus about when Moses, a prophet recognized in both Christianity and Judaism, guided the Israelites out of Egypt on their way to the "Promised Land." When the Israelites reached the Red Sea, according to the story, Moses reached out his hand and parted the waters, allowing them to safely cross without being caught by the Egyptian army following closely behind.
Johnson said during his speech that the House speaker's race, which took three weeks, was the "Red Sea moment" that God told him to prepare for. He also said that he assumed "at the time" that God was going to "choose a new Moses" and that he would act as "Aaron," Moses' brother and a priest in the Old Testament.
"And so I work to get Steve Scalise elected speaker, that didn't happen," Johnson said. "And then Jim Jordan, who is like another big brother of mine. No, that didn't happen."
"Ultimately, 13 people ran for the vote," he said. "And the Lord had told me to wait, wait, wait. So I waited and waited and then, at the end, when it came to the end, the Lord said, 'Now, step forward.'"
What Critics Are Saying
Johnson's speech drew criticism online from figures like Mary Trump, the estranged niece of former President Donald Trump who is a frequent critic of conservative politicians.
"If Mike Johnson doesn't believe this, he's a manipulative cynic," Mary Trump wrote on X. "If he does, he's psychotic. Either way, he's a massive megalomaniac. If he wants to pretend he's Moses, he can start by removing himself to the desert for 40 years." . . .
Among the dangers for the immediate future posed by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is a power play in the 2024 presidential election advance and probably secure absolute theocratic power for the Roman Catholic controlled Republican Party:
Who is Mike Johnson, the new Republican House speaker?
Louisiana congressman is solid part of party’s right wing and played role assisting Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 election
The rightwing Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson won a floor vote to be speaker of the House on Wednesday, elevating him to a top position in US politics and capping an unlikely and sudden rise to power.
Johnson was elected to Congress in 2016 and has kept a relatively low profile since then, though he is socially conservative and a solid part of the Trumpist right wing of the party.
Johnson served on Donald Trump’s legal defense team during his first impeachment. He currently serves as vice-chair of the Republican conference, a position to which his party colleagues unanimously re-elected him last year, and as a deputy whip.
He played a key role in assisting Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, the New York Times reported last year. When Texas filed a lawsuit at the US supreme court asking the justices to set aside valid electoral votes from Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona, he organized a friend-of-the-court brief in support and got 125 of his House Republican colleagues to sign on.
The central argument of the brief was that the authority of state legislatures to set federal election rules had been usurped because of emergency rule changes to voting during the pandemic.
Johnson’s arguments gave Republicans a way to continue to object to the election, and endorse the anti-democratic idea of throwing out valid votes, without endorsing Trump’s outlandish claims of fraud.
“It was a fig-leaf intellectual argument,” the congressman Peter Meijer, a Michigan Republican who voted to impeach Trump and then lost his House primary last year, told the New York Times.
Johnson circulated the brief in December 2020, saying Trump was “anxiously awaiting the final list” of members who would sign it, a comment that was perceived by some as a threat. “Are we the party of list-making now?” one Republican told CNN at the time. Johnson later told the New Yorker he regretted how the email was phrased.
Even though a lawyer for House Republicans told Johnson the brief was unconstitutional, he pushed ahead anyway. House Republicans booed a reporter on Tuesday evening who asked about Johnson’s efforts to overturn the election and he dismissed the question. . .
Johnson’s father was a firefighter in Shreveport who was badly injured in an accident when he was a boy. Johnson later said the moment was his religious epiphany. When he was in the legislature, he introduced several religious freedom bills and religious groups talked about him “in superhero terms”, according to nola.com. . .
This report confirms the identity of Johnson as a man deeply committed to the destruction of American democracy with its promise of individual liberty, secular as well as religious, and buttressed by the fundamental principle of separation of Church and State. It also confirms the falsity of his claim to be a Bible Christian. This false professor of Christianity is either ignorant of, or is deliberately flouting, Jesus Christ's declaration before Pilate that His Kingdom is not of this world. Prior to this He had clearly established for the Christian world, that principle of separation of Church and State which is embedded in America's Constitution. Indeed this man and the Republican Party are poised to wreak havoc on the Constitution:
The new U.S. House speaker tried to help overturn the 2020 election, raising concerns about 2024
The new leader of one of the chambers of Congress that will certify the winner of next year’s presidential election helped spearhead the attempt to overturn the last one, raising alarms that Republicans could try to subvert the will of the voters if they remain in power despite safeguards enacted after the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Mike Johnson, the Louisiana congressman who was elected speaker of the House of Representatives on Wednesday after a three-week standoff among Republicans, took the lead in filing a brief in a lawsuit that sought to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win. That claim, widely panned by legal scholars of all ideologies, was quickly thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court.
