Why Is Donald Trump so Popular with Evangelicals?

FIRST OF ALL I need to clarify why I am writing about Donald Trump in my blog about Christianity.

The Bible is filled with politics and Evangelicals in the U.S. generally love Donald Trump who seems to know almost nothing about the Bible.  Not all Evangelicals support Donald Trump, but a large enough group of them do for me to want to take a closer look at this phenomenon.

THE REASONS EVANGELICALS ARE PREPARED TO LIKE DONALD TRUMP are as follows:

1.  Evangelicals have placed their hopes in the Republican party after failing to begin their own party.

2.  Evangelicals learned about politics from Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Francis Schaefer, James Dobson, and other Evangelical leaders who learned that working with the enemy was vital in politics (as long as that enemy can further common interests). As a result, for some issues, Jerry Falwell, Hal Lindsey, and other Evangelical leaders united with and worked with Sun Myung Moon who proclaimed himself ruler of the world the completion of Jesus' failed ministry.

3. Many Blue-Collar Evangelicals have been listening to right winged radio show hosts who simplify politics, and demonize everything outside of the Conservative circle. Through these political pundits, Conservatives learn where to direct fears, hates, and angers while getting an education in the political world from a conservative and fear based world view.

4. Evangelicals have focused on small group of issues and Evangelicals will support any politician who support these issues (as long as they are Republican - because in their thinking only Republicans will believe and behave as they do).

Some of these issues are:

a.  Homosexuality

b.  Prayer in public schools (Evangelicals are already moving on from this one)

c.  Abortion (Catholics were 5 years ahead of the Evangelicals in fighting abortion, but once Evangelicals got on board, they have been strongly anti abortion since).

d.  Turning the country back to where it once was. This is pipe dream based in a glorified and false view of the past that many believe existed. I think most cultures fall into this "once upon a time" in some way or another. Even the writer of Ecclesiastes saw it in his day, "Do not say, 'Why is it that the former days were better than these?' For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this (Ecclesiastes 7:10)."

e.  Simple solutions for simple problems. In its most simple state, the picture looks like this:
1) The country was founded by good Christians who fled persecution in Europe.
2) The country used to be ruled by godly people who established godly rules.
3) The ungodly poisoned the well with evolution, and liberal thinking.
4) When prayer was taken out of public school, the country was doomed.
5) We need to fight to turn this country back to its roots and the best way to do that is through politics and prayer.


THE REASON EVANGELICALS LIKE DONALD TRUMP is that he gives them hope and promise to turn this country back to its legendary roots by draining the swamp and holding on to conservative values.

1. He is simple. He offers simple solutions and simplifies complex issues. Evangelicals, like most people, don't want life to be complex and difficult to understand. They want to understand and be able to solve life's issues without getting too bogged down with too much detail. There is a strong belief among many that life doesn't need to be complex.

Most politicians gravitate toward simplifying and handing out sound bites, but Donald Trump stands out in this area by providing the simplest answers and solutions. "Build a fence to keep Mexicans out." "Keep foreigners out."

Voters are tired of politicians who make everything complex.

2.  He is a bully. Many conservatives are tired of wishy-washy politicians that tip toe around issues and other countries. Conservatives would say that Donald Trump has balls and whether right or wrong, he stands up to his convictions.

3.  He has a well-known brand. Americans have seen him for years on TV as a boss who hires and fires celebrities. In his show, he is definitive (he rarely makes mistakes and never admits them), he is authoritative (celebrities kiss up to him), he is a family man (his two kids sit by his side and offer their opinions on who should stay and who should be fired), and he is successful, having built an empire few people have in this world. All of this adds up to a powerful image and image has been huge in politics since the Kennedy / Nixon debates. None of the other candidates have anything close to the brand that Trump brings to the table.

