AMERICA: A LOT OF CHANGE AND NO CHANGE (Friday Church News Notes, February 3, 2017, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org) – Donald Trump’s actions in his first days as U.S. President are breathtaking. He has filled his cabinet with capable and largely conservative people. He is blessing Jacob’s seed. He has signed multiple orders to strengthen border security and immigration, including denying federal money to sanctuary cities, hiring 5,000 more Border Patrol agents, ending “catch-and-release” policies for illegal immigrants, and building a wall on America’s southern border to protect the nation from  scofflaws. He has issued an order to rebuild the U.S. military, which has been devastated by eight years of the Obama administration. He has issued an order to deny federal funds to international organizations that perform or even lobby for the legalization of abortion. He has halted the nation’s refugee program for 120 days so that it can be re-evaluated and potentially dangerous refugees can be properly vetted. His short list of nominees to the vacant U.S. Supreme Court seat are constitutionalists. He has issued an order to defeat ISIS. There is much to applaud. Of course, the courts and opposition politics have only begun to fight the Trump agenda, and the fight will be exceedingly fierce. All of this aside, our biblical worldview does not allow us to see things as secular or even religious conservatives do. We can’t join Judge Jeanine or Hannity or Rush, et al, in proclaiming this a new day for America. It’s not a new day or a good day, and a Trump presidency is probably not going to turn out well. Spiritually and morally, which are the most important principles by far, absolutely nothing changed with the November election. Nothing has changed in the public schools and the universities, which continue to indoctrinate the minds and hearts of American citizens with godless humanism, moral relativism, socialism, and globalism. Nothing has changed with the Muslim agenda to establish sharia law, and it doesn’t appear that Trump even understands the plan. Nothing has changed with the LGBT agenda which is already firmly embedded throughout society, industry, and government. In fact, Trump refuses to overturn Obama’s 2014 executive order protecting federal workers from “anti-LGBTQ discrimination,” saying that he “is determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community” and “continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights” (“Trump leaves intact,” Fox News, Jan. 31, 2017). Nothing has changed in the pop culture, which continues to morally pollute the nation’s very heart and soul. It is pop culture moral relativism that has given us a Donald Trump, with his adulteries, narcissism, boastings, pomposity, lyings, and petty vindictiveness. The fearful destruction of the black family, for example, is not only the result of the welfare state; it is the product of a vile pop culture. And above all, nothing has changed in the churches. America was only great when it was good, and it can never be great again unless it is good again by biblical standards which can issue only from God-fearing churches. What we have said all along is that Bible-believing churches need to focus like a laser on “first love for Christ” revival, serious education in God’s Word, serious obedience to God’s Word, serious prayer, serious building of godly homes, serious discipleship, serious separation from the world, and serious zeal in fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission. This will do more to help America than flag-waving conservative political zeal. Most of the best churches are shockingly weak, shallow, biblically ignorant, worldly, and unfruitful.