So, did God really save Donald Trump's life? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity.
Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to today's broadcast. Again, it's going to be a very, very important show, talking about very relevant issues, doing our best to give you a biblical perspective. And I'm going to open up the phone lines. Didn't take any calls yesterday.
We had so much content to cover. If you want to weigh in on the subject of the attempted assassination of the president, the upcoming elections, larger issues relating to that, the alleged prophecy of Trump being saved from an assassination attempt, what we're going to be talking about today, did God actually intervene? If you want to weigh in on any of those topics, you have a question for me, or you've got an opinion you want me to react to, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. I'm not taking random calls on Bible theology topics or even Israel-related topics. Not today.
We'll stay focused on our subjects, 866-34-TRUTH. Last night I was sent a meme from Zach Lambert, whom I don't know. Zach Lambert saying, if you believe God intervened to save former President Trump, but didn't intervene to save the kids in Uvalde or Parkland or Santa Fe or Sandy Hook, then you are worshipping partisan politics, not Jesus. Now, it's just a meme. It's just a quote.
Obviously it's meant to be attention getting. I categorically reject that statement, by the way, in terms of being truthful or accurate, and I'll explain why in a moment. But perhaps if Zach, if I read or saw what Zach said to get into it in more depth, I could get more of his reasoning or understanding. I did see an article subsequently by Shane Clearborn, a progressive Christian who was on my show a couple of years ago, and he basically says the same thing. So I don't know how much Shane and Zach would agree on this, but I will read what Shane says and his theological reasons for it. But what I find completely wrong about this is the statement, this blank statement, if you feel that God intervened to save former President Trump, but obviously he didn't intervene to save all these kids who were massacred in these horrific, mind-bogglingly evil school shootings, then you're worshipping partisan politics, not Jesus.
That's just a ridiculous overstatement. Number one, if it had been an attempted assassination of President Biden and he was spared, I would have said God spared his life. I would have said that the same way. If it was a politician whose policies I differed with most of all, I would say it seems God saved a lot of them. I can't say dogmatically. I know for a fact God intervened, but it would seem that way. And if you're a Calvinist and you believe in the sovereignty of God, you would say, yeah, he didn't die because God spared his life. And it wasn't God's will for him to die at that moment. The idea that you're worshipping partisan politics and not Jesus, if you believe God saved his life, there's no reasoning behind that. There's no logic behind that. And there's certainly no scripture behind that.
It's an extreme statement that is now putting extreme judgment on people who may love Jesus with all their hearts and don't have a partisan bone in their body, but they think, wow, that was providential. If Trump didn't turn his head at that moment, he's a dead man, God spared his life. Or at that moment, that's when the gunman shot, God spared his life.
Maybe there's a purpose to it. Maybe God's going to use this to get hold of him. Maybe there's a purpose in him being the president. Maybe he'll be a changed man and truly saved and will do much good for the country. Maybe having him as president can be important for other reasons.
Regardless, you may not like Trump at all. You can come to that conclusion. They say, well, why didn't you save the others? That's the agonizing, ongoing question all the time. Why doesn't God intervene all the time? If he did, we would have no free will. If he did, there would be no consequences for good or evil. He just intervenes and stops this and stops that. He gave us choices. And normally, he lets those choices unfold. And sometimes in his sovereign wisdom, he does intervene. Sometimes he does reach down miraculously and spare someone from an accident. So let's just say that you were almost in a terrible accident because you were texting and you should have been killed. And your car actually went off the side of a clipper. You got ejected and miraculously were spared and then found out that people close to you had a burden to pray.
That they just felt you were distracted or the enemy's going to try to take you out. And they were praying all that night and had this assurance God delivered you. And then you found out, you'd say, that was God. God had mercy. God had mercy. Well, why didn't he save all these other people who were texting and driving? He normally doesn't intervene. But to say that he can't, to say that he won't, to say that we're certain of it, to make this now provocative and volatile comment and then judge others who truly are thankful for the mercy of God. And you say, yeah, but if you say he saved Trump, he didn't save the firefighter, the 50-year-old husband and dad who was a hero to his family.
He didn't save him. I understand. I understand. We're not trying to figure it all out. We're not trying to play God.
