Bryan Fischer
Pete Buttegieg, fake Christian
By Bryan Fischer
Pete Buttegieg has talked more explicitly about his claim to be a Christian than any candidate since Mike Huckabee. That's a good thing if Buttegieg is actually a Christian, a very bad thing if he is not.
So we need to examine his bona fides, to assess the genuineness of his professed faith in Christ. A Christian, first of all, must by definition believe in Christ. I certainly may have missed it, but I have never heard Buttegieg talk about a personal relationship with Christ or even a passing acquaintance with him.
He certainly quotes Scripture – well, at least one Scripture, one of the few regressives actually know. "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matthew 25:35). Buttegieg said we'd never need to worry about this Scripture being followed if he makes it to the White House.
The problem is that Buettegieg didn't actually mean that he personally would give food to the hungry or drink to the thirsty. What he meant is that he would forcibly extract money from his constituents so he could give their money to the poor and feel righteous about himself.
But Jesus wasn't talking about doing something to address the problem with other people's money. There is nothing commendable about imitating Robin Hood, sticking your hands into somebody's wallet at the point of a gun and then giving it to somebody else. That's just a form of theft under color of law, and theft is theft. There is no particular virtue in being generous with other people's money, particularly if you can punish them if they don't cough it up.
So I'm afraid I'm unconvinced by his limited mastery of Scripture. The road to hell is paved with unheeded passages of Scripture, and Buttegieg's Bible seems to be full of them.
Buttegieg not only mangles Jesus' teaching to justify government welfare programs, he mangles Scripture to justify abortion even after a baby is born. "There [are] a lot of parts of the Bible," he said, "that talk about how life begins with breath, and so even that is something that we can interpret differently." Or misinterpret catastrophically, as the case may be.
Scripture twice says explicitly that a baby is a baby long before it takes its first breath. John the Baptist, three months before he was born, is described not as a clump of cells but as a "baby," a baby who was capable of physical reaction to stimulus ("the baby leaped in her womb") and capable of emotional reaction as well – "the baby in my womb leaped for joy" at the sound of Mary's greeting (Luke 1:39,44).
So Buttegieg has publicly biffed what the Bible teaches about welfare and abortion. How does does he do on marriage and human sexuality? Jesus was quite unambiguous and explicit that there are just two genders and that marriage is a man-woman thing. "He who created them...made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.'"
So Mayor Pete has completely botched Jesus' instructions on marriage, and worse, he is practicing openly and unapologetically the sin which Jesus blamed for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Referring to the miracles he performed in Capernaum, Jesus said, "And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you" (Matthew 11:23-24).
It's worth noting that we have it on the authority of Jesus that there are sins worse than homosexuality. But the sin of Sodom is enough to exclude a man forever from the kingdom of God, even if he's the president of the United States (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
Pete Buttegieg is certainly seems like a nice guy. He reminds you of Opie of Mayberry. But God has not called us to be nice – he has called us to be good. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
So, in sum, Pete Buttegieg has badly distorted the teaching of Jesus on ministering to the poor, would willingly consign living babies to butchery and dismemberment, flatly rejects the teaching of Jesus on gender and marriage, and defiantly practices a sin the Bible describes as an abomination in the eyes of God. In other words, Pete Buttegieg's theology seems to be drawn more from the Democrat Platform than the word of God.
As John Stonestreet writes, "Christianity is, of course, personal. But it's not private. To say, as Jesus' first followers did, that "Christ is Lord" is to state a public truth. Christ is sovereign not just over our salvation, but over everything. And if Christianity is true, its truth applies to every sphere of life."
And that is bad news for Pete Buttegieg.
The author may be contacted at bfischer@afa.net
Follow me on Facebook at "Focal Point" and on Twitter @bryanjfischer
Host of "Focal Point" on American Family Radio, 1:05 pm CT, M-F www.afr.net
© Bryan Fischer
January 3, 2020
Pete Buttegieg has talked more explicitly about his claim to be a Christian than any candidate since Mike Huckabee. That's a good thing if Buttegieg is actually a Christian, a very bad thing if he is not.
So we need to examine his bona fides, to assess the genuineness of his professed faith in Christ. A Christian, first of all, must by definition believe in Christ. I certainly may have missed it, but I have never heard Buttegieg talk about a personal relationship with Christ or even a passing acquaintance with him.
He certainly quotes Scripture – well, at least one Scripture, one of the few regressives actually know. "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matthew 25:35). Buttegieg said we'd never need to worry about this Scripture being followed if he makes it to the White House.
The problem is that Buettegieg didn't actually mean that he personally would give food to the hungry or drink to the thirsty. What he meant is that he would forcibly extract money from his constituents so he could give their money to the poor and feel righteous about himself.
But Jesus wasn't talking about doing something to address the problem with other people's money. There is nothing commendable about imitating Robin Hood, sticking your hands into somebody's wallet at the point of a gun and then giving it to somebody else. That's just a form of theft under color of law, and theft is theft. There is no particular virtue in being generous with other people's money, particularly if you can punish them if they don't cough it up.
So I'm afraid I'm unconvinced by his limited mastery of Scripture. The road to hell is paved with unheeded passages of Scripture, and Buttegieg's Bible seems to be full of them.
Buttegieg not only mangles Jesus' teaching to justify government welfare programs, he mangles Scripture to justify abortion even after a baby is born. "There [are] a lot of parts of the Bible," he said, "that talk about how life begins with breath, and so even that is something that we can interpret differently." Or misinterpret catastrophically, as the case may be.
Scripture twice says explicitly that a baby is a baby long before it takes its first breath. John the Baptist, three months before he was born, is described not as a clump of cells but as a "baby," a baby who was capable of physical reaction to stimulus ("the baby leaped in her womb") and capable of emotional reaction as well – "the baby in my womb leaped for joy" at the sound of Mary's greeting (Luke 1:39,44).
So Buttegieg has publicly biffed what the Bible teaches about welfare and abortion. How does does he do on marriage and human sexuality? Jesus was quite unambiguous and explicit that there are just two genders and that marriage is a man-woman thing. "He who created them...made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.'"
So Mayor Pete has completely botched Jesus' instructions on marriage, and worse, he is practicing openly and unapologetically the sin which Jesus blamed for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Referring to the miracles he performed in Capernaum, Jesus said, "And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you" (Matthew 11:23-24).
It's worth noting that we have it on the authority of Jesus that there are sins worse than homosexuality. But the sin of Sodom is enough to exclude a man forever from the kingdom of God, even if he's the president of the United States (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
Pete Buttegieg is certainly seems like a nice guy. He reminds you of Opie of Mayberry. But God has not called us to be nice – he has called us to be good. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
So, in sum, Pete Buttegieg has badly distorted the teaching of Jesus on ministering to the poor, would willingly consign living babies to butchery and dismemberment, flatly rejects the teaching of Jesus on gender and marriage, and defiantly practices a sin the Bible describes as an abomination in the eyes of God. In other words, Pete Buttegieg's theology seems to be drawn more from the Democrat Platform than the word of God.
As John Stonestreet writes, "Christianity is, of course, personal. But it's not private. To say, as Jesus' first followers did, that "Christ is Lord" is to state a public truth. Christ is sovereign not just over our salvation, but over everything. And if Christianity is true, its truth applies to every sphere of life."
And that is bad news for Pete Buttegieg.
The author may be contacted at bfischer@afa.net
Follow me on Facebook at "Focal Point" and on Twitter @bryanjfischer
Host of "Focal Point" on American Family Radio, 1:05 pm CT, M-F www.afr.net
© Bryan Fischer
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