It started again after Trump ordered terrorist Qasem Soleimani killed.  Critics are falsely accusing Trump of making the world more dangerous.  The truth is, it was Obama—with his foreign policy of weakness and capitulation—that intensified international tensions.

Obama continually gave things away, getting nothing in return but contempt for America.

Trump on the other hand—by refusing to accept anything but victory—defused the danger level of the world.

Obama’s weak approach is the bane of liberal thinking.  Underneath, is the belief that victory is not possible. The best they can hope for is a tenuous treaty that they hope will avoid a confrontation.  Nothing is settled.  The undercurrent of defeatism ran through all of Obama’s policies, and he found a half-cure for everything.

Tragically, the church learned Obama’s way of making things more dangerous.  The trend in church is to get people to like us better.   Ironically, it has only made them hate us more.

Arthur Matthews was an amazing man.  Decades before American Pastors began imitating Obama apology tours, Matthew saw it coming:

“Old Testament examples of prayer at work portray most dramatically for us the believer’s authority over all the power of God’s enemies.  There is a finality that will not be gainsaid in the way the superior strength of alien armies is disposed of as God’s servants. This finality is not seen in the political bargaining that characterizes our day.  Compromises are made, peace treaties are signed, and the peacemakers move to other danger spots; but the fighting still goes on.  Are we allowing our disillusionment with the world’s acclaimed peacemakers to influence our thinking on spiritual warfare?  Are we really convinced our call is to spiritual welfare and peace through victory?”

It’s almost as if he is asking, “Are you acting like Obama in regard to the things of God?”

 Christian leaders need to examine themselves for this hypocrisy.   Ask yourself, “Have I condemned Obama’s defeatist approach while practicing my own version of it?”

Another area that requires examination should be centered around outcomes.  If the intended goal of the “user friendly church” was to reduce hostility, then why—under their watch—has hostility towards Christians and laws banning religious freedoms increased dramatically?

They didn’t hate us like this when we preached boldly.  It is possible they now instinctively feel contempt for our compromise?  They respectfully disagreed with us back then, but are repulsed by us now.

Nowhere is this defeatism more glaring than in the attitude of the church at large towards prayer and revival.

They don’t really believe prayer and revival can change our world.  They don’t pray as if prayer had power to change society.  They don’t preach revival because they can’t imagine it happening to their people. They see their congregations as coddled masses who are not willing to pay the price for revival.

Trump shows us that peace through victory means calling someone’s bluff.  Trump did that to Iran when they threatened us with the end of the world if we walked away from that hideous agreement Obama made.  But it turned out to be all talk.

Christian leaders must learn to do that with Satan.  Call his bluff.  Tell him he’s the defeated one!  Behave like Jesus won a total victory on the Cross.  Christian leaders must do that with culture.  Call the bluff of all those ‘experts’ who insist we must alter our message in order to change society.

Listen again to Arthur Matthews: “In any situation where Satan dominates and threatens, God looks for a man through whom He may declare war on the enemy.  He purposes that through this man Satan be served notice to back up, pack up, and clear out.”

Peace through victory calls the devil’s bluff on the highest level.  It declares that the Earth can still be enveloped by a massive act of God, as God said it will:

“For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea” Habakkuk 2:14.

By holding to a policy of peace through victory, Trump has already seen results no one could have imagined.  It is time for Christian leaders to repent of their defeatism and embrace the power of prayer to make tangible changes in the hearts of men and women and to impact world events.

Arthur Matthew said, “It is the man who prays who exercises supremacy even over international situations.  Men are going to have to acknowledge the peace will not be brought through politicians, but through the intercessor who has learned to wage spiritual warfare and wins peace over the principalities and powers in high places.”