The Dark is Here

Yesterday, in Russia, a crowd stormed an airport after word got out about a plane from Israel landing. A child — yes, a younger than a teenage boy — was in the crowd. He had come with his father and was carrying a knife to kill Jews. The crowd stormed through security, out onto the tarmac, and held up arriving passengers demanding to see their passports.

In New York, pro-Palestinian protestors took over the Brooklyn Bridge. In London, they marched in the streets and vandalized British monuments.

The dark is back.

I know a guy, and y’all, I know this is going to trigger some of you but bear with me through the other side of this story.

I have a friend who really, really hates Donald Trump. He’s probably reading this right now. He’s one of those people who just seemed to flip on everything he held dear because of Trump.

His latest theory is that Trump might be the final anti-Christ. He got the Abraham Accords passed, which gave us three years of peace in the Middle East. His defeat wounded him. Now, this guy awaits a second coming of Trump to the White House, and should it happen, it’ll be the surest sign Trump is the anti-Christ. “Just look at all the people who stopped going to church or wouldn’t go to a church that didn’t worship Trump,” I can hear him saying.

Ok, are you still with me? Good. Why did I bring that up?

STOP. INTERPRETING. CURRENT. EVENTS. THROUGH. YOUR. VIEW. OF. THE. END. TIMES. AND. YOUR. POLITICS.

Sweet Jesus in Heaven in people, come on.

Maybe this is the end. But you know who was sure it was the end of days? The Europeans who fought World War I and then World War II. Some Americans in the middle of the Civil War were convinced it was the end, too.

Jesus is coming when he is coming. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. But many people went to their graves convinced the end was upon them by taking their views of the end times and weaving it into their views of their contemporary world view of the day in which they lived.

Everybody needs to calm down.

The dark has arrived. There is clearly a spiritual fight happening. A lot of people rolled out of bed on October 7, saw the murders in Israel, and decided we needed more of that.

There is a fight between Good and Evil. It has always been here. It’s just sometimes the gray of life gives way to the real black and white. We are seeing that now.

So what can you do?

Not much except be the light to fight the dark. Don’t give in to your worst partisan urges. See people as people, even if you disagree with them and even if you think they are marching for evil.

God says vengeance is His. Your job is to love your neighbor.

God’s got this. You don’t. So calm down.

And no, Donald Trump is not the anti-Christ. But the spirit of the anti-Christ marches with those who’d champion genocide of the Jews while calling their right to self-defense a genocide. Evil twists words and truth.

Don’t be foggy about where you stand and what you see. But remember, God’s got this; vengeance is his, and you’ve got to love your neighbor.

On Another Note

A word, please, about my friend Mike Pence.

Over the weekend, he showed again he is the adult in the room. With a clear eye on the present and future, he ended his campaign for the presidency.

Mike Pence is a good and God-fearing man. He helped steer this country through turbulent times and we should all be grateful he was there so often to whisper in Donald Trump’s ear. At the end, when called by history, Mike Pence stood for the constitution and the country.

His entry into the White House caused others to burn bridges with Pence. His departure caused others to burn new bridges. Pence never burned the bridges. It was others who, for one reason or another, felt betrayed by Pence’s decisions: some because he joined Trump and some because he parted ways with Trump.

But Pence always does what he thinks is right.

He is a prayer warrior for my family and a friend in the real sense. I value him deeply and wish him well.

I know he will remain a true voice for authentic conservatism and a conscience of the movement. That, frankly, is the greatest role he can play now, and I hope he does.

Doug Burgum, Asa Hutchinson, and, if I’m really honest, Tim Scott, should learn from Mike Pence that it is time to depart the race.