Did God Make Donald Trump President?

Of course not. But maybe.

A couple days after the historic election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the Divided States of America, my sweet, passionate, and fiercely anti-Trump wife forwarded me a Facebook post made by Franklin Graham. (Graham is a staunchly Christian conservative activist, and the son of the great evangelist, Billy.)

In his post—which has been shared 250,000 times—Graham thanks God for “showing up” to help elect Trump to the Presidency. He credits the Trump-Pence victory to millions of Christians who gathered together for prayer meetings in churches and communities, and then showed up to vote. (This is undeniable. Evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Trump—81 to 16%, which is better than even George W. Bush in 2004.) Graham praises the God of the Bible for helping elect Trump and arresting, in its tracks, the progressive, atheistic, liberal agenda embodied by the Clinton-Kaine ticket.

On reading Graham’s post, my wife blew a gasket.

“Are we really supposed to believe that God helped elect this rude, brash, offensive man to lead our country?!”

“Well,” I explained, “it is Franklin Graham. You know, Billy’s kid? I imagine he knows the God of heaven and earth a bit more than you do.”

My wife did not appreciate that.

We discussed the possibilities that God had, in fact, helped elected Donald Trump to the Presidency. To be honest, I shared my wife’s incredulity. I am a moderate Republican who generally supports conservative candidates when I can, but Trump fell on the other side of the “when I can” line. I would and could not reward his campaign behavior with my vote—no matter how insincerely I suspected he was campaigning for the sake of winning. Because I am also opposed to many of the Democratic policies of Hillary Clinton (and have serious questions about her leadership, as well) I ended up finding a conservative third-party candidate I could support. So the notion that God helped elect Donald Trump struck me as absurd, given Trump’s apparent moral depravity.

But just because I don’t like Graham’s assertion does not mean that he is wrong. It just means I don’t like the idea. I suspect God has done many things on planet earth with which I would take issue. (His apparent tolerance of Justin Bieber is just one of many examples.) So I decided to think a bit more deeply about Rev. Graham’s assertion. I mean, if CNN is wrong and it was God who helped elect Donald Trump—and not that confounding Electoral College!—I want to know. That way I can fall in line and regard President-Elect Trump as the divinely-appointed leader he may apparently be.

So, is Franklin Graham right? Did God help elect Donald Trump? I see three options:

Yes

Graham’s conviction is that God “intervened” in the election to ensure that the Clinton train was stopped in its tracks. Now, how exactly did God intervene? By infiltrating electronic voting machines?

Probably Graham means that God “intervened” through the votes of his Christian people. In this way God “acted.” This is not theologically incorrect. Christians believe that they are the “body of Christ,” and that we serve the will of God on earth. When we offer a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul, we represent God himself. We are His hands and feet. So, judging by the voting choice of his people, God did—in some sense—help to elect Donald Trump to the Presidency.

The problem here is that obviously not everything Christians do represents the will of God. Another problem is that Evangelicals represent only a fraction of the Jesus-people of God. Catholics, minority Christians, mainline believers…none of them voted as overwhelmingly for Trump as Evangelicals did. Sure, Evangelicals are Graham’s main peeps, but to suggest that the Body of Christ is represented most perfectly by 81% of Evangelicals—who themselves only represent 36% of all Christians in the US—is a bit presumptuous.

But perhaps Graham meant something else. Perhaps Graham meant that God “elected” Trump in the same way that he “elected” Pharaoh in the days of Moses. Pharaoh was a wicked leader, but used him for His own purposes—leading to the release of the Israelite slaves from Egypt. God’s ways are not our ways, and it is the Potter’s prerogative to orchestrate events and use evil men and women as He chooses. Without getting overly theological, those who accept the sovereign predetermination of God over all human history must believe that Donald Trump is God’s man for the office, no matter what. Why? Because Trump won. What happens is the will of God. Full stop. Knowing this, we must remember what the Apostle Paul says and “submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established” (Rom. 13:1).

If you believe in God’s predetermining of human history, this might be the case. It does, however, raise the sticky issue of whether or not Pol Pot, Hitler, or Stalin were also God’s choice. Maybe from a certain theological perspective, I guess. But it’s still problematic.

