When I first read about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, I knew three things would happen.
I knew Evangelical pastors would tell their congregations Trump’s narrow escape was proof of God’s support of Trump and that they would be mistaken.
I knew prominent Democrats would go on television and say they were glad Trump was okay and that they would be lying.
And I knew non-Christians would say Trump was just lucky in avoiding the bullet and that they would be wrong.
I could start with a detailed discussion about the different theological views on the sovereignty God, but I don’t think that is necessary. Whether one endorses the Calvinist, Armenian, or Open Theist view, all Christians should be able to agree that all that happens is not God’s will.
It is not His will that anyone perish but that all come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9. Yet, some do perish. Matthew 25:41, 46. At the same time, all Christians must acknowledge that He “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.” Ephesians 1:11.
Suffice it to say that there is a difference between God’s permissive will and His sovereign will. The interplay of these two concepts is better left to theologians and not attorneys-become-bloggers, and, fortunately, understanding that interplay is not necessary to make the point I want to make here. That is this: if Thomas Crooks’ narrow miss of Donald Trump was God’s sovereign will, it does not mean God has endorsed Donald Trump for President.
Adolf Hitler avoided as many as 40 assassination attempts, the most famous being Operation Valkyrie, which only failed to kill Hitler because he happened to be precisely positioned behind one of the table’s legs and someone not knowing the bag under the table contained a bomb, repositioned it under the table before it exploded.
The German Christians Church, led by Bishop Ludwig Muller, fully supported Hitler and his Make Germany Great Again policies. Muller publicly contended that Hitler’s narrow escapes from assassination attempts were a sign of God’s divine protection of Hitler.
I think most Christians would recognize in retrospect that any exercise of God’s sovereignty in protecting Hitler was not to bless Germany but to judge it and, more specifically, to judge it for having embraced Hitler. That is the thing about God’s sovereignty, it can be for blessing or judgment.
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Luke 19:41-44
I don’t know whether Thomas Crook’s near miss was God’s good sovereignty or his sovereign judgment. Such things are usually only understood in retrospect. I do know that to quickly claim this event as evidence of God’s divine imprimatur on Donald Trump is both premature and immature.
We would do better to keep our mouths shut about such things and focus on making disciples. GS