Two days following the recent election, a secular Jewish friend of mine asked me, “How can anyone not believe in God, after what He did in this election?” The evangelical Christians showed up in record numbers and voted 81 percent to reject the worldview, agenda, corruption and compromise that increasingly characterized this nation’s government for at least the last 25 years. Other, usually pro-Democratic constituents, were disenchanted and failed to show. God’s hand was in this election.
Often I hear that we get the leaders we deserve. But sometimes . . ., sometimes God in His marvelous grace gives us leaders we do not deserve. He grants another chance to reboot our focus, another opportunity to reshape this nation’s future for our children, grandchildren, and for untold thousands of immigrants who come here with hope in their hearts for something different. In ancient Israel, He did that by giving them King David, a man also deeply flawed at times, and a man who took Israel to the heights of her glory.
This election was not about the moral flaws or failures of candidate Donald J. Trump. His colorful persona was a critical element. More significantly, since he did not come from the ranks