After the 2020 election, Johnson also echoed some of the wilder conspiracy theories pushed by then-President Donald Trump to explain away his loss. Then Johnson voted against certifying Biden’s win even after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Johnson’s role three years ago is relevant now not only because the speaker is second in the line of presidential succession, after the vice president. The House Johnson now leads also will have to certify the winner of the 2024 presidential election.
“You don’t want people who falsely claim the last election was stolen to be in a position of deciding who won the next one,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. On Wednesday, he flagged another worry about Johnson, who is a constitutional lawyer.
“Johnson is more dangerous because he wrapped up his attempt to subvert the election outcomes in lawyerly and technical language,” Hasen said.
Last year, Congress revamped the procedures for how a presidential win is certified, making it far harder to object in the way that Johnson and 146 other House Republicans did on Jan. 6, 2021. But there is a conservative school of thought that no legislation can control how Congress oversees the certification of a president’s win — all that counts is the Constitution’s broad granting of power to ratify the electoral college’s votes.
Mike Johnson’s Election Denial Should Raise Alarms for 2024
The U.S. House of Representatives is now under the gavel of a Republican Speaker who is not only a 2020 election denier but also largely formulated the strategy for overturning the presidential election results in Congress on January 6, 2021. Mike Johnson didn’t hang his hat on some made-up anecdote about electoral fraud, either; he agreed with Donald Trump’s broad-based argument that by making voting a bit easier during a pandemic, state election officials had “rigged” the contest; thus Congress should not legitimize the election, at least without additional ratification of the outcome by Republican-controlled state legislatures.
The father of these 2020 lies, Donald Trump, is, of course, very close to winning his third consecutive Republican presidential nomination, and he’s never even once suggested he regretted his claims and the violence they induced. Even in urging Republicans to take advantage of liberalized voting-by-mail procedures in 2024, he continues to call them totally illegitimate. And he’s got a new “rigged election” claim that he’s not about to abandon: that the federal criminal prosecutions he faces in multiple courts are themselves a form of “election interference” by his past and future opponent Joe Biden.
To the extent that growing majorities of rank-and-file Republicans believe Trump was robbed of victory in 2020, there’s an obvious mass base for future election denials. And barring a huge and undeniable Democratic landslide in 2024 (which really doesn’t appear to be on the table), there’s just as much incentive as existed in 2020 for Republicans to seek via lawsuit, political trickery, or perhaps even violence to take the prize that pluralities of Americans have stubbornly denied the GOP in all but one presidential election of the 21st century.
Reforms of the Electoral Count Act of 1887 enacted late last year took away one form of election coup that might otherwise be available to the GOP. And the more recent U.S. Supreme Court rejection of the “independent state legislatures” doctrine that was the foundation for Mike Johnson’s effort to overturn the results in Congress closes off another avenue for stealing the presidency. But as the Washington Post notes, there are still some sinister things an election-denying Speaker can do in conjunction with an election-denying presidential nominee:
Richard H. Pildes, a New York University law professor, said the speaker would have significant power to shape the rules if neither candidate wins an outright majority of electoral college votes — a possibility if a third-party candidate manages to win one or more states.
In that scenario, a “contingent election” would occur in the House, where each state’s delegation is given one vote.
A more alarming concern is whether Johnson would, assuming he’s still speaker after the next election, attempt to disrupt the proceedings in a more dramatic way — for instance, by preventing the session from happening altogether. Although the vice president presides over the occasion, it occurs in the House chamber — the domain of the speaker.
More fundamentally, though, the advent of Speaker Johnson represents another major blow to what’s left of the Republican wall of resistance to Trump’s authoritarian and anti-democratic impulses. One way or another, MAGA Republicans will find ways to deny any Democratic victory. And that’s particularly true of those like Johnson who really do seem to believe God Almighty is depending on the GOP’s success, and/or will smite America with hellfire if it gives power to the devilish Democrats.
(Cf. Is America ‘beyond redemption’ and due for God’s judgment? Speaker Mike Johnson thinks so.)
The underscoring in the online article are hyperlinks to external corroborative publications.
The irony is that America is indeed beyond redemption; but it is primarily because of the work of Theocrats who are hell-bent on destroying the religious liberty of all under the Constitution. They are defying the authority of Almighty God, Who has committed all judgment of sin to Jesus Christ. This includes the corruption of the sound doctrines of the Bible, as well as the perverted lusts of the flesh. As the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (2 Timothy 4:3-4 King James Version (KJV.)
This prophecy has and is being fulfilled by the churches favored by religionists like Mike Johnson.
The following article underscores the alarming reality that the legitimacy of the 2024 presidential election results may be in the hands of Johnson, if the Republicans hold the House of Representatives:
Mike Johnson sought to overturn 2020 election. As House speaker, he’ll oversee 2024 certification
Johnson’s term runs through at least early January 2025 — meaning he will preside over the House as it votes to accept the 2024 election results
After House Republicans unanimously voted for Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., as the new speaker, Democratic politicians pounced on them for choosing someone who defied democratic norms after the 2020 presidential election.
