Pastor Donnie Swaggart Rebukes the Black Church - Part 1

Blessings to Israel presents, Deserting the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible.

Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program. We're talking about the policies. We ain't talking about her goofy cackling and whether we like her or not.

That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about what is the policy platform that undergirds the candidacy of Kamala Harris. And when you examine that, everything that she supports policy-wise, it's against the word of God. And my question is, how do you say that you are with her without violating your Christian conviction and everything that goes against what God says that he hates?

How do you do it? Welcome to Deserting the Times. It is a blessing to be with you once again this week. And today we're going to discuss the black church and things that the black church is supporting when it comes to politics. That voice in the opening clip was April Chapman, the host of Standard of Truth podcast, and she's addressing the presiding Bishop J.

Drew Sheard and his endorsement of Kamala Harris. So we're going to get into that today in more detail. But before I do, I must remind you that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. If you've never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I encourage you to do so today.

Otherwise, if you leave this out of life without having received him, you will spend eternity in the lake of fire separated from God. So will you please give your heart to Jesus Christ on today? All right, folks. So once again, that was the voice of April Chapman in the opening clip. And on her podcast, she went in great detail in discussing what has been going on here lately with Bishop Sheard endorsing Kamala Harris and the rebuke that came from Pastor Donnie Swaggart. So what we're going to do today is I have multiple clips of April's podcast that I want to share. And normally I don't pull from podcasts. I normally pull from sermons or a news outlet. But as I was going through her discussion of this, it was just so thorough and so rich. And I just could not settle on one or two clips as I usually do. So I'm going to share multiple clips with you today, again, of her discussing what is going on with the black church and how it is functioning when it comes to political endorsement.

So let's begin with clip number one. I'm going to be providing commentary on recent statements made by Pastor Donnie Swaggart concerning the hand of the Church of God in Christ, who is known as Bishop J. Drew Sheard, who not too long ago publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Now Donnie Swaggart, he didn't mention Bishop J.

Drew Sheard by name. However, any of us who've been paying attention for any length of time to how the black church has been moving this election season, you already know who he was talking about. And the reason why you know is because many of us have already done a biblical critique and a biblical rebuke of Bishop Sheard's public remarks regarding Kamala. So to be fair, Donnie Swaggart said what he said.

It really wasn't new or novel, but we're going to examine just why so many people had a problem with what he said. As you guys know, this is the Standard of Truth Act. So the goal is for us to adjudicate this matter publicly using the word of God to ground our arguments, taking the emotion out of it and just seeing what thus says the Lord. First, let me do this. First thing I want to do is I want to summarize what Donnie Swaggart just said, right? Okay. I'm going to go ahead and exegete, right?

What he said. Now to be clear, I don't know all there is to know about Donnie Swaggart. In fact, I didn't even know Donnie Swaggart existed. I am familiar with his father, Jimmy Swaggart, cause my grandma loved her some Jimmy Swaggart. Okay.

Grandma was watching Jimmy and when Jimmy fell from grace, my grandma's heart was crushed. So with that said, I don't know nothing about Donnie. I don't know his theological positions.

I don't know anything about his ministry. That is not what this video is about. This video at this juncture is to examine what he said in this video and to adjudicate the words in this video against the testimony of scripture so that believers can ascertain and make a decision. Was he wrong with what he said?

We want to figure out was Donnie wrong about what he said. So, and I'm going to tell you right now, I'm going to be, the statement I'm about to make, I'm going to be called a racist and I will be called every name under the sun. If somebody needs to stand up and speak to the black church when the largest Pentecostal from the largest African American Pentecostal denomination with that leader stands up and said, I endorse that woman. He was saying, I endorse murder. I endorse homosexuality. I endorse lesbianism. I endorse transgenderism. I endorse every evil that hell could prosper or bring up to the right. That's wrong, folks.

And the black church votes predominantly for the party that is anti-God. What's going on here? What's going on? See, my statement to them is this. We've had them call into the program. I don't like it when you talk about, well, no, the problem is they don't like it because we're stepping on their toes.

Hello. But I guarantee you, if 1860 was today, they wouldn't say a word about preachers preaching against slavery. They would trumpet it and they should. So then why will not the African American church stand up for righteousness and stand up for the word of God? Come on church. Come on. You can call me a racist. You can call me every name under the sun, but I am right. I come against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You don't vote for somebody just because mama voted him or daddy voted for him, but you vote according to the word of God. Come out from among them and be separate says the Lord of hosts. If you are a Christian, start acting like a Christian. If you claim to be holy and righteous, start acting holy and start acting righteous.

