{"id":2432,"date":"2018-07-25T04:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/?p=2432"},"modified":"2018-07-24T19:09:35","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T23:09:35","slug":"the-bilderberg-group-cant-save-evangelicalism-janet-mefferd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/christianity\/the-bilderberg-group-cant-save-evangelicalism-janet-mefferd\/","title":{"rendered":"THE BILDERBERG GROUP CAN\u2019T SAVE EVANGELICALISM – JANET MEFFERD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Elites from across the spectrum of the industry gathered behind closed doors at an invite-only meeting this week, on a prestigious campus of higher learning.<\/p>\n

On the agenda: Well, you\u2019re not important enough to know all those details, other than to understand that the gathering was an outlet to address \u201cchallenges\u201d and certainly was not organized with anything anti-Trump in mind.<\/p>\n

In fact, organizers said that some unidentified Trump voters (who regretted their votes?) were allowed to mingle at this confab with the Important, Respectable Elites, those of Measured Tones, Nuance and Gospel Reason.<\/p>\n

Who knew evangelicalism had its own Bilderberg Group?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not entirely fair to say, of course, since it seems no plan for a one-world government was discussed, nor was the Chatham House Rule fully imposed at the meeting of 50 prominent evangelical \u201cthought leaders\u201d at Wheaton College.<\/p>\n

We know from The Christian Post, for example, that attendees included Tim Keller, co-founder of The Gospel Coalition; Fuller Seminary president Mark Labberton; Gabriel Salguero of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition; and Trillia Newbell of the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, among others.<\/p>\n

We also know who wasn\u2019t invited: prominent evangelical Trump supporters like Franklin Graham of Samaritan\u2019s Purse; Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas; and Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University.<\/p>\n

Prior to the gathering, Doug Birdsall of the Lausanne Movement told The Christian Post: \u201cI have been in touch with two of their offices with a desire to engage in a meaningful conversation. I don\u2019t think they are globally perceived as evangelical thought leaders by virtue of what they have written or by virtue of the values that are reflected in their public statements.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not globally perceived as evangelical thought leaders?<\/em>\u00a0Sure, the son of Billy Graham, who is known internationally for his evangelism and relief work, is just small potatoes, right? The senior pastor of one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in America, a Trump adviser and an internationally known speaker for a large media ministry \u2014 a big nothing, y\u2019all. And who cares what the president of the largest Christian university in the U.S. thinks about anything?<\/p>\n

Translation: Those Trump guys are just an embarrassment to \u201cour\u201d movement. The \u201ccrazy uncles\u201d you hide in the closet when company comes. And we\u2019ll just pretend that 80% of white evangelicals didn\u2019t vote for Trump, while we\u2019re at it. It\u2019s just downright humiliating to have to acknowledge any institutional attachment to these \u2013 well, we won\u2019t call them mouth-breathers, but \u2014 understated thinkers who voted for Trump, right?\u00a0They\u2019re not globally perceived as thought leaders!<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, though. Dallas Theological Seminary professor Dr. Darrell Bock assured evangelicals after the meeting that it wasn\u2019t \u201canti-anything\u201d and certainly not \u201canti-Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s assess some of the \u201cnon-anti-anything-or-anti-Trump\u201d content from this purported \u201cevangelical consultation,\u201d as live-tweeted by writer and speaker Katelyn Beaty:<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cAmerican evangelicalism has not been able to separate itself from the perks of white supremacy<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 Pastor Charlie Dates, Progressive Baptist Church of Chicago<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cHow could white Christians mourn the deaths of the Charleston Nine but politically support a presidential candidate who appeals to the ideology held by the Charleston murderer?<\/em>\u201d \u2013 Bishop Claude Alexander, senior pastor of The Park Church<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cAs the country has become more polarized, the church has become more polarized, and that\u2019s because the church is not different enough from America or from modernity. There\u2019s now a red and blue evangelicalism<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 Tim Keller, co-founder of The Gospel Coalition<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cWe need to evaluate whether our institutions and churches are safe places, in terms of mental health and spiritual health, for African-Americans<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 Trillia Newbell of the ERLC<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cAll power must be reframed in the light of the cross. An evangelical dance with political power, the Religious Right, the Tea Party, and now Trump \u2026 is central to our failure. Winning power was Judas\u2019s goal, not Jesus\u2019s<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Seminary<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cWe were taught to become like you [American Christians], and now we have our own Trump: Jair Bolsonaro<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 Brazilian church leader Valdir Steuernagel<\/p>\n