Johnson aligned himself with Donald Trump and congressional Republicans who sought to overturn legitimate results ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Johnson’s efforts went beyond tweets and votes, the Democrats said after the Oct. 25 speaker vote.
The Biden-Harris campaign called Johnson “a leading 2020 election denier.” U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., called Johnson “the chief architect” of the effort to overturn election results.
Calling Johnson the “chief architect” may be a stretch. Johnson was not among those charged in the federal or Fulton County, Georgia, election subversion cases, and he barely got a mention in the final Jan. 6 committee report. Johnson, a lawyer for decades, was not the public face of Trump’s battle in the courts and in public, unlike lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
However, Johnson played a key role in the effort to get lawmakers to sign onto trying to overturn the election in the courts and to vote against congressional certification.
Johnson’s term as speaker runs through at least early January 2025 — meaning he will preside over the House as it votes to formally accept the results of the 2024 election.
There is wide recognition that Johnson is committed to Christian Nationalism. In the clash between supporters of democracy and religious liberty, free from dictatorial coercion, and those who seek absolute power to coerce every individual, the "culture wars" have been a valuable weapon to break down resistance to their agenda.
With its deep involvement in the culture wars, the movement inevitably advocates against "LGBTQ" rights. Logically, true Christians can be expected to be sensitive on this topic, especially since there are now in the "Christian" world widespread efforts to prove that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. The reality is that the Holy Scriptures are abundantly explicit in condemnation of homosexuality and moral licentiousness.
So, why are the Christian Nationalists and those of like persuasion wrong in their campaign against "LGBTQ" rights. It is because their purpose is to establish God's kingdom on earth, and by force if necessary, in defiance of Jesus Christ's Word that His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36.) Moreover, His statement to Pilate also defines where His followers are to be found:
What does it means that Christians are not of this world?
When Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king, Pilate was thinking of a political position and that Jesus was possibly guilty of sedition against Caesar. In saying that His kingdom is “not of this world,” Jesus denied that He was a king in that sense—and His words were proved by the lack of any subjects fighting to release Him (John 18:36).
But Jesus does not deny His kingship wholly; He has a kingdom, but it is “from another place” (John 18:36). He says He had “come into the world” (John 18:37), with the clear implication that He was from some place other than this world (cf. John 3:3). His kingdom is heavenly and extends over the hearts and minds of His subjects. It does not originate in this world: “His royal power and state are not furnished by earthly force, or fleshly ordinances, or physical energies, or material wealth, or imperial armies” (The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 17, Hendrickson Pub., 1985).
As His followers, Christians are members of His kingdom, which is “not of this world.” We know that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). As a result, we “put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). We wage spiritual battle, but “the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world” (2 Corinthians 10:4). We “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). And we rest in the knowledge that our King gives us eternal life: “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17).
We are on earth for now, but our earthly lives are nothing but a vapor in comparison to eternity (James 4:14). “This world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). The sufferings and trials of this world are part of life. But, in remembering that we are “not of this world,” we know that such things are just for a little while (1 Peter 5:10). The knowledge that we are not of this world gives Christians hope even in the darkest times (1 Peter 1:6 –9). This broken place is not where we ultimately belong, and it is not where we will stay (Hebrews 13:14). “We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28).
Christians, as part of Jesus’ kingdom, are not of this world. We have been adopted as heirs of heaven by God Himself, and that is where our citizenship is (Titus 3:7). Until our King returns, we wait (Titus 2:13), and we hope (Romans 5:5), and we do what we can to bring others into the “not of this world” relationship with Jesus Christ. (Underscored emphasis added.)
Not only is a Kingdom of God in this world a gross violation of the Christian faith. It purposes to destroy the American constitution which promises the separation of Church and State. The Religious Right once concealed this purpose; but now openly advocate the union of Church and State. Christian Nationalism seizes on the sensitivity of "LGBTQ" rights to mask the reality that the basic issue is the constitutional guarantee of Separation of Church and State in the Civil Law of America:
Mike Johnson's Ties to Christian Nationalism Revealed
Newly elected U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on October 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Johnson's apparent advocacy of Christian nationalism has sparked concern after he was elected Speaker.
In an opinion piece for MSNBC, columnist Sarah Posner described Johnson as the "most unabashedly Christian nationalist Speaker" in history while noting the Republican previously worked as an attorney for the [Alliance Defending Freedom, formerly Alliance Defense Fund or ADF], a Christian advocacy group Posner described as having ambitions to "eviscerate the separation of church and state." . . .
In another post sharing a Politico article describing Johnson as the "social conservative's social conservative," Seidel wrote: "'Social conservative' is a self-destructive euphemism. There are more accurate terms like 'Christian Nationalist,' 'extremist,' 'anti-democracy election denier,' and 'authoritarian.'
