Jimmy Carter, from all appearances, lived an exemplary life. One that many will never come anywhere close to matching. He famously taught Sunday School very nearly until his death. People were known to travel long distances to visit Plains, Georgia, just to attend one of Carter’s Sunday School classes.
Jimmy Carter dedicated his entire adult life to making the world a better place for humanity; there can be no dispute about that. Thinking in purely human terms, why would I bother to post a blog negatively critiquing someone who accomplished so much for humankind?
On many levels, I readily acknowledge President Carter blazed a trail that would serve as a perfect model for others in general and former presidents in particular to emulate. Whereas other presidents have chosen to exploit their status to enrich themselves financially, Carter principally eschewed the pursuit of riches to serve humanity.
On a purely human level, Jimmy Carter reached heights that should bring joy, admiration, and supreme satisfaction from an adoring fan base. Yet, for me, Carter’s passing only brings profound sadness and sorrow.
My heart is saddened because, for all of Carter’s positive humanitarianism, it is still abundantly clear that he did not live in fidelity to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Jimmy Carter, like Mother Teresa, collected more trophies in their lifetime than I ever would. For all of their human accomplishments, they failed to meet the biblical gold standard, which is submission to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Submission to Jesus Christ as Lord, even more than submission to Jesus Christ as Savior, is authenticated by our actions, not so much by helping others, as noble as helping other people are and so very needed in an increasingly dark world.
Submission to Jesus Christ as Lord most vividly manifests itself among the controversial moral topics of a given generation’s day and time. Issues like abortion, marriage, and gender are for our present day and time.
I keep returning to those three issues because these three, aka The Big Three, are the preeminent moral issues of our day. As human beings, we do not choose the issues that will confront us. They happen organically and by God’s Providence.
In other generations, the issues were profound and life-altering, such as slavery, women's suffrage, and disease, to name just some examples. Ever since Adam and Eve, every generation has been confronted with moral issues that, depending upon one's position, really testified to whether one stood in submission to Jesus Christ as Lord or not.
I have spent this past week in Latin America sharing the Gospel, and every time, without fail, I have gone to great labor to make sure the person I was engaging with had no misgivings or lack of understanding that following Jesus Christ is much more than intellectual assent and mere verbal affirmation.
Though not exclusively, following Jesus Christ is most dramatically demonstrated in our political alignment. As Christ-followers, our aim should only be to enter into alliances with political entities that seek to govern in a manner consistent with biblical revelation. In those markers, Jimmy Carter failed miserably.
While Jimmy Carter will be lauded for eradicating disease and building homes for the less fortunate, I will fixate on his very public act of rejecting the Southern Baptist Convention TWICE for their egregious crime of taking the very orthodox position on the role of women in the church and the home.
I will fixate upon the fact that as president, Jimmy Carter hosted a conference in the White House on the family where he chose to include same-sex marriage couples in the fellowship.
I will fixate upon the fact that Jimmy Carter did not believe the very Bible that he taught in his Sunday School was not the veritable Word of God.
In a word, Jimmy Carter could best be described as what is termed as a Liberal Christian. My dear Brother and Sister, as much as one can have philosophical certitude about a matter, I know there will not be one Liberal Christian in heaven.
J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) wrote the seminal book on the matter: Christianity and Liberalism. Machen took a valiant and unwavering stance by drawing a sharp contrast between true, biblical Christianity (as summarized by the church’s historic creeds and confessions) and liberalism, demonstrating that liberalism is different from Christianity. [taken from Burk Parsons, Ligonier Ministries].
As the Apostle Paul wrote under God’s inspiration in Galatian 1:8-9:
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
This matter was so vitally important to grasp without confusion or misunderstanding that God had Paul essentially repeat the same thing in verse nine as he did in verse eight.
No matter how nice someone is or how much they seek to help their fellow man, if they gain the whole world but lose their soul, all they have done ends in vain.
Now, it is important to grant that one can commit the same acts and take the same moral positions that Jimmy Carter took and repent, but there is no evidence that Jimmy Carter repudiated his non-biblical position.
As far as the public record, and all we can judge one upon, is what they write and speak for public consumption, Carter died true to earlier stated convictions.
As I had to say many times this week to people who tragically were secure and convinced in their minds they were going to heaven because they were good, history will do the same and regard Jimmy Carter as good. In some external way of reckoning human goodness, much more than me.
Yet, I rest in the firm foundation of God’s Word that although others will pray more than me, like some Muslims, and although others will be better fathers and husbands than me, like some Mormons, I have eternal life because of what another has done in my stead.
That is the tragedy of our world today. Many refuse to accept salvation on God’s terms. Because Satan blinds the non-elect, they think we are wiser than their Creator. They institute man-made traditions, foolishly believing they will bring them into the right relationship with God, our Creator.
Men like Jimmy Carter are the very people that Jesus Christ had in mind when He said there would be many who stand before Him and plead, “Lord, didn’t we cast out demons in your name, and didn’t we prophesy in your name.” Only to hear Jesus Christ respond, “Depart, I never knew you.”
Jimmy Carter spent one hundred years on Planet Earth. Many of them purport to know Jesus Christ. I submit to you, with all fear & trembling, that redemptively Jesus Christ never knew Jimmy Carter.
I plead with you, the reader, do not fall prey to the Wiles of the Adversary. He only offers a counterfeit route to God. He can so easily have you teach a Sunday School class without ever being regenerated.
He can allow you to reach great heights in the public square yet never experience one genuine day of God’s favor because you have never accepted His Son, and as a result, God’s wrath has abideth upon you every day of your mortal life.
Nothing I have said, written, or thought brings me any joy whatsoever. I pray that no one ever reads this blog ends where it is overwhelmingly likely that Jimmy Carter is experiencing his eternal reality at this very moment.
It goes without saying placing one’s faith en toto in Jesus Christ with no mixture is the only remedy that repairs the spiritual breach between a thrice-holy God and sinful man.
As always, let me know what you think. Until then, keep your hands to the plow and seek to serve for an Audience of One.
With fear & trembling,
Ricky V. Kyles Sr. DEd.Min
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