On Donald Trump and the inscrutability of God
Many themes run via the Christian Bible: grace, forgiveness, concern for the struggling, love for neighbors, the pursuit of holiness. One theme that stands out clearly is the inscrutability and transcendence of God. In a passage within the ebook of Isaiah, God declares, “My ideas are usually not your ideas, neither are your methods my methods … Because the heavens are larger than the earth, so are my methods larger than your methods and my ideas than your ideas.”
Though Christians consider that God reigns supreme over historical past and can direct issues to their correct finish, the meanings of particular person occasions are way more troublesome to discern. For that reason, Christians are usually not fast to attribute pure disasters as an indication of God’s judgment on a specific place. We don’t consider that one can depend the variety of Christians on a sporting crew after which give the crew with essentially the most Christians the victory. The world is extra difficult than that. We’re not at all times positive why some individuals get sick and their prayers for therapeutic are answered, and why some individuals get sick and die. Promising prosperity and declaring a secret information concerning the functions of God have at all times been methods to achieve applause, energy, and cash, however they’re additionally harmful and doubtlessly heretical.
If all that is true of sickness and disaster, how way more so of a presidential election? I do know that extra individuals solid their vote for Donald Trump than for Kamala Harris, and for that purpose he was inaugurated yesterday. I can not with confidence discuss God’s intervention within the matter. I used to be stunned, then, to listen to the invocation on the inauguration attribute the end result of the 2024 election to God’s optimistic will for America, and as an event for reward. That strikes me as hubris as a result of it assumes the flexibility to know God’s opinion on an occasion in historical past.
The story of Israel’s first king may be instructive. Based on the narrative within the Bible, the individuals of Israel had been usually defeated by surrounding international locations with higher fighters. Subsequently, the individuals requested for a king that was just like the kings of different nations all over the world. God gave the individuals precisely what they wished, not as an indication of favor however partially as an act of judgment. Saul’s reign was lengthy and troubled and led to catastrophe, though he got here as a solution to the individuals’s request. One lesson from this occasion is that typically God permits individuals’s worst instincts to flourish in order that they see the complete error of their methods. Based on the Bible, God later selected a distinct king, David, whom the individuals didn’t ask for or initially need.
The story of David and Saul, and the broader story of God, ought to make Christians cautious when making an attempt to interpret occasions. There’s simply an excessive amount of we have no idea. Was the election of Donald Trump an event of God giving individuals what they need as a type of judgment, as with King Saul, or was it the elevating up of God’s chosen, as with David? For quite a lot of character causes, I’m assured it’s not the latter. God has already raised up the higher David—Jesus—and humanity is now not in want of a savior. Nonetheless, I can’t say that Trump’s return to the White Home is the results of God’s judgment upon America. Historical past is just too messy to make such plain proclamations.
I do know that Christians are commanded to wish for rulers and people in authority, as a result of the extra energy a politician has, the extra affect he wields in individuals’s lives. I’ll pray for Donald Trump simply as I prayed for Joe Biden earlier than him. These prayers should have a sure focus: that our leaders use their energy properly to guard the susceptible and set up justice for all.
And when a member of the clergy is given the dignity of praying in entrance of a frontrunner, the prayer shouldn’t merely evoke a sort of divine mandate however remind the chief of his solemn duty. We serve these in energy effectively after we assist them keep in mind there may be somebody to whom they have to give an account. A very good prayer for an individual in energy ought to depart them with knees trembling quite than head nodding.
I’ve robust disagreements with this president and his administration. I had robust disagreements with the earlier administration as effectively. However I’ll pray for Donald Trump, as a result of for good or in poor health, the destiny of this president and the lives of so many right here and overseas are actually linked. Lord, have mercy.