Elsewhere, videos have emerged online which show Johnson appearing to dismiss that there needs to be a separation of church and state in the U.S.
In a 2016 interview, Johnson said: "What's happened over the last 60, 70 years is that our generation has been convinced that there's a separation of church and state, we hear that term all the time, and most people think that that's part of the constitution, but it's not."
In the same interview, Johnson said: "We don't live in a democracy because democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what's for dinner."
"It's not just majority rule," he said. "It's a constitutional republic. And the founders set that up because they followed the biblical admonition on what a civil society is supposed to look like."
Speaking on a 2022 podcast, Johnson suggested his own interpretation of what the need to separate the church and state entails.
"The founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around," Johnson said.
Democrats also look set to use Johnson's anti-abortion views as a wedge issue against the GOP in future elections now he has been elected Speaker.
"Mike Johnson is currently the cosponsor of at least three bills that would ban abortion nationwide," the campaign team for President Joe Biden posted on X on Wednesday morning ahead of the House Speaker vote.
"The founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around," Johnson said. . .
Speaking during his first run for congress in 2016, Johnson told the Louisiana Baptist Message: "I am a Christian, a husband, a father, a life-long conservative, constitutional law attorney and a small business owner in that order. And I think that order is important."
Johnson said it was his faith that pushed him to run for office.
"Some people are called to pastoral ministry and others to music ministry, etc. I was called to legal ministry and I've been out on the front lines of the 'culture war' defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they've been under assault," Johnson said.
Mike Johnson’s Christian nationalist track record isn’t a mystery — it’s a tragedy
No group has been more supportive of Donald Trump — and more likely to believe that the 2020 election was stolen — than Christian nationalists, who believe God wants the U.S. to be a promised land for their religion. Their champion may no longer be president, but, in Johnson, they now have a true believer second in line to the presidency. An enthusiastic backer of bogus legal theories seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the 51-year-old Johnson was first elected to the House in 2016. Before then, he cut his teeth trying to erode the separation of church and state and abortion and LGBTQ rights as a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund – the Christian right legal powerhouse now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom. . .
In her nominating speech for Johnson, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., invoked the biblical story of God commanding Samuel to anoint David king. Stefanik quoted from 1 Samuel 16:7, according to which God told Samuel that he looked not at appearances, but “at the heart.” Johnson, who Stefanik said “epitomizes what it means to be a servant leader,” was the choice, she implied, of Republicans who were following God’s direction in choosing him. Between the Bible talk and Johnson’s record, Republicans have made abundantly clear that they have emerged from the uncertainty and chaos of the last few weeks with one clear mission: to run a Christian nationalist House.
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE AND THE INFLUENCE OF ROME
The USA Is Neither a Theocracy Nor a ‘Christian’ Nation
We Are Not a 'Biblical Republic' as Speaker Johnson Wants Us to Think
The USA is certainly not a “Christian nation,” although it’s a great country filled with many sincere Christian believers.
Speaker Mike Johnson, the former president DJT, and many Republican Representatives do believe the contrary: that we are indeed a core Christian nation. Speaker Johnson delivered his opinion November 14 on CNBC’s Squawk Box, stressing that “The separation of church and state is a misnomer … People misunderstand it. Of course, it comes from a phrase that was in a letter that Jefferson wrote. It’s not in the Constitution.”
The First Amendment clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Johnson tries to deflect from this absolutely clear statement by criticizing an 1802 letter of President Jefferson. (Jefferson’s letter said the First Amendment builds “a wall of separation between Church & State” — as it does.) Styling himself as a Republican originalist, Speaker Johnson then needs to follow the First Amendment literally and not interpret the third President’s private letter for his own theocratic reasonings.
Some Christians in our country would like to change the Constitution’s commitment to the separation of Church and State. I have Christian friends who assert that the Constitution (1789-1791) created a “Christian nation” — what scholars would call a theocracy, such as Iran, India, and Israel have today. These “good” folk simply won’t accept that our revolutionary American government specifically rejected any state religion or overt religious principles in its three branches of government.
Theocracy would be in direct opposition to bedrock values of our Founding Fathers.
In addition to the First Amendment, we read Founding Father James Madison in The Federalist Papers (Number 52) strongly supporting the prohibition against any religious test for office. Madison wrote that “the door of government is open to merit of every description, without regard to any particular profession of religious faith.”
Furthermore, most of our Founding Fathers cherished their own private religious practice, whether Deist Christian, Christian, some other faith, or no faith. Speaker Johnson coyly points out this “wall of separation” was intended to protect the private practice of religion: Yes, this is true, but of all religions not simply Christianity. The Founders did believe that personal religious practice was more sincere and spiritual when religion never soiled itself in governing.
Our Founding Fathers carefully chose not to use the terms Christian or Jesus or New Testament in the Constitution when they easily could have. Prominent Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who died in 1971, carefully wrote that “We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate.” A “theocratic state” by definition has no wall between organized religion and government.