We're simply saying, boy, this seems like divine mercy and intervention and certainly a great time for us to be praying. Certainly. If you go through it, I don't care how stubborn you are. Donald Trump seems to be a very stubborn man with very, very strong views.
Very few political leaders could get where they are without being stubborn and strong minded, strong headed, whatever the words are. And it might take something this extreme to get his attention. But this could be the very thing that changes his life. Shouldn't we be praying? Shouldn't we be taking this opportunity to pray for him to have a radical, life-changing encounter with Jesus?
Isn't that a good thing for everyone to be praying for on every side? So why is it then that Shane Clareborn is so sure that God did not intervene? I saw this posted on Religion News Service yesterday and Shane says this, I'm glad Donald Trump is alive and quite confident God is, too. But my understanding of Christian theology makes me certain that God did not save the former president from assassination. That's a problem to me to say you're certain God didn't intervene.
Now maybe a Calvinist would say they're certain he did, but either way to have certainty and speak authoritatively, that's going to raise some questions for me. Nearly immediately after word of the shooting broke, pastors and politicians took to social media to thank God for saving Trump. God protected President Trump, Florida Senator Marco Rubio posted on X. Franklin Graham chimed in, Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, that it was a demonstration of the power of Almighty God, calling it inexplicable, apart from God. Jeffress, a long-time Trump supporter, went further.
I believe God spared Donald Trump's life for a purpose, for the purpose of calling our nation back to its Judeo-Christian foundation. Now, let me just jump in. We'll come back to this article in a moment.
Let me just jump in. The only way that Donald Trump could call America back to its Judeo-Christian foundation is by being a radically changed man. The Donald Trump of 2016 to 2020 is not the man that can do that.
If he knows the Lord at all, God knows. But that man could do a lot of good in certain ways. That man, with his weaknesses, could do a lot of bad, right?
That Trump has often said, wrecking ball is great for knocking an old house down, it's not great for renovating a room. And that would be the effect of who he is. A lot of good, there could be a lot of collateral damage, and that's what everyone had to weigh, which they felt was better. Which was the winning situation.
The good that was done, or was it the collateral damage that went out, which was going to prevail. And that's why we vote, that's why we pray for wisdom. So, the man that can bring our nation back to good roots, we've got bad junk in our history too, but to the best part of our heritage, to the best part of our foundations, that man may be being changed right now.
That may be the Donald Trump who may win the 2024 election. That could well be. Absolutely.
100%. But, but, in point of fact, he is not that man yet, or if that's so, if he had a radical change in the last couple of days, we don't know that he's that man yet. So, it's possible that God spared his life for a purpose, but then that purpose would also have to involve a radical, dramatic transformation of his life, a radical, dramatic encounter with God that would make him into a different man who could then lead the way because of his own transformation to help us get back to the best part of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
So, back to the article. Shane says, theology, the attempt by our finite minds to try to make sense of a God who is infinitely bigger than our imaginations can be tricky. And I agree, which is why I'm not going to say I'm 100% sure God saved his life, I'm 100% sure God didn't. I do believe he did, but I can't say I'm 100% sure either one way or the other, although I obviously lean towards God did save his life, it was an act of God. In this case, he says, it's not that hard to see that there is something wrong with theology. This is God intervened to save Donald Trump, which implies in an awful way that God redirected the bullet into the person who was killed at his rally or the two people who were grievously injured. Or, there was a shooter who was going to take lives that day and God spared Trump's life.
Those things can happen, right? There can be a time where everybody in your community gets sick with a disease and you don't. Why did God spare you?
I don't know. I met a brother from Africa, wonderful brother, pastor, full of exuberance, joy, blind from childhood, and he worked his way through college or law school, got a law degree, travels around the world by himself, just dropped off at the airport and makes his way around at the airport, travels internationally by himself, exuberance full of life. And he told me that when he was a boy, this epidemic hit their village and the other kids died, he just went totally blind. And he said, I'm so grateful God spared my life for a purpose.
And while the others died, I only lost my sight. There was a strong Pentecostal charismatic believer, believed in divine healing, etc., but he was a functioning husband, father, and so he didn't die, others did. Sometimes God does that. And the idea that we can determine, well, if you didn't save this life, then you can't save that life, we're not God.
