A Trump Reprieve for America?
By Hal Lindsey
In 760 BC, one of the most important cities in the most powerful empire of its time, repented of its sin and turned to God.
The case proves once and for all that no one should take credit when God works through him or her. God took extraordinary measures just to get Jonah to go to Nineveh. The prophet was used greatly, but not the way he wanted to be used. He didn’t want the people to repent or the city to be saved. His message was hard, and there was nothing winsome in his presentation of it. But the people did repent, and Nineveh’s well-earned destruction was put off for more than a century.
Many evangelical Christians see Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency as a similar reprieve for the United States. Let’s suppose, for a moment, that President Trump is right on all the big policy positions he took in the campaign. I’m not saying it’s true, but try to imagine that President Trump will take the smartest possible positions on the economy, immigration, tax reform, the budget, environmental protection, foreign policy, security against terror, and the use of military power. No human is right all the time, but to prove a point, let’s take that leap of imagination and say that he is right on all these matters of policy.
Would that make us like Nineveh? Would that be our reprieve? No. Nineveh repented. Ninevites felt sorry for their sin, and they turned to God for their answers. Has America done that?
Maybe you don’t think the United States deserves God’s judgment. After all, we’re not nearly as bad as some other countries. While that’s true, we need to remember the words of Jesus in Luke 12:48. “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required.” (NKJV)
Except for the nation of Israel — the original recipients of God’s word — no nation ever received more from the hand of God than the United States of America. That places the US at the highest level of responsibility before God.
When Trump was sworn into office, did abortions stop? Almost sixty million unborn humans have been killed since Roe v. Wade. Sixty million is the population of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago… times four!
A theme runs through scripture. If you want to see God’s anger, harm the little ones. In Jeremiah 32:35, God said, “And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”
Moloch was a pagan idol. They thought they could appease him by sacrificing their children in his fires. Unthinkable as that sounds, the United States is not as different as you might hope. America sacrifices her children, too — not on the altar of a pagan god, but on the altar of convenience and self-centeredness. Did the election of Donald Trump change that? I hope so, but I’ve seen lots of anti-abortion presidents over the years, and it hasn’t stopped abortion.
We harm the little ones in another way as well. We teach them the religion of humanism. We ingrain it in them. We teach them to disregard God and see the state as the provider of all good things. Our schools teach our little ones that there is no right and wrong, that all is relative. Schools ridicule God, the Bible, and those who believe in them.
In talking about such harm to children, Jesus did not mince words. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6 NASB)
Sexual perversions and blood-soaked violence in the name of entertainment pours out of America every day, and floods the world. We are ripe for God’s judgment in these and hundreds of other areas.
Can God use Donald Trump to help turn this country around? Yes, God can. So, pray for the new President. But don’t look to him for your hope. Look to God. May each of us who know the Lord, humble ourselves before Him, and pray for our nation, our families, our churches, our communities, and ourselves.
Did you pray for Donald Trump when he was running for President? It is human nature to stop praying for him now that he has entered that office. But that would be a terrible mistake. If you love America, now is our time to pray for him as never before.