Emphatically no, then, we are not a “Biblical Republic” as Speaker Johnson and others want us to think. Praying on your knees in the House of Representatives also doesn’t make us a Christian nation, Mr. Johnson.
Our wise Founding Fathers honestly believed that the private practices of whatever (religious) faith one has are the most free and salutary method of worship. It follows then that whenever power and money come into Religion, genuine spiritual practice and deep religious spirit dissipate.
Keep religious belief truly free and pure, Mr. Johnson, by keeping “god” out of government but close to individual hearts.
We sustain a healthy democracy by not letting organized religion into government. Bringing in a theocracy, as some GOP leaders seek to do today with their “Biblical Republic”’” talk, is a recipe for disaster. Look at Iran, look at the extreme rightwing theocratic leadership of Israel, look at theocratic Hamas — how are their religion-infused theocratic politics helping their peoples? (Underscored emphasis added; italics in the original)
Here’s Why Mike Johnson Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump
CHRISTOFACISM
The former president only cares about himself. The new Speaker of the House actually wants to make America a Christian theocracy.
The most dangerous movement in American politics today is not Trumpism. It is Christofascism. With the election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the organized effort to impose the extreme religious views of a minority of Americans on the entire country, at the expense of many of our most basic freedoms, took a disturbing step forward.
Despite Speaker Johnson’s claims of being a constitutional “originalist,” via his elevation by a unanimous vote of his Republican colleagues he has moved America closer to having precisely the kind of government America’s founders most feared.
Thomas Jefferson said he viewed with “solemn reverence that act of the whole of the American people” which established “a wall of separation between church and state.” George Washington approved a treaty that explicitly stated, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” The very First Amendment in America’s Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, in his treatise, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” described 15 reasons why the U.S. government must avoid backing any religion.
There is a reason the word “God” does not appear a single time in the Constitution. The founders were breaking with an England and Europe that were still in the thrall of the idea that rulers derived their powers from heaven above, “the divine right of kings.” But in the Constitution it explicitly states their view that the powers of government are derived “from the consent of the governed.”
Jefferson—like Washington, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe—was a practitioner of deism, a view founded in the idea that the Supreme Being created the universe and then essentially took a step back, leaving natural laws to operate on their own. They believed religion should be a matter that was entirely between individuals and their God, and that it should play no role in governance. . .
...Madison said that “religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together” and saw the separation of the two as essential to avoiding “the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries”—a sentiment that clearly resonates with our own times. Washington celebrated that the U.S. had at last created a form of government “that gives to bigotry no sanction.” Benjamin Franklin wrote at length about the pernicious nature of religious tests in government documents.
The Speaker of the House has radically different views. He represents a movement that is actively seeking to institutionalize the religious beliefs of evangelical Christians into law.
In fact, even as we see with chilling clarity how those with a similar motive have sought to infuse the law with their religious beliefs on the Supreme Court and in state capitals across the country, Johnson may be the most extreme example of a dangerously empowered religious fanatic in our recent history—and yes, I remember that Mike Pence was, not so long ago, the Vice President of the United States.
The term Christofascism may seem inflammatory. It is not. It is intended to provide the most accurate possible definition of what Johnson and those in his movement wish to achieve. Like other fascists they seek to impose by whatever means necessary their views on the whole of society even if that means undoing established laws and eliminating accepted freedoms. Christofascists do so in the name of advancing their Christian ideology, asserting that all in society must be guided by their views and values whether they adhere to them or not. (Underscored emphasis added)
This article documents astoundingly blasphemous and sacrilegious statements of founders such as Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, which have been excluded from the above quotation; although they are the strongest evidence against the religio-political propagandists. Nevertheless, those statements which are included in the quotation are not open to misinterpretation. They are very clear and unambiguous. The United States was not founded as a Christian nation.
No Wonder Donald Trump Loves Mike Johnson
There were so many chilling moments on Wednesday around the ascension—or, as he himself phrased it, the “raising up” by God—of Rep. Mike Johnson to speaker of the House of Representatives. There was his claim that “I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority.” There was his weird and inscrutable explanation that his wife was not present in the chamber because she was “worn out” from the many weeks she had just spent on her knees in prayer to the Lord. There was his now-infamous taped insistence that the United States is “not a democracy,” having defined democracy as “two wolves and a lamb deciding what is for dinner.” Rather, Johnson insisted, we are a “constitutional republic” set up by the founders based on a “biblical admonition.”