Now I will be called a racist. I will be called every name under the sun because I get their emails, but I want to serve notice on the devil right now. I like what old uncle Bud Robinson, the Nazarene of angels, he said, as long as I got fist, I'm going to hit the devil. When I can't pick up my hands anymore, I'll use my feet and I'll kick the devil. And when I can't kick him and hit him anymore, I'll bite him. And when I don't have any teeth left, I'll gum the devil to death. Amen.

Amen. Um, you know, pastor Swaggart is, is asking the same questions that I've been asking for over a decade now. Why is it that the black church continues to support things that are not in line with the word of God? And as a April mentioned Bishop JW sheared, he is the head. He's the presiding Bishop of the church of God and Christ, which is the largest black Pentecostal denomination in the world. And so that is what pastor Swaggart was addressing. And Bishop sheared, he stood up in his church and he said, I'm with her.

I'm endorsing Kamala Harris. And I'm asking the same question that pastor Swaggart is asking. Why is it that the black church has been voting all of my life as long as I can remember voting anti-God and I have been challenging people. I have been asking people and I have not gotten an answer yet that is satisfactory because you can't go against the word of God.

It's that plain and simple folks. You cannot go against the word of God. And so pastor Swaggart is, is, is asking this question. He's challenging and he's simply saying, why won't the black church stand for righteousness? Why won't the black church stand for the lives of the unborn? Why won't the black church stand for biblical marriage? Why won't the black church stand for Israel?

And again, it's been a question that I have been asking for a number of years now, and I am scratching my head just like pastor Swaggart and just like April Chapman, uh, as to why this is continuing to go on. So let's listen to a bit more from April as she continues to discuss, she's actually going to give her response to what pastor Swaggart had to say. Donnie, after thinking long and hard about his words, he decided to stand up and speak up.

He's like, I'm just going to stand up and say it. I think every Christian is going to come to a crossroad like this in your Christian walk, doing this process of sanctification. You're going to come into situations where you're going to have to think long and hard about what you're going to say, and then you're going to have to be prepared no matter what happens to speak the truth with conviction, only caring about whether or not God is pleased with what you said. You can't worry about the applause or the approval of friends or enemies or, or the critics and detractors.

You can't really be obsessed and worry about that because then that's when you're going to need to compromise. But when you stand 10 toes down saying I've counted the cause, I've weighed my words against scripture, I believe that I am right. Let it rip.

Say what you need to say. Now, Donnie said in this clip that when we, he didn't say his name, but when Bishop Sheared stood up and endorsed Kamala Harris for president, Donnie says effectively he was saying meaning Bishop Sheared was that he was endorsing murder, that he was endorsing homosexuality, that he was endorsing abortion and lesbianism and transgenderism and every kind of evil that hell can pretty much muster up. And then after that he says he was like, it's wrong, right? He wants to know why is it that the black church votes for the party that is anti-God?

And I'm like, wait a minute, Donnie sounds like he's saying stuff that I say on this channel all the time. I have been trying to figure out the same thing, brother Donnie. I'm trying to figure out why believers, those who are born from above, filled with the spirit of God cannot see the binary choice and the difference between the Democrat party of today and the Democrat party of yesteryear, who in my opinion has always been the party of slavery, subjugation, oppression, Jim Crow, destroying the black family, but whatever, right? When you just look at the two, neither one of these parties represent the God of the Bible.

That is not the argument. But he is saying that there is a party who based on policy platform alone has made it very clear that God is not welcome there and that every policy and legislation position that they take is literally anti-God. That's what he is asking. He is asking, why is it that the black church just votes lockstep with this party that goes against everything that they claim the God that they serve says that he hates? And so then he's like, they don't like what I'm saying because it's stepping on their toes. He acknowledged that we should be voting according to the word of God. He then says, listen, I already know they don't call me racist.

They don't like when I say things like this cause I get their emails. So that tells me, Oh, this is not the first time that Donnie has spoken up and said something along these lines. I think that's a great thing. He then moves on and he points out the hypocrisy of the black church. And I said, well, he just, he going for blood.

I was like, okay, Donnie, let's bring it. He points out the hypocrisy of the black church and he wants to know why won't the black church, the social construct we speak of, why won't they stand up for righteousness? Right? He's like, why won't they stand up for the word of God? All right. So you heard April mentioned their sanctification. Um, and she said, everyone has to come to a point. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to come to a point whether you have to decide whether you're going to stand for him or not. Are you going to go against the PC type of things? Are you going to go against those sacred cows? They may go against your ethnicity or against your, uh, political affiliation.

She says, you have to make that decision at some point. And she mentioned sanctification, which is to set apart for special use or purpose that he is to make holy or sacred. And anyone that is familiar with the church of God in Christ, you know, that one of the things that's often spoken of is holiness being holy, how important it is to be holy.

