Trump and Cyrus

For those who claim God has raised Trump up to be America’s ruler at this time even though he does not (despite his protestations to the contrary) evidence anything like a Christian approach to dealing with people or policy. I mean just how gullible are we, folks? Yet still the claim is made that in spite of that God tapped this man to lead America back to its former greatness. Kind of lack Cyrus, the Persian king God chose to facilitate the people’s return to the land after the exile. However, there are several crucial differences that to my mind invalidate this claim.

1.       God chose Cyrus for one specific purpose: to allow Israel to return to the land.

2.       He was not chosen to make Israel great again.

3.       Israel was not to follow his policies and practices in her life as God’s people.

4.       Cyrus, in spite of being chosen by God for this one purpose, was also to be judged as the pagan ruler he was for his sins both in oppressing Israel after its return to the land and in other places where he ruled. Beyond the one reason for which he was chosen by God there is no evidence he was to play a continuing “chosen” role in leading Israel. Other than that one purpose Cyrus was just another imperial overlord.

5.       Cyrus pursued Persian interests in his role as Israel’s overlord, not Israel’s.

6.       For this analogy to work, the US has to be God’s people in a special way no other nation is.

#6 is wrong so the analogy is shot in the foot from the start. God has no nation but Israel. And after the resurrection and Pentecost that “nation” has become the church. This transnational, multi-lingual know no boundaries it has to defend, national interests to pursue, no national destiny to live into. The church lives for all people, lives everywhere, and lives for God’s glory not its own. God providentially rules over America as he does every nation but has not chosen it to be his special base of operations in the world.

If Trump was chosen a la Cyrus for a particular purpose and not as a leader or model of God’s way for his people there is no reason for Christians to support or follow his purposes when they contravene God’s way or try and wrap the Bible around biblically indefensible plans and practices (#4).

The only real analogy may be that Trump rules America for his own purposes and gain, not the country’s well-being (#5). At the very least he has confused leading America with his family’s personal gain.

In short, there is no legitimate analogy here. To posit Trump as God’s chosen leader for America at this time on the basis of God’s choice of Cyrus is to misread the Bible (willfully or not) and do the church and the nation a grave disservice.