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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/01/20/god-is-not-against-building-walls-the-sermon-donald-trump-heard-before-his-inauguration/‘God is not against building walls!’ The sermon Trump heard from Robert Jeffress before his inauguration.
Donald Trump heard a sermon Friday morning from a Southern Baptist pastor who has history of inflammatory remarks about Muslims, Mormons, Catholics and gays.
The sermon was delivered by Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, who compared Trump to the story of the biblical leader Nehemiah who helped rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its walls after the people of Judah had been exiled from the land of Israel.
Israel had been in bondage for decades, Jeffress explained, and the infrastructure of the country was in shambles, and God did not choose a politician or a priest but chose a builder instead. The first step of rebuilding the nation, Jeffress said, was the building of a wall around Jerusalem to protect its citizens from enemy attack.
“You see, God is not against building walls,” Jeffress said in his sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in D.C.
Nehemiah, according to the biblical account, completed the project in 52 days. Why was Nehemiah so successful in building the wall and rebuilding the nation? Jeffress said that Nehemiah refused to allow his critics to distract him, noting how some people still don’t believe Trump will succeed in his agenda.
Nehemiah, Jeffress said, had two antagonists named Sanballat and Tobiah. “They were the mainstream media of their day,” he said. “They continued to hound and heckle Nehemiah and spread false rumors while he and the Israelites were building the wall.”
Donald Trump heard a sermon Friday morning from a Southern Baptist pastor who has history of inflammatory remarks about Muslims, Mormons, Catholics and gays.
The sermon was delivered by Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, who compared Trump to the story of the biblical leader Nehemiah who helped rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its walls after the people of Judah had been exiled from the land of Israel.
Israel had been in bondage for decades, Jeffress explained, and the infrastructure of the country was in shambles, and God did not choose a politician or a priest but chose a builder instead. The first step of rebuilding the nation, Jeffress said, was the building of a wall around Jerusalem to protect its citizens from enemy attack.
“You see, God is not against building walls,” Jeffress said in his sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in D.C.
Nehemiah, according to the biblical account, completed the project in 52 days. Why was Nehemiah so successful in building the wall and rebuilding the nation? Jeffress said that Nehemiah refused to allow his critics to distract him, noting how some people still don’t believe Trump will succeed in his agenda.
Nehemiah, Jeffress said, had two antagonists named Sanballat and Tobiah. “They were the mainstream media of their day,” he said. “They continued to hound and heckle Nehemiah and spread false rumors while he and the Israelites were building the wall.”
Donald Trump heard a sermon Friday morning from a Southern Baptist pastor who has history of inflammatory remarks about Muslims, Mormons, Catholics and gays.
The sermon was delivered by Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, who compared Trump to the story of the biblical leader Nehemiah who helped rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its walls after the people of Judah had been exiled from the land of Israel.
Israel had been in bondage for decades, Jeffress explained, and the infrastructure of the country was in shambles, and God did not choose a politician or a priest but chose a builder instead. The first step of rebuilding the nation, Jeffress said, was the building of a wall around Jerusalem to protect its citizens from enemy attack.
“You see, God is not against building walls,” Jeffress said in his sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in D.C.
Nehemiah, according to the biblical account, completed the project in 52 days. Why was Nehemiah so successful in building the wall and rebuilding the nation? Jeffress said that Nehemiah refused to allow his critics to distract him, noting how some people still don’t believe Trump will succeed in his agenda.
Nehemiah, Jeffress said, had two antagonists named Sanballat and Tobiah. “They were the mainstream media of their day,” he said. “They continued to hound and heckle Nehemiah and spread false rumors while he and the Israelites were building the wall.”
Jeffress sermon seems, on the one hand, to be encouraging Trump’s hubris, said Daniel Silliman, a a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the history department at the University of Notre Dame. On the other hand, Jeffress was trying to direct him towards spiritual humility.
Evangelist Billy Graham’s consistent advice to presidents was that they should pray and take comfort in the knowledge so many people are praying for them, something President Reagan took seriously. Edward L.R. Elson, the minister of the National Presbyterian Church in D.C. who baptized President Eisenhower after he was elected, made a similar point that he needed to turn to a higher power.
But Jeffress’s sermon was pretty political compared to those who have preceded him, Silliman said. “With the Daniel citation, Jeffress suggests God (like the people who supported Trump) is waiting to see if he delivers on his campaign promises,” Silliman said. “There’s less emphasis on loving mercy and walking humbly before God and more on building the wall.”
Following the example of President Obama and George W. Bush before him, Trump attended the private service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, which is near the White House. The morning worship service on Inauguration Day tradition began with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.
Jeffress has said in the past that Obama paved the way for the antichrist. He drew wide attention when he condemned Mormonism as a “cult,” telling Christians not to vote for Mitt Romney during the 2012 Republican primary (though he later support Romney over Obama in the general election). Jeffress has also said Islam is an “evil religion,” that the Catholic Church was led astray by Satan and that gays live a “miserable” and “filthy” lifestyle.
His remarks have led even some in his own denomination to decry him. Trump’s inauguration organizers chose Jeffress to preach, according to CNN. During the inauguration, five pastors and one rabbi will deliver prayers and readings.(if you want to read the sermon's text, you can go to the webpage above ... this post is long enough as it is already)
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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George
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