“I Had God on My Side”.[i]
These six words from Donald Trump’s 91-minute speech (a new record in length) to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on 18th July 2024 caught the headlines. Trump was, of course, referring to dramatic events five days earlier in Pennsylvania, when the bullet of a would-be assassin passed through his ear. Sensing that his life was saved only because he turned his head at exactly the right moment, he concluded that God had saved him. The once and potentially future president told his assembled supporters at the Convention, “I’m not supposed to be here tonight”. The crowd chanted, “Yes, you are!” He replied, “Thank you. But I’m not. And I’ll tell you. I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God”.
What are we to make of Trump’s analysis? The most thoughtful commentators have concluded that, prior to this point, Trump has not, apparently, been a man of deep, life-changing personal faith.[ii] Has his near-death experience jolted him into self-reflection that has led him, or is leading him towards, a humble dependence on the saving grace of God in Christ? Christians should certainly hope and pray for that, but we should not naively take Trump’s words at face value. In American politics, sincerity and sophistry are not easily distinguished. References to God are commonplace and insincere appeals to the Christian voting base can be made for political advantage. Only time will tell whether dodging death will truly transform Trump.
We cannot read Donald Trump’s heart, but what are we to make of his claim that God is on his side? Some Christians leaders in the USA have been quick to agree with him, claiming he was saved by miraculous divine intervention.[iii] This claim raises serious questions. Most obviously, what does it mean for Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old former firefighter who was killed by a bullet aimed at Trump? He is reported to have, “loved Jesus”, and to have been, “a committed Christian who found peace and joy through [his] church”.[iv] Was God not on his side? Could God not have saved Compertore as well as Trump? Claims that God is on one person’s side always seem to imply that God has favourites or that he can only manage so many details.
Arizona journalist EJ Montini recognises the problem. He suggests that those who claim God saved Trump believe in, “a God more bumbling than all powerful”, adding:[v]
I prefer a version of the God I was told about in parochial school. A God who loved and cared about each of us, and who imbues each of us – all of us, the good and the bad – with free will.
A God who loves Donald Trump and Corey Comperatore equally, and who had no part in saving one or allowing the other to be killed.
Montini’s claim is that God is not uninterested – he loves us – but that he is uninvolved – he has no part in what happens in our world. But this only raises more questions. Is God merely a kindly observer of our world, who watches on lovingly, unable to intervene? And does the belief that God loves all people equally mean that he is equally committed to the protection and longevity of all?
Questions about why God allows bad things to happen to people we judge to be good or good things to happen to people we think are bad, are really questions about the character and person of God. Specifically, about four aspects of God’s nature:
Is God good? Does he care about people and is he fair?
Is God powerful? Can he do anything about the problems of this world?
Is God involved? If he is good and powerful, does he actually intervene in human affairs?
Is God infallible? Does he make mistakes in his governance of the universe?
The Bible answers all four of these questions with a resounding ‘yes’. The God revealed through the Bible is good, powerful and involved.
