In his 1923 book Christianity and Liberalism J. Gresham Machen showed how “liberal Christianity” and biblical Christianity are two different religions. The same is true regarding the Christian gospel and the Trump-Osteen-Peale gospel, which we could abbreviate as “TOP.” Donald Trump says, “I was a great student. I was good at everything. … I will be a great president. … I win at golf. … I have a great, great company. … I rely on myself. … Nobody can build like I can build. Nobody.”

This month’s conventional wisdom: The current Republican presidential campaign shows the GOP to be hopelessly split. Maybe that’s true, but the real split Donald Trump spotlights is the severe one within broad evangelicalism.

After Richard Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972, influential film critic Pauline Kael said, “I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon.” Many evangelical leaders are in the same position regarding Trump voters, but it’s not hard to figure out why millions support him. They feel smooth talkers have lied to them. They’re tired of theorists who spin untethered, abstract fantasies. They want blunt speech from someone who supposedly knows bricks and mortar.

Trump deserves credit for bringing the debate about free markets and immigration down from suite level to street level. Although international trade in theory raises all boats, many Americans who work with their hands, and don’t have the patience to sit in classrooms, are sunk. Economically, many fall behind. Socially, many do not get married, and those who do often get divorced. Wall Street hates tight borders and protectionism, and abstractly that makes sense; but lots of barely employed 25-year-olds need protection.

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