Today, January 20th, 2017, is the quadrennial celebration of democracy in the United States of America - the peaceful transfer of power between one administration and another. For that, we thank George Washington. Lin-Manuel Miranda gives us a fascinating representation of that moment in his landmark musical Hamilton, where President Washington tells his most trusted cabinet minister Alexander Hamilton that he's not running for a third term - and his reasoning permeates our society even today.
"If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on. It outlives me when I'm gone. Like the Scripture says, 'Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.' They'll be safe in the nation we've made."
It turns out he's quoting there from Micah 4:4, which talks of the Mountain of the Lord in the Millennial, which is followed by (to me) an even more appropriate verse, Micah 4:5 ...
"For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God forever and ever."
The people today have quite different "gods" that they follow. Some do follow the true Lord, of course, but many follow money, or power, or blind patriotic loyalty.
Some people are their own gods.
Today, we change from the administration of a demonstrably Christian president who spent eight years defending himself against charges of being a Muslim because his name rang of Islamic overtones, to a president who speaks the words and politics of Christianity but lives a life as far from that of Christ's teachings as is humanly possible. We change from a Democrat to a Republican. We change from a president which a large segment of America detested and another segment adored, to a president whose demographics were exactly the opposite - it would be hard to find a person of political awareness in the US who cared for Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump exactly equally (unless they simply hated ALL politicians, which is true more and more often.)
And yet, the words from Mr. Miranda's musical that stick with me today are the ones in the following song, sung by King George III - "They say George Washington's yielding his power and stepping away. Is that true? I wasn't aware that was something a person could do. I'm perplexed. Are they gonna keep on replacing whoever's in charge?"
Yes, yes we are. We've done it successfully previously, 43 times in a row. We've done it through a change of political beliefs. We've done it through natural death, and through assassination. We've done it through resignation and scandal.
And today will be no exception. Regardless of the opinions of many of its citizens, perhaps even some of those performing the ceremony, the process will continue, and at noon EST we will transfer the power of the office of the "leader of the free world" from one man to another, as mandated in the US Constitution.
Now, here's the important part of this process.
No matter what you think of Mr. Trump, or Mr. Obama, or anyone else involved in the politics of the situation... God is the One Who is in control.
God chose Mr. Obama to be POTUS for the last two terms. And He chose Mr. Trump to be POTUS now. So that's the way He wants it.
Let me throw my thoughts at you about the situation. I am not of the belief that Mr. Trump is a Christian, because of his demonstrably non-Christian actions - demeaning women and the underprivileged, completely unforgiving, compulsively untruthful, and unable to control his impulses. I also don't believe him competent enough to discharge his duties in the office, and I worry that his poor performance there will have grave results for all of us.
But that's not to say that his opponent should have been elected. God arranged that too. If you have any doubt that He wanted Mr. Trump to be President, look at what he got to campaign against: an array of ineffective Republican candidates who split the rest of the vote, and then a Democratic candidate who not only embodied what the nation was despising about government but who demonstrably cheated to defeat her primary opponent. Add the fact that the two main "third party candidates" famously knew nothing about even the basic workings of government, and it's hard not to come to the conclusion that God wanted Mr. Trump to become president. Would he have won against, say, Mr. Obama or Mr. Bush 43 were they running again? Or any of a dozen competent possibilities who ARE still eligible? Probably not. God put him here against these candidates at this time because He wants Mr. Trump in office.
Why?
I don't know, but I trust Him. His ways are better than my ways, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and if it's His Will that Mr. Trump is our president, then I will honor and respect that Will. (And it must be His Will, unless I'm ready to abandon the truth of Scripture, which I'm not.)
SO... just for fun, let's examine why God would want him there. For obvious reasons, let's exclude the reasons his supporters would give: he'll do a good job, he will correct policies that have gone away from the way they should go, etcetera. Without agreeing or disagreeing, let's dismiss those by saying if they're true, then it's obvious that God would want Mr. Trump in office, and case closed.
What remains are the anti-Trump arguments, and why God would want him there IF he was indeed as unqualified as I believe him to be. (Again, in the interest of fairness, those who believe that Mr. Trump is the solution and Mr. Obama was the problem, play along by changing the names. The point will be just as valid.)
Arguments for such a president? Perhaps God would want to weaken the US in the world arena? My reading of Scripture as an eschatologist sees NO basis for America's participation in the End Times activities. We have had our fingers in the Middle Eastern pie for decades - if we're approaching the End, perhaps it's needed to pull us out of the area to allow the final act to begin.
No? Perhaps the friendship which Mr. Trump wants to pursue with Russia will have an effect on those End Times prophecies. Most analysts believe Russia is the Gog/Magog in Ezekiel's portion of the final act - could an enhancement of Russian importance bring along their portion of Scripture?
Or perhaps there's something else in store - a Pence presidency, either in 2020, 2024, or following an impeachment. Mr. Pence is well-known as a foe of the LGBT community; maybe that be a factor in His thinking?
Let's go way out into left field: what if Mr. Trump's policies and behavior become so outrageous that the Democrats and Republicans have to work together, to team up to throw him out of office, and that begins a new era of the two sides working together as they should, in bipartisan fashion, as they used to until the start of the century (for the most part)? Possible. ALL things are possible with God.
Here's my point: we have no idea what God is thinking. Nor will we, most likely.
We will simply have to trust Him, whether He allows us a Barack Obama or a Donald Trump to be our president. Whomever God installs, we must recognize and honor, and pray for. This is not a zero-sum game! If Mr. Trump is a successful president, we will be better off than if he is a dismal failure. We are bound by Romans 13:
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.... Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience." (verses 1, 2, 5)
The cynical response to this comment of a friend of mine was to point out verse 6 and 7 had already been violated: "For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
The friend argues that if this president, who has proudly admitted not paying taxes, and certainly not demonstrated respect or honor to those who it was owed, has already violated God's Word, why should we obey the rest of Romans 13 with respect to him?
Here's my answer. God didn't give US mercy because WE deserved it. He gives us mercy because HE is holy.
Similarly, we don't pay this man respect because HE deserves it - we pay him respect because the OFFICE deserves it, and OUR GOD DEMANDS it.
If we are Christians, then we respect the office of the President (and the rest of the government) because it's the right thing to do, regardless of who HOLDS those offices.
By the way, in my mind that disqualifies a huge number of people who believe they're Christians but who publicly denigrated President 44, or who will publicly denigrate President 45.
The very phrase "He's not MY President" cannot be uttered by a Christian American.
So, where does that leave us? Right where we started. Today, January 20th, we will inaugurate our 45th president, and he will sit where Mr. Lincoln say, where both Roosevelts sat, where almost every good, bad, great and mediocre POTUS has sat, and assume the duties of the highest office in the land. And it is my fondest wish, as much as I wish for anything in the political sphere, that Mr. Trump succeeds beyond my fears AND hopes for him, because a failure in the highest office creates a failure that seeps throughout the nation. (I remember 1974.) It is my duty as a Christian and as an American to do what I can to make his presidency a success.
Now, that includes vetting his cabinet choices so the best people fill those positions - it includes arguing about policy decisions because that affects the success of the country and therefore his presidency - it includes being vocal about potential mistakes we see him make, in order to give him the chance to correct those errors. THAT'S not disobedience - that's participation in the government process. So don't assume you can't speak up. Not the same thing. But work within the system as best you can as a Christian, professing your Christian values and arguing for your Christian beliefs.
That's our job as Christians, regardless of who holds the office.
Because we serve our King, first and foremost.
Always.
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