Is Gullibility A Good Excuse for Following Trump?

I am as gullible as the day is long.

In the sixth grade, Pam Snivens convinced me (quite easily, I might add) to lick the wand that came out of the rubber cement jar. Our art project almost completed, she said all we needed to do was affix the construction paper to the poster board, but there was too much glue on the brush.

“It’s going to make a mess. You’re supposed to lick the extra off the wand.”

So I did.

I gagged, she laughed, and my face burned in embarrassment. Spitting the yucky stuff into the trash, it didn’t even occur to me to turn her in to the teacher for pranking me.

I felt it was my fault for being such a dolt.

How Do We React When We’ve Been Misled?

Feeling shame when someone has fooled us seems to be a universal response. That doesn’t really make sense though, does it? Especially not the first time. When we are misled or just plain lied to by people we trust, that’s on them. Now if we are dumb enough to fall for it again, that’s on us.

Millions of Evangelicals have been duped by the leaders of the Religious Right- most notably Franklin Graham (which is an absolute tragedy), as well as Fox News. I give everyday folks the benefit of a doubt, since these leaders used to have credibility. Graham’s father Billy Graham was a man of unquestionable integrity.

Fox News has veered further and further Right for years. However, it has become a mouthpiece for Trump and the RR political machine. In a stunning development this week, their anchor Shepard Smith resigned. Smith, who repeatedly called Trump out on the air, apparently exercised some integrity.

I salute him. We all should.

Now the time has come for those who bought into the promises made, and Scriptures inaccurately claimed, to take stock. Being a gullible gal, I can understand why they bought in. But honestly, if I had read the label on the glue jar, I wouldn’t have licked the wand.

If they had followed the teachings of Jesus, would we be in this mess?

Fortunately, I spit the messy mouthful into the garbage and learned at least one lesson. Thank God we can do an about-face with His help. Hopefully our country will eventually recover. The church, I honestly don’t know. I don’t see how. But God is still in control. May He have mercy on us all.

©Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Debunking the Trump Cyrus Prophecy

Why on Earth does the Religious Right cling so desperately to Donald Trump’s presidency?

One answer has to do with a supposed Biblical prophecy that Trump has come to fulfill, involving King Cyrus of Old Testament fame. Better writers than I have documented all the Scripture references, so let me give you a thumbnail sketch and a link at the bottom where you can find more information.

Cyrus the Great was a Persian king, foretold by the prophet Isaiah and used by God following the conquest of the Babylonians around 539 BC. Forty-seven years earlier, in 586 B.C., the Babylonians had conquered Jerusalem. The Jewish population had either died or been forced into exile. Now along comes Cyrus and conquers the conquerors. It should be noted that Persian kings didn’t handle their captives the same way the Babylonians did. Instead of scattering their conquests, the Persians generally worked with their captives to rebuild what had been destroyed during the campaign. They also allowed them to continue their own religious practices. Long story short, God used Cyrus, a man from a people who did not worship Yahweh, to accomplish His purposes by returning the Jewish people to Jerusalem and promising to help rebuild their temple.

This guy Cyrus was the real deal. He may not have been one of the chosen people, but he and his mission were foretold, chronicled, and remembered as a time when God used a non-believer as a vessel to accomplish His purposes.

Meanwhile, Here In The Present…

2557 years later, in a completely unrelated event, Donald Trump moved the American Embassy from its long-time location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a political gesture prompted by the American political right as a message of solidarity with Israel.  Needless to say, the Israelis were overjoyed that America recognized Jerusalem as their capital.

So overjoyed, in fact, that Benjamin Netanyahu, the president of Israel, said this:

“We remember the proclamation of King Cyrus the Great–Persian King. Twenty-five hundred years ago, he proclaimed the Jewish exiles in Babylon can come back and rebuild our temple in Jerusalem….Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people throughout the ages.”

Now there are a number of differences between King Cyrus’s situation and Donald Trump’s, the most notable being this:

Cyrus the Great’s purpose was declared by God and foretold by the prophet Isaiah. Trump’s action was political, not declared by God or foretold by a Biblical prophet. You would think this would have been the end of it. It should have been the end of it. Sadly, it was not.

The Aliens Have Landed

Remember the story of the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast?

Orson Welles narrated and directed an adaptation of HG Well’s novel War of the Worlds as a live Halloween broadcast on October 30, 1938. While some came in late on the disclaimer, others just didn’t put two and two together. Their regularly scheduled programming was increasingly interrupted by a series of news bulletins. Martians had landed in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey, and were blasting humans with heat rays. The situation worsened to the point where poisonous smoke was floating over New York City, and the military was powerless to stop it.

Widespread, national panic ensued. It wasn’t a real attack, but it scared the living daylights out of much of the nation.

There Were No Aliens, and There Is No Prophecy

It’s funny how things get going like that. I submit that the same mob mentality has morphed one political move and Netanyahu’s grateful response into a massive religious lie. Starting with a book written about Trump’s faith, it snowballed into a cultural phenomenon involving every possible means of communication available to red-blooded Americans. Many people, including people I know, swear by it. That’s why they ignore, gloss-over, or attempt to explain away actions by the President that clearly are not ordained from above. Like perpetrating genocide upon our Kurdish allies, or obstruction of justice, or treason. You don’t mess with vessel, right? And they believe Donald Trump is a vessel used by God.

I believe that the Cyrus Prophecy over Donald Trump is a mass-hysterical reaction to a fictitious assumption, just like the panic over War of the Worlds. It’s just that everyone back then was hoping and praying it wasn’t real.

The bottom line, folks, is that any prophecy spoken or written over Donald Trump isn’t Biblical. That frees us all up to let it go and see him for who he truly is. You won’t be messing with the vessel. But you could be saving the world.

©Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This article was published online by Red Letter Christians.Org.

For a balanced, informative book on the political movement known as the Religious Right, written by one of their own, read The Immoral Majority by Ben Howe.