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 e book of Isaiah, God declares, “My ideas aren’t your ideas, neither are your methods my methods … Because the heavens are greater than the earth, so are my methods greater 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 far more troublesome to discern. Because of this, Christians aren’t fast to attribute pure disasters as an indication of God’s judgment on a selected place. We don’t consider that one can rely the variety of Christians on a sporting workforce after which give the workforce with essentially the most Christians the victory. The world is extra sophisticated than that. We’re not at all times certain why some folks get sick and their prayers for therapeutic are answered, and why some folks get sick and die. Promising prosperity and declaring a secret information in regards to 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 far more so of a presidential election? I do know that extra folks forged their vote for Donald Trump than for Kamala Harris, and for that motive he was inaugurated yesterday. I can not with confidence talk about 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 constructive will for America, and as an event for reward. That strikes me as hubris as a result of it assumes the power to know God’s opinion on an occasion in historical past.
The story of Israel’s first king is likely to be instructive. In response to the narrative within the Bible, the folks of Israel have been usually defeated by surrounding international locations with higher fighters. Due to this fact, the folks requested for a king that was just like the kings of different nations around the globe. God gave the folks precisely what they needed, not as an indication of favor however partially as an act of judgment. Saul’s reign was lengthy and troubled and led to catastrophe, although he got here as a solution to the folks’s request. One lesson from this occasion is that typically God permits folks’s worst instincts to flourish in order that they see the total error of their methods. In response to the Bible, God later selected a unique king, David, whom the folks 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 folks 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 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 simply too messy to make such plain proclamations.
I do know that Christians are commanded to hope for rulers and people in authority, as a result of the extra energy a politician has, the extra affect he wields in folks’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 correctly to guard the susceptible and set up justice for all.
And when a member of the clergy is given the honour of praying in entrance of a pacesetter, the prayer mustn’t merely evoke a type of divine mandate however remind the chief of his solemn duty. We serve these in energy nicely after we assist them keep in mind there may be somebody to whom they need to give an account. A superb prayer for an individual in energy ought to go away them with knees trembling slightly than head nodding.
I’ve robust disagreements with this president and his administration. I had robust disagreements with the earlier administration as nicely. 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 at the moment are linked. Lord, have mercy.