So the question is again with the presiding Bishop is why then are you standing with someone and standing with a party that goes against holiness because the democratic party's platform does not promote holiness. And folks, we should vote the Bible. The Bible is our standard, nothing else, nothing else in the culture, not our ethnicity, um, not our, uh, you know, skin color, whatever it is, the Bible is our standard. And I was born and raised as, as you can see people that are watching this on video, but for those who are not, I am a man of color.

I'm a black man. So I was born and raised in a culture in which I always heard, well, the democratic party is for the blacks, the minority, the poor, and the Republicans are for the rich white. And so therefore we are supposed to go Democrat. And well, when I registered to vote, that's what I did. I voted and registered and voted for the democratic party. But as I walked in my, uh, Christian life, as I matured in my walk with Christ, again, sanctification, that process, I realized the Holy spirit began to speak to me and opened my eyes to see what it was that I was really voting for. And the truth of the matter was folks, I have to admit, I did not know the policies. Um, I was just voting because, well, that's what previous generations did. That's what the community did.

And that's what I went with. But when I started reading the Bible and really making the connection, and let me just say, I was reading the Bible much earlier in life than when I began voting. But when I began to look at the Bible and then look at things politically, I realized that I was voting in contradiction to the Bible in contradiction to what I believed in.

And so I made the decision then that I would no longer go in that direction. And that is what April and pastor Swaggart is challenging the black church to do. We have to vote the Bible. And then Donnie quotes, he quotes from second Corinthians chapter six, verse 17. And I was like, okay, this might be my kind of guy.

I don't know much about him. Can't cosign everything without doing some more research, but on face value, I'm like, okay, pimping, I see you. He quotes from second Corinthians six, 17. And let me go ahead. I'm going to, I'm going to read that really quickly.

Um, I actually know what off the top of my head, but essentially it's a come out from among them, be separate says the Lord. And I was just like, wow, what a, what a befitting text for the moment. Right? So he quotes that and I thought it was so fascinating. I thought it was fascinating because just a few, just a few verses before that. Right.

Let me go ahead and, um, pull it up. Sick chapter six, verse 17 says, therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them says the Lord and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you just a few verses before this y'all the apostle Paul, he's literally telling the church at Corinth not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. And oftentimes many people will use that verse in the context of two individuals who are thinking about getting married. And I believe that there is an application for that based on the context. There's nothing wrong with using it in that way. But the idea in this text that Paul is driving home is the fact that he's talking about being hitched to or walking with in, in a, in a covenantal or agreement situation with unbelievers.

Right? So that the image here is that like believers should not be yoked up in, in, in close fellowship with or siding with or being influenced by someone who has an ideology that is antithetical to the faith that you claim to profess. Essentially, that's what the apostle Paul is saying. In other words, y'all ain't the same.

Okay. Y'all ain't the same. Y'all ain't on the same page, everything they support you in theory. If it's wicked, you're supposed to be against it yet you are yoked up or partnered with them, this group ideology or whatever, in an unholy Alliance. As a believer, it's not saying that we can't be in the world and not of the world, that we can't engage with the world.

Don't make that is a category distinction. We are called to be salt and light, right? We are called to preach the gospel and to do that, you'd have to engage with the unbeliever. What we're talking about is, is a partnership and a yoking. Like literally, if you think of an ox, two oxen yoked together, they are paired together because they are walking in agreement. Wherever the ox on the right goes, the ox on the left kind of got to go with him. They can't be like, Ooh, we're yoked up, but you do your thing and I do mine. No, no, no. They are yoked in agreement with one another. They are yoked up, partnered with hitched to one another. So the question that Swaggart is asking, it is a very valid question.

All right. So I love my sister, April, if you're watching the video, you see, she has this handheld fan. She's actually going through menopause. And so she gives these hot flashes during her podcast.

And so she has this fan to keep her cool. But again, as she is discussing this, we look at the hypocrisy and folks, the hypocrisy is that there are many in the church. And today we're talking about the black church who claim God's word on Sunday.

And then they go out on Tuesday and they vote for the opposite. And then we, we, we stand around with our hands out saying, we don't understand why society is crumbling. Why are these things happening that are so bad? Because we're going against the word of God. And that's the hypocrisy of what so many are doing today.

And that is what April is challenging people. That is what pastor Swaggart is challenging because most of the black church today, and it saddens me. It breaks my heart to say this.

Most of the black church today looks like the world and is yoked with him. It would be like me as a married man. I'm a married man.

I've been married for 17 years now. And let's say one day I come home from work and I come through the door and there's my wife and she's lying cuddled up with another man on the couch. And so I walk up and I say, well, what's this? And she says, what's what? And I say, what, what is this guy that you're with? And she said, Oh, this is my boyfriend, Harry. And I say, well, your boyfriend, what do you mean your boyfriend? And she says, well, what's the problem? And I said, the problem is you're, you're married. So you don't have a boyfriend. You're married to me.

