The Bible clearly teaches all true Christians to defend the Christian Faith, which has been once and for all delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3). The Apostle Paul charged all Christians with preserving and protecting the purity of the Gospel message, lest it, mankind's only hope of salvation, be lost to future generations. Indeed, Paul anathematized, called for the eternal damnation, of anyone preaching a false gospel, understanding that by doing so they were imperiling men's immortal souls (Galatians 1:8-9). To find such a staunch and scripturally commanded defense of the Christian Faith and Christ's Gospel today is rare, because anyone daring to do it will be roundly and readily lambasted and lampooned for it.
Today, Jimmy Carter is being remembered as a man of faith. The big question, however, is: "What faith?" Although popularly believed to be an evangelical, Jimmy Carter defied the Biblical definition of a Christian. He often jumped over cardinal doctrines of the Christian Faith and sound doctrines of the Bible, in order to peddle his own personal progressive version of Christianity. If you don't believe me, just consider the few following examples.
Jumping over the Biblical doctrine of the sanctity of human life, Carter was an advocate of a woman’s right to choose, though he did admit that Jesus would likely oppose abortion if He were in the world today. Jumping over the Biblical doctrine of the sanctity of marriage, Carter was an advocate of same-sex marriage, which he insisted Jesus would definitely support if He were in the world today. And jumping over the Genesis account of creation, Carter was a believer in the cockamamie theory of evolution.
In 2000, Jimmy Carter renounced Southern Baptist, his own denomination, over its alleged discrimination against women and intolerance of cultists. According to Carter, he found Southern Baptist advocacy of the Biblical teaching that man is the head of the house and that women should not be ordained as pastors as both sexist and discriminatory. In addition, he found Southern Baptist refusal to embrace Mormons as fellow-Christians to be both narrow-minded and intolerant. Therefore, Carter proudly professed his disassociation from his former denomination for the sake of equality and ecumenism.
In 2008, Jimmy Cater was instrumental in launching “The New Baptist Covenant,” a group of self-professed progressive Christians, like Carter himself. Among its original supporters were a couple of Jimmy Carters’ fellow former Southern Baptists, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, who, like Carter, had also renounced their former denomination over its refusal to compromise some of the fundamentals of the Christian Faith, such as the inerrancy of Scripture. Founded primarily to promote social justice rather than Christ’s Great Commission, Carter’s New Baptist Covenant was a smorgasbord of disgruntled former Baptists longing to be free from the fetters of fundamental Christianity.
Perhaps, a good way to understand Jimmy Carter’s New Baptist Covenant, as well as his own personal faith, is to look back at a surprising statement Carter made in 2016. During the Republican presidential primaries, Carter shockingly endorsed Donald Trump over his chief challenger, Ted Cruz. According to Carter, Trump was preferable because he was “completely malleable.” On the other hand, Cruz was unacceptable to Carter because he had "fixed positions”; that is, firm convictions and inflexible principles, neither of which Jimmy Carter could have ever been accused of professing or possessing.
If you want to remember Jimmy Carter today as a champion of civil rights, election integrity, and charitable causes, such as Habitat For Humanity, to which he gave so much of his own time, you can count on me joining with you in a hearty “Amen.” But if you want to remember him as a Bible believing Christian and defender of the Christian Faith, I’m afraid you’ll have to count me out, because to me, Jimmy Carter was nothing of the sort.