The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, who will become the official Republican nominee for the office at the convention in Milwaukee this week, should not be something the Church just passively observes.
“We’ve got to see this for what it really is. The division right now borders on good and evil. Where else are you going to find answers for this than in the church,” Troy Schmidt, teaching pastor at Family Church in greater Orlando, Florida, said on American Family Radio Monday.
The bullet from a high-powered rifle fired by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks nicked Trump’s ear while Trump addressed the crowd at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday afternoon. Trump moved his head ever so slightly before impact, reports show.
Quickly, photos flooded social media of Trump – feeling his ear, then seeing the blood on his hand, then ducking behind the podium – being surrounded by Secret Service agents and hurried off the stage.
The hand of God
On the heels of the failed assassination attempt on his life, Trump is in great spirits as the Republican National Convention gets underway in Milwaukee. On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote:
"It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening …. In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united, and show our true character as Americans, remaining strong and determined, and not allowing evil to win."
Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for President Donald Trump, says the failed assassination attempt on the former president is clearly a sign of a spiritual battle.
"I think there's no question that God protected Trump and spared his life – and I am so incredibly grateful to the Lord for sparing him," she tells AFN. "This would be an even darker day in our country if that had been a successful assassination."
Ellis, who hosts a daily program on American Family Radio, remains concerned about Trump's safety moving forward and urges believers to pray for protection for all those who are in elected office.
"… This is not just a political divide in this country anymore," she notes. "This is clearly a spiritual battle – and we as Christians, first and foremost, need to be praying for our nation and the direction that all of this political divisiveness has taken."
Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, recalls when President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
"I was working for him at that time, and he missed death by a millimeter," Bauer shares. "We all remember that he joked with the doctors as he was being brought into the hospital room. But what I also recall is that after it was over and he recovered, Ronald Reagan was absolutely convinced – just like Donald Trump is convinced – that the hand of God saved him."
Bauer is convinced both men were spared to fulfill a higher calling. "Reagan believed God saved him because God wanted him to bring down godless communism," he says. "And I believe Donald Trump, if indeed it was God's hand that saved him – and I believe it was – has the job of lifting up the United States of America."
Evil is real – and nonpartisan
One of the first evangelical leaders to endorse Donald Trump the first time he ran for the White House used his sermon yesterday to remind his congregants of God's mighty power and providence as evidenced in the attempted assassination of the former president.
Dr. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist-Dallas was a spiritual advisor to Trump and is supporting him again this time around. But the Southern Baptist pastor was clear as he opened his sermon yesterday that the attempt on Trump's life was not a Democratic or a Republican plot – it was spiritual in nature.
"You know, what happened in Pennsylvania yesterday is first of all a demonstration of the reality of evil in the world," Jeffress stated. "Evil is very real, it's very present around us. And by the way, it's nonpartisan.
"But I think what happened yesterday is also a demonstration of the power of Almighty God. I mean, what happened was inexplicable apart from God."
Clearly, said Jeffress, the hand of God moved in saving Trump's life. Experts say if the former president had moved his head a split second later or a fraction of an inch less, he'd be dead today. God directs the affairs of this world, said Jeffress – from the fall of a sparrow, to the flight of a bullet, to the fate of a nation.
"Some people don't believe God has anything to do with elections and with politics and with government," the pastor stated. "As we're going to see [in my sermon] this morning, he has everything to do with government. God cares about what happens in governments around the world."
And a possible reason he spared Donald Trump's life Saturday in Pennsylvania? "My own feeling is God spared him for the purpose of calling our nation back to its Judeo-Christian foundation," said Jeffress.
Conditional healing
If God is truly planning to use Trump as a tool for healing in America, as Bauer suggests, America has to bring something to the table. Pastor Jack Hibbs told his attendees Sunday at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills (California) that claiming God’s promise first requires action. He spoke out against a weakened Republican Party platform that will be read this week at the GOP convention in Milwaukee.
Released earlier this month, the platform softens the party’s stance on abortion and on the definition of marriage. The Republican National Committee had the final call, but the Trump campaign wielded great influence in the process.
“God saw that, God hears that,” Hibbs said. “These are desperate times. It’s obvious on all fronts. What will become of America? Only God knows, but this we know: If we will turn and seek His face, repent of our sins and humble ourselves, God says, ‘I will heal your land.’ We have to qualify that: It is a condition.”
More than 100 pro-life organizations have signed a letter calling on the Republican National Committee to restore the staunch pro-life views that were removed from the platform, Ellis said.
Chuck Carter, the lead pastor at Family Church, pivoted from Sunday’s original plan in light of the assassination attempt against Trump. Many churches did. The focus at Family Church became more prayer, less sermon.
“So, we scrapped everything we had and said, ‘This is what people need right now,” Schmidt told Ellis.
“We don’t need more politics, because politics is doing a great job of making itself known. The spiritual we have got to call out. We’ve got to see this as it really is. The division right now is bordering on good and evil. Where else are you going to find the answers to that than in the Church,” he said.
One of the Family Church congregants asked leadership if Christians are now living in the last days? The answer is yes but with an asterisk. We’ve actually been in the last days for a long time, Schmidt said.
The last days … what to do?
What’s important is how Christians respond – and according to the Family Church pastor, the guidebook is clear on that.
“The last days began when Jesus’ ministry began, and now the clock is ticking. There will be a last day when there will be no politics at all. It will be all spiritual. It will be about Jesus Christ, and you will be either on the right side or the left, with the sheep or the goats at that point.
"That’s really all that matters on that, but in the meantime the Bible says 'be salt and light.' The Bible says be preserving the Christian culture that we’ve been called to do as a church to preserve those moral truths that are always out there,” Schmidt said.
