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