All this is beside the point, though, because it seems that Graham is saying something more than that Trump is God’s sovereignly pre-determined man, or that God chose Trump through the votes of His people. Graham is saying that he believes God wanted Donald Trump to win and that God made sure he did. Why? Because God has political opinions on all the hot topics of the day—abortion and gay marriage, especially—that agree with the Republican party platform. Yes, God cares about certain components of the Democratic platform—like caring better for the poor and elderly, and preserving the earth, and maybe abolishing the death penalty. But compared to all that, the deaths of millions of unborn children and the re-establishment of traditional, conjugal marriage matter more. Lots more. As a Republican, Trump offers a better chance of restoring traditional moral norms to America, so God mobilized His people to pick His man—overlooking that man’s massive moral flaws in the process. Among other things, God saw the stakes of losing the Supreme Court to a long-lasting liberal majority, and decided to compel his people to get off their butts and ensure that did not happen.

You might not buy that, but it’s what Graham was probably thinking. God likes Trump’s positions on key issues more than He likes Hillary’s, so He made sure Trump won—ignoring much about Trump along the way.

No

As Nicole Risk asks on the Daily Kos, in an online-line follow-up to Franklin Graham’s post, How could anybody possibly believe that God helped elect Donald Trump to the Presidency?! As she suggests, to conclude that God helped elect Trump would mean that God approved of Trump’s lies about Hillary Clinton and all his many opponents. Furthermore, it would also lead us to conclude that all the hate crimes committed in Trump’s name were also the will of God. (If you hadn’t heard, hate crimes are up since the election.) This is a problem for anybody who believes that God is, you know, opposed to hate crimes.

Honestly, Risk is not making a good point. God might not approve of Trump’s tactics but might have seen (Graham’s understanding of) the bigger picture. And to the extent that God has acted/intervened in the course of human history, this does not necessarily make Him directly responsible for the consequent domino effects of those actions or our free will in acting subsequent to His deeds. If God elected me to the Presidency and I did something really stupid—which would happen 100 times in the first 100 days—that that does not mean that God is responsible for the stupid things I did. Nor is God responsible for the violent, racist Trump-supporters unleashed by the Trump surge. Bad actors do not necessarily cancel out the good reasons millions of decent Americans had for rejecting the establishment and voting for a new administration.

Having said that, Risk’s general point is also worth considering. Why would a holy God of love and grace elevate a man to the Presidency who represents so much of what He Himself opposes? Donald Trump has boasted about using his fame and power to sexually attack women. (For which he apologized, kind of.) He has stated publicly he does not believe he needs the forgiveness of God, in direct contradiction to every part of the Bible he has apparently not read. He has made fun of a disabled man. (Can you imagine Jesus doing that?) He has refused to release his taxes so Americans can see how responsible he has been with his (and by “his” I mean “God’s”) money. He has denied taking advantage of a woman who accuses him of sexual violence by suggesting she is too ugly to aggress. He has profited off strip clubs. He owns lots of casinos. He has said he’s attracted to his daughter and would date her, and agreed with Howard Stern that Ivanka is a “piece of ass.” He has been married three times, and admits committing numerous affairs. He has stirred up fears of outsiders in a way that plays on our anxieties, instead of inspiring us to love and welcome those who are different in a way that Scripture teaches. He just agreed to settle a fraud lawsuit with former students of Trump University for 25 million dollars.

I know that much of the campaign was showmanship. But that does not mean President-Elect Trump does not have to own everything he’s ever said or done. Why and how would God elevate a man to the Presidency who gives so little indication that he cares a whit what God thinks is holy and good? God exalts the humble, not the brash and morally depraved. God appointed King David because David was a man after his own heart. By any simple evaluation, Donald Trump is more Ahab or Zedekiah—a king among those who “did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not humble [themselves].” When prophets confront wicked kings in Scripture, it is not to let them know that it’s all good. It’s to let them know that they must change their ways—and very soon, before it’s too late.

Yes, of course, but what about Romans 13? What about the idea that God appoints all authorities as his servants? Well, that would have also been true had Hillary Clinton won the election, too. Paul’s point is not that God likes all these rulers, but that they serve under His authority and we should submit to them as we submit to Him.

So, no. The idea that God helped elect Donald Trump President is as likely as it is that God approved of King Herod’s reign during the time of Christ—a man Jesus Himself referred to as a “fox” for all his violent, depraved ways.

Maybe

Really, do we have any idea what sort of role God had in the Presidential Election of 2016? The question itself makes many assumptions about God’s political opinions (does he even have those?) and his involvement in the affairs of nations. Besides which, how would we even know if God helped elect Donald Trump? Because Franklin Graham says so?

