Last week, on January 22, Dr. Tom Buck of First Baptist Church in Lindale, TX (full disclosure: he’s my pastor), said the following on Twitter:
“I can’t imagine any truly God-fearing Israelite who would’ve wanted their daughters to view Jezebel as an inspirational role model because she was a woman in power.”
The tweet quickly set off a firestorm of controversy. Sarah Pulliam Bailey of the Washington Post responded, “It took 2 days in office for a Southern Baptist pastor to call VP Kamala Harris Jezebel. I’m going to guess she’s not getting an invitation to speak at the convention as former VP Mike Pence did in 2018.”
Is it too much to expect mainstream journalists to have better reading comprehension? Dr. Buck did not call the Vice President “Jezebel,” and his critics completely missed the point.
The Kamala of Today
Kamala Harris has championed the delusion of transsexualism and the wicked practices of abortion, sodomy, and lesbianism. Yet many professing Christians have rejoiced to see her become the first woman Vice President of the United States. Would a God-fearing Israelite have told their daughters to celebrate the evil queen Jezebel just because she was a woman? Of course not. So how could any God-fearing Christian tell their daughters to celebrate the evil Vice President Kamala?
Somehow identity politics absolve wicked politics. A number of evangelical leaders have been so moved by Kamala, not just for being a woman but also for being mixed-race. Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church in Washington D.C., said that despite her problems, Kamala Harris is “God’s grace to us.”
Michelle Reyes, Vice President of the Asian American Christian Collaboration, said, “Let’s celebrate Kamala Harris on Inauguration Day, and let’s celebrate her as a victory for not just the Black community, but the Asian community as well.” Her comments were shared by Anyabwile.
Jemar Tisby, author of the book The Color of Compromise, called Kamala Harris a “relief.” When chosen as Biden’s running mate, Tisby said on his podcast, “We celebrate this bi-racial woman of Jamaican and Indian descent.”
He expressed concerns with Kamala’s record as a prosecutor, but Tisby, a professing Christian, did not mention one word about the moral evils this woman stands for, namely her politics on abortion and the LGBTQ movement. Even CBS news recognized that no one in the Senate was more liberal than Kamala Harris. She’s even more to the left than Joe Biden.
Let me not mince words: Kamala Harris is evil. As attorney general, she officiated the first same-sex “wedding” in the state of California. She was for privileging LGBTQ persons before Biden. She will punish anyone opposed (wait until the deceptively-named Equality Act passes later this year). This is the kind of history Kamala has made and wants to make, pushing the abominable sexual ethics of Sodom—more locally, San Fransisco—on the United States.
Kamala has also progressed the sexual revolution as an advocate for abortion, the murder of unborn children by the thousands in America each day. She has a perfect abortion record from pro-abortion groups (as horrifying as it is to think of such a reputation as being “perfect”).
Perhaps you’ll remember that in 2015, the Center for Medical Progress released undercover videos that revealed Planned Parenthood, the nation’s number one abortion provider, was selling aborted baby body parts. Well, rather than investigate Planned Parenthood, Kamala Harris prosecuted CMP’s Sandra Merritt and David Daleiden for exposing the abortion giant.
Vice President Mike Pence rightly pointed out in a debate last fall that Kamala is for killing children in the womb all the way up to the moment of birth (and even moments afterward). Seeing her replace Pence is not progress—it’s depraved.
She is not, in Thabiti’s words, “God’s grace to us.” She is a judgment on this crooked and twisted generation, just as Jezebel was a judgment on Israel. Dr. Buck did not call Kamala a “Jezebel.” But allow me to be more direct.
The Jezebel of the Bible
In the ninth century before Christ, Israel had a king named Ahab who “did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him” (1 Kings 16:30-31). Ahab took as his wife a Phoenician woman named Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, the priest-king of Sidon. As the daughter of a priest of Baal, Jezebel opposed the worship of Yahweh and instituted Baal worship in Israel. The prophets of God were banished and went into hiding.
Baal was thought of as the king of gods and a fertility god. Worship of Baal sometimes included the sacrifice of infant children, which happened in a place called Topheth, the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. God called it the Valley of Slaughter. Jeremiah 19:4-5 says:
“The people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind.”
