Televangelist predicts Christians will begin a civil war if Trump gets impeached

Christian televangelist Jim Bakker told his television audience that Christians would rise up and begin a second Civil War if President Trump were impeached. He made the comments on his Jim Bakker Show on the PTL network, which stands for "Praise the Lord."

"Well, I'll tell you what, if it happens," Bakker said of the possibility of impeachment, "there will be a civil war in the United States of America."

"The Christians will finally come out of the shadows," he added, "because we are going to be shut up permanently if we're not careful."

"And God says faith without works is dead. We have to do things!" he continued, quoting the book of James from the Bible.

"God has been standing with me, and I don't know about you, it's time for preachers like you," he said to Texas pastor Ramiro Pena, "you've been doing it, to stand up and shout out!"

Bakker, who was convicted of fraud in 1989 and served almost 5 years in prison, is far from the first to predict that the United States was heading to civil war. Former Trump aide and longtime friend Roger Stone said there would be “a spasm of violence in this country like you’ve never seen."

Rush Limbaugh argued, “America is under attack from within. Our culture, our history, our founding are under the most direct assault I have seen in my life. And I’m sure it’s the same with you. We haven’t seen anything like this. You might even get away with saying that we are on the cusp of a second civil war."

Opponents have called for impeachment since before he was inaugurated, but the calls have increased as Special Counsel Mueller's investigation continued into Russian interference in the 2016 election and alleged collusion with the Trump campaign.

Leaks to the press have whetted the appetite of many Democratic politicians for impeaching Trump, despite Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calling for opponents of the president to calm their impeachment demands.

More recently leaks to the press indicate that Mueller is investigating whether the president attempted to cover up a June 2016 meeting between his son, Donald Trump Jr., and Russian nationals at Trump Tower. Another leaked report claims that Mueller is focusing on former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Trump's former national security advisor Mike Flynn over their ties to various foreign governments.