There is no space in a brief article like this to explore all the biblical evidence, but, when all is said and done, the ultimate proof that God is good, powerful and involved is found in the Lord Jesus. We might imagine a God who is not good – a malevolent dictator who plays games with his creatures. But when we see the outstanding moral purity of Jesus and his compassion for others, that imagining becomes untenable. We might speculate that God is loving but lacks the power to do anything about our world’s problems, but then we remember the consummate ease with which Jesus calmed storms and commanded demons and diseases. We could theorise that God is uninvolved in the details of our world of pain, but then we are confronted by the fact that God in Jesus entered our world to live a fully human life and experienced the worst imaginable suffering. We could hypothesise about a God who makes mistakes, but then we look at Jesus whose miraculous and moral impeccability led people to say, “He has done everything well”.[vi]
Jesus brings into sharp focus the truth that God is good, powerful, involved and infallible. His incarnation and his confidence in his Father’s purposes also assure us that God is working out his good purposes in our world even through bad events, of which Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion are the supreme example. Within this good plan, God allows freedom and agency to human beings so that we are morally accountable for our actions. He does not cause or tempt people to sin. Christians differ over the degree to which God ordains or merely permits the evil that happens in our world, but at some point we must admit to a mystery. Scripture is crystal clear that God has a great purpose that nothing can thwart, and that he will bring all things to a very good ending, but he does not tell us how he works in each specific situation towards that end. The biblical story of Job explodes the myth that there is a direct correlation between good things happening to someone and God favouring that person. We can confess with confidence that, “from [God] and through him and to him are all things”, but we must add, “How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways”.[vii]
Considering the specific question of who is destined to hold power in the USA, Scripture clearly teaches that God, “removes kings and sets up kings”.[viii] It was God who raised the kings of Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia to judge his people Israel just as surely as he raised Moses, David and even the pagan Persian king Cyrus to deliver them. We can have confidence that in our age too God is working out his purposes through those who hold power in the world, whether they acknowledge him or not. We cannot say that God approves of the values, lifestyle or policies of a person simply because he or she gains power. But we can trust that even when someone ungodly assumes power, God is still in overall control. Nothing happens that he does not permit and nothing that a human ruler does can stop the unfolding of God’s plan.
To say that God is on the side of a particular political candidate is overly simplistic. The Bible does teach that God is on the side of his people because he has bound himself to them in covenant. He promises to bless those who bless his people and to curse those who curse them.[ix] He is working out all things for the good of those he loves,[x] and we can confess that he is for us, so no one can stand against us.[xi] Christ exercises his rule over all things for the sake of his church.[xii] Jesus takes the persecution of his people as a personal offence,[xiii] and he will judge the nations based on how they treat his people.[xiv]
We must be careful, however, not to take this commitment of God as a blank cheque for us to do as we will. We can say that God is committed to and for his people, but it is too simplistic to say that he is on our side. Joshua learned this as he contemplated the conquest of the land. Standing near Jericho, he saw a man holding a sword. Naturally, he asked, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” The man responded unexpectedly, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come”.[xv] Joshua’s instinctive response on realising who addressed him (either a mighty angel or perhaps even God himself) was to fall on his face in worship. As the story unfolds, God fights for Israel, but only so long as they obey him. God is for his people when his people are for his purpose. But God cannot be reduced to an ally on our side or a talisman to bless our cause. He meets us and invites us to join his side. We should be wary to say God is on our side, but careful to ask whether we are truly on his.
What does all this mean for Donald Trump’s claim that God was on his side and preserved his life? God certainly can, and at times does, act in history to stop an evil action or to prompt a good one. But we cannot blame God for the evil actions of the gunman who shot at Trump, nor can we conclude from the fact that he failed to kill the former president that God is committed to miraculously preserving Trump’s life. Perhaps more importantly, we should not think that God was sustaining his life in that moment any more than at every other moment.
I do not know which candidate God wants to win the USA’s presidency. I do not know whether either candidate is on the Lord’s side. I do know that God is sovereign and that he invites us to submit to his good rule and be on his side.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Endnotes:
[i] The New York Times was one of a number of media outlets to publish Trump’s speech in full online: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/19/us/politics/trump-rnc-speech-transcript.html
[ii] See Daniel Burke’s 2016 article for CNN for comment on Trump’s religious beliefs:
[iii] See the Premier Christian News article about Franklin Graham’s comments
(https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/trump-declares-god-saved-me-franklin-graham-agrees) and the quotations in EJ Montini’s article for the Arizona Record
[iv] See Billy Hallowell’s CBN article: https://www2.cbn.com/news/us/he-loved-jesus-hundreds-honor-life-corey-comperatore-heroic-ex-fireman-slain-trump-rally
[v] See https://eu.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2024/07/19/quit-the-bs-god-saved-trump/74472143007/
[vi] Mark 7:37
[vii] Romans 11:36,33
[vii] Daniel 2:21
[ix] Genesis 12:3
[x] Romans 8:28
[xi] Romans 8:31
[xii] Ephesians 1:22
[xiii] Acts 9:4
[xiv] Matthew 25:40,45
[xv] Joshua 5:13-14
Comments