Modern abortion is child sacrifice. It is the offering of unborn children on an altar of sexual idolatry. God has said that the murder of unborn children is an offense worthy of death (Exodus 21:22-25). About the sacrifice of babies to false gods, the Lord said in Leviticus 20:4-5 the following:
“If the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.”
Get that in your heart, dear reader, because that is very important. The Lord will not tolerate a glib attitude toward sin. In Revelation 2:18-29, Jesus rebuked a church for tolerating the wickedness of a false prophetess. Guess what Jesus called her? Jezebel.
“I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality,” Jesus said. Think about this: Is Kamala not doing this very thing, advocating for abortion and the LGBTQ movement?
“Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed,” Jesus said, “and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works.”
The Outrage of the Hour
Dr. Tom Buck asked readers to think critically before lifting up Kamala Harris as an inspiration. But rather than examine themselves and think twice about admiring a wicked ruler, many professing Christians berated a righteous brother in Christ, slandering Tom and even going as far as calling him a racist misogynist.
Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, TX, publicly renounced his friendship with Tom and called on J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, to disfellowship our church.
“I find his comment regarding Madam Vice President Kamala Harris extremely un-Christlike” and “unjustifiable,” McKissic said. He went on to say that if the SBC and the Southern Baptist Texas Convention do not do something about Tom, “It will be another sign that SBC waters are dangerous,” for black people.
(Edit: It was later reported by the Dallas Morning News that McKissic wrote an article for SBC Voices in 2015 about a black woman and LGBTQ advocate whom he compared to Jezebel. What a hypocrite.)
Dr. Susan Codone of Mercer University said of Tom, “It is possible for a pastor to be both a poser in his position and an abuser of his call to express God’s love instead of hate.” Dr. Laura Levens, who claims to be a Reverend, said, “This is downright terrible. Spewing such hatred is inexcusable. It is racist and misogynistic.”
Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, shared an article by Yonat Shimron, editor of the pro-gay Religious News Service, which denounced Tom’s comments as “incendiary rhetoric.” Dr. Akin said Tom’s tweet was “disappointing and uncalled for. I do not agree with POTUS and VP on many issues. But I will pray for them and ask God to work in and through them for His great glory (1 Timothy 2:1-6).”
I would ask this of Dr. Akin. When Jesus rebuked the church in Thyatira for tolerating “that woman Jezebel,” who was “teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality,” was that disappointing and uncalled for? Would Dr. Akin have been disappointed when Jesus called King Herod a fox? (Luke 13:32)
I can say that Tom has prayed for our elected officials, as 1 Timothy 2:1-2 instructs us to do. How would I know Tom has done so? Because I was sitting a few feet away from him when he did. The instruction to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions” does not mean they are to be untouched by criticism, especially when we see the brethren being led astray.
I was plenty critical of President Trump and of his false prophets (by the way, so was Tom). But Trump is not the President anymore, and Biden and Harris are much, much worse. Pray for them, yes, but they are not role models. It is possible to honor our leaders (1 Peter 2:17) and warn of their deceptions at the same time, with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).
In Conclusion
The way professing believers have reacted to Tom’s tweet is exactly why it needed to be said. Would you really break fellowship with a brother in the Lord because he dared to say something about a wicked woman whose lies will destroy millions and many more eternal souls? As Galatians 4:16 says, “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
The Jezebel of the Bible—in the Old and New Testaments—died a gruesome death, and so did anyone who followed her. But those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ will have eternal life. Are you of the kingdom of darkness, or are you of the kingdom of Christ?
“By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil,” the Bible says in 1 John 3:10. “Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love His brother.”
Additional Resources (Updated January 30, 2021)
Disagreeing Agreeably With Jezebel by Dr. James White
The Deconstruction of the Pro-Life Movement by Dr. Tom Buck
Edits: The audio for this article was added 18 hours after its publication. Upon posting, a few edits were made, including phrasing corrections in paragraphs 6 and 20, a grammatical error in paragraph 23, and a video link addition in paragraph 30. A category for additional resources was also added. The special paragraph mentioning the Dallas Morning News was added on February 4.
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