Was President Trump Chosen by God?

In a recent phone call with a close associate and friend, while discussing general political topics, she revealed to me that she believes that President Trump has been sent by God Himself to expose the secular giant and save Judeo-Christian culture and civilization.

A growing percentage of evangelical Christians—like my friend–may share her belief.

To be clear, this is not a generalized belief that, since God has a hand in all things, He most certainly, in ways likely incomprehensible by mere mortals, affects by divine influence the outcome of our elections. No, this is a belief that God specifically chose Donald Trump, and in His wisdom laid the groundwork for Trump’s victory over the Secularist Queen, Hillary Clinton. Not to mention Trump’s runaway triumph over a field of top-and-middle-tier Republican candidates.

It has been duly reported that Trump’s winning margin among evangelicals was well over 80 percent. It is clear that these faith-oriented voters saw in Trump a great antidote to galloping secularism, and the intrusive, controlling, and godless aspects that cultural and political progressivism brings to whatever society it sets up shop in.

Believing that God has a hand in all things, it follows that Christians of all denominations would believe that God had a hand in setting the stage for Trump’s ascendance. Perhaps He looked down upon the Sodom and Gomorrah-like direction of the most influential aspects of Western culture—politics, media, the arts and academia—and delivered signs to traditionalist segments of the populace that tipping points and critical masses had been reached, that enough had become enough, and that it was time the temples of Marxism and moral relativism needed a thorough razing. Trump, by virtue of his canny read of the times, was able to step into an ideological vacuum created by tone-deaf globalist conservatives and carry the day.

It is a quantum theological leap from that position to believe that God actually chose Trump to rise as the Goliath-killer, perhaps in the way He chose Mary to receive the Immaculate Conception that made her the mother of Christ—to believe that God purposely chose a flawed, at times unrepentantly sinful man to be the representative of His divine intentions, the enactor of his plan to restore the way of the Christian path for His earthly flock.

When I told my friend that I had reservations about her Trump-as-chosen-by-God assertion, she sent me a video in which evangelical prophesier Pastor Kim Clement had prophesied Trump’s rise to the presidency long before Mr. Trump came down the escalator and announced his candidacy. Watching the 2007 clip, it seemed a singular prediction; though Trump had spoken about seeking the presidency over the years, he didn’t float credible balloons about it until 2012. And from the moment he announced in 2015 and definitely after, the idea of a President Trump was perceived not only as the longest shot of long shots, but a laugh-out-loud joke.

But in a hair-raising 2007 sermon, invoking the words “Trump” and “Trumpet,” Clement spoke the words that a significant number of evangelicals now believe were a true prophesy.

I had never heard of Kim Clement. As a practicing Catholic, my exposure to evangelical leaders and preaching came mostly by way of men like Franklin Graham (Rev. Billy Graham was a religious paragon in our Catholic household going back to my childhood), Robert Jeffress, and the many pastors and ministers whose sermons I enjoy watching on television. Accustomed to spiritually meditative and ritual-observing participation at Mass, I found the lively evangelical and Protestant services affirming in their religiosity, and my sense was the enjoyment of witnessing such a service was in no way disrespectful to my Catholic faith. Trump won the Catholic vote by the decisive but much narrower 52-45 percent, a percentage that broke down along racial lines, with white Catholics choosing Trump 60-39 percent and Hispanic Catholics choosing Clinton 67-26 percent.

Watching Clement preach took “lively” to the next level. Here was a man, a prophet, apparently predicting years before any credible observer would give him credence, that God Himself would choose, of all people, Donald Trump, and vault him into the presidency of the greatest nation on earth.

Backed by compelling and portentous music, Clement the prophesier pulled no punches with his sermonizing. He talked about how the “hands of once-compassionate women had cooked their children.” In the run-up to Election Day 2016, Clement said, “the enemy will put a witch in the White House.” In other excerpts from his video-borne prophecies, a female vocalist rivetingly evokes a woman singing in the hills of Israel.

Research quickly revealed the sad fact that Kim Clement had died soon after Trump was elected president.

From Clement’s final broadcast: “Blessed be your name Lord. Just worship Him. Wherever you are in the world, just lift Him up…” and then, singing, “Light of my life.”

While Clement’s passing inspired numerous testimonials and affirmations as to his goodness and good works, it also sparked a debate about whether God had called him early, or perhaps punished him for “presumption.” Some did castigate Clement as a false prophet, but many seemed to have loved him, to have felt moved and blessed by his words and ministry. They felt he had delivered true prophesies, and were convinced that God had called him home to heaven.

It was a compelling study of a singular Christian; however, I came away unconvinced that Trump—who I do believe will go down in history as of one of our great presidents—was specifically chosen by God to rise up and smote the beast of worldly, Satanistically-derived secularism.

I do believe that God has a hand in all things, but that Trump was more a result of where humankind had fallen to than a man chosen by the Holy Father to sling the stone that fells the evil giant.

I got back to the friend who’d sent me the original clip, asking what she thought of Pastor Clement. She replied, “I think Kim Clement was a wonderful musician, and he did prophesy correctly regarding Trump, as well as other things. I do believe in the beginning of his ministry he was anointed and was used by God in a powerful way. But then something happened.

“Some of his closest friends and fellow believers warned Kim he was getting off track. He was pushing the prosperity gospel (meaning, God wants everyone to have money and huge blessings) and getting off base. Some people felt God ‘took him’ because of His great mercy and because Clement’s ministry (in the millions) was so influential, he could have done more damage by leading people astray from what the Bible says.”

I then followed up, asking a simple question prefaced by the following statement:

There’s a difference in believing that God has a hand in all things, and believing that He selected Trump to save America and Judeo-Christian civilization and culture. What percent of evangelicals do you think believe Trump has been specifically chosen by God?

“In time, it will be a large majority,” she wrote back, promising to send more evidence to back up her belief, and including in her email the following passage from the King James Bible:

And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: Daniel 2:21.