“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;” Philippians 3:20
While the Evangelical Intelligentsia are falling all over themselves to promote Roman Catholic GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio and curb the enthusiasm of candidate Donald Trump’s evangelical supporters, another spectrum of evangelical power brokers are getting familiar with Southern Baptist GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz. To my knowledge, the Pulpit & Pen’s very own innovator of nomenclature, JD Hall, hasn’t yet coined a term for this particular group of evangelicals. They are the crowd who believes in David Barton’s discredited revisionist history, Blood Moons, Shemitahs, 7 Cultural Mountains, and Israel-obsessed Hageean dual-covenant dispensationalism. Unlike the Evangelical Intelligentsia, they are not social justice-minded intellectual elites. To the contrary, they aren’t very intellectual at all. However, they do have big money and significant influence. If Cruz’s father, Rafael, is to be believed, Cruz was anointed to receive. As 2015 came to a close, Ted Cruz met with hundreds prominent faith leaders (including David Barton, James Robison, and John Hagee) at the ranch of Texas tycoon, Farris Wilks. Farris and his brother Dan have donated $15 million to a super PAC which supports Cruz. Cameras and recording devices were not allowed at the Wilks ranch when Cruz spoke, so only God and attendees know what was said at the event. However, one might be able to get an idea of how Cruz views God’s role in American politics by reviewing his associations.
Perhaps his most influential associate is Cruz’s father. Rafael Cruz, a Cuban expatriate, has been engaged in ecumenical political activism since Ted was a small child. Currently, Rafael was formerly the Director of Purifying Fire Ministries and is currently the director of Grace For America. Given Rafael’s apparent dominionist theology and questionable associations, whether or not there is a like-father-like-son situation with Ted Cruz and his father should concern Christian voters deeply. Pastor Larry Hutch (featured in the video below) is quite certain that Ted is a chip off the old block, stating from the Pulpit of New Beginnings Church:
“When I got a phone call, ‘Would I come to a meeting to meet Rafael Cruz and Ted Cruz,’ Tiz and I already received about ten phone calls asking if we would get behind a candidate. ‘Could we come and speak at your church’…one after another. We were asked by some friends to come to this house. They said we would not only meet Ted but we’d meet Rafael. Before I ever met Ted, I met Rafael. And I knew, that if the son was like the dad, we could trust him to be our senator. Amen? But here’s what it came to me. Ted will be our next senator and I gave Rafael a word the other day and said the Senate is just the beginning…but here’s the deal, Ted Cruz is the real thing.”
Quite frankly, when I think about “the real thing” where Christian faith in concerned John Hagee and David Barton don’t come to mind. They are at best deceived and at worst hucksters. Yet, these people command the attention and income of thousands and upon thousands of followers. These followers, though they may biblically illiterate and ultimately unregenerate, do hold to some Christian points of the Christian worldview. For example, they are largely pro-life and anti-homosexual. They expect their elected officials to be the same. So, politicians are often tempted to play the part. As much as the liberal media detests such a worldview, the followers of dominionism eat it up. In fact, judging by financial success, the purveyors Blood Moons and dominionism are far more influential than the evangelical intelligentsia. Whatever is generated by Russell Moore and The Gospel Coalition is a must read for seminary professors and academic-minded pastors, but the Christian best seller list indicates that the biggest money is spent on the theologically vapid offerings of the Blood Mooners. The evangelical intellegensia rightly rejects these books as poppycock, but they are intellegenisa after all. Pew-folk, by and large, apparently lack good sense, education, or both…and there are many, many more of them on the voter registration rolls.
I don’t know whether Ted Cruz is a true Blood Moon New Apostolic Reformation Destiny Anointed lunatic or he is merely courting the vote of such. I am fond of his political stance that government should be limited (full disclosure: I am likely to vote for Rand Paul for the same reason). Politically, Cruz seems solid (in my opinion). Religiously, he may be a mess. Religiously, most of the United States of America seems to be a mess. This country was godlessly liberal enough to elect Barack Obama twice. The Democratic Party is the party of secular humanists and scripture denying mainliners. Apparently, the Republican Party is the party of TBN-brand nominal Christians. To me, that spells doom for the United States. Thankfully, true Christians are ultimately citizens of the New Jerusalem, that heavenly city which we await. I urge Christians to abandon any hope they have in the chariots and horses of America and take up the cross of Christ, which almost certainly will bring with it political scorn from both of our lost political parties.
UPDATE 01/04/2016: A previous version of this story reported that Rafael Cruz was affiliated with the Hinn family through his organization, Purifying Fire Ministries. The Pulpit & Pen was contacted by Sarah Erdos of the Cruz Campaign and informed that “Rafael (Cruz) is not the Director of Purifying Fire ministries and has never met nor been associated with the Hinns. He did found a ministry with a similar name, but changed the name several years ago when the similar wording began to cause confusion.”
*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.
