This is really an editorial rather than an article summary. There are so many articles about Justice Kennedy’s retirement that it is hard to choose one or two that would lend itself to reflect on its significance from a prophetic point of view.
While the left is having a “five alarm fire” and has almost completely forgotten about Stormy Daniels, and the right gloats about U.S. President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court pick in his first year and a half in office, our mission is to think about Kennedy’s replacement’s prophetic place in history. Prophecy is future history, which for human eyes, is difficult to understand without divine guidance that sees and knows all things of the future.
Kennedy is touted as the supreme swing vote sometimes siding with the left, other times siding with the right. Therefore the left did not want him to retire while Donald Trump is President as that would certainly change the direction of the Court toward the right, and the Right anxiously wants a replacement more aligned with their agenda.
Prophetically speaking, we face a future that sees a SCOTUS making some very welcome decisions, such as limits on abortions and restoring religious liberty in regard to same-sex marriage, among other matters. But there are other decisions that will likely impinge on more dangerous matters, such as the death penalty, Sunday legislation, etc.
All of this assumes that Mr. Trump and the Republicans can overcome democratic resistance to Mr. Trump’s nomination. This is certainly easier while the Republicans control the Senate, which reviews and confirms nominees.
Supreme Court justices have a substantial influence on American social and political life. Whoever is chosen for such a position will likely redirect the court toward a more right-leaning bearing. This will be very welcome by politically minded American evangelicals. They will certainly have a voice in who is nominated. And it will be certainly unwelcome by the mainstream media whose influence on American politics continues to wane.
Paula White, mega-church pastor, and the president’s closest evangelical advisor recently said of 2018, ““If we thought we did some things last year, boy, wait until this year…” She, along with her evangelical colleagues will now have the opportunity to substantially influence the pick of the second Supreme Court justice during the Trump era, which is something that the mainstream media largely overlooks in their intensive focus on Mr. Trump. He’s not likely to make that choice on his own.
As political dignitaries collaborate with church dignitaries, the stage is being set to fulfill one of the Bible’s most compelling end-time prophecies – the mixing of church and state to make America a religious nation with religious laws, which a future Supreme Court likely will uphold in a rather tumultuous time.
While democrats politically undermined religious freedom during the previous administration, republicans, in the name of restoring religious liberty will not stop at re-centering American political order. We are advised in the book of Revelation that they will go to the other extreme and force worship on the nation.
I am wondering if the angels holding back the winds of strife have received instructions to give permission to the religious right to rise to power permanently. Perhaps not, but one does wonder how soon that time will come. It will have to, eventually, for Revelation 13’s prophetic proclamations to come true. That’s what makes the upcoming mid-term elections in November so interesting. If the republicans do not retain control of the House of Representatives or the Senate, nominations such as Justice Kennedy’s replacement and other conservative initiatives will be much more difficult. If they do retain control, it will add credibility to the idea that the Throne Room has permitted a permanent change in the political order. I am praying that God will do what is best for His work and for His church.