Russell Moore Says His Desire for Divine Judgment on Trump ‘Is of the Devil’

Speaking of God’s judgment, Moore said:

What Jesus’ followers—who saw him alive—claimed is that everyone whose life is joined to him can find life, can stand in the presence of God, can be reconciled to him. Such people will find that there is no fear for them on Judgment Day because, in Christ, they’ve already been through judgment (Rom. 8:1). These people will find that, regardless of all the bad things they’ve done and thought and said, they are forgiven through the blood shed by Jesus (1 John 1:7).

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“How does one do that?” Moore asked. “Jesus said we can’t do it on our own—even if we were to negotiate a peace deal with Russia or even if we were to negotiate a permanent peace deal with the whole world.”

Moore told Trump that the president isn’t the only person who wants his name on “every building or your face on every banner.” In a “certain sense,” Moore explained, “we all do.” But exalting ourselves instead of God is a path that “leads to slavery and death.”

“The bad news for you,” Moore said, is that “Jesus said that it is very difficult for those who are wealthy or powerful to enter his kingdom.”

He continued, “[Jesus] said that to follow him means we lose our lives in order to find them again in his life. That means counting a cost.” Moore added, “Some rich and powerful people loved their stuff and their fame too much. Some didn’t realize that what they thought was ‘winning’ was really just a vapor of nothing, until it was too late.”

Moore didn’t hold back when he told Trump that he personally would like to see Trump receive the punishment Moore believes Trump deserves.

“But there’s good news too. It’s hard for me to say it, because I resent a lot of what you’ve done and the way you’ve insisted on inserting yourself into every family, church, friendship, and conversation—the way you’ve upended my own life,” Moore said. “I’d kind of like to see you get your comeuppance. And that means I would kind of grumble if I saw you next to me in worship in glory.”

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But, Moore explained, “that part of me is of the Devil,” because “Jesus reminds me that he was gladly willing to receive repentant people who defrauded others, who committed probably insurrectionist violence and who were morally promiscuous.”