Tag: prophecy

Is Donald Trump the King We Wanted?

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Paul, speaking to the Christians in Rome, penned these words that echo still in 2019 in the minds of people who seek to do God’s will: “there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” (Romans 13:1)

Lest we gloss over the historical context, Paul wrote these words from a Roman prison cell. He wrote them not knowing that he would never live free again. He would remain a prisoner until his public execution at the hand of those same Roman authorities established by God.

Not that Paul would have said anything different if he had known his fate. I don’t believe knowledge of his future would have changed anything he said. In the same letter to the Romans, Paul said, “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Romans 14:8)

I have heard many people recite Romans 13:1 in support of defending Donald Trump. Many of those same people would have bristled to consider the same verse during the Obama presidency.

The Scripture didn’t change. Our application of it changed.

Many people who have championed Trump for President, and Trump as President, have claimed that God wanted Trump to be President. Like Daniel in the Persian palace, they say Trump is God’s man in the White House.

I have been skeptical of that claim. Not that it couldn’t be true, but the Donald is no Daniel. The fruit of his life, his words, his demeanor, and his actions is not consistent with God’s character.

I admit that I had to be cautious in my skepticism as I read the story of a fireman, Mark Taylor, who prophesied in 2011 that Trump would be President. This was more than an entire term before Trump became president. Those prophetic words echoed in the back of my mind as the election results slowly revealed a Trump victory in 2016 to a nation of shocked newscasters and political pundits on live television.

(I note that the same man who claimed God told him Trump would be president, claimed he would defeat Obama in 2012. He was wrong about the timing. He has also claimed a number of things that have not occurred. “Taylor’s other prophecies have proven to be less than accurate. The Guardian reported that he said a ‘red tsunami’ would solidify Republicans’ hold on Congress, and that he predicted former President Barack Obama would be arrested for treason. Taylor also says Trump will release evidence of cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.”)

Paula White, who is now an adviser to Trump in the White House, said after he was elected, “Trump has ‘been raised up by God’ and added, ‘It is God who raises up a king. It is God that sets one down. When you fight against the plan of God, you are fighting against the hand of God.’”

Of course, she would have been just as right if she were speaking of Barack Obama eights years earlier and four years earlier. I would be surprised, though, if she said the same thing 8 years ago or 4 years ago.

I wondered then, as I do now: does Trump’s victory mean that we (believers) won too? Did God give us what He wanted? Or did God give us what we wanted?

Continue reading “Is Donald Trump the King We Wanted?” →

Christmas Thoughts: Psalm 22

We celebrate the humble birth of Christ, knowing that the redemptive work God started then is finished, even as it is playing out in our own lives and the times we live in.

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I don’t typically think of the Psalms when I think of Christmas. My Christmas thoughts this season have revolved around prophecies in the Old Testament, and that is where the Psalms enter the picture. The Old Testament is full of prophecies that came true in the person of Jesus from Nazareth, who was born in Bethlehem a little over two millennia ago.

Psalm 22 may have been written by David before he became King when he was on the run from King Saul, who was jealous. On the other hand, it may have been written after David became king when his son, Absalom, formed a coupe to wrest the kingdom from him. Psalm 22 is David’s cry to God in the midst of his own impossible circumstance.

But Psalm 22 is more than that. Psalm 22 is a foreshadowing of God’s own cry when His creation turns against Him. It becomes the cry of God, who shed his divine glory to enter His own creation in the form of a man, which we celebrate at Christmastime. We don’t think of Christmas in these terms, but it foreshadows the death of God incarnate at the hands of His own creation.

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Christmas Thoughts: Prophets & Fools

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My Christmas Thoughts have taken me to the prophecies in the Old Testament of the coming Messiah. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Christ, which is the Greek term for Messiah. Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, and he said the Old Testament is about him.[i]

The concept of a Messiah is unique to the Abrahamic religions. A messiah is a savior or liberator of the people. The Messiah predicted in the Old Testament (Tanahk) is the Savior of the Jewish people according to Jesus, and he is also the Savior of the world. The Messianic prediction goes back to Abraham:

I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (Gen. 22:18-10)[ii]

Both the Jews and Muslims trace their lineage and heritage back to Abraham, and Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, is traced directly back to Abraham through David.  (Matthew 1:1-17)[iii] That the Messiah would come through the lineage of Judah, of whom David was a descendant, is echoed forward in the prophetic passages in the Old Testament writings.

Continue reading “Christmas Thoughts: Prophets & Fools” →

Christmas Thoughts: The First Prophecy

The first prophecy in the Bible was spoken to Satan about the coming of the offspring of Eve who would bruise his head.

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(c) Can Stock Photo / aleksask
(c) Can Stock Photo / aleksask

We have explored one of the great passages of the Old Testament, written centuries before the Christ child was born in lowly estate in the beginning of the 1st Century, which predicted in great detail this man, Jesus. (Isaiah 53) Isaiah 53 is one of many predictions, prophecies, of the coming of a Messianic one who would be the Savior of the Jews, and of the world.

We will explore a sampling of other foretelling passages of the Old Testament in future installments, including today’s segment. Many of them are stunning in their accurate, specific and sometimes obscure detail. Not so today.

But the passage we will review today is central to the story. We go all the way back to Genesis for this one – Genesis 3:15 to be exact. This is considered the first prophecy in the Bible: Continue reading “Christmas Thoughts: The First Prophecy” →

God Understands Us

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“My God, my God, why have You forsaken[i] [ii]me?” (Psalm 22:1)

These are David’s words, and they are words Jesus spoke when he hung on the cross. Many statements in the Old Testament are predictive and point to Christ, including this verse, which anticipates Christ hanging on the cross taking on Himself the sins of the world and being abandoned by the Father in that moment as a result.

While there is a predictive element, clearly, to this statement, I think there is something else going on. Jesus was undoubtedly harkening back to David’s words, but maybe He had another purpose in doing so. We see many times in the Bible that a single phrase has multiple meanings, more than one application, and both or all of them are instructive. Continue reading “God Understands Us” →