“The founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around,” Johnson had said, during a September 2022 episode of his conservative Christian podcast, echoing the fabrications of debunked faux-historian David Barton and other religious zealots who have only ever read the parts of the First Amendment, and constitutional history, with which they agree. None of this is historically accurate or even remotely factually true, as David Rothkopf points out here [See The USA Is Neither a Theocracy Nor a ‘Christian’ Nation above.] But for those like Johnson and his former confederates at the Alliance Defending Freedom, where he worked before being elected to Congress, claims that there are broad Christian roots for the founding documents, and distortions of the intentions of the Framers are central to the legal and constitutional push for sectarian theocratic ends. Ultimately, if you believe and disseminate one “big lie,” why not believe and press them all? . . .(Underscored emphasis added.)
Now, let us consider the most important driver of the culture wars. It is a notorious fact that the Roman Catholic Church is the most prominent opponent of abortion. The history spans centuries of Roman Catholic dogma; but only in the recent history of right-wing Protestant Evangelicals. Mike Johnson has been thoroughly indoctrinated by the alliance of Roman Catholics and right-wing apostate Evangelicals:
REP. MIKE JOHNSON PREDICTS SUPREME COURT WILL OVERTURN ROE V. WADE
“You’re going to have a division in the country, you’re literally going to have pro-life and pro-death states,” Johnson told a group of GOP activists.
IN A CLOSED-DOOR meeting with a group of activists in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., expressed his confidence that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett would help Republicans make good on their long-sought effort to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Johnson’s remarks, which were recorded by advocacy journalist Lauren Windsor of The Undercurrent were part of a daylong conference presented by Patriot Voices. Other Republican speakers that day included Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; Gary Palmer, R-Ala.; and Jim Banks, R-Ind.
Johnson has long stumped for Barrett, whom he’s known for 30 years, having voiced his support for her nomination to the Supreme Court in 2020. “I’ve known Amy Coney Barrett since high school. We go way, way back,” Johnson told the attendees. “And I was one of the guys pushing Trump really, really hard to put her on the court.”
Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court in October 2020 solidified conservatives’ majority on the nation’s highest court. She believes in an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, much in the image of late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“If you look at [Roe] from the originalist perspective, which all of [the conservative Justices] are now espousing, you know, it’s indefensible,” said Johnson, who since 2016 has served as vice chair of the House Republican Conference, the GOP caucus responsible for communicating the party’s message to members of the House. “And it goes back to the states, and then we have the real battle, because states like Louisiana, we have it in our state constitution that if the decision returns to the states, we’re a 100 percent pro-life state.” . . . (Underscored emphasis added.)
The "pro-life" movement should have set alarm bells ringing for Seventh-day Adventists. The reasons for Rome's activism are not biblical, but based on multiple theological dogmas, against one of which in particular Ellen G. White specifically warned, in conjunction with the enforcement of the false Sabbath:
THE ROOT OF THE ABORTION CONTROVERSY
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gen. 2:7. . .
Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul, and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of Spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of Spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience. {GC88 588.1}(Bold emphasis added.)
The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul is one error with which the enemy is deceiving man. This error is well-nigh universal. But who told men that they would not die? Who told them that God has reserved a portion of his universe where the wicked are to suffer through the ceaseless ages of eternity, without a particle of hope?—It was the serpent. God said that sinners would die. Satan declares that they will not die. Many believe the oft-repeated lies of the serpent to be genuine truth. They echo his words when they assert that God has ordained that sin shall be immortalized in a place of torment. {RH March 16, 1897, par. 3}
This is one of the lies forged in the synagogue of the enemy, one of the poisonous drafts of Babylon. “All nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” {RH March 16, 1897, par. 4}
The fallen denominational churches are Babylon. Babylon has been fostering poisonous doctrines, the wine of error. This wine of error is made up of false doctrines, such as the natural immortality of the soul, the eternal torment of the wicked, the denial of the pre-existence of Christ prior to His birth in Bethlehem, and advocating and exalting the first day of the week above God’s holy and sanctified day.—Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 61. {1NL 52.2}
THE ROOT OF THE ABORTION CONTROVERSY is recommended as a full exposition of the topic. The above quotations are confined to the fact that Ellen G. White has alerted us that the immortality of the soul ranks equally with the Sabbath in testing our loyalty to God. It is that serious.
This website has published copious documentation of the clearest evidence that Rome's strident promotion of the so-called pro-life movement is based on the dogma of the immortality of the soul. Thus, Ellen G. White's warning applies. Strangely, the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has not perceived the application in their recent decision to join the movement.
It can be stated categorically that the anti-abortion crusade is also a blatant violation of the Constitution's Separation of Church and State, which has always been anathema to the Church of Rome.
The evidence shows that Mike Johnson's convictions derive not only from his place in the Christian Nationalist camp; but also from friendship with the most recent doctrinaire Roman Catholic appointee to the US Supreme Court:
Johnson Applauds Senate Confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court
BOSSIER, La. – U.S. Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04) today released the following statement after the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Supreme Court:
“What a joy it is to now be able to refer to my dear friend as ‘Justice Amy Coney Barrett’. As everyone now knows, she has all the qualities that America needs and deserves in a Supreme Court justice. She will serve with honor and distinction, and she will build an extraordinary legacy. As I reminded her in a text this weekend, while God has used her to uplift and inspire an entire nation-- no one is more proud of her than the good people of her home state." (Underscored emphasis added.)
