Did God give Trump authorization to take out Kim?


By Koot van Wyk



Let us ask first the religious advisor of Trump in the White House and he said:

 “When it comes to how we should deal with evildoers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear. God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary — including war — to stop evil. In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un.” (Source: see article below and earlier blog on Bible Study in the White House).

 

Pastor Jeffress is from the Baptist denomination and the article below indicates that not all Baptists shares Jeffress’ conviction.

 

The subject here is politics and religion. Seventh-day Adventists follow the lifestyle of Jesus in the first place, totally a-political. When Jesus was 10 years old, Judas of Galilee (Gamala) preached revolt against Rome. After the death of Herod, Judas led political revolts against the Roman census for a taxation program set up by prefect Coponius.

Another example in Jesus life is when He was baptized, in 27 CE, at that time Pilate was one year in office and he ordered the Roman soldiers to put up images of the emperor on their standards everywhere in Jerusalem and on the temple. This action was normally avoided by Romans in order not to upset locals but Pilate was a strange procurator. His personality was very unpredictable and unstable. If he had a smartphone he would have used tweets to upset his opponents. Josephus told us what happened in History of Antiquities xviii. 55-59. He said that crowds gathered in Caesarea to appeal to Pilate that the standards and images be removed. Pilate let them wait for five days and on the sixth ordered them to go to the stadium and when they were all in the arena, soldiers appeared with swords to show that they are surrounded. He told them to leave or take the consequences. They refused to move and put their heads to the ground asking soldiers to come and cut off their necks. They do not want to live with images of the emperor in Jerusalem. Pilate gave up since he did not want a massacre and asked the soldiers to remove the images. Jesus was 30 years old. Was He with them in the arena at this time? No. There is not a hint of Jesus participating in what appears to be a noble civilian resistance against politics and its system of oppression. Adventist like Jesus approach rather than these resistance groups. Civil right activism was not part of Jesus’ life and neither should any Christian be part of it, no matter how worthy the cause may seem. Jesus was not interested in politics. So should be our interest also. His Kingdom was a kingdom of Grace and not until the End of Time from Heaven with all His angels will the Kingdom of Glory come. That is the biblical position of the Seventh-day Adventists.

 

Rulers’ hearts are in the hands of God says Proverbs 20. If God wants to switch off a ruler, He will. There are also texts indicating that God puts up rulers and takes them down. God has a heavenly agenda and schedule. Whoever runs their way only does it temporarily until the time is up. See Daniel 2 for example. The real citizenship for all faithful is not on earth but in heaven (Hebrews 11:11-14).

Romans 13 says the same. Subjection to the authorities is what is called for (Romans 13:1). Partisan authority is still authority if the majority rules. Opposition cannot rebel and have civic strikes or civil activism against the authority to overturn the government. If they do Christians should have no part in it. Whether it looks right for humans, it is not necessarily right for God. Stay away from activism on a political sphere. Why, Romans 13:2 says we may work against God.

 

What about evil power attacks? Verse 3 says that rulers are not a source for fear if they are doing good but fear if they are doing evil. What is evil? War is evil. What about defensive war. Whether offensive or defensive the results of war are evil since God never delights in the death of humans and if one says: yes, but they were evil, then the answer is temporarily yes, but later in their lives they may have chosen God.

 

If people under their rule, practices evil the government is like a minister of God to bring punishment meted out justly (verse 4). When is a partisan government wrong in the eyes of God? When they are partisan in their justice system by electing only their own party members to control legislation and jurisprudence. Then partisan justice is lopsided and such justice is still permitted by God but surely, mark my words and that of the Bible, such lopsided jurisprudence will last only a short time and after God used them for whatever purpose He saw fit, they are demoted again. Innocent people prosecuted should be released if it is not crystal clear that they have committed a crime. Guess crimes are no crimes at all. God hates they suffering of the innocent by violent powers. Should humans resist? Absolutely not. God will take them out. Pray.

 

When it comes to fighting the enemy in a war, God does not give the ruler the permission to do that. What God permits, is that the war takes place but the warmonger is dumped or deleted. Paradigm change is what God will control and all serve a greater picture: more evangelism opportunities in North Korea and Russia and China and Iran. All parties to this great upswing in bellose rhetoric.

 

The Bible does not give Trump permission to attack any ruler. God will not stop anyone when they do evil but their period of evil will have an end and the black clouds will have a silver lining before the morning dawn in total brightness of peace and tranquility for a change.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a scholar S. G. F. Brandon, not an Adventist, who in 1967 tried to show that Jesus was strongly political and associated with the militia group of Zealots. He claimed that Jesus was a rebel against Rome hegemony, but that is not true. One day scribes came to Jesus to ask him what his attitude is to Rome and He took a denarius coin and asked who’s image is on the coin. Then He asked everyone to give to the rulers what is theirs and to God what is His. He misinterpreted the words of Jesus saying: “I came not to bring peace but a sword” which has nothing to do with human battles but the cosmic battle between Satan and Himself that started with the Rebellion in Heaven. It is a heavenly matter. Of course at the End of Time (still future) Christ will be Warrior that will eliminate all evil in the event termed in the Bible as Hell. It is a place of non-existence forever.