The Book of Enoch and the New Testament

Elijah walked with the Angels. (Genesis 5:24) The Book of Enoch is a controversial book that almost made it in the Bible, but just narrowly missed the cut. Jude quoted directly from Enoch, Peter and Jude both referred to its contents, and Jesus may have borrowed from Enoch when he talked about angels never needing to marry - Enoch explains that the angels don't need to marry and have children because they never die. Opinions are divided over whether or not Enoch is good, bad, or whatever. Conspiracy theorists and sellers of magazines and TV programs want to turn the book into another "proof" the Church is hiding something and Fundamentalists demonize the book. I am not going to say one way or another. You can figure that one out on your own. Rather I am only going to point out how Enoch is clearly behind some of the thinking of New Testament writers - especially Peter and Jude. Because we have such limited information from the world in which Bible writers lived, we cannot piece together the entire ancient world and their ways of thinking. That limits us to only what we do have and what we know from the books and fragments we have. For those readers who are not familiar with the Book of Enoch, the book itself claims to be written by Enoch (the 7th from Adam - who was born before Noah) but in fact was written by several scribes at different times - long after Enoch lived. Writing under a famous person's name and on behalf of that person was very popular during the centuries before and after Jesus' day. In this writing I am focusing only on those parts of Enoch that were written before Jesus was born. We do know that the first 36 chapters or so were written long before the New Testament (possibly 250 years or so before), so the similarities found in the New Testament with the Book of Enoch came from the Book of Enoch and not the other way around. However, the source of any similarity Enoch has with the Old Testament came from the Old Testament itself, for it was written first. SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1-10 Section One Enoch prophesied that a big change was on its way. Wickedness was going to disappear while godliness was going to rise. A time of prosperity and blessing was going to come on the earth. Jude, who was the brother of Jesus, quoted from and gave credit to the Book of Enoch: And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgment upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. 1 Enoch 1:9
Section Two
After informing us that a new day was coming, Enoch recounts how his world became filled with violence and chaos within the spiritual and natural realms. He explains that there is order in the created world with such things as stars, the universe, the trees, and the like; nevertheless the people and the angels of his time were not following God's decrees. They were unnatural and doing things they were not designed to do. This reminds me of Isaiah 1, where God tells his people that the ox knows its master, but His people do not know theirs. God will punish those who do not follow His commandments - they will die young. On the other hand, godly people will live long. This concept of long life for the righteous vs. life cut short for the ungodly is found in the early chapters of Proverbs.
Section Three Sex with Angels 19 angels - each over 10 other angels (190 in total) - submit themselves to Semjaza in an agreement to take wives from among humans. They do this because they lust after good looking women.
Genesis 6:2 – the Sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
1 Corinthians 11:10 – For this cause ought the woman to have power (authority or covering) on her head because of the angels. Secrets Tools of Seduction As the serpent promised Eve knowledge that only God and the angels knew, the angels in Enoch's book shared heaven's secrets with the people before Noah's day. They taught men how to war and how to make weapons. They also told women how to make themselves attractive with make-up and how to use mirrors, sorcery, astrology, charms, enchantments, cutting roots, and knowledge of plants. 1 Peter 3:1-6 tells wives not to wear make-up, but rather focus on inward beauty, submitting to their husbands and calling them "lord." Due to the fact that Peter refers to the fallen angels of Enoch in verses following, this section about make-up could be influenced by a belief (perhaps common in some circles of Israel) that make-up was one of several tools fallen angels taught women in order to seduce men. In the early chapters of Proverbs, the writer describes a seduction that gives us insight into the ancient mind. The story is about a man and a woman having an adulterous affair. In the story, the man is seduced by a woman who has no morals. Although he could escape the affair, the power of seduction is strong and the man gives into it. Seduction was the power women had to entrap men and seduction was augmented by the gifts and tools the angels gave women. If tools for seduction, such as make-up, were considered forbidden secrets from the fallen angels, then make-up was probably considered taboo in many Hebrew circles. Is it possible that Peter felt the same? Giants The offspring of these angels and human women in Enoch turned out to be giants that ravished the land.                         Genesis 6:4 – There were giants (Nephalim) on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Eventually these giants consumed more than the earth could provide. They killed animals and people. Violence and death increased and the cries of the earth reached heaven itself.   The Good Angels  Meanwhile, in heaven Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Suryal, and Uriel heard and cries of the earth and talked to God about it wondering why God was so silent. God gave one of them a message to pass on to Noah that things are going to get wet. He gave another message for the angels that sinned - their children were going to die. It turns out that their spirits roam the earth as unclean spirits that were so commonly spoken of in the New Testament. The good angels also bound up all the bad ones and sent them into the fires under the earth (after all the earth is flat in the Book of Enoch) for 70 generations. Luke 3 records that from Enoch to Jesus there were 70 generations. Is this just coincidence or did Luke intend his readers to see that Jesus was the one who would take care of those who were bound at the end of 70 generations? It is possible 1 Peter 3:19-20 also refers to the importance of Jesus in the 70th generation: "And being made alive, he went and made proclamation to he imprisoned spirits - to those who were disobedient long age when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built."   According to the Book of Enoch, the bad angels were to be cast into fire for eternity after 70 generations from Enoch himself. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment,... (2 Peter 2:4, see also Jude 1:6).