That's the problem here. We can't play God. We don't want to make absolute pronouncements of things of which we cannot be 100% certain. Deuteronomy 29, 29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, that which is open and revealed belong to us and our children to do all the words of this teaching, this Torah. So God's not going to reveal all these things to us, but the idea that if he got Trump out of the way and someone else died, that it couldn't be God, who said so? Based on what scripture?
Based on what scriptural principle? We'll be right back. Hey friends, Michael Brown here. Many of you know about the radical health transformation in my own life, starting August of 2014, went from 275 pounds to 180 pounds. Less than eight months, not by dieting, but by radical lifestyle transformation, getting rid of the bad, unhealthy things, eating only healthy foods. I've kept it up by God's grace now for nine years, going from three headaches a week to no headaches in nine years, blood pressure as high as 149 over 103. Now maybe 105 over 70 on average.
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Thanks so much for joining us on the line of fire. Eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. Let me say again, if there was an attempted assassination of President Biden and it seemed just as extraordinary, the bullet just whizzed by, clipped his ear. He tragically one killed two injured. Absolute tragedy.
Horrific. And of course, the gunman himself killed. We still don't know all the reasons, all the details. But if it happened to President Biden, I would think God spared his life. I would think what a great time to pray that he'll really encounter God in a way that he never has before.
This is a moment that very few of us would ever live through or could even imagine. Who knows how it affects you. So this has nothing to do with partisan politics to me. Zero. Nothing to do with partisan politics or defending Trump or attacking Trump or looking to a man to buy Trump to change America. Nothing whatsoever.
I'm not thinking partisan politics at all. I'm thinking the kingdom of God. I'm thinking Jesus being exalted.
I'm thinking a great opportunity to pray for people who are some of the most powerful people on the planet right now. So back to the article. Let's go here.
Oh, just switched over to another site. So Shane continues. One of the few things we can say definitively about God is this. God is love. This idea is at the heart of the Christian faith.
I hope we can all say amen to that. The New Testament says no one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us. The apostle Paul wrote all the laws summed up into this command love, love God and love each other. Scripture also makes it clear that love is kind and good and gentle. Love always protects and forgives and makes room for mercy and grace. Love advocates for life and human flourishing. If God is love and I'm convinced God is love, then God certainly wants all of us to live and flourish. And it breaks God's heart every time we hurt or kill one another. Murder is always wrong. Going all the way back to the inaugural murder of Cain and Abel. Yeah.
So we're we're tracking so far. God grieves over the sins of the human race. God grieves over the evil things that we do one to another. And he says with this in mind, we can be sure that God did not save Donald Trump, but not the person killed by mistake. God did not save Trump, for that matter, but not the kids that Sandy, Herka, Ruvaldi.
So obviously this is some circulating story now. God did not save some of the Israeli hostages, but not the others. God does not want thousands of kids in Gaza to die.
OK, well, hang on, hang on. Let me step back from the article for a moment. How does the idea that God hates murder, that God grieves over murder, that he grieves over the evil that we do one to another, to the violent acts we commit against one another? Genesis 6, one reason God was going to wipe out the earth was it was filled with violence. Ezekiel 9, one reason God was judging Jerusalem. Judah was the city.
The region was filled with violence. God hates the shedding of innocent blood. That's one reason we're all, in my side of the world, my side of the spiritual camp, so strongly pro-life, beginning in the womb, the ultimate innocent blood, baby in the womb. So how does it follow from that, that with this in mind, we can be sure that God did not save Donald Trump, but not the person killed by mistake?
Says who? He's, in his love, he could save everybody all the time, but then that takes away free will. It takes away the very reason he created us, which is ultimately to give us freedom in a moral environment, where we could then come to know him and love him without being coerced, and that he would do something beautiful. Even out of the suffering and pain, he would make something beautiful out of it forever and ever and ever. And what's not fixed in this world will be fixed in the world to come.
Beautiful redemptive stories, truths of the Gospel. But who's to say that he doesn't have a purpose in intervening here and now? Who knows that he didn't save a particular person on a particular day in Gaza that Hamas would have killed, and somehow they didn't see? Who knows that he didn't protect a child that was right next to a Hamas outpost, and Israel bombed the Hamas outpost, and ten children nearby got killed, and one got miraculously spared.
