I met with U.S. Senator Rand Paul in Des Moines in March of 2011, along with his aide Jesse Benton and a few other staffers, to review this plan below. Rand was in town “stumping” for his dad. I wasn’t sure if Ron was going to run one more time or Rand might run in 2016, so the name below, RXXX, left it open to either. Rand rejected it off-handedly, saying if he runs in the 2016 Republican primaries, there will be enough other candidates to “split the dispensational vote” and we can place high with other Republicans. I thought this poor thinking. Benton, on the other hand, asked some cogent questions, as if he’d actually paid attention.
The plan below was my speaking notes. Benton took a copy and reviewed it with Ron Paul two weeks later. Benton texted me and said Ron found it “quite impressive.” I replied, “Let me know how Ron would like to proceed.” That’s the last I ever heard from any of them. Now, the issue of dispensationalism and Israel is dominating the political landscape. Rand could have gotten out ahead this a decade ago.
Strategic Positioning Plan For RXXX Paul
Iowa Presidential Nomination Campaign 2016
- In general terms Iowa Republican caucus goers are older, evangelical and neo-con Catholic voters. The last I saw, around 60-65%.
- They are mostly led by Steve Scheffler (Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition) who has helped organize these folks since the mid 1980s.
- The evangelicals are predominantly dispensational in their view of Scripture, which, for some, almost places a greater emphasis on Israel than Jesus Christ himself. They are convinced in time and history the Christian church will lose and only when it gets so bad, then Christ will return. Many of them still care about the social issues and are passionate about fidelity to the Word of God, they are decent people, but just don’t know how far astray they’ve been led by the Scofield Reference Bible or the Ryrie Study Bible, etc. and their misguided pastors.
- Millions of them were stirred by a fellow premillennialist theologian, Francis Schaeffer, to get involved in the ‘abortion wars’. They did about the time of Reagan and helped put him in office. Yet, they have had their compassion co-opted by the pro-Israel neo-con crowd, and rarely do anything to really end abortion. They mostly use the cause to get pro-Israel friendlies elected into office – repeating the pro-life hollow mantra. I am convinced it is why most of them are hostile to your rigorous record against the 14th Amd. and the need to restore these moral issues to the local and state level. The “Paul way” will take work and moral reformation in their own homes, churches, and counties. Why bother if you are waiting to be raptured out of here at any moment?
- THEY ARE A STONE WALL TO THE LIBERTY CAUSE AND MORE PARTICULARLY TO THE PAUL FAMILY MOVEMENT.
- They simultaneously get huge crowds to their Christian United for Israel (a Rev. Hagee front group) rallies in West Des Moines as they do their Presidential Forums.
- Scheffler is the one who vilified you in July 2007 to their state-wide list. No matter how friendly he’s been of late, he’s never publicly repented. His large base got the point and hasn’t forgotten. Your June 2007 rally (which I first recommended), held in Hy-Vee Hall, Des Moines, immediately after Scheffler’s Presidential Forum event in the same building, was organized in a fashion contrary to my strong objections, and did you long-lasting harm with their very active and large base. Yes, you’ve advanced some since then, but their memories are long and their commitment to dispensationalism is deep.
- Dispensationalism is a recent blip on the screen of church history, surfacing about 160 years ago. By definition, they believe Christianity must fail on earth, so that geographic Israel (not the Church of the New Testament, as all of Christendom once proclaimed the Bible taught) will be restored. Contrary to 1,800 years of growth in Christendom worldwide, they believe the covenant promises of God are only fulfilled in the existing Jewish nation.
- This theology has captured the religious right leaders and thus, their movements nearly embrace ‘losing’ as it’s a sign Christ is coming to reign in Jerusalem even sooner!
- They are often buried in debt so the Paul family’s challenge on honest money terrifies them. They believe the Lord’s coming soon (it’s how they often escape responsibility) so they read World Net Daily and buy gold (why I don’t know).
Solution: Bypass Iowa Caucus or…
- For a Paul nomination bid to succeed, preferably in 2016…a sustained challenge to dispensationalism needs to be launched in Iowa, South Carolina, and maybe even Florida, starting next year after the Iowa Presidential caucuses are over.
- It has to be purely theological.
- It has to challenge their fatal “Israel – Church” dichotomy. It has to expose the lack of future orientation; it needs to show its hermeneutical errors and its ethical consequences. Once the theology is challenged then its dangerous ramifications on our foreign policy can be exposed. It is only the Word of God that will work to transform these people’s minds to the truth. Politics & economic arguments won’t do it. There is too many of them to be marginalized in the Republican Party. If you haven’t heard, they along with their Catholic Neocon friends (the exact opposite of Tom Woods) are organizing their counterattacks and coming after your people in party leadership
- It has to be sustained. We will only start to peel away at it at first. We need to employ a rigorous application of Scripture to break their confidence in the “rightness” of their errors – errors that have such deleterious effects on public policy.
- There is one ministry in America equipped for that (that I know of) – Rev. Gary DeMars’ www.AmericanVision.org (a historic Calvinist based group) in Powder Springs, GA, that actually specializes in this theological challenge. Laurence Vance is not a Calvinist, but could also be brought into supporting this. Dr. Joel McDurmon is the director of research at American Vision. Raised Lutheran, he is also a powerful challenger of this ‘Israel – church’ dichotomy, the dispensationalists have erroneously foisted upon America the last 100+ years. As well, he is Gary North’s son-in-law and was an active supporter of your Presidential nomination bids and is itching to help in such an effort, both to weaken this harmful theology and to advance liberty.
- An Iowa church of like mind needs to sponsor them into the state every summer for the next three years. I propose hitting the five largest cities in Iowa and organizing 6-hour Saturday sessions, with advance advertising on Christian and conservative radio markets, internet marketing, and advance talk-show work. (I’ve already schemed up some radio ads, which themselves will play off the weakness of their system and the latent fears many of them have, and might stimulate many to come.)
- The Iowa church will need to set up a blog site and have articles, sermons, podcasts, etc., available to start “feeding” this new movement. The Pastor will need financial support to do this.
- This teaching can begin to then be restored with something like faithful Biblical Calvinism, that emphasis Christian service to the poor, just war, just money, moral instruction at home and church, which leads to less demand for govt., debt free living, etc….such as the likes once taught by Pierre Viret, co-founder with John Calvin of the Geneva Academy. (Let me introduce you to the exciting re-discovery of Viret.)
- Repeat as needed in South Carolina and Florida. Run the program through the summer of 2016.
- In 2-3 years I could see this stirring up things in Iowa such that Jan Mickelson (WHO Radio) will be covering it routinely. In four years I would hope to cause serious doubt in their support of big-government and Israel, to see some key leaders roll, and significant numbers open up to our message.
- The political benefit is, at this time, only the Paul family’s (or their principles thereof) to harvest. Most every other serious Presidential player is married to this large pro-Israel dispensational voting bloc.
Price Tag: $75,000 per year, per state
- A sympathetic private donor needs to donate the money to a vetted church. I know of one in Iowa – led by one of the Pastors who co-signed the letter to Iowa Pastors that the RonPaul2008 committee sent out to 4,000 Iowa churches and was emailed to 400,000 Iowans. That church board will need to agree with the plan and sponsor these men in to the state.
Paul Family’s Response
Take a “new” evangelical base in Iowa (and maybe South Carolina & Florida) in 2016; don’t vote for homosexual “rights” or against marriage along the way; and throw in a loud Tea Party element, and I believe a high placing is possible.