And if she responds, well, you know, I believe in marriage, but I don't believe in that monogamous stuff. I don't, I don't agree with that aspect of it. I'm not cool with that. And folks, that is what a lot of people are doing as crazy as that sounds. And that is crazy. That is what so many are doing when it comes to the church and when it comes to how they approach things politically, because you're going to church and you're reading the Bible and you're, you're lifting up Holy hands and you're, you're calling out to God saying you believe in one thing, but then you go out and you can support the opposite politically. And pastor Swaggart is asking the question, why is that? Let's listen to one more clip before we wrap things up for this week after listening to it, I actually came to the conclusion that the apostate black church, as we know it, I was like, they don't believe in Galatians 3 28. I was like, there's no way that they can quote it, say it, believe it, internalize it and, and, and have any sort of convictions about it.

Because if they did, they would not be all up in arms and in their feelings about what Donnie Swagger said. So we're going to go ahead and we're going to read Galatians 3 28 and we're going to see what it says. You are all sons of God through faith for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Then here it is. We love quoting this out of context and applying it in situations that it don't apply, but it says there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus contextually. This is a, a, a text about justification. It's a text about how we are now, if you were in Christ, we are reconciled, not just to God, but to each other. And that all of the distinctions, the, the, the, the line of hostility that was once there between the Jew and Greek, the slave and the free and men and women that those things are now abolished because we are all one in Christ Jesus. So when the black church, they might quote Galatians 3 28, but I'm like, why, why are you so mad about what Donnie said? If you really believe the implications of it teaches the black church, we gotta be honest, this construct that we're talking about, they won't stand up for righteousness.

Why? Cause they bow the knee to the false God of blackness. This is not the first time you've heard me say it. So clutch of pearls.

If this is the first time you heard me say it, but it's not the first time I've said it. They bow to the altar of blackness and they don't bow the knee to the God of the Bible. How do we know this? Because when it came down to them choosing Christ over color, they couldn't do it. They could not bow the knee to Christ over their melanin. And they showed their diabolical love for the God of this world and for their inability to just stand with a fellow believer on the truth of God's word, because they love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil. You know, April is exactly right.

She is exactly right. So many today are bowing to the idol of blackness. And that is what rules Supreme. And I've been in churches where I have witnessed this, where from the pulpit was nothing but racism and hate speech. And every single person in the church was black, including the pastor.

And it was just spewing hate speech. I heard a pastor once say that during his sermon, he said, a white man can't tell me nothing because a white man hasn't walked in a black man's shoes. And when he said that, I thought to myself, I guess then Jesus can't tell you anything because Jesus is not a black man.

Jesus was a Jew and is a Jew. And so that is the type of thing that you see and hear though in the black church is very common. Not all.

There are some good ones out there. So I don't want to paint with the brush to say all are like this, but the majority, the majority, that is the type of thing that you see coming from the pulpit. Because as April said, our identity is in Christ.

There, there should be no tribalism, but you see it all the time. And she read from that scripture that says there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female. And what the scripture is simply making the point. We know that yes, those differentiations exist, but he's saying that our identity is in Christ.

So that transcend those things, that's, what's important. And we don't treat each other with some kind of division. And so when we look at though the democratic party, it constantly pits white against black male against female.

That's what you see in here all the time. And that goes directly against the scriptures because we are one in Christ, my white brother in Christ, meaning he is born again. He is more of a brother to me than a black man who has not received Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, but much of the black church does not approach things in that way. And that's why we have this type of thing going on where so many are supporting things that are not of God. Blackness is an idol within the black church. It is something that needs to be repented of.

I rebuke it. And I applaud pastor Swaggart for standing up and saying what he said. It took a lot of boldness.

It took a lot of courage and like April, I don't know anything about him. I was familiar with his, his father, but I don't know anything about this pastor, but it did sound as though what he was saying is that this is not new for him. It sounds like he's spoken in these ways before, but apparently this, this sermon has gone viral, but he says he's gotten emails from them before they call him racist. But the thing about it is truth is truth.

And there are times when the truth hurts. And so rather than getting mad, rather than getting angry and calling the man a racist and trying to dispute him, if you are guilty of the things that he's talking about, you need to repent and confess that sin, repent and turn to Jesus and say, Lord, I'm sorry. I have been bowing to this idol of blackness. And so therefore I'm going against your word.

I'm supporting and choosing things that are not in line with your word. That is what needs to happen in so much of the black church today. But folks, we're out of time for this week. So we're going to pause right there, but I'm not done because April had a lot more to say that I want to share with you all. So we're going to come back next week and look at it in greater detail. So I want to thank you for tuning in. Please come back and join us next week. As we continue to discern the times by viewing life through the lens of the Bible until then remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to Discerning the Times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.