Who says he didn't spare that one? We understand that it's not his norm to intervene all the time, and that he basically says when human beings die, everyone's sinned. Don't say, Luke 13, why did that tower fall on those eighteen people? They must have been worse sinners, and everybody goes, no, unless you repent, you're all going to die.
You're all going to perish. In other words, none of us deserve life, let alone eternal life. But either way, we know most of the time, God doesn't intervene.
We understand that. But to say that he doesn't, sometimes, here, a gunman goes into Poway, California, to shoot up a synagogue, Passover a few years ago, a Chabad, the Babish synagogue, ultra-orthodox, and one person's killed, a rabbi is shot, loses fingers, other injured, and then his gun jams. Well, if you're there as a religious Jew, you're going to say, God spared us for something much worse. Well, why didn't he stop all of it? We don't know, and for the most part, he doesn't stop human suffering from happening. But look, if I prayed for ten people, all with terminal cancer, all guaranteed by the doctor they won't live another month, and one of them is miraculously healed and is cancer-free from that moment on the rest of their lives, I grieve over the others, but I'm going to rejoice that God healed and credit him with doing it.
So I don't understand why it has to be an either-or. And perhaps, at this moment, this Christian fireman who dies, according to his family, wonderful Christian testimony, wonderful husband and father, agonizing loss that they'll never have that whole field in this world. We understand that. And the world to come is going to be where much of this ultimately gets fixed, and God can be with them in amazing ways in this world, and his life can speak to many through it. But perhaps God had a particular purpose in sparing Trump's life for the good of the nation, again, especially if he becomes a transformed man.
We simply don't know and cannot speak to this. There's no logical deduction, and it makes sense. God is not a monster. God did not want people to be killed on October 7th or January 6th or last night in Butler, Pennsylvania. God is the author of life. God is on the side of life. God wants us to live and flourish. Right, which is why sometimes, in extraordinary means and measures, he does intervene and do something unexpected or out of the norm because of his love and because of his plan.
Why can't we accept that? If the final product of our best theological attempts to make sense of the world leaves us with a version of God that is less kind, less loving, less just, less compassionate than we are, then there is something wrong with our theology. If our theology lands us with a version of God that hates all the same people we hate, excludes all the same people we exclude, kills all the people we want killed, and saves all the people unsaved, there's something wrong with our theology.
I agree. That kind of thinking recalls the old saying, God created us in his image and we decided to return the favor. Any theology that puts God rather than sinful human beings behind a gun or a bomb is bad theology. Well, no, not necessarily.
Not necessarily. God does bring judgment. Throughout the whole Bible, God brings judgment.
And I'll finish this article on the other side of the break. God does bring judgment sometimes. There's an extraordinary verse in 1 Chronicles 5 that many fell dead in the war because the war was of God.
God does bring judgment. And God does use human armies. He called Assyria the rod of his anger. He called Nebuchadnezzar my servant. And they brought terrible judgment on Israel and Judah. So they went too far and he judged them for that. But it's the angel of the Lord who smites Herod and acts the 12 chapters.
So there's not a gun or a bomb. Well, in the Bible, Gideon goes into battle at the behest of the Lord, at the calling of the Lord, and cries out the sword of the Lord of Gideon. God was behind those swords that brought judgment on the enemy. So God does work through these things to bring judgment.
But it is always righteous judgment. God doesn't murder. God gives life and God puts to death. But God does not murder.
Murder is the unlawful, the illicit taking of a human life. God never does that. So, again, and this would be a main Shane Clearbun emphasis of pacifism. And I understand the argument for pacifism from the early church and I respect and understand that. And I understand the argument that Romans 13, that those who lead do not bear the sword in vain because they've been appointed by God to stand with those who do good and to punish those who do evil. And you better believe that when that cop is killing that person right before they kill that three-year-old in the parking lot, right before they knife him to death and that cop takes him out, I'd say God was with that cop to stop that man from doing evil. So there are overstatements here that make no logical sense and certainly don't make scriptural sense.