The newest Supreme Court Justice isn’t just another conservative—she’s the product of a Christian legal movement that is intent on remaking America.
In 2006, Barrett signed her name to an ad declaring that it was “time to put an end to the barbaric legacy of Roe v. Wade.”
On December 1st, the Supreme Court had its day of oral argument in a landmark abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, brought by the State of Mississippi. It was the first case that the Court had taken in thirty years in which the petitioners were explicitly asking the Justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, and its successor, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed that decision in 1992. If anyone needed a reminder that, whatever the Justices decide in Dobbs, it will not reconcile the American divide over abortion, the chaotic scene outside the Court made it clear. . .
The day was sunny and mild, and though some of these demonstrators offered the usual angry admonishments—“God is going to punish you, murderer!” a man with a megaphone declaimed—most members of the anti-abortion contingent seemed buoyant. Busloads of students from Liberty University, an evangelical college in Lynchburg, Virginia, snapped selfies in their matching red-white-and-blue jackets. Penny Nance, the head of the conservative group Concerned Women for America, exclaimed, “This is our moment! This is why we’ve marched all these years!”
A major reason for Nance’s optimism was the presence on the bench of Amy Coney Barrett, the former Notre Dame law professor and federal-court judge whom President Donald Trump had picked to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on September 18, 2020. With the help of Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, Trump had accelerated Barrett’s nomination process, and the Senate confirmed her just a week before the 2020 Presidential election. As a candidate in the 2016 election, Trump had vowed to appoint Justices who would overturn Roe, and as President he had made it a priority to stock the judiciary with conservative judges—especially younger ones. . .
Trump made three Supreme Court appointments, and Neil Gorsuch (forty-nine when confirmed) and Brett Kavanaugh (fifty-three) were the youngest of the nine Justices until Barrett was sworn in, at the age of forty-eight. Her arrival gave the conservative wing of the Court a 6–3 supermajority—an imbalance that won’t be altered by the recent news that one of the three liberal Justices, Stephen Breyer, is retiring.
Barrett has a hard-to-rattle temperament. A fitness enthusiast seemingly blessed with superhuman energy, she is rearing seven children with her husband, Jesse Barrett, a former prosecutor now in private practice. At her confirmation hearings, she dressed with self-assurance—a fitted magenta dress; a ladylike skirted suit in unexpected shades of purple—and projected an air of decorous, almost serene diligence. Despite her pro-forma circumspection, her answers on issues from guns to climate change left little doubt that she would feel at home on a Court that is more conservative than it’s been in decades. Yet she also represented a major shift. Daniel Bennett, a professor at John Brown University, a Christian college in Arkansas, who studies the intersection of faith and politics, told me that Barrett is “more embedded in the conservative Christian legal movement than any Justice we’ve ever had.” Outside the Court, Nance emphasized this kinship, referring to Barrett as “Sister Amy, on the inside.” . . .(Underscored emphasis added)
This article continues with a very lengthy and comprehensive examination of Amy Barrett's life and career in harmony with its title. Though appropriate in the context, the narrative is not necessary to establish the connection between Barrett and Mike Johnson in this paper. This is central, and advances corroboration of the influence of Rome in shaping his religio-political views.
The Bible proves conclusively that the Church of Rome is Satan's representative body in this world. Revelation 13 depicts the first of two beasts as that representative body. The second beast is clearly identifiable as America, which was established as a majority Protestant nation of a Calvinist persuasion. The Calvinist persuasion is significant in the context of America also being indentified as the False Prophet. In fact parallel histories confirm the identification.
Revelation 13 predicts a merger of interests between the papacy and America as the False Prophet. The latter deceives the nation into setting up an Image to the beast for the worship of Rome by the whole world, except God's Remnant who are not deceived:
EXEGESIS OF REVELATION - The Beast and the False Prophet (Part 2)
In the Twelfth Chapter of Revelation, John heard a "Woe" pronounced on "the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea." In the Thirteenth Chapter, two "beasts" are seen, one rising "up out of the sea," and the other "coming up out of the earth." (vs. 1, 11) These two beasts are related in the text to the dragon. One receives "his power, and his seat, and great authority" directly from the dragon (v. 2). The other, "spake as a dragon" and exercised "all the authority of the first beast," which authority had been given it by the dragon. (vs. 11-12). . .
The second beast came "up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." (13:11) Two things of importance need to be noted. The prophetic symbolism does not connect this beast with the other beasts - there is no common denominator, the multiple heads or horns which mark the other beast symbols are missing. Only two horns are noted. No prophetic or literal time factors are associated with this second beast. He doesn't speak as "the dragon," but simply "as a dragon."" His two horns are like the horns of a lamb." The symbolism combines the two representations which in Chapter 12 are pictured as in deadly conflict, the dragon and the Lamb.
