Donald Trump and the Pharisees.

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When you finally come to the conclusion there is a God, you’re likely to try to attempt to please Him.

And this is where it can get dangerous. You might be on your way to the sanctuary for worship, and you see a man curled up by the side of the road, bloody and beaten by robbers. Something tells you the man needs your help (that’s God talking to you), but you are wearing your Sunday best, and you’re not trained as a first responder, and you’ve been given the honor of opening today’s meeting in prayer, and, besides, this guy is probably a drug addict and you have little children you’re responsible for — so you hurry on to church and you prove that you have the spirit of the Pharisee — that weird inclination to ignore what Jesus called “the weightier matters of the law.”

The #NeverTrump movement is defined by this Pharisee spirit. It is chock full of it. Texas pastor Max Lucado is a great example. Max leads what he calls a “red state” church, but Max has a maxim: ”I don’t want anybody to know how I vote.” Max does this to make sure the Democratic voters in his church, the ones who support abortion on demand, Islamo-pandering, and class warfare are not made to feel uncomfortable. However, Max recently broke his neutrality pledge when Donald Trump called a bimbo a bimbo. According to Max:

Think on that for a moment. Max closes his eyes to another “Christian,” Barack Obama, who stands foursquare for the slaughter of millions of unborn babies, at your expense, but Donald Trump called a lady a “bimbo?” Intolerable! Unthinkable! Impolite! Time to engage the Pharisee warp engines.

Donald is a blunt customer, but it looks like he does have a heart. When asked about abortion, Trump related a story close to home. He said that he knew of a pregnancy that was going to be terminated. ”That child today,” Donald continued, ”is a total superstar. It is a great great child.”

When Donald Trump picked the most pro-life running mate in history to be his partner in the quest for the presidency, Governor Mike Pence, he backed up that claim. He made good on his conversion to the life issue, and, in so doing, he proved to be the opposite of the Pharisee spirit — a man who cares about the “weightier matters of the law.” Max Lucado may value political fence-sitting in church, a pleasant smile, and a polite manners, but Donald Trump risked the wrath of a baby-killing culture, and even repudiated his own past, by embracing the politics of life.

Who is the real Christian here? The one who acts like it, or the one who puts on a polite show of neutrality?

Another of my Pharisee correspondents on Facebook wrote this about Donald Trump:

I’ve been around church people all of my life. Even at Stanford, where humanism was the prevailing denomination, I can tell you the religious spirit — whether it is lamenting “gambling” or shaming someone who didn’t recycle his bottle of Pepsi — brings out the worst side of human nature, and it brings ignorance into high relief.

Let’s take a few of these, one by one, starting with wagering. The Bible, folks, doesn’t say much about gambling. Our pious ancestors in New England used lotteries to build churches. If your only objection to Donald Trump rests in casino ownership, you really would feel right at home with the Christ-killing band because you have imbibed legalism as doctrine.

Foul mouthed? I’m guessing you haven’t read scripture with any real scrutiny, because when God gets angry, He doesn’t hold back. His prophets call harlots harlots. His Son called religious hypocrites, “white washed tombs full of dead men’s bones.” “Vipers.” ”Sons of the Devil.” But even if you value a polite tongue, and that’s your virtue, don’t begin comparing that virtue to being courageous in the face of Islamic jihad. I will take a foul mouth defender of life over a church-sitting coward any day.

Arrogant? I always get a kick out of people who spend all day in some corner of the bureaucracy, who never need to make a sale, who never need to appear confident, because they get paid every day, whether they do anything useful or not. Donald has to convince people a skyscraper is worth building, folks. You are mistaking confidence, faith even, for arrogance, because you’ve never had to really make a sale. Try it sometime, and see if you can do it without boosting your confidence and risking looking a little “arrogant.”

Strip clubs and philandering. I won’t make any defense for that, but I would ask you to look to yourselves. Do you buy television cable services from a company that also offers pornography? Do you stay in hotels with adult content on their television screens? Is your stock portfolio scrubbed clean of anyone who profits from soft porn? What’s in your wallet and where are you spending it? The press has been watching Donald pretty closely now for 18 months. Have you seen any philandering stories? I haven’t.

And I would ask you to look to your Bibles again. God uses some pretty gritty characters to work His glorious and sovereign will. Jacob was a trickster who lied to his father. Abraham had wives and concubines. Samson kept a harlot. Solomon had hundreds of concubines. Peter betrayed Christ. Saul of Tarsus, was a murderous wretch.

You actually know all about that, but when you see a flawed man, in the flesh, you act just like a stoning torch mob, and you won’t even admit it.

Jesus knew all about this dismissive, self-righteous character of ours. He knew our nature. He knew there’s a Pharisee spirit in us that takes pride in being faithful to our wives, even as our horn-dog spirit wrestles with Donald Trump’s beauty pageants. Are we righteous, or just jealous? When the harlot adorns Jesus’ feet with precious ointment, are we accusing or praising God for forgiveness?

