In the all-to-predictable aftermath of the reprehensible assassination attempt on former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump, some Christians sought not only to connect the sovereignty of God with Trump’s survival, but with some hoped-for reason his life was spared. A sampling of social media posts:
The Providential protection of God on public display.
Crazy timing to turn his head to look at a screen. That’s not be [sic] accident or coincidence. God determines when we breathe our last breath.
Strengthen him, Lord. Send legions of angels to protect him, Father. (from a meme)
Thank you Jesus…The whole world just witnessed the Angelic Protection of our God!
I’m not questioning the angelic protection of God, nor the power of God to protect people, not the sovereignty of God in choosing which people he chooses to protect and when. I trust that he knows what he’s doing even when I don’t.
I’m also thankful it was Trump’s ear rather than head that was hit. Besides the loss to his family, such a killing could well exacerbate the already-deep national divide to a point of no healing. His need to “get his spiritual house in order” should not be overlooked, either. His survival is a good thing.
Is it worth considering, however, that Donald Trump isn’t the first person to survive an assassination attempt? Was the survival of Grigori Rasputin the Russian monk due to legions of angels? What about the survival of Hirohito, Japan’s Prince regent, in 1923? What about the survival of Franz von Papen, Nazi Germany’s ambassador to Turkey (1942)? Were these all the “Providential protection of God on display”?
If assassination survivals are indications of angelic protection, they all should be, not just people who are well-liked or running for U.S. president. In other words, neither Trump’s presidential aspirations nor those of his supporters for him change why his life was spared. In the providence of God, it was; in the providence of God, others are not. Nor does Trump’s survival show that he is special. In some interpretations of Revelation, the Antichrist (the Beast) survives an assassination attempt. Is it within the sovereignty of God? Yes. Would Christians rejoice that Antichrist will be able to continue fulfilling God’s plan? Uhm…
Trump’s survival does show God continues to have some kind of purpose for him, but that purpose cannot be divined by we mortals, including his supporters. It could be to help America advance or it could be to bring judgment on America. (I’ve argued America is already under God’s judgment and Trump did not and will not change it, but that’s for another day.)
“But,” someone might object, “isn’t the fact that Trump turned his head a millisecond before a bullet would have exploded his cranium a miracle?” I don’t know. Is the fact that a briefcase bomb meant for Adolph Hitler was unknowingly moved by a subordinate to behind a heavy table leg thereby shielding the genocidal Fuhrer from certain death a miracle? Some German Christians would likely have thought so.[1] I think not.
Here are a few more people who survived an assassination attempt. Can anyone accurately say their lives were spared due to angelic intervention or some clear calling of God for their country?
Andy Warhol, artist, June 8, 1968
Chiang Chin-kuo, Vice Premier, Republic of China, August 24, 1970
George Wallace, US presidential candidate, May 15, 1972
Imelda Marcos, shoe hoarder, December 7, 1972
Ali Hassan, Black September operative (terrorist), 1974
Larry Flynt, pornographer, March 6, 1978
Bernadette and Michael McAliskey, Irish political activists, January 16, 1981
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Grand Ayatollah, March 8, 1985
Saman Rushdie, novelist, August 3, 1989
Motoshima Hitoshi, Mayor of Nagasaki, Japan, January 18, 1990
Khaled Mashal, Leader of Hamas, September 25, 1997
George Harrison, former Beatle, December 30, 1999
Gabby Giffords, Member US House, January 8, 2011
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian presidential candidate, September 6, 2018 (Wikipedia entry)
And Hitler? He survived six assassination attempts. Should this be credited to “angelic intervention” or “Providential protection”?
It is fine to be glad Donald Trump (or any other presidential candidate) survived an assassination attempt. At the risk of over-repetition, I too am glad. But it is unwise to assign to God motives that align with one’s own political wishes or goals, while ignoring how the interpretation might require some whacked-out theology when applied to similar scenarios. The mind of God is far deeper and his purposes far more broad than human comprehension. His plans should not be reduced to speculation that confirms our own political biases and preferences.
fides quaerens intellectum
[1] – Germany was overwhelming Christian prior to and at the time of the Holocaust. “The German census of May 1939 indicates that 54 percent of Germans considered themselves Protestant and 40 percent considered themselves Catholic, with only 3.5 percent claiming to be neo-pagan ‘believers in God,’ and 1.5 percent unbelievers. This census came more than six years into the Hitler era.” Betrayal: German Churches and the Holocaust. Robert P. Ericksen and Susannah Heschel, eds. Pg 20.
