Donald Trump and the Purposes of God

Many find the fact that President Trump so narrowly survived an assassination attempt proof that he is God’s chosen leader for America. According to Charlie Kirk, “It was divine intervention…God is not done with Donald Trump and God is not done with America. He has his hand on Donald Trump…this is Genesis 50:20, what the enemy meant for evil, God will use for good.”  Alina Habba echoed those views: “There is no way God’s hand was not on Donald Trump…this is God’s plan. Donald Trump is not finished. We need him more than we ever have. America has a cancer and we need a cure and that is President Trump.”

Others noted that the shots rang out at 6:11 PM and Ephesians 6:11 says “put on the full armor of God so you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” As such, we know that “God is on our side!” Life Site News took it even further, explaining that according to Leviticus 8:23, blood on the right ear is a sign of consecration, therefore the blood on Donald Trump’s ear is a sign that he has been set aside to the Lord.

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell’s speech at the RNC summed up these sentiments nicely: “You can’t deny the power of God on this man’s life. You can’t deny that God protected him. You cannot deny that it was a millimeter miracle that was able to save this man’s life. Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for such a time as this?...Could it be that the King of Glory, the Lord God strong and mighty, the God who is mighty in battle, protected Donald Trump because he wants to use him for such a time as this?”

There are several points to make about this, some of which we will discuss and expand upon in later articles. For now, let’s focus on two.

First, the attempt to support a political leader or movement with personal interpretations of scripture has a long and undistinguished history in America and we should always tread very carefully when going down that path. Not only are these interpretations often specious at best and plainly ridiculous at worst, they have the effect of conferring upon the person or movement a cosmic status, elevating a temporal battle to one of ultimate significance. Those who appeal to scripture in this way are no longer just fighting for a political party, or a presidential candidate, or even America, now they are fighting on behalf of God himself. The insinuation, of course, is that anyone who opposes their side is fighting against the cause of the Almighty. Sometimes this is justified; the battle against abortion comes to mind. However, As I detail in my book Twisted Unto Destruction: How Bible Alone Theology Made the World a Worse Place, this method has also been used to support everything from slavery to crass consumerism to same-sex marriage. As such, we must always be hesitant to bestow divine status on a cause or person using scripture, especially when that person has driven the GOP to become ostensibly pro-abortion, pro-porn, and pro-homosexuality.

Second, the fact that one can recognize God’s providence in President Trump’s escape from death by the tiniest fractions of time and space does not, in fact, indicate that God wants him to be president. And this is true even if one grants that God may have in some ways allowed and even orchestrated Trump’s rise to power.

Now, it is true that sometimes God raises up leaders to save the righteous from the wicked. Pastor Sewell’s use of the phrase “for such a time as this” calls out just such an example. It is a quote from the book of Esther, a story about God raising a young woman to a position of power in order to save the Jews from being eradicated. Within this framework, Trump is seen as a new Esther and embattled Christian conservatives are the new Israelites, oppressed and facing extinction at the hands of evil liberal oppressors. Trump is God’s chosen one, who will lead the forces of righteousness to victory. And if the mild mannered and humble Esther isn’t an exact personality match for President Trump, there’s always the story of King Cyrus to fall back on in support of this narrative. Cyrus was the Persian emperor who allowed exiled Jews to return and rebuild the temple in Isaiah 45. Supporters point to the pagan king to argue that God doesn’t have to use paragons of virtue to accomplish his purpose, so he can certainly use Donald Trump.

However, while I certainly agree that God can use whomever he wants for whatever purpose he wants, and that he has ultimate control over who is in the White House, the “Trump as protector” wing of American Christian conservatism could very well be drawing exactly the wrong lesson from his rise to power. 

What if Trump isn’t a new Esther, or even a new Cyrus? What is he is actually a new Saul? I believe this is much more likely, and that a strong case can be made for him being like Israel’s first king, particularly in what the rise of that man indicated about the spiritual state of the people.

According to 1 Samuel 8, having tired of being ruled by God’s appointed judges, the Israelites called out for a king because they wanted a leader, “such as all the other nations have.” Samuel warned them that God hated this idea and that appointing a king would result in oppression and hardship but they refused his council: “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

The people called for a strong worldly ruler to counter all the strong world rulers around them. Specifically, they saw Nahash, King of the Ammonites, getting ready to attack and they got scared. (1 Sam 12:12) As with today’s Christians, fear was the primary motivator.

Faced with their rebellion, God relented and told Samuel to give them a king. So in one sense, God “wanted” Saul in power. But in a deeper sense, this was very much against God’s will. The people were not supposed to trust in the worldly power of false gods; they were supposed to trust in God.  As God explained to Samuel, “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.”

The rise of Saul to power was a sign of the people’s relationship with God, but it wasn’t a sign of health. Rather, it revealed that the people were far from God. It revealed that the people were idolaters who had rejected faith in their Creator. And the fact that God put Saul on the throne was not an act of blessing. Rather, it was an act of judgement intended to chasten. The subsequent reign of Saul ushered in all the devastating consequences that God had warned it would.

Today, “conservative” Christian America celebrates President Trump as a sign of God’s favor and protection upon them. I submit that it is much more likely a sign of our own idolatry and wickedness and that rather than celebrate, we should take it as a call to repentance.

[Libertyville Update: We are very close to beginning production on our series based on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we need your support! Click here to learn more.]