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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on the line of fire. We would be really blessed if you would enable us partner with us to reach more people in this critical hour.
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Click donate monthly support and everything that comes in will go right back out, helping us reach more people with this important message as we serve as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Let's let's just interact a little further with this article. If I didn't take it seriously and if I didn't recognize that Shane Clareborne has has blessed many and many been encouraged by his work and others would have strong questions with his perspectives. He was on the air with me. We had some strong theological differences as well as areas in harmony. But if I didn't take this seriously, I wouldn't be interacting with it. So Shane says this, I believe this is precisely why Jesus came to show us what God is like and what love looks like.
I got it's a great line there with skin on in the flesh. Jesus is unspeakably excuse me, unmistakably nonviolent. Jesus is the greatest champion of life that has ever lived.
He enters a world full of violence and exposes, absorbs and subverts it at every turn. So on the one hand, I understand the points he's making in terms of Jesus bringing peace. Jesus says in the Beatitudes, blessed are the peacemakers for their children of God. He teaches us not to retaliate when we're attacked verbally or someone out to defame us, turn the other cheek. It's not about self-defense there or going into the military.
That's a separate subject. We learn elsewhere from Paul to overcome evil with good. Between Jesus and Paul, Peter, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who despitefully use us, that we lay our lives down for others rather than taking lives. In my book, Revolution, I have a whole chapter, put down your sword, take up your cross. And to just use Jesus as some type of militaristic USA, USA leader is to really mischaracterize who he is in many ways. At the same time, Scripture teaches 2 Thessalonians 1 that he's coming back in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who don't know God, and they will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.
That's intense. And when you pray, O Lord, Heavenly Father, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's ultimately what you're praying for. For the Lord to return in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who don't know God. And then there are the parables of Jesus. For example, Matthew 21, where Jesus is talking about destruction that's going to come on Jerusalem because of the national leaders, the hypocritical national leaders rejecting him as the Messiah. And therefore, terrible judgment is going to come. He's painting this picture as if God is bringing the judgment.
So while Jesus is the ultimate example of overcoming evil with good, of laying your life down for others rather than taking lives in your conquest, the ultimate example of that, on the other hand, this paints a misleading picture as if God does not act to bring judgment and justice. Go to the book of Revelation. I know we can endlessly debate how to interpret it. And I'm not an expert on the book of Revelation. I have not devoted years and years little and decades and decades to study it and unpack its meaning. So I'm not going to get into a massive debate with you about the right interpretation of Revelation.
But I will say that images and symbols clearly mean something. And when you have, for example, in Revelation 16, that vials of the wrath of God coming from the temple of God, the throne of God, are poured out on the earth, it is in harmony with statements from beginning to end in the Bible that God is a righteous judge and that God does pour out judgment and that as grieved as we are that human beings die who were given over to evil, they could have done good, they could have been godly people. Instead they ended up being monsters that killed and hurt.
We rejoice if judgment comes on them and others are spared. The fall of Hitler was a good thing. The fall of Mussolini was a good thing. The end of Pol Pot's regime was a good thing because they were murderous people that brought pain and suffering on tens of millions of lives. And soldiers that would have been involved in taking them out if there were soldiers involved. Armies involved in different cases with each one. Stalin dies a natural death, but if there were, to the extent there were, those armies were doing a good thing. They were carrying out the governmental function of bearing the sword and not in vain.
Okay, just a little bit more. If we don't conclude that God saved Trump on Saturday, what lesson should Christians take from Saturday's attempt on Trump's life? The nonviolence of God doesn't get much more clear than when Jesus interrupts the violence of one of his own disciples. As the story goes, as the authorities come to arrest Jesus, Peter impulsively pulls out a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the soldiers sent to take him into custody. Jesus' response is brilliant. First he scolds Peter, telling him to put his sword away, live by the sword, die by the sword, he says. Then Jesus heals the man's ear.
The message is crystal clear. The way of Jesus is nonviolence, even toward those who are violent to us. We do not return harm for harm. We overcome evil with good.
Well, again, I quoted these verses on tracking in terms of our own personal conduct and behavior. The early Christians got it. They understood that for Christ we may die, but we may not kill. Tratulia, one of the early church fathers, said when Jesus disarmed Peter, he disarmed every one of us.