Donald Trump is more righteous than you think. He wants to protect you from Islamic zealots. He wants to protect your right to defend your families with firearms. He even wants to exempt your pulpits from IRS tyranny. He wants to end the death tax, so you can pass on your farms and your family business to your children. He wants to lower your taxes. He wants to protect the lives of unborn children and appoint Constitutional judges.

My argument is NOT what word got used to describe Rahab. My point is that nothing of what is described about Rahab indicates she was a hooker. Hiding the ‘spies’ on her roof in stalks of flax is NOT a harlot's work. Planting and harvesting flax, leaves no time to service the boys. AND IF she was in fact a hooker, how is it that she was fully aware of the Exodus and the promise of the land to the Israelites? A prostitute whether literal or spiritual never found favor in God's eyes. It is Written in Jeremiah 3:8 God divorced the House of Israel for committing adultery... spiritually speaking.. they went whoring after other gods.

Your argument is that of certain learned men , who

are of opinion that it should be here rendered an innkeeper or hostess, from zoon, to furnish or provide food. In this sense it was understood by the Targumist, who renders it, ittetha pundekeetha, "a woman, a tavern-keeper," and so St. Chrysostome, in his second sermon on Repentance, calls her πανδοκευτρια. The Greek πορνη, by which the LXX render it, and which is adopted by the Apostles, is derived from περναω, to sell, and is also supposed to denote a tavern keeper. Among the ancients, women generally kept houses of entertainment. Herodotus says, "Among the Egyptians, the women carry on all commercial concerns, and keep taverns, while the men continue at home and weave." The same custom prevailed among the Greeks. Jos_6:17, Jos_6:25; Mat_1:5, Rachab,

However, this charitable argument toward her is not charitable to the Holy Spirit. For regardless of your belief that she would have no time to engage in prostitution, or at least be a fornicator, the Scriptures call her a "harlot," "zânâh" in Hebrew:

And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's [zânâh] house, named Rahab, and lodged there. (Joshua 2:1)

And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot [zânâh] shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. (Joshua 6:17)

And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot [zânâh] alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. (Joshua 6:25)

By faith the harlot [pornē] Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. (Hebrews 11:31)

Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot [pornē] justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? (James 2:25)

Snd in all 90 times in this word occurs the OT, besides the 3 for Rahab, it is never is used for a tavern or house keeper, but is always used with a shameful or negative connotation, as in "played the harlot," "gone a whoring," and is always translated as such in the KJV.

If one looks at the occurrences of it and tries to replace it with tarvern/house keeper, then one can see how absurd that proposal is. See here. ">here.

The same is also true of pornē in the NT, which is what Rahab is called.

Hiding the ‘spies’ on her roof in stalks of flax is NOT a harlot's work.

Says who? You seem to be reading full-time Las Vegas prostitution into an ancient agrarian-based economy, and in which prostitution could be an occasional means of supplementing income, and as the Prov. 31 description shows, working the fields was even much a part of a mother's work.

AND IF she was in fact a hooker, how is it that she was fully aware of the Exodus and the promise of the land to the Israelites?

And just how does one negate the other? Why would she not be conversant with others and have been raised to know of such, for Scripture shows that this story spread far abroad.

A prostitute whether literal or spiritual never found favor in God's eyes.

This is another spurious assertion, for this is no more true than that no sinner found favor in God's eyes, except by repentance. faith and is doing well, which Rahab did. Of course, if zânâh does not mean prostitute or fornicator, then no prostitute whether literal or spiritual, is ever seen called such in God's word.

The problem is here is not simply that your arguments are vain, and contrary to what is easily shown to be the case, but your adamant dogmatic contention for absolving noble Rahab from being a prostitute or fornicator. It is simply unreasonable and nonobjective.

Do you even have a clue how many flax stalks would be required to hide two grown men? Now if she was a harlot, innkeeper, hooker, what was she doing with a roof filled with flax stalks, instead of rooms with beds? There is a reason why Rahab had enough flax stalks on her roof to hide two grown men!!! It is man that ignores the flat out obvious.

Which is another vain argument, as you can only presume that she had no help, no servants, and no time for occasionally bedding with a man in the hay, likely to supplement income, but instead you insist on necessarily making a harlot into one running a full time hotel brothel! Again, the word which the Holy Spirit describes her as is abundantly shown to refer to one who engages in fornication or adultery - even if they only do it once:

And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot [zânûn]; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom [zânûn]. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. (Gen 38:24)

None of your valiant but vain attempts to protect Rahab from being such a manifest sinner can overcome this, and your unreasonable denial militants against the intended point of invoking Rahab in the NT as one saved by grace, for it illustrates that he/she that believeth on him that justifieth the unGodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)

And there are worse things than being a fornicator, for one can be a charitable, kind person though for various reasons they engage in fornication, including financial necessity, though adultery is a different class. But the worse sins are those of self righteous, malevolent hearts, such as the religious leaders who crucified Christ are indicted for, and the publicans and the harlots went into the kingdom of God before such. would repent. (cf. Matthew 21:31)

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