Did God intervene to protect Donald Trump from the assassin?
Many are saying this. It’s unlikely Jesus would agree.
“Definitely God kept President Trump alive” by making the former president turn his head an instant before the shot, Trump campaign advisor Jason Miller told Fox News. The 45th president is among us today “because God protected him,” evangelist Franklin Graham told the Washington Post.
Were it not for a small change in his stance just as the trigger was pulled, Trump would have been assassinated. Does this mean God intervened?
Let’s look at what Christian theology says – specifically, the teachings of Jesus.
The bullet after missing by one inch. Photo courtesy New York Times.
First, so you can locate me on the spectrum:
1). I oppose Trump’s reelection, though acknowledge there is merit to many of his political views. More here. The creeps who’ve been saying they wish the bullet hit ought to make everyone sick.
2). I am a churchgoer and a Christian agnostic. That’s a real thing. More here.
Now the theological question.
The sacred writings tell us God often intervened on Earth in ancient times: but there is scant evidence of this in the present. Millions of innocents died horribly in two world wars. Thousands of innocents in Israel, Gaza and Sudan died horribly in the past year. Why didn’t God intervene to help them?
Good, righteous people perish in auto accidents every day. Why doesn’t God cause the oncoming car to swerve?
The madman in Butler, Pennsylvania, murdered firefighter and father Corey Comperatore, by all accounts a righteous, God-fearing man. Why did the Maker not protect Comperatore?
Perhaps some think, “God can’t save everyone, so the divine looks after valuable people like Trump.” Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. were righteous men of great value to society. Why did God do nothing as they were murdered? Why not cause them to turn away just as the trigger is pulled?
Now to the Bible, quoting the New Revised Standard Version. I’ll focus on the New Testament, because Christians believe the teachings of Jesus amend many doctrines of the Old Testament (the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible).
In the early books of the Tanakh, God often acts to slay or protect those on Earth. In the New Testament, Jesus occasionally uses divine power to protect life, never uses this power to harm. (This is a core difference between the two testaments.) In the New Testament, God is mostly silent.
But doesn’t the Bible say God dictates events on Earth? This is one of the claims people assume is in the sacred writing, then flipping pages of scripture, never find.
The assertion that God manipulates events on Earth comes from preachers, hymnals and from Christian rock, not from the Bible.
In the Tanakh, Proverbs 16:33 says of the courses of our lives, “The decision is the Lord’s alone.” This verse is employed in apologetics as evidence God controls human events. But it’s a draught of weak tea, and while beautiful, Proverbs is not one of the books of prophecy.
As to what Jesus taught:
At Matthew 10:29, Christ says two sparrows may be purchased for a penny, “Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the Father.”
Some commentators say this means the Maker chooses the moment each sparrow, or each person, dies.
That would constitute a powerful form of divine control over events – but also means the deaths on 9-11, at the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, during the Holocaust and Holodomor, during ongoing atrocities in Israel and Gaza, are imposed by God.
The context of the two-sparrows teaching is that heaven will console when death comes. Jesus, a few verses later: “So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.”
The Tower of Siloam by Jacques Tissot, 19th century French painter. Image courtesy Paintingmania.com.
In Luke, Jesus argued against the idea that God intervenes on Earth to reward or punish.
At Luke 13, Christ talks to a crowd about the belief that if a person dies suddenly, God was punishing sin, whereas if a person is spared tragedy, God is protecting the righteous. Jesus calls that wrong.
Referring to a tower that collapsed in an East Jerusalem neighborhood, claiming 18 lives – at the time the talk of Israel, and interpreted as supernatural intervention to judge sinners – Christ says, “Those 18 who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you.”
The falling tower was just an awful accident caused by shoddy construction. It did not mean those killed were singled out, nor that those whom the tower missed are secure against judgment. After explicating this, Jesus urged his listeners to repent.
In the same way that the Tower of Siloam was bad luck, Trump moving his head just before the bullet approached was good luck.
Many millions of believers assume God controls events. Were this the case, don’t you think Jesus would have said so?
About All Predictions Wrong
There will be an All Predictions Wrong, on an eclectic range of topics, every Friday all year. There are sometimes bonus editions depending on news events.
Tuesday Morning Quarterback returns every Tuesday when football resumes.
A subscription to All Predictions Wrong includes Tuesday Morning Quarterback, so it’s two-for-one.
Jay, this tugs at my heart. Gregg
Another well-written article. I would even add John 9:1-7 as yet another example of the core premise. It is definitely presumptuous (in the extreme) to assume that God intervened in this specific instance.
But this article almost argues too much. There are examples in John 7 and Luke 4 (among others) where it appears that some divine protection is at play for Jesus himself (and his disciples... at least prior to his resurrection). And the life of Jesus himself is itself a massive intervention into our world (John 3:16 passage where Jesus proclaims God sent him). Just because God chooses to let life play out doesn't mean He can't step in at any given moment.