As Donald Trump transitions from Republican candidate to presumptive nominee, many Republicans are falling into line to support the insurgent candidate. Part of the reason that Trump has been successful is his support from the conservative Christians. Many have questioned whether Trump’s Christian supporters know what they are getting with Mr. Trump.
While critics have pointed out that Trump is a serial philanderer who acts like a bully and has trouble telling the truth – or telling anything consistently – and who owns casinos and strip clubs, many Christians, including such notable pastors as Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham, seem more than willing to overlook Trump’s sins and board the Trump train. Some liken Trump, who claims to be a Christian but who says he has never asked for forgiveness, to the Biblical king Cyrus who allowed exiled Israelites to return to their homeland and rebuild the Jewish temple.
In contrast to Cyrus, who was a pagan and did not claim to know God, Trump claims to know God, but may be more accurately described as an apostate or heretic. When Trump asks “Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes?” he is in contradiction to the Bible, which says that “all have sinned.” Likewise, the Bible states that repentance and forgiveness is the only way to become a Christian. These are basic Christian beliefs.
Michael Brown of the Christian Post points out that God used the Persian king Cyrus to free the Israelites, not to rule over them. Brown notes that “rais[ing] up an idol-worshiping king to rule the nation of Israel… would have been a curse rather than a blessing.”
Trump may fit into the spiritual picture as an instrument of the Shemitah, an ancient Jewish sabbatical year that many believe figures into a pattern of judgment. Rabbi Jonathan Cahn first wrote about the Shemitah pattern in his book, “The Harbinger.” Cahn linked the seven year Shemitah cycle to financial crashes and recessions going back at least 50 years. The two largest financial crashes in U.S. history, the crashes of 2001 and 2008, were both on the last day of Shemitah years. Likewise, the oil bust of 2015 was part of a worldwide commodities crash that was linked to the Shemitah year.
In this book, “The Mystery of the Shemitah,” Cahn describes his belief that the Jubilee year, the “seventh Shemitah” would run from September 14, 2015 through October 2, 2016 and might bring dramatic change. Cahn writes that previous Jubilee years have brought momentous world changes such as the signing of the Balfour Declaration, which gave birth to the modern nation of Israel in 1918, and the capture of Jerusalem by Israeli forces in the Six Day War of 1967.
Cahn has not addressed Donald Trump, but it is possible that Trump’s rise to power in a Jubilee year signals a drastic change in direction for the United States. If Cahn is correct, God’s judgments on the rebellious United States began with the September 11 attacks. Cahn described in “The Harbinger” what he calls the “Isaiah 9:10 effect.” This is the principle that the “attempt of a nation to defy the course of its judgment, apart from repentance, will instead set in motion a chain of events to bring about the very calamity it sought to avert.”
It should be obvious to even the casual observer that America has not repented. During the Shemitah year of 2015, the nation rejected centuries of precedent and Biblical teachings to enact nationwide same-sex marriage. It is currently rejecting millennia of biology to claim that gender is changeable attitude. The federal government under Barack Obama is compelling hospitals to perform abortions and federal funds are being used to support groups like Planned Parenthood that perform abortions. Into this mix steps Donald Trump, a candidate who purports to fight lies with more lies.
Rejection of truth and mass delusions where people follow false prophets are foretold in the Bible. The Bible contains numerous warnings against lies as well as wicked rulers. Should we then believe that a confirmed liar like Donald Trump is sent by God to “make America great again?” If God punished Israel for its evil kings then how much more will America be punished if we choose our own evil leader?
It seems likely that the continual American rejection of God and failure to repent has brought us to a point where we must choose between two evils, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. America is literally in the position of being damned if we do and damned if we don’t.
So why do so many Christians support Trump? The answer may found in the Bible itself. Jesus himself foretold the day when “false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Perhaps that day is here.
Read it on Conservative Firing Line
Read it on Conservative Firing Line
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