If there ever were a case to be made for justifiable violence, even to protect the innocent, Peter had it. But Jesus made clear that there was no such thing as redemptive violence, even to protect the Messiah himself. Violence is the problem, not the solution. Violence is the disease, not the cure. He says there's no place for political violence in America from any quarter, but especially for any of us who choose to follow Jesus. Well, a million, billion amens to that statement. There's no place for political violence in America from any quarter, but especially for any of us who choose to follow Jesus. We agree with that. Jesus chose us another way than the sword or the bomb or the gun would interact with evil without becoming evil.
I'm tracking on that. Peter learned that any of us who dare follow Jesus must also learn that we cannot carry a cross in one hand and a weapon in the other. We cannot serve two masters. So, would it be saying that all those who did that in the Old Testament, for example, Nehemiah, who had a sword in one hand to protect his people and his work against violent enemies, and who had a trowel in the other hand to do God's work building up the wall, would he say that that was not God? Would he say that when God sent Joshua into the Promised Land, that was not God?
Would he say that the governor, according to Romans 13, does bear the sword in vain, where the word says he doesn't bear the sword in vain? Isn't there a difference between murder, a difference between reckless violence, a difference between hatred-based violence that just wants revenge or to carry out sinful acts, and a righteous act of judgment or a stopping of evil? Isn't it a righteous act when someone stops someone else from killing innocent people? Isn't that a righteous act, even if you have to take that person's life before they stop? Is there a difference between the person who takes lives of innocent people and the person who stops the guilty offender from taking more lives?
Is there not a difference between those two things? The person that's shooting people up at a school, horrific, mind-boggling evil, and whatever sickness is in their soul at a level that we can't imagine or relate to, is evil, evil, evil. The police officer who courageously gets in the line of fire and takes that person out, they did a good thing.
They did a righteous thing. And if you know me, I'm not militaristic. You know what I'm saying? I'm not anti-military, but I am not a big military guy. You understand that. My mom and dad served in World War II, and I honor and respect that. I honor and respect our veterans. Many of my colleagues are very strong, pro-military, et cetera, and I believe we should have a strong military in America as a deterrent for a lot of evil around the world, a strong military in America.
I believe we'll stop a lot of evil in its tracks just because they know we're there and that we have the power to enforce our will, et cetera. But in other words, I'm not one of these coming in in military fatigues, and I'm not a gun owner, et cetera. So you get the picture. And I do understand the early church being largely pacifistic. I understand that, and I get it. And I know where it's coming from.
And I have some colleagues who are Anabaptist in their theology and are pacifist and would say, yeah, if someone came in our community, it's our ethic, we would die rather than fight back, take a life. I get it. I understand that. But to not recognize that the policeman carrying a gun and stopping that guy who's about to rape a woman and slit her throat, and he warns the guy and the guy raises the knife to kill the woman and he shoots him, he did a good thing.
And he was a servant of God in doing that good thing as a law enforcement officer. Shane says the recent assassination attempt should cause us to consider how combustible our country is right now. I agree. So divided. I agree. So angry. I agree. So fearful. I agree.
It should cause those of us who believe in God to take a closer look at our theology. All right. So a question for Shane. Maybe we could discuss this on the air. Are you willing to take a closer look at your theology?
I'm always looking at mine. I'm always analyzing what I believe and why and how much scripture is behind it and taking challenges from those who differ. So, Shane, are you willing to take a look at your theology or Zach? I don't know.
Are you willing to? I'm very happy to have a discussion about that. She says, if our theology does not make us more loving, then we should question our theology. Amen.
I agree. In the words of theologian Barbara Brown Taylor, the only clear line I draw these days is this. When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. Jesus never commanded me to love my religion. Ah, but he did command us to love God. And sometimes when we love God, we will say things lovingly, graciously, kindly that our neighbor may not like.
Sometimes we'll say some things that may cause division, but not because we're divisive, because we love truth and we love life. We'll be right back. Hey, friends, many of you know about the radical lifestyle change in my own life when I went from 275 to 180 pounds in less than eight months.
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Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Friends, on tomorrow's broadcast, we're going to talk about evaluating prophecy.