This beast "exerciseth all the power (authority - exousia) of the first beast." . . .
In determining the identity of this "beast power," we have given it two identifications, the United States and Apostate Protestantism. In the transitional verses from the first beast to the second, is found the dictum - "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity." This is interpreted as having been fulfilled in taking the Pope captive, and by declaring the government of the Papacy at an end in 1798, thus concluding the 1260 prophetic days. It was at this time, as the Papacy ceased its domination over "the kings of the earth," that the United States came into existence as a nation - "coming up out of the earth." However, to so interpret, excludes the identification as Protestantism, because Protestantism arose in the area prophetically identified as "the sea," and over two hundreds years before the downfall of the Pope. We can respond that it is Apostate Protestantism that is being identified since the symbol is termed, "the false prophet." If this be so, then one must ask, "When did Protestantism become apostate?" To this, we have responded that this state resulted from the rejection of the First Angel's Message. And textually the First Angel's Message is placed in the setting of this prophetic revelation to John, with the Second Angel proclaiming the fall of Babylon, of which the "false prophet" is one part. (Rev. 16:13, 19)
In recognizing this "beast" as a religious power we must also recognize two other factors of prophecy. 1) As noted above, the prophetic emphasis in Revelation 13 is on the activities of the "false prophet" after the "deadly wound was healed." This extends the time element for the main thrust of "apostate" Protestantism well over 100 years from the above date (1844) set for its inception. 2) This religious force causes the "image" to be formed. (13:14) The "image" to the first beast would be religio-political even as the Papacy was and is. It must also be understood, that this "religious" power says to those "that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast." This clearly indicates that the political power through which the "image" will be formed is democratic, the electorate is asked to grant the authority. But the "life" of this image is given to it by the "false prophet." (13:15)
Penalties for failure to come into line are twofold: 1) The "false prophet" initiates economic sanctions (13:16-17). 2) The created "image" of the union of church and state - issues the death decree (13:15). . . (Underscored emphasis added.)
The foregoing is from a Bible study of Elder Wm. H. Grotheer. The following is from one of the study papers published by this website:
"CYRUS" "THE ONE CHOSEN BY GOD" IS DETHRONED BUT CAESAR IS STILL ON HIS THRONE AND FULL OF GUILE
The Beast
and the False Prophet are clearly defined in the Bible. The
historical record in
The
As prominent leaders, the personal identities of Amy Coney Barrett and Mike Johnson have prophetic significance. As a Roman Catholic she is identified with the first beast, and empowered as one of the six right-wing Catholics controlling America's Supreme Court. As a dedicated Christian Nationalist committed to transforming America into a theocracy he is now third in line to the presidency. Whether or not the final push into theocracy will see either or both of them in a prominent role, the reality is that for some reason the array of religio-political organizations pursuing this objective have set their sights on the years 2024-2025. One of them is the Heritage Foundation:
Tell Republican presidential candidates Reject the Christian-nationalist "Project 2025"
Religious-right activists and donors are already planning the details of a potential Trump or DeSantis White House.
Unbelievably, even after January 6 and a spate of destructive Supreme Court decisions, they still don't think Trump's first term did enough to dismantle democracy or enact a Christian-nationalist theocracy.
So a coalition of far-right groups called Project 2025 -- led by the Heritage Foundation -- has published a detailed government playbook for a potential future Republican president to start expanding authoritarian power on day one.
The 1,000-page Christian-nationalist manual contains step-by-step instructions for a new administration to take revenge on political opponents, destroy the independence of federal agencies, eliminate the Department of Education, overturn the New Deal, and institute a so-called "biblically based" government to discriminate against LGBTQ people, women, non-Christians, and people of color.
Project 2025 would require that the government adopt an anti-LGBTQ, "biblically based definition of marriage and family." Its plan would exempt churches -- not all religious institutions, but specifically churches -- from public health requirements. Perhaps the most frightening part is a directive to convert thousands of civil servants into political appointees, leaving government employees with no legal protections if they don't toe the Christian-nationalist line.
For all its talk of Biblical values, Project 2025 couldn't be farther from Jesus' teachings of love, equality, and peace. Let's make it clear that a nationwide movement of Christians rejects this theocratic, Christian-nationalist blueprint -- and that we expect presidential candidates to join us.
This anti-theocracy organization includes Roman Catholics. To the reader who is surprised, "Americanism" is another topic that does not fall within the scope of this study paper. However, here is a link to the subject.
Watchfulness will probably reveal how much nearer to the end 2025 will bring us, while we also follow events in Palestine for the fulfillment of Dan. 11:45.
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (Rev. 19:20 (KJV))