This is \u201cglobally perceived evangelical thought leadership,\u201d eh? No wonder the doors were closed!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it: The same group of perceived-as-Trump-hating progressives are on a constant Important Conference prowl, continually gathering to navel-gaze, pontificate, genuflect before each other\u2019s brilliance, insult their detractors and talk about how glad they are that they\u2019re not like Trump voters or \u2014 God forbid \u2014 those embarrassing, compromised, hayseed leaders of the Religious Right.<\/p>\n

I wonder:<\/p>\n

During this \u201cconsultation,\u201d was there any extended, intercessory prayer offered for President Trump, for his personal repentance and salvation? For the safety of his family? For the wisdom he needs to lead our country? I Timothy 2 tells us: \u201cI urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people\u2014 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior ..<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Was there any intercessary prayer offered for conservative evangelicals, either leaders or laymen? Any loving petitions made for our growth in and faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Colossae? \u201cWe have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was there any point in this \u201cconsultation\u201d in which all these people got on their knees and repented for their own sins of unnecessarily politicizing evangelicalism, causing unwanted and ungodly division and demonizing their enemies, when the Bible tells us to love and pray for one another? 2 Thess. 1:3: \u201cWe ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did anyone stand up at this gathering and say out loud, \u201cGuys, I know we all agree on the evils of Trump and those white supremacist evangelicals who don\u2019t want unvetted Muslim immigrants flooding across our borders and all that, but we\u2019re also never going to have unity in the Body of Christ if we keep excluding and berating those we regard as our intellectual, political and spiritual inferiors. Do you think they might see some problems in evangelicalism that we can\u2019t see because we only hang out with and listen to our own? Shouldn\u2019t we love those with whom we disagree, and shouldn\u2019t we all rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ and work together to make disciples of all nations, loving and praying for each other?\u201d<\/p>\n

I hope someone said that. I also hope this group prayed for President Trump and for all evangelicals, conservative Trump advisers and voters included, just as conservatives need to pray for the organizers and attendees at this Wheaton gathering. I hope they repented of their own sin, just as we conservatives need to repent of ours. That would be a healthy start.<\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t helping is this whole Bilderberg Group mentality. The self-appointed elites will privately meet at an invite-only \u201cconsultation\u201d to figure out what\u2019s wrong with us mouth-breathers, and neither we nor our preferred pastors or leaders are allowed to weigh in. They will decide the direction evangelicalism should go, behind closed doors. They will determine which political issues to emphasize (always those of the Left). And they alone will attempt to be the media representatives of evangelicalism (gotta love that Washington Post!) to push their agenda. They will decide who is in, who is out, who is learned, who\u2019s an idiot, who is Important, who is Passe.<\/p>\n

This is not the way it is supposed to work. I\u2019m not against Christian meetings, even private ones. I\u2019m not against strategizing, and I\u2019m not against conferences. What I oppose is this nose-in-the-air, cool-kid-clique elitism that is more Bilderberg than biblical.<\/p>\n

What is wrong with evangelicalism? At root, I think we\u2019re tragically drifted away from our first love, the Lord Jesus Christ. Consequently, we\u2019re spiritually weak and very, very worldly. And it shows.<\/p>\n

Call me antiquated, but whatever happened to caring about lost souls? Do we weep over those who are going to hell and proclaim Jesus Christ to them? Because I don\u2019t hear too many \u201cglobally perceived thought leaders\u201d in this crowd talking very much about that, except as a subject of intellectual pondering.<\/p>\n

How about the importance of Christians reading and studying their Bibles every day and having a daily devotional time? Any \u201cglobally perceived thought leaders\u201d worried about the loss of that once-widely practiced daily activity among evangelicals, who are rapidly becoming biblically illiterate?<\/p>\n

Are we engaging in regular times of both personal and corporate prayer \u2014 the ol\u2019 prayer meeting; remember that? \u2014 for our churches, our pastors and our congregations?<\/p>\n

Does personal holiness matter if politics are left off the table? Are the fruits of the Spirit important?<\/p>\n

Are we willing to sacrifice everything we are and everything we have for Christ, regardless of Title IX, pushback from sexual radicals or losing worldly regard from our think-tank buddies?<\/p>\n

No, the Bilderberg Group \u2014 or those who behave in ways similar to it \u2014 can\u2019t save evangelicalism. Only Jesus Christ can do that.<\/p>\n

Remember Him?<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Picture from Wheaton College web search.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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