It will be interesting to see if Trump supporters who thought Barack Obama’s involvement with Jeremiah White was a huge red flag—and make no mistake, it was—will show any concern over statements made by President Trump’s own spiritual adviser, prosperity gospel preacher and televangelist Paula White. She made some pretty wild claims on convicted fraudster and former (as far as we know) pervert Jim Bakker’s show.
While speaking on a panel on “The Jim Bakker Show,” White said that Trump’s presidential victory was similar to a story from the Hebrew Bible where a woman named Esther was chosen to be queen, since both parties were unlikely to be selected for their roles.
As the scripture goes, Esther was a young, orphaned Jewish woman living in exile who, through her wits and good looks, ends up being selected by the Persian king to be his queen at a time when Jews were widely persecuted.
Because of her new position of power, Esther was able to stop a plot to murder all the Jewish people in Persia. The Bible concludes that Esther was placed in her position as queen by God to fulfill this important mission.
On Tuesday, White compared Trump to Queen Esther, saying that he, too, was selected by God to carry out a divine plan.
I’ll be honest, televangelists generally make my skin crawl. When they start explaining current events with the Old Testament and making sleazy politicians out to be the ones chosen by God to carry out a divine plan, I get both the heebies and the jeebies. It’s even worse when there’s a big studio audience heaping a pile of amens on top of whatever pseudo-spiritual political rationale the preacher is laying down. These people are, at best, misinformed.
White went so far as to suggest that those opposing Trump are literally opposing God.
“They say about our president, ‘Well, he is not presidential.’ Thank goodness. Thank goodness. Thank goodness,” White said. “And I mean that with all due respect. Because, in other words, he is not a polished politician. In other words, he is authentically, whether people like it or not, has been raised up by God.”
“God says that he raises up and places all people in places of authority,” she continued. “It is God who raises up a king. It is God that sets one down. When you fight against the plan of God, you are fighting against the hand of God.” (emphasis added)
I have no quarrel with the Judeo-Christian concept that God raises up leaders and puts people in authority. With that comes the reality that not every person raised to a position of authority is put there for the immediate good of humanity. I’m fairly certain that Paula White and those who follow her weren’t saying the same thing about opposing Trump’s predecessor who God also placed in authority.
Let me be perfectly frank here, anyone who claims that disagreeing with any President’s agenda is tantamount to opposing God is crazy. Sane people should run very far away from anyone suggesting such a thing. To say it about Donald Trump makes you a certifiable lunatic or a dangerous liar.
Trump’s alleged Christian faith—which comes with a stated belief that he has never needed to ask forgiveness for anything—absolutely seems to be born of political expedience. I can’t say for sure what’s in his heart but even by his own admission he’s broken a few commandments. You do the math. Paula White sure doesn’t seem like much of a stickler for doctrine if her spiritual advice left Trump with the idea that he was immaculately conceived.
Erick Erickson made waves prior to Trump’s inauguration by calling White a”a prosperity gospel charlatan” and “Trinity denying heretic.” Erickson pointed out that the doctrine of the Trinity was settled at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. Those who deny it are by definition preaching something other than Christianity.
Since AD 325, it has been settled in the orthodoxy of the Christian church of every single Christian denomination that Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God. Re-iterated in the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381, the Nicene Creed as we know it today contains these line:
I believe in one God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And of all things visible and invisible:
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,
Begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
Very God of very God,
Begotten, not made,
Being of one substance with the Father,
By whom all things were made;This is literally 1,691 year old settled orthodoxy of every Christian denomination. Presbyterians, Catholics, Orthodox, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, and other Christian denominations, along with a few Episcopalian churches all say this creed. It, along with the Apostles Creed, are the two major, foundational creeds in Christendom.
At least one member of Trump’s religious advisory panel has walked away from Trump. White shows no signs of doubting Trump though. She certainly exemplifies the cult of Trump. Let’s hope people who support the President do so based on policy and not on religious fervor stirred up by a crackpot.
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