"For those who don't me, as a two-time Trump voter I wrote books with titles like Donald Trump Is Not My Savior and Evangelicals at the Crossroads: Will We Pass the Trump Test? (For me, the "Trump test" was: 1) Can we unite around Jesus even if we don't agree politically? 2) Can we vote for Trump if he is our preferred candidate without taking on his negative characteristics? In my view, we failed on both counts quite dramatically.) I also wrote The Political Seduction of the Church: How Millions of American Christians Have Confused Politics with the Gospel, with a constant warning not to wrap the gospel in the American flag. All that to say I'm sensitive to the concerns raised by Zach and Shane." - Dr. Michael Brown
Please. This perfectly highlights the absolute hypocrisy Brown engages in. I am glad that he admits to voting for Trump twice but he failed to mention his continuous onslaught of encouraging people to vote for him as well. If you are just a regular churchgoing Christian trying to love the Lord and you follow Dr. Brown because you trust him based on a decades long record within the church, how does it affect you to hear him tell you this week that you basically have to vote for the three-time married and unfaithful grabber of women's genitalia? This is by definition dividing people. Writing books against the very thing you do, is not righteous at all. It is wildly inconsistent.
"At the same time, I find this viral meme both vacuous and even potentially divisive. First, had President Biden narrowly and seemingly miraculously escaped an assassination attempt, most of us would have said that God spared Biden's life. In other words, our view that God spared Trump's life was not based on partisan politics but on a sense of divine intervention. It was theological, not political." - Dr. Michael Brown
Absolute nonsense. First of all, if this had happened to the Biden, I think most would indeed say the same nice things about it not being successful as we saw with the attempt on Trump. The difference here is in the phrasing. For Biden, Brown is suggesting that he would say God spared Biden's life. The NAR would write a plethora of articles suggesting that God spared it to try and reach him and have him allegedly repent. They would frame it as God being merciful on a wretch. That is not what we are hearing from Brown and the NAR regarding Trump. In that case, God protected Trump and the clear inference being made is that He did so because somehow, He is pro-Trump, or Trump is even saved now. False prophets have released bovine excrement dreams that had Trump giving his life to Christ when is fell to the floor in Pennsylvania. Once again, please. The notion that the people who are declaring this was a miracle are not doing so theologically at all. It is entirely carnal and political. I can't tell if Brown is actively deceiving here or simply deceived himself but it matters not. Anyone who can see and hear knows full well how the political forces and the compromised church are using this assassination attempt and it has nothing to do with God. If it were Biden, it would be framed as mercy but with Trump it is framed as providence. The reason for that difference is entirely political.
"Second, many of us hold to a view of divine sovereignty that would suggest His activity in any seemingly extraordinary, life-saving event. (Or, conversely, we would see this in any seemingly extraordinary life-taking event, such as a terrorist being struck by lightning just before he was about to detonate a bomb.)" - Dr. Michael Brown
Ok, let's test this. Just last night First Baptist Dallas church burned to the ground. This is pastored by the ridiculous NAR dominionist Robert Jeffress. Thankfully it appears no one was hurt. So, I guess according to this logic from Brown, this was an act of divine sovereignty by God and we can further speculate that it must have been because of his wildly unbiblical positions of advocating for Trump and the GOP, right? I mean God did not spare this church whatsoever. This is the same tortured logic that people like Jeffress made when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The NAR idiots blamed it on God declaring judgment against the sinful city. Except that same hurricane devastated very Christian areas in Mississippi as well. Does God miss like that? This is the convenience of bad theology. If something happens, we agree with then we assign it automatically to the sovereignty of God because it confirms our carnal bias. If we disagree with the event, we dismiss it out of hand as not having come from God at all. We instead assign it to the activity of the devil somehow to again, confirm our bias. We cannot just be happy that the bullet missed. We have to assign supernatural significance to it as if God Himself moved Trump's head at the last second. Except the same hail of bullets took the life of Corey Compertore, who bravery saved his family and from all reports was a God-fearing churchgoer. So, according to this fake theology, God spared Trump because He supports him politically, but Corey's life, eh, not so much. It is a morally and theologically bankrupt position to hold.
"Third, we agonize over the fact that God does not intervene more, recognizing that for every life that was saved, many others were not. Why was one person miraculously healed in answer to prayer while others died? Why did one family member emerge unscathed from an accident while the rest of the family died? Ultimately, we don't have answers for these questions, other than holding to Deuteronomy 29:29: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law." But we do know that, since God has given us free will, with the rarest of exceptions, He does not stop us from doing wrong things, as horrific as those consequences may be. That He intervenes at all, showing mercy or acting for His own purposes, is His prerogative alone. Why didn't He spare the life of the courageous firefighter who shielded his wife and kids, taking a bullet that was meant for Trump? Only God knows." - Dr. Michael Brown
While I agree, God always has the prerogative, it is not intellectually or biblically accurate to simply ascribe events you like to Him and then say, oh well, we just can't know when it comes to things like Corey Compertore. God does know. The reality is that the America church has created this fake God that is infinitely involved in every bit of minutia in our lives. They do so because that is a much more marketable God. Once again, we cannot simply be thankful that the shooter missed. Instead, the NAR has political goals and core to achieving the power and riches they want is bringing out the Evangelical vote. It remains so disingenuous to ascribe God's direct involvement for Trump not being assassinated and in the same breath say when it comes to Mr. Compertore that it is just God's prerogative.
