On Monday at 12 noon (Tuesday at 1 am in the Philippines), Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. It’s the first time in over a century that the US will have a leader serving a second nonconsecutive term after being out of office for only four years. Trump served as the country’s 45th president from 2017 to 2022.
“The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one,” said Trump during his inaugural address inside the US Capitol (the ceremony was moved indoors supposedly because of the cold weather). He alleged how the justice system was weaponized against him and talked about an assassination attempt.
“But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
Trump will serve as commander in chief of the world’s most well-funded military, with over 700 bases in 80 countries and a government with over two million civilian employees. He will oversee an economy worth $29 trillion and a nation with tremendous influence in the culture, finance, and even spirituality of every country and territory on earth. Not to forget, America has a footprint in space.
Power won’t be an issue for the president, who, mere hours after his inauguration, signed over 200 executive orders with wide-reaching implications and pardoned thousands of people involved in the January 6 insurrection. On Tuesday morning (Tuesday evening in the Philippines), the most senior member of his cabinet was sworn in after he was confirmed by the US Senate by a 99-0 vote.
Trump’s most vocal Evangelical supporters claim his return to power fulfills some divine mandate and that he will usher in God’s plan for what they consider a Christian nation.
But the idea, even if fueled by good intentions, is egregious. The reason has less to do with my sentiments about the president but with the very nature of God’s will and the attributes of God.
Good, pleasing, perfect
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount presents God’s will in specifics, from how we should treat our enemies, pray, confront daily concerns, and even address criminal justice matters. Matthew 7:11 reads, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
God loves his children and desires to give them what is good. His nature is the perfect embodiment of love. Jesus’ death on the cross is the ultimate expression of his love, and his will is anchored in love because that is who he is. Romans 12:1 also provided discernible qualifiers on what God’s will look like: good, pleasing, and perfect.
Although how these common concepts are perceived differs from one person to another, there’s room for universal agreement when interpreting them even from a biblical lens.
Is it God’s will for Donald Trump and his policies to uplift the poor and marginalized? Yes.
Is it God’s will for the new president and his family to be safe from all harm and stay healthy and in harmony throughout the four years of his presidency and beyond? Yes.
Is it God’s will that America’s president and her people live a life of abundance, peace, and prosperity? Yes.
Any well-meaning and rational human, including the president’s most ardent critics, could agree that all the above are good, pleasing, and perfect.
However, Trump’s ascent to power for the second time does not guarantee that his policies, rhetoric, or even handling of the government will align with or fulfill God’s will. Like everyone else, the president exercises his own free will.
Our prayer is that Trump uses the power emanating from the Oval Office to bring about what the prophet Micah declares to be a requirement from God (a.k.a. God’s will).
“No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you,” reads Micah 6:8 in the New Living Translation, “to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
It will take a lot of prayer and faith, and sometimes, like the Episcopal bishop who asked him from the pulpit to show compassion to immigrants and the LGBTQ community, the courage to speak up.
The human responsibility
Trump’s election reflects the will of the people, which he acknowledged in his inaugural speech.
“Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback,” he said, “But as you see today, here I am. The American people have spoken.”
“Vox populi, vox dei,” a Latin phrase popularized in an 18th-century tract by a political party that challenged the British monarchy and translates as “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” is not biblical.
“It doesn’t take a divinity degree to understand that, taken literally, the phrase argues that God is subservient to the passions and vicissitudes of public opinion,” writes Jonah Goldberg, editor and co-founder of The Dispatch, as he critiqued the billionaire Elon Musk’s love affair with the slogan (Musk is serving in Trump’s cabinet) and calling it “theological nonsense.” Goldberg adds, “It’s very difficult to find anything in the Old or New Testament to back up that idea.”
In May 2022, Jayeel Cornelio took note of Christians who invoked Romans 13:1, “ for there is no authority except that which God has established,” as they explained God’s hand in the result of that year’s Philippine presidential elections while dismissing the rightful sentiments of those dismayed by it. Cornelio notes during the moment, “it absolves people of their ethical responsibility for the choices they make that affect society.”
He was right. Although Romans 13 discusses Christian civic responsibility and lends biblical significance to authority, it doesn’t promote mindless submission or suspension of reason. Foremost, the passage implied that those in authority should be rulers who are “not a terror to good works, but to evil.” It also describes how they should relate to one another, highlighting the humanness of subjects and authorities.
In referring to something as God’s will, it’s best to be very loyal to what the Bible says instead of appropriating Biblical concepts and passages to fit our whims, placate our feelings, or worse, provide an alibi for our actions. We can more clearly understand God’s will when we retire our obsession with an ideology, personality, as well as fanaticism towards organized religion.
“God is not a Christian,” said the late Anglican bishop Demond Tutu. He is also neither Republican nor Democrat, pro-administration or opposition, Roman Catholic or Evangelical. He is a divine being who loves his people and whose promises and commands can be found in his word, which has already been revealed to us. – Rappler.com
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is a freelance writer and journalist. His work has appeared in Christianity Today, The Presbyterian Outlook, Broadview Magazine (formerly The United Church Observer), and the Times of Israel. He lives in New York City.