 

Essay: A reaction against pastor Jeffreys’ comments to Trump to take our North Korea based on Romans 13

 

“You're wrong if you think God authorized Trump to take out North Korea”

USA TODAY NETWORK Derek L. Penwell, The Courier-Journal OpinionPublished 8:00 a.m. ET Aug. 13, 2017 | Updated 4:37 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2017

양식의

 

Robert Jeffress couldn’t interpret the Bible well by accident. He's proof that people shouldn't roam about in Scripture without adult supervision.

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(Photo: Pool, Getty Images)

 

By now, after almost ceaseless coverage of the president’s “fire and fury” comments directed at North Korea, I find myself weary of both the bellicosity of the remarks and the debate over whether the president’s tone is some kind of genius strategic jiujitsu, insecure masculine overcompensation or merely stunning incompetence. Whatever the case, at this point it feels like trying to parse the post-colonial subtext in Gallagher’s humor or Danielle Steel’s fiction: a lot of time spent searching for meaning in an epistemic black hole.

Am I concerned about the possible military or nuclear repercussions of the president’s remarks? Of course. As a pastor, I take an active interest in the immorality of war — nuclear or otherwise — not to mention the reality of a president who might plunge us into such a war. But for a president who though he claims Christianity seems to have been largely unmoved by its moral demands, I have already exhausted my reserves of disappointment. Because I don’t believe that the president wastes much time worrying himself over the question of what Jesus would do, I have reserved my disappointment for those who do claim to preoccupy themselves with that question.

For instance, I remain baffled by the evangelical wing of Christianity, which sees in President Trump a possible champion for Christian values. Trump has done nothing that if Jesus showed up on the scene would cause him to say, “Yeah, nice job! That’s totally what I had in mind.”

So, I shouldn’t be surprised to hear that Robert Jeffress, a fundamentalist megachurch preacher, released a statement showing support for the president’s saber-rattling. But this one makes me ashamed to say that he and I share the same religious designation. I say, “religious designation,” because what he says doesn’t even bear a passing resemblance to Christian faith.

Jeffress says: “When it comes to how we should deal with evildoers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear. God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary — including war — to stop evil. In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un.”

First of all, let me say for the record: Jeffress couldn’t interpret the Christian Scriptures well ... even by accident. He is proof that we shouldn’t let people roam about in Scripture without benefit of adult supervision. 

Why do I say that?

Jeffress is referencing Romans 13, in which Paul admonishes Roman Christians to subject themselves to the governing authorities, who have been placed where they are by God. Therefore, to resist such an authority is to resist God. I don’t have near enough time to go into a full interpretation of this text here, but suffice it to say that Paul makes an appeal to Christians in Rome to avoid provoking Caesar. Why? Because Christians were already the object of great suspicion in the empire. Christians were assumed to be political subversives, and Christianity was already in a weak and vulnerable position. In effect, Paul says keep your heads down; don’t give Caesar any reason to lower the boom. 

Romans 13 wasn’t meant to be a universal admonition to all people and at all times to do whatever the governing powers tell you to do, just because they tell you to do it. If it were, then one would have to conclude that Kim has as much claim to divine legitimacy as Trump does. If “there is no authority except from God, and those authorities have been instituted by God,” then the Kim dynasty has just as much right to resist and wag its nuclear finger as the United States does.

“Yes, but we’re a Christian nation,” Jeffress might say. “North Korea is a heathen nation.”

Two things:

  • We’re not a Christian nation — and God help us if we ever were. Because if we were, biblical illiterates disguised as patriots, like Jeffress, would be high priests, and actual Christianity would disappear.
  • Even if we were, God forbid, a Christian nation, that wouldn’t have any relevance to this nuclear discussion that makes reference to Romans 13. Rome, to whom Paul wrote that Christians were to be subject, wasn’t a Christian nation at the time, either.

Perhaps most important: Those people who follow Jesus — a man executed by that same Roman government in the name of extinguishing challenges to its authority — should always be suspicious of those who claim to know who the state ought to “take out,” especially if they also claim it should be done on God’s behalf.

 

Derek L. Penwell is the senior pastor at Douglass Boulevard Christian Church, a co-founder of The Ally Network and an executive committee member of the Fairness Campaign. He writes for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal, where this piece was first published