Early in President Donald Trump’s presidency, I felt I had to send him a letter. I could see something coming very clearly that I just knew was going to happen. It was like I could see two powerful locomotives heading full speed down the same track; a head on collision was inevitable. I told him in the letter, “President Trump, you are going to be the most persecuted president in American history!” To this day I do not know if he ever received my letter. The crash that I perceived would happen turned out to be a clash of two cultures.
In recent times, due to many contributing factors, Americans have gradually become more passive. Passivity essentially says,“ I won’t try to tell you how to live your life so that you won’t try to tell me how to live mine.” A lot of our culture of passivity grew out of the hippy movement of the sixties and seventies, which gobbled up self-entitlement philosophies and was molded by concepts of secular humanism. Love love, love was the mantra, and it seemed great to not have anyone mess with your space. What it produced however is unfortunately what we have today. In our attempts to embrace everyone’s beliefs in the name of love, we have created chaotic division in our streets, in our educational systems, and in our government. I believe our country began to cry out for something, but they didn’t know what. Someone, but they did not know who. Then along came Donald Trump.
Historically, people vote their pocketbooks. I am convinced the Trump/Clinton presidential election proved no different. The American people really knew very little about Donald Trump. They did, however, know he was a very wealthy and successful business leader. Having watched his popular TV program called “The Apprentice” they also knew he was a tough authoritative leader. People everywhere were tired of political corruption in Washington. They were tired of countless reports of excessive spending, tired of wealthy politicians out of touch with the working class, and tired of a government overall that they did not trust. Donald Trump’s promises to “drain the swamp” in Washington, combined with his tough authoritative leadership style appealed to the cry of their hearts for change. It was change we got!
Ironically, I believe the most misrepresented and by at least one interpretation of the word, “persecuted” king in all of the Bible was King Hezekiah. If you hear much in the average church in association with his name, it is in a joke to instructing everyone “turn to the book of Hezekiah.” However, credible theologians recognize Hezekiah as the Jewish king who led the greatest revival in Jewish history. Due to his authoritative anointing, paired with his love for God, when he became king, he ordered such a thorough and immediate cleansing of the temple and the priesthood in Israel that it ushered in a revival that lasted for years. In 2nd Chronicles chapters 29-31 the story is told of this twenty-five year old king who literally commanded a revival into existence in only sixteen days. Over and over again you see the phrase “he commanded”. He first commanded the Levites, and then the priests, into proper order. He then commanded a physical cleansing of the temple. Next, he commanded a cleansing of the vessels of the Lord. Finally, after all those commands were obeyed he commanded regional and national repentance specifically targeting the sins of the people of his nation. With his God ordained authoritative nature, Hezekiah both restored order to the nation of Israel, and also instructed God’s people in the ways of righteousness and holiness, deflecting God’s wrath and restoring security to the Jewish people of his day.
As Donald Trump has proceeded to keep to his campaign promises of “Making America Great Again,” and has exposed the corruption by “draining the swamp” in Washington DC, he has ensued the wrath of the liberal passive left. Interestingly enough we did not realize the passive left had any wrath until Mr. Trump came along. As they were left flopping in the mud, gasping for air at the bottom of the swamp, their “love love” control strategy using intellectual coerciveness to lead in their government positions lay exposed. This brought out their fight and “true colors”, as Donald Trump likes to point out, unleashing their hatred of both him and his authoritative nature.
The backlash has been via an intellectual war of words and clever forms of retaliation used often in psychological warfare in other countries to try to oust undesirable leadership. The basic technique is “Undermine the credibility of the leader in the eyes of the people they lead.” In years gone by everything from radio transmissions into the country, to the printed page were used. Multiple thousands of leaflets were dropped from aircraft over a foreign country to try to discredit their leadership. Today the liberal left is made up of millions of likeminded individuals who have at their disposal major news networks, newspapers and the all powerful social media platforms to spew their hate speech and exaggerate the failings of the leader they are trying to destroy. Our president Donald Trump has the authoritative leadership style they despise, so they aim to annihilate him.
Passivity unfortunately has not only infiltrated our country as a whole, but its philosophies also are found in the doctrines and belief systems of many our churches in America. I think its fair to say that most church attendees today do not approve of authoritative preaching. As one preacher put it, “Todays Christians prefer the ‘ten suggestions’ to the ‘Ten Commandments”. If we cannot recognize by our own study of Gods Word that God is both loving and authoritative, then may God help us all! Romans 11:22a states “Therefore consider the goodness and the severity of God.”(NKJV) Were we ready for Donald Trump? No! But perhaps God made Donald Trump ready for us! May God truly guide our hearts in 2020.