God's providence and divine intervention

Scattered reflections on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump

R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been one of the few voices of reason and balance for Christians navigating the religious and political landscape during the Donald Trump era. Christians concerned about the moral and social drift of the United States over the last decade have had to exercise more than their usual share of discernment and prudential judgment before putting their trust in a man whose personal character and morals have left much to be desired. The unqualified support given to Trump by religious charlatans peddling the heretical “prosperity gospel” has not helped matters in that regard. Conversely, Russell Moore, Mohler’s former colleague at Southern and now editor of the once (but no longer) prestigious Christianity Today magazine, and formerly conservative Christian pundit David French have become so deranged in their opposition to all things Donald that reasonable evangelicals have rightly determined them to be too polarizing to offer any meaningful counsel.

Between these two extremes, Mohler has deftly, if not always consistently, steered a middle course. Initially skeptical of Trump’s promises with regard to abortion in 2016, he explained forthrightly in endorsing Trump in 2020 that he had been “the most effective and consequential pro-life president of the modern age.” It was Trump, after all, whose appointments to the Supreme Court tipped the balance in favor of overturning the egregious Roe v. Wade decision. His moderating on the abortion issue during this election cycle has already brought criticism from many “social conservatives.” It is reasonable to expect Mohler to be among those who will heavily scrutinize Trump on the issue should he be returned to the White House in November.

All of this to say that I read with interest Mohler’s take on the attempted assassination of Trump this past Saturday. Writing the day after, he reflects on the providence of God and how dangerously close Trump and, indeed, the entire nation came to a more tragic outcome. In conclusion, he observes:

Clearly, our political system is not well. The stakes in the coming election are genuinely high. Both sides know it, and yesterday’s events will not bring about a kinder and gentler political culture. The 2024 election looms large as we consider the future of our nation. Those who see no higher plane than politics are increasingly desperate. Christians cannot share that kind of desperation.

Why? Because the Christian faith underlines the two realities of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Both are absolutely necessary to Biblical Christianity, and both are absolutely necessary to the Christian worldview in every respect. But though both are necessary, they are not equal. Human responsibility is real, but it exists only within the transcendent reality of God, and within the context of his unconditional providence. The reality of God’s providence is something many Americans, and no doubt many Christians, think about with far too little seriousness. But I dare to ask, how do you look at yesterday’s events in Butler, Pa., and see it all merely as a lucky miss? If that’s all there is to it, our luck will one day run out. Thank God that day was not yesterday.

For the most part, this is a thoughtful and careful commentary. No Christian perspective on the failed attempt on Trump’s life would dismiss it as “merely a lucky miss.” There are, however, deeper questions raised by the incident. As Mohler notes in his essay, “Though President Trump survived the attempt, at least one American is dead, a beloved husband and father named Corey Comperatore, and at least two others are critically wounded.”

The pompous skeptic will immediately ask, “Why did God spare Trump but not these innocent bystanders?” The simplistic explanations of Trump’s less thoughtful supporters, already making the rounds on social media through memes and dubious manipulations of Scripture, are not helpful in answering that kind of question. Justin Peters, a frequent critic of the aforementioned “prosperity gospel” charlatans (those most likely to propagate such faux messianic fantasies) offers a more biblically and theologically rooted explanation.

So many are saying God intervened and saved former President Trump's life. I get the sentiment, but I do not believe God intervened here - or ever, for that matter. Let me explain....

To say that God intervenes is to imply that most of the time God is up in Heaven twirling His anthropomorphic thumbs without very much to do. Every once in a while, He sees things getting a little out of balance and off-kilter so He reaches down to “intervene” and get things back on the right track.

But that is not the picture scripture paints of God. God is not only the Creator of the universe, but He is also its Sustainer. Hebrews 1:3 states that Christ “upholds all things by the word of His power.”

Every atom in the entire and incomprehensibly vast universe is being held in its proper place this very moment by the constant exertion of God's power. There is never a time when God is not working. There is never a time when He is not sustaining. If God were to ever cease working even for a single millisecond, the entire universe - right along with you and me - would experience instant de-creation. Everything would cease to exist.

Did God protect Trump’s life yesterday? Yes, of course He did. Was that His intervention? To be theologically accurate - No. It was one fleeting moment and one tiny expression of His unceasing work, providential rule over and ongoing sustainment of His own creation.

Selah.

I might quibble with a few of Peters’ finer points here, but his main point is clear and I would expand on it just a little. God is not a disinterested observer of his creation, stepping into the fray only on those rare occasions when one of his “anointed ones” needs his help. He has, in fact, already stepped into the fray through the life, death, and resurrection of his true Anointed One, his own Son Jesus Christ, to save and deliver his people from the power of Satan, sin, and death. That act of divine intervention is so decisive that all others pale in comparison—even those that may have averted a national tragedy that, in the darkest crevices of our speculative imagination, could have had catastrophic political and social consequences.