We're going to dig into this topic a little bit more. I found it amusing but sad. I spotted some cessationist responses to the alleged prophecy. I say alleged, we'll see if it's real or not, about Trump surviving an assassination attempt with a bill just whisking by his ear. And others said, ah, the guy said all these other false prophecies, can't believe any of it. And let's try to break it down. But hearing cessationists say, you know, yeah, a bunch of guys are like, OK, what do we do with this?
As if it would be a panic if there was a real prophecy. So I've got a lot to talk about with that. We'll unpack that tomorrow. And I think you'll find that really helpful as well. So here's what I want to do. I want to end the show taking you back to 17 points that I made in my two books during the Trump presidency. First, Donald Trump is not my savior.
An evangelical leader speaks out about the man who supports his president. So I wrote that book, Donald Trump is not my savior, as a Trump voter and ultimately a two time Trump voter 2016, 2020. Then the second book, Evangelicals at the Crossroads, where we passed the Trump test. What was the Trump test?
My view, the Trump test was one. Can we unite around Jesus, even if we have difficult differences about a candidate? And two, can our faithfulness to Jesus or devotion to Jesus be louder and stronger and clearer than our devotion to political candidate?
I believe we failed both of those tests quite miserably. But I had a list of seven things we had to do to to be the church in the midst of political heat and intensity. And seven in Donald Trump is not my savior. Ten in Evangelicals at the Crossroads.
So here are the seven points that I made in Donald Trump is not my savior. If we're really there, maintain our walk, maintain our spirituality, maintain our witness. Are you ready? So we're going to go through these quickly. We've got a few minutes and I've got 17 points, so we'll move quickly.
Number one, we must rise above the political fray. Often we get caught up in the moment. You know, it's it's like you're on a plane and there's bad turbulence. So everything's jumping up and down. Well, you're all caught up in it. It's hard to step out of that because you're being choked up and down and your stomach's going up.
You're about to get nauseous and maybe fear hits. And how do you rise above? Well, that's how it is with political turmoil and all the controversy.
But in the Lord, we have to step back, particularly ourselves to worship adoration. And then we we have to step above the fray to regardless of party affiliation, we must remain independent. Now, I'm a registered independent because of moral, cultural issues, Israel issues. I voted Republican for many years, but I am I am a registered independent for me to make a statement that I don't belong to either party and that no. Neither party has a grip on me. Now, you may have reasons for party affiliation. I'm just giving you my reason. It's that simple.
It's unimpragmatic. It's just a statement that I'm independent when it comes to voting. But either way, if you are part of a party, you must remain independent, meaning your ultimate allegiance is to the Lord, not your party. And if the party deviates from what's right, then you have to deviate from the party.
Number three, we must stay involved. Tens of millions of Christians don't vote. And if they simply voted their convictions, America would look different. It wouldn't solve all our problems, but a lot would be different if Christians simply showed up and voted and made their voice heard. The political realm function as salt and light.
So sometimes we just get so discouraged and why bother and no, no, we must stay involved. Then for God uses unlikely vessels, but character still matters. I would not have dreamed in 2015 that that God would use Donald Trump to appoint three pro-life justices to the Supreme Court who would then be instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade. I would not have dreamed of that or that he would have been heavily supported by Christian conservatives.
He would have been the one to move the embassy to Jerusalem, broker a peace deal with with some of the Middle Eastern countries. I never, never saw any of that coming prior to him becoming the candidate, the Republican candidate. And then I just began to wonder, OK, is there something to this? Is there something to this? Could it be that God does want to use him? However, character still matters. And even though God's using you, if your character flaws are there, unrestrained and unchecked, you do a lot of good and a lot of bad at the same time, just like Martin Luther mightily used by God to change church history, to change world history, and yet horrifically in the flesh in other ways and did a lot of damage.
And when I interviewed Eric Metaxas, who wrote the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and wrote about Luther as well, in the context of that, he said that Luther was like, and just wrote a lot on Luther, that Luther was like Trump on steroids. So God does use him like the vessels, but character still matters. We see it in the ministry all the time.
