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The Legacy of Jerry Falwell

Looking Back on the Life of Jerry Falwell

 

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An Editorial Commentary

By

R.A. Coombes

Publisher, The Alpha-Omega Report

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The Reverend Jerry Falwell, the famous TV minister who pastored the independent, Thomas Road Baptist Church of Lynchburg, Virginia died Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

Falwell, long noted for his controversial foray into American politics and his expansive television ministry had been in failing health for the past couple of years.

Falwell's legacy however is not the extensive television ministry, the mega-church he founded, nor the schools he founded. His political activism becomes his legacy. He was known as the leader of "The Moral Majority."

Falwell's empire had grown so huge that it nearly foundered in bankruptcy until the self-proclaimed "messiah" (i.e. an antichrist) Reverend Sung Myung Moon and his Unification church bailed out Falwell's schools with a reported $80 million dollar "loan" which apparently has never been paid back.

From an A-O perspective, the Falwell legacy is best wrapped up in the picture of Falwell embracing the "antichrist" Moon shortly after receiving the "loan" that bailed out Falwells schools.

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In the past, A-O readers have written in and asked if Jerry Falwell was in fact a member of the Illuminati. As Publisher of The Alpha-Omega Report, I can only state that I have seen no indication that Falwell was an actual member of the Illuminati, or necessarily a fellow traveler. Instead, it seems that Falwell was willingly manipulated by the Illuminati and the New World Order even while Falwell seemingly attempted to manipulate them. One might conclude that Jerry was an unwitting dupe of the Satanic, antichrist movement.

Falwell was more concerned about abortion and homosexuality than he was in directly opposing Satan's Global Kingdom. Had he focused on the moves for global government with the intensity of his battle on abortion or homosexuality, the other two issues might not have become the problems that they are today.

What was always more disconcerting to myself, was Falwell's remarks and actions that often times led me to think that Falwell believed in salvation by faith PLUS works, which Paul notes in Galatians 1:6-9 is a false gospel that leads to eternal damnation. Was Falwell actually saved? None of us our judges who can know what the inner beliefs of Jerry Falwell. His words however were often contradictory on the issue of salvation by grace through faith and his calls for people to follow a "rules and regulations" - "brownie point" system would strongly suggest that he was a Legalist, unsaved and eternally damned, but that is only superficial conclusion and may not reflect what he actually thought, yet he certainly practiced  and publiclky taught a subtle form of legalism.

For years, Falwell obstinately argued that consuming alcoholic beverages was a sin and that the wine that Jesus made at the Wedding Feast of Cana was actually just grape juice. He believed and taught that Jesus never drank any alcoholic beverage. He preached and taught this conclusion based upon an extremely warped and incorrect understanding of the Greek terms used in the New Testament. The Greek texts clearly indicate that the wine in the New Testament was fermented, but Falwell stubbornly refused to admit his own error on the issue.

Falwell's impact on American politics had faded dramatically in the past few years and his political legacy will be forever etched to his support for President Reagan from which he never wavered and in his opposition to President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary. It is not likely that had he remained alive that he would have had any further significant impact on American presidential politics perhaps because of his declining health but also his influence within the American fundamentalist circles was on the wane.

Falwell apparently never grasped the possibility that the United States might be the Babylon of future prophecy. He always promoted the idea that America was God's "second most favorite nation." He felt America was founded as a Christian nation and was still a Christian nation, albeit perhaps in decline or backslidden. For Falwell, the idea that America could be Babylon was an idea he simply could not fathom, regardless of the evidence.

Falwell, reportedly prepared well for his sons to succeed him and take over his ministries but they will not likely be able to carry on with the impact of their father. For better or worse, the American fundamentalist/evangelical church will carry on without him.

For more details on the passing of Jerry Falwell, read the AP newswire story here.