I recently wrote how the same lie propagated prior to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, that Jews had gained secret control of the government, forcing it to do their bidding rather than what was best for the German people, is also being propagated throughout America today. What makes this even more disconcerting is that it is not just people on both sides of the political aisle that are propagating the lie that Jews have usurped secret control over our government to the detriment of our nation, but that many professed Christians, like Tucker Carlson and Candice Owens, are propagating it as well. The fact that so many are being deceived by it, both inside and outside of the contemporary church, is greatly increasing the already growing and widespread antisemitism now permeating our republic.
In addition to this disconcerting deception, there is a plethora of others that are also being presently propagated all across the fruited plain, by both political ideologues and professed Christians, who, in many cases, appear to be prompted by their political persuasions to propagate all of these prevarications. All of this should scream in the ears of that small remnant of Christians today who still have ears to hear the following Biblical forebodings: that at the end of time men will be swept away in great delusion, blown here and there by the winds of false doctrines, and, so much so, that even the elect will be deceived if possible (2 Thessalonians 2:11; Ephesians 4:14; Matthew 24:24).
I’ve been shaken on more than a few occasions lately by people that I not only know personally, but have even pastored, who are propagating deceptions, despite their Christian profession. In many of these cases they appear to be driven to do so by a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Now, I’m not under any illusion when it comes to Donald Trump. I can certainly understand why sincere followers of Christ find Trump to be sorely lacking in his possession of Christian virtues and values, as well as Christian convictions and Biblical beliefs. Still, to allow one’s animosity toward Trump to drive them to declare spiritual deceptions and false doctrines, or to advocate for those who do so, simply because of personal abhorrence of Trump, is certainly beyond the pale of proper behavior for any true-blue disciple of Jesus Christ.
Yesterday, my growing concern over personally known professed Christians propagating absolute antichrist propaganda ascended a previously unscaled pinnacle, when a Christian, who I’ve held in high regard in the past, proffered Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico as an exemplary Christian and true preacher of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. I pause here, for a minute, to point out that this personally known individual is also a public school teacher, which is a common characteristic among those I presently suspect have gone off the rails, in spite of previously perceiving them to be passengers on the “Glory Train,” that train the old folk-Gospel song portrayed as “bound for glory.” I’m sorry, and certainly don’t want to offend my brothers and sisters in Christ who are public school teachers, but our public schools, under the iron-fisted control of left-wing teacher’s unions, led by radical left wingers like Randi Weingarten, seem to me to have become bastions of Trump-hating propagandists, as well as hotbeds of heresy.
My former parishioner defended her indefensible portrayal of James Talarico as an exemplary Christian on the sole bases of a single article that appeared in a most dubious source; namely the Baptist News Global, which was created by a merger of Associated Baptist Press (ABP) and the Religious Herald. The ABP was founded in 1990, when the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship split from the Southern Baptist Convention over disagreements on cardinal doctrines of the historic and orthodox Christian Faith, such as Christianity’s bedrock belief in the Bible as the divinely inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God. The religious Herald was founded by the Baptist General Assembly of Virginia (BGAV) way back in 1828. However, in 1996, there was a mass exodus of orthodox and conservative churches from the BGAV, over its affiliation with the cardinal doctrine-denying Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the Baptist News Global is printing favorable articles about heretics, who deny the truth of the Scripture, since Baptist News Global denies the truth of Scripture itself, as well as the Scripture’s infallibility. In addition to all of this, the author of the Talarico tribute in the Baptist News Global, James Sellers, is a left-wing theologian who once accused Franklin Graham of blasphemy for defending Trump against Democrat impeachments. Adding insult to injury, the seminary Sellers is said to teach at in the article’s byline, Logsdon Seminary, was actually closed down by Hardin-Simmons University in 2020 for being too liberal.
Having dispensed with the dubious source upon which my former parishioner proffered James Talarico to all of America as an exemplary Christian, I proceeded to inform her about Talarico himself, by putting him under the microscope of Scripture. I began with Talarico’s church, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, which is part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and pastored by Rev. Jim Rigby, who Talarico dubs as his mentor. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), like the BGAV, which we spoke of above, has faced in recent years a mass exodus from its pews of Bible-believing Christians, who found their denomination’s drift to the left and ever-increasing heretical beliefs no longer tolerable. When it comes to Pastor Rigby, Talarico’s mentor, he confirms LGBTQ marriages, as well as LGBTQ ministerial ordinations. He has compared aborted babies to “extracted teeth.” He has permitted an admitted atheist, a college professor, to join his church, despite the professor’s following public profession: “I don't believe in God. I don't believe Jesus Christ was the son of a God that I don't believe in, nor do I believe Jesus rose from the dead to ascend to a heaven that I don't believe exists.” And finally, Rigby himself, in a lengthy Facebook post, denied the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection, as well as made light of Hell. According to the false gospel Rigby preaches, “We don't have to be loving or kind like Jesus to be saved from God's wrath. In fact we don't have to do a single thing Jesus commanded us to do,” because, as Rigby preaches it, “Jesus likes us anyway.”
When it comes to Talarico himself, I informed my former parishioner of a few of the atrocious apostasies he personally and publicly espouses.
1. James Talarico preaches from the Gnostics’ false Gospel of Thomas, which he cites as the source for his belief that “Jesus was a feminist.”
2,. Talarico also preaches, in defense of his own abortion on demand advocacy, that the Virgin Mary’s consent to the annunciation of the birth of Christ proves that the Bible is pro-choice. He even preaches that the bitter water suspected adulteresses were forced to drink under the Mosaic Law was an ancient version of the modern-day abortion pill mifepristone.
3. Talarico proudly proclaims that “God is non-binary,” even going so far as to blasphemously suggest that the “us” reference to the Trinity in Genesis 1:26 is Biblical proof that the transgendered are “made in God’s own image.”
4. In complete contradiction to the Bible, James Talarico also preaches that there are more than two biological sexes. “In fact,” as Talarico argues “there are six" and "sex is a spectrum.”
5. According to James Talarico, the “prophetic voices” of the Bible, even of our Lord, were not intended to bring us to repentance from sin and to reconciliation with God, but to deal with such plagues of humanity as “whiteness” and “masculinity.”
6. Finally, Talarico also embraces universalism. Like so many preset-day false prophets, he preaches that there are many paths to God. While he does preach that Christianity points men to the truth, he also preaches that “other relgions of love” do so as well. Indeed, Talarico believes that many Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, and even atheists and agnostics, are far more Christ-like than Christians.
To champion such a heretic as an exemplary Christian and preacher of Christ’s Gospel is not only to put oneself in danger of being seen by God as a partaker of James Talarico’s evil deed, but also as one who gave credence to his false gospel and false doctrines (2 John 1:10-11). Consequently, someone who does so, regardless of whether they are deceived and well-intentioned in dong do so, puts themself in danger of someday standing before God with the blood of others on their hands; namely, the blood of those they helped deceive into the forfeiture of their immortal souls.
We would all do well to remember in this day of great spiritual delusion and ever-increasing winds of false doctrine, as well as a plethora of false prophets, like James Talarico, a couple of Biblical forewarnings. First, the warning of the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11;13-15). Second, the warning of our Lord in Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”