Due respect to Graham, but that’s not good enough for me. I earnestly believe that God takes interest in our lives and world. He works through the deeds of his people—in both supernatural and naturalistic ways. I know that He influences the course of human events in manners which I would and could not possibly understand. Like Job, such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

At the same time, I wouldn’t dare claim to know with certainty how God is intervening in certain world and political events. (Unless it was spelled out for me by multiple, credible, well-attested prophetic sources. And even then, I would be skeptical.) Thinking we can know what God does and why leads to an ignorant spiritual immaturity in which we think the world revolves around us and our agendas.

Years ago, for example, a friend of mine was fasting for spiritual renewal, and there happened to be a major stock correction on that particular day. My slightly-naïve friend was convinced it was because he fasted. I must confess I cannot prove that God did not respond to my friend’s prayers with a stock market correction. (Although I wonder why God would have.) Neither can I prove that God did not, contrary to Pastor John Hagee’s claim, send Hurricane Katrina into New Orleans in 2005 to stop a gay-pride parade that was scheduled to happen. I cannot prove that God did not do that.

But I have my doubts on both these matters, as the suggestion that God was involved doesn’t make a lot of sense, for lots of reasons. (Why must the poor citizens of New Orleans suffer for the sake of God’s wrath at a gay pride parade?) Similarly, I have serious doubts at Graham’s claim that not only did God help elect Donald Trump as President, but that we can even know whether or not He did. In Scripture, the activity of God seems focused on the proclamation of the gospel message to people who need to be forgiven of their sins and empowered by the Holy Spirit to build the church and live fully-redeemed lives. I’m not saying God doesn’t take interest in political events like the election of Presidents. God takes interest in everything. But to a certain extent, the divine activity of God in world events lies behind a curtain that has been drawn closed, for now. We are on much firmer ground seeing the activity of God in small, daily acts of kindness to neighbors and enemies, the care of widows and orphans, and the preaching of the gospel to the unsaved, as He works one-by-one to bring about His kingdom on earth. This is where we can know God works.

So What Now?

So I just don’t think we can know what sort of role God had in the election of Donald Trump. But what can we know, then? Can we know anything?

Yes, we can know a lot. First, I know that regardless of whether or not God helped elect Donald Trump President, Donald Trump will be President. As Hillary Clinton has graciously said, Trump deserves a chance. As Scripture instructs, I will submit to him as I submit to God. I might not like it, but at this point I am reminded that the Church has endured many imperfect political leaders and has outlasted all of them. I am also reminded that our True Leader, Jesus the Lord of Life, is far wiser and more trustworthy than any of our leaders ever could be. Regardless of what happens to America during the Trump years, President Jesus can guide and sustain us and work things out for the good of all—that is if we work diligently to bring His kingdom on earth, through acts of kindness, justice, and love.

Also, although I don’t know whether or not God helped elect Donald Trump as President, I do know that we did. And by “we,” I mean we Evangelicals. (I consider myself one.) I might not be part of this particular voting bloc, I still acknowledge that I am part of a group that collectively pulled the lever for Trump. On this, Franklin Graham is right: Trump would not have won without our support.

Evangelical Christian’s support of Donald Trump’s election is too complicated to make any huge sweeping generalizations about their motivations as voters. Surely different voters supported the candidate for different reasons, and with different levels of intensity and sincerity. But millions of Christians did, and that says something in itself of our frustration with the political process and the limited number of quality political options. It also says something, I think, about love of political power and willingness to lower our moral and political standards to advance our agenda in an ineffective and unproven way.

Regardless of the reasons many voted for the President, and what our support apparently means, Evangelicals must subsequently take responsibility for this decision. Among other things, this means holding our new President accountable to the promises he has made. He has promised to protect the unborn. Will he? Or was he just speaking our language to make sure he got our vote? He has promised to protect religious freedom. Will he? And in a way that protects the religious freedoms of all Americans? He has promised to restore good-paying jobs to a sluggish economy. Will he? And not so that we can live more comfortable lives but so that we can be even more generous with the bounty of our great nation? And just as importantly, we need to hold him accountable to the Christian ethic he says he embraces. Will he love his enemies, as Jesus commands? Will he model purity and truthfulness, as Jesus expects? Will he lead us in service to the poor, as Jesus requires? Will he cooperate with his opponents, or demonize them?

I’m not sure if God helped elect Donald Trump President, but he is the President, and we helped put Him there. Even as a dissenter, I’m committed to submitting to him as my President. This means supporting him where I can and opposing him where I must.

-MRH (December 2016)