God used a particular brother or sister, but their character flaws brought great pain and destruction as well. Number five, we must stand for the issues near and dear to the Lord's heart. We must stand for the issues near and dear to the Lord's heart. So ultimately, don't get caught up in partisan politics.
Ask what matters most in the sight of God. And where do you want me, Lord, to take stands? Number six, sometimes we must function as the president's loyal opposition. There was an article decades ago shared with me by a rabbi friend written by Jewish scholar Yochanan Muths, and it was called His Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
It was about the prophets who would often have to speak against the kings, but often would be that God wants to send judgment, but the prophet would stand for mercy and would be like opposition to bring where God wanted to go in the ultimate process, bring that about. And those that were close to the president, that's part of the calling, not just to be yes men, but sometimes to be the president's loyal opposition. And seven, our calling goes beyond patriotism. So, yes, we should thank God for America and the many opportunities and freedoms we have in America in many ways. It's an extraordinary, unprecedented nation on the planet.
It's also flawed, fallen, sinful nation like other nations. There's a lot of good that does a lot of harm and that our calling is beyond being patriots. Our Jesus calling transcends that on every level. Those were the seven points that I made in Donald Trump is not my savior. Here are the 10 that I made in evangelicals at the crossroads.
And I get into all these at the end of my book, the political seduction of the church, the political seduction of the church. I break these down and say, where did we pass these? Where did we fail? Number one, we must clearly and emphatically put the cross before the flag. We must clearly and emphatically put the cross before the flag.
Absolutely, 100 percent. I hope we all agree with that. Our message, our foremost message, the key thing that we bring to this world is the message of the cross and that transcends the flag. Number two, we must proclaim that Donald Trump is our president, not our savior. Whoever is the man, the woman you vote for that becomes the president, they are the president.
They are not the savior. Number three, we must put greater emphasis on spiritual activity than on political activity. It's not either or. It's both and. It's both and. But I am much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much more.
Just keep adding the much as much as much as for a year or 10 years. Much more committed to prayer than to, we're going to get the vote out. I'm going to go campaigning in my neighborhood, knocking on doors for a candidate. Some are called to do that. Great. Some that's their job.
They get hired to do that. Great. They believe in the candidate.
Go for it. Certainly encourage you to vote responsibly. Make sure you get out and vote. Vote responsibly. But spiritual activity comes first. I'm much more committed to preaching the gospel and changing people's hearts and lives than thinking we can change America through changing of laws alone.
So it's both and spiritual activity first. Number four must not get caught up with election fever. Oh, the polls and the latest.
Just step back. Nothing that changes anything. The latest polls. They don't change the reality of the situation. The latest controversy.
The latest hot button and the guess that's going to get all everybody stirred up. And if it if it wounds your spirit, if it distracts you from your walk with God, step back, step back. We must not justify carnality and unchristian behavior. I could say about whoever the elected official is, I think that was a great point they made. I think this the policy they're arguing for is the best policy, but I wish they would act like a little child and be so insulting and nasty. I don't have I don't have to agree with the way the candidate conducts themselves to say I still prefer that candidate to others.
I still prefer their policy to others. Number six, we must regain our prophetic voice. The church hearing from God and speaking to the society, we have largely lost that. Number seven, we must be holistic Christians truly pursuing justice and righteousness for all. Not just one cause here. Let's be open to our blind spots where we care about one group and not another. Number eight, we must walk in love towards those who vilify us and oppose us.
Getting in the gutter with them does not help anybody. Fighting evil with evil, hatred with hatred doesn't help anybody. Number nine, we must unite around Jesus rather than divide over Trump or whoever the candidate is. And number 10, we must lead the nation. We as believers must lead the nation in repentance, knowing that repentance prepares the way of the Lord, opening a path for revival, visitation and awakening. As I wrote 2020, let us then lead the nation in private and public repentance, in confession of sin and wrongdoing, of turning to righteousness, of turning to God.
That is the great hope of America, not four more years of Donald Trump or any political candidate, but a heaven-sent revival and awakening. If you can say amen to that, we are in ultimate harmony. Thanks, friends, for joining with us. Make sure you're getting our frontline newsletter. It goes out once a month, digital. It'll bless you. It's free. Go to TheLineOfFire.org and click subscribe.
