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I try not to be too political, and I try pretty hard to stay out of the public political fray. I am convinced that Christians should be very circumspect about politics. We are citizens of the kingdom of God, first and foremost, and we owe our ultimate personal allegiance only to the King of all Kings.

I am also mindful of the tradition of the prophets. They stood as God’s mouthpieces to God’s people and to the priests and kings who lead them. While they didn’t hold back in pronouncing God’s judgments and warnings on surrounding nations, they directed most of their attention to God’s people, the nations of Israel and Judah.

I also have to note that the nations of Israel and Judah are unique in the history of God and man. The United States of America is not a nation of God’s chosen people like the nations of Israel and Judah were.

(The current state of Israel isn’t either! See the responses of Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Answer Man, to a pointed questions put to him about the status of nation of Israel today in the postscript to this blog article.)

There is much I could say about these things, but I want to get to my topic today. God’s prophetic voice is most prominently focused on His own people, wherever they are situated. Thus, Jesus often confronted the religious leaders of his day – the Pharisees and Sadducees – though he hardly said a word about the Romans who were the governing authorities in Judea.

Similarly, I believe God’s attention is on the church in America, and I am focused on Donald Trump only because many American Christians have claimed him as their champion. Biden, and Clinton, and Obama didn’t claim to be aligned with the church, but Trump does.

Therefore, when I read the following headline in the New York Times recently, For Those Deemed Trump’s Enemies, a Time of Anxiety and Fear, I took notice. The statement that Donald Trump has vowed to exact vengeance caught my attention.

Trump’s public warnings to those who opposed him, searched his home, prosecuted him, etc. are have weight behind them because they are characteristic of the man. People have taken them deadly seriously, including Joe Biden who pardoned a record number of people in his last days of office, including preemptive pardons of his own family members and people on Trump’s hit list.

I could say a lot about these pardons, also, but I won’t do that right now. I will only say that the threats Trump has made are not empty, and conducting himself in that way has repercussions for both parties and the health and future of politics in America. “What goes around comes around,” as the saying goes.

My focus, though, is on what this means for the church and how we live out being salt and light, making disciples to the ends of the world, and living consistent with the kingdom of heaven on earth. Do we not have some responsibility to God, the Father, the Maker of heaven and earth, to speak prophetically about the state of the church and of its complicity in the rise to power of Donald Trump?

Scripture could not be clearer that vengeance is God’s domain alone. While Moses makes this point (Deut. 32:35), Paul doubles down on it:

“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.’ On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Romans 19-21

In speaking these words, Paul echoes the words Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Matthew 5:43-45

If we take these things seriously (and do we seriously have any alternative?), we need to call “our” president out on these things. We need to take our prophetic position in the body of Christ and speak.

Jesus instructed his disciples to put their swords away when the authorities came for him in the garden because “all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) Consistent with the instruction to his disciples, Jesus said to Pontius Pilate:

“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

John 18:36

Do we live like that? Shouldn’t we live like that? Shouldn’t we hold the leaders that claim to be our champions accountable to live like that.

I say the answer is “Yes!” if we are going to be true to Jesus, true to our calling, and true to God’s purposes in the world.

I understand the pushback on this position. We look weak. We may be taken advantage of. We may lose power and influence in a world that is controlled by the powerful and influential.

I also understand how we justify not doing as Jesus said. We are trying to win the USA for Jesus. We are trying to hold onto our Christian roots as a nation. We are trying to bring our country under the authority of the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and the Lordship of Jesus.

Sounds good, right?

Unless you take seriously the things Jesus actually said, like, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” All nations. And he taught us how to do that through his three years of instruction to the disciples. If people don’t listen to us, we don’t call down fire from heaven; we shake the dust off and move on.

Taking vengeance on our personal enemies does not fit anywhere in this plan.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…. those who mourn…. the meek…. those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…. the merciful…. the peacemakers…. those who are persecuted because of righteousness….” THESE are the people who will inherit his kingdom. (Matthew 5:3-10)

These are the people who are salt and light in the world. (Matthew 5:13-16) This is the way Jesus instructed to live in this world. This is the way Jesus demonstrated for us to live, saying that we should follow him as he followed the Father.

When we champion and defend a leader like Donald Trump who thinks that he has a divine prerogative to take vengeance on his personal enemies, we misrepresent the character of God. We have gone off the script and are going our own way.

I am NOT necessarily finding fault in people who voted for Donald Trump. Many people believed that the alternatives were worse. If you voted your conscience, you have done what you should have done.

BUT, we cannot cede our prophetic voice to our vote. If you voted for Donald Trump, are you not all the more required to hold him accountable to biblical principles in the way he governs?

And not just those who voted for him; we all have the privilege of freedom of speech and personal involvement in the politics of this country. We all have a responsibly to God and the empowerment from the Holy Spirit to hold our leaders accountable to God – even without freedom of speech.

POSTSCRIPT:

Abraham was declared to be the father of many nations, and his descendants were promised to be a blessing to all nations. God’s kingdom knows no boundaries, and the kingdom of Jesus is not of this world. The history of God’s chosen people is a history of God working out these global promises of God throughout the world, and not just in one chosen nation.

Abraham was not a Zionist. Abraham didn’t even set roots down in the land God promised him. He lived there like a stranger because he was looking forward to a City whose architect and maker is God. (Hebrews 11) In Galatians 4, Paul makes clear that people longing for an earthly Jerusalem are in bondage/slavery like Hagar; we should be longing for the Jerusalem that is above.