Never Trumper Jonathan Martin came to the evangelical Liberty University with every intention of picking a fight and making a name for himself. Like the leftists he is deceived by, Martin cried foul when he was going to break the law and paints himself as a victim.
Martin, who preaches and has written books, has been against President Donald Trump for a long time. Apparently he would be happier if Crooked Hillary Clinton would have been elected President. He certainly would not have been protesting at Christian campuses if another Clinton was President but that is what he came to Liberty to do.
Martin tweeted days ago that Liberty University, founded in 1971 by Dr. Jerry Falwell, was hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; so hostile that Liberty was one of the most hostile places for the Gospel in all of America. This is ostensibly because of Martin's not liking the friendship and counsel that the younger Jerry Falwell, the President of Liberty University, has given to President Trump. In tweets published before his removal from the Liberty campus, Martin said he was not just going to lead a prayer meeting on Liberty's campus, which was not authorized as Martin has no affiliation with the University, but that he would also lead a protest which was also not authorized at the private institution. Martin claimed victim and martyr status when Liberty University police discovered he was on campus the night before his planned protest, aka prayer meeting, and threw him out.
Liberty is not a perfect place but has done more to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ than any other institution of learning I have attended. The examples of this are too countless to name but the most recent one I have seen was when wearing my Liberty University T-shirt on a recent airplane trip, the woman who sat next to me said, "You are from Liberty? Thank God. My daughter graduated from there. It strengthened her faith so much and she needs it because she lives in a part of the country that is (listen closely Martin) hostile to the Gospel."
Martin, in his zeal that is reminiscent of leftist emotionalism, also fails to understand the intellect, balance, and commitment to Christ that exists among Liberty students. Liberty students also have a diverse opinion as was seen in the Presidential primaries. Yet, the overwhelming majority of students at Liberty University also realized the disaster that loomed for our nation if leftist Hillary Clinton was elected President.
Where were you Martin when Crooked Hillary's campaign mocked Catholics? Where were you when Obama talked down to Americans who practice their First and Second Amendments and "cling to guns and religion?" Why weren't you speaking against the Democratic National Committee when even a token reference to God was taken from their platform in 2012? Why weren't you protesting Crooked Hillary's sparsely attended rallies while she supported sucking the brains out of babies in late term abortions while propagating the leftist plantation that keeps people enslaved by the government and robs them of their dignity? What about protesting the apostate ECUSA you affiliate with that is actively hostile to the inerrancy of Scripture? Why aren't you protesting leftism's hatred for Christianity in our nation and leftism's increasing intolerance towards Christianity's parent, Judaism?
Martin's laughable claim is also tragic. It is tragic because he is one of the latest of the new generation of Christians that is slowly being deceived by the political left. Martin is the kind of "leader" that President Reagan and Dr. Jerry Falwell warned us about. Reagan charged us in his 1983 Evil Empire speech to be wary of those in the church who, in the temptation of pride, tried to place themselves above it all, would not have to take a position on the hard issues of the day, and believed differences in world view were simply misunderstandings. Dr. Falwell, in one of his final sermons in April 2007, warned of the leftist emergent church and its younger leaders who were being led astray by emotionalism and lacking in sound doctrine. Dr. Falwell also warned that we would see more of them in the future. Leaders like Martin are not new for no temptation, including leftism, has seized us beyond which is common to man. The emergent leaders just have the failed ideas of the past, recycled in the latest technology, while being "seeker friendly" to the younger generation. They will continue to fail and cry victim when they do.
My kid is going to Liberty to get an education, not to be led astray by individuals with leftist agendas and shaky theology such as Jonathan Martin. Instead, my son will continue to be taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ as he was at home, and will hear a wider variety of speakers than any other campus in the nation. Yet, he will always hear those speakers in a Christian environment with the understanding that he will have to form his own opinion in a world that is hostile to the loving, saving grace of Jesus Christ. He will be wise as a serpent, and innocent as a dove, like most Liberty students.
Instead of bashing the leader of the world's largest Christian University for supporting the President who has been the friendliest to Christians in recent times, Martin could have been more useful. Instead, he conveniently forgets that we live in a fallen world. This includes politics and even the greatest of earthly marriages. Martin however, makes the perfect the enemy of the good when it fits his agenda. In doing so his actions, or lack thereof, show Martin's intolerant beliefs. He is practicing, in the warning words of the great evangelical preacher John R. Rice, "the folly of a short sighted fool." It is a shame. He had so much potential.