What the Bible Says about Accepting Refugees?

In the past few years wars and famine have brought tremendous ruin to Middle Eastern and African countries which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people leaving their homes and looking for survival in Western countries.

Their journeys are often fought with peril and death and many are unable to leave their countries because of hardships or blocked avenues.

Several years ago, I worked with African refugees from different countries. They left starvation, death, and human corpses littering the rivers they drank from. One boy in our group was kidnapped from his village and made a slave in another part of his country. After fellow slaves tried unsuccessfully to escape, they were caught and their heels were cut so that the would never be able to walk again. The boy was smarter and waited for a better time, escaped, hugged the top of a box car of a train, and made it to freedom. Shortly after he was shipped to the U.S. as an orphan.

There were many such stories among the Africans, many of which were kept securely within the memories of those who experienced them.

Before Israel became a nation, when they were only a small group of nomads and people who lived outside of their group were not trusted. Because of this distrust, the nomads kept to themselves and usually married within the family. Both Abraham and his son Isaac were so paranoid about outsiders that they told city dwellers that their wives were sisters. They believed that outsiders would kill them for their wives, and rather than facing an imaginary death, they contrived a plan to pass their wives off as sisters. This worked very well for Abraham as he walked away with a load of money, servants, and goods, just to leave Egypt where he humiliated Pharaoh through his trickery.

Years later he duped the king of Gerar who was appalled at Abraham for being so xenophobic in assuming that because he wasn't family to Abraham he was immoral. Abraham assumed that the outsider would be evil and do evil things, but in fact, Abraham's trickery was downright wrong and the king of Gerar who had been tricked let Abraham know it.

As Israel grew into a nation they faced many new challenges with outsiders. They were first welcomed by Egypt, but as they became more numerous, they became Egyptian slaves. Nevertheless, after finding freedom, Israel got its own land and faced a new challenge with outsiders. As different countries faced famine, people came into Israel for survival. And as Israel faced famine, many Israelis left for other countries looking for food. Besides this, intermarriage with outsiders was not uncommon.

While all of this took place, many people were fearful and hateful of outsiders. Xenophobia flooded the land from time to time, and some individuals never let their prejudices go.

Before Israel had their own land, before they developed a strong identity beyond being mere slaves, Moses left them certain laws about how to deal with outsiders. While many of those laws stated that foreigners were to live under the rules of Israel, other laws demanded that the people respect, take care of, and treat foreigners as equals.

Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt (Exodus 22:21).

Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the  foreigner. I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 19:10).

The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 19:34).


People don't really change. We have prejudice an hatred today and there was prejudice and hatred in the ancient world. The laws of Israel were written to address issues of xenophobia. The laws of the Bible written years ago fit for today as well.