Imprecatory Prayers and Biden

https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2022/2/9/maybe-angry-christians-should-try-chanting-pray-for-biden-instead-of-lets-go-brandon

I wish to extend a 'thank you' to Terry Mattingly for publishing this. I don't always agree with him but I appreciate his thoughtfulness and in this case he's one of the few voices that's pleading for a bit of reflection – perhaps before some very terrible lines are crossed.

It is encouraging to know there are at least some people who realize that regardless of whether they approve of Joe Biden or not, the "Let's Go Brandon" phenomenon is completely out of line and Christians who embrace this talk and the ethos behind it – are in sin. Peter would say they are using their 'liberty' as a cloak for maliciousness.

The Evangelicals and other professed Christians who have taken up the Trumpian ethos and have fallen into obscenity in both word and deed demonstrate their singular lack of faith. When the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul informs us the powers that be are ordained by God, this group won't have it. The fact that it was written while Nero was Caesar – a man's who wickedness makes Biden look like a boy scout, is a point that's lost on them. And why shouldn't that surprise us? Their whole being, their whole emphasis, their goals and the means by which they pursue them are not just outside of Scripture or pursuing some kind of misguided parallel path. No, they're anti-Scripture. Their ethic is not Christ-like. We need to be candid – they are the children of Lamech and their clergy are modern day Balaam's.

We're told to pray for leaders and at one time churches did this. They prayed even for leaders they didn't particularly care for. But then in the 1990's through the influence of the Theonomic sect, imprecatory prayers made their way into Christian practice. Divorcing these inspired curses uttered by the psalmists from their Old Covenantal and Christocentric-typological context, the imprecations were taken up by pastors and I remember the scandal surrounding preachers calling upon God to strike Bill Clinton dead.

It generated a debate but there shouldn't have been one. The New Testament is clear and helps us to understand the context of those psalms. We also understand by means of the preceding passage that is closely wed to what we call Romans 13 that the seeking of vengeance is not in our calling. We are called to die to self, die daily, take up the cross and bear witness. It is Christ who will at His Second Coming bring judgment and vengeance and strike down the forces of evil in the world. Sin will be purged and the inspired judgments seen in the Old Testament – whether imprecatory psalms, the conquest of Canaan, or the destruction of Jerusalem were all typological events, anticipating the Day of the Lord.

To employ imprecatory psalms and view them as normative for Church life and liturgy is to misread the Bible and force the New Testament into a Judaized paradigm. They are as out of place in New Testament worship and thought as animal sacrifice, cities of refuge, or kosher laws.

And so it's no surprise that twenty-some years later the use of imprecatory psalms has experienced the same kind of degeneration and decadence we've seen at work in the culture and the Church. Today, there's no pretense of prayer (though I'm sure some still do employ the imprecatory psalms), but today it's much simpler. These 'Christians' simply curse Biden in the crudest form.

And the handful of men who dare to speak up and call this evil, faithless, and God-dishonouring practice out  - are themselves subject to attack and defamation.

To argue that Let's Go Brandon is an acceptable and clean alternative to F--- Joe Biden is to engage in sophistry. The meaning is the same. It's not the phonetic vocalisations that count but the spirit behind them. The words themselves are nothing. It's how they're used. And so we see the empty ethics of Evangelicalism (and its unfamiliarity with the New Testament) once more on display. How many Evangelicals have I interacted with that have filthy mouths but would deny it? They oft employ the idiomatic adjective 'freakin' to this or that. They might as well just say the notorious 'F' word – because in reality they are already saying it in their hearts. People that think 'Gosh Darnit or Dangit' is somehow exempt from being blasphemous are only fooling themselves. It may sound more polite but it's not. We're supposed to talk differently. Maybe I'm crazy, but I seem to remember something about taming the tongue.

And thus those who think Let's Go Brandon is okay because it avoids the actual swear-words are utterly deceived. I cannot believe I keep hearing this ridiculous argument! Their ethics are bankrupt and as far as the larger society – everyone knows what they mean. It's also a display of immaturity on multiple levels. It's immature thinking as well as just plain juvenile, the kind of humour you'd expect from twelve year old boys.

Shame on them.

Since when is turnabout fair play for Christians? The people who think this way, the people who want to 'own the libs' only demonstrate one thing – they're ignorant of the Scriptures and what they teach. Their Christianity is a social construct, a false faith that will send them straight to hell.

It's funny, but when you adopt New Testament thinking and values you consequently live as a pilgrim and frankly it doesn't really matter who the president of the United States is. They're all evil and the idea that I would get behind any of them is ridiculous. Was Tiglath-Pileser better than Sennacherib?

Oh, but America is a Christian country someone will argue. A ridiculous notion as there's no such thing. The very suggestion is an oxymoron. The statement when evaluated both in theological and historical terms and regardless of what is meant by it (for there is a spectrum to be sure) is false.

At best (and this is to stretch the concepts) we could say this – one president is Jeroboam and another is Omri. They're functional apostates that represent a heretical structure that mimics and attempts to parallel the Church at points. It must be rejected. Like Elisha said when speaking to Jehoram, king of Israel, "What have I to do with thee?"

The Christianity of the American Presidents and the civil religion of the United States have nothing to do with New Testament Christianity or Christ's Kingdom – no more than the altars at Dan and Bethel had anything to do with the God-ordained altar at Jerusalem. Christian America and its civil religion are at best a counterfeit form of Christianity. At worst, they represent sheer heresy and syncretism.

It's interesting that Seth Carter (the interviewed pastor in the article) and others like him fall under attack and yet they're nowhere near to the position I'm arguing for. Nevertheless they are met with rank hostility. A new type of Christian has emerged in recent years – or rather a new type of counterfeit one.

These people come in Christ's name but it's clear they do not know Him. In fact they hate him, hate his commandments, and hate his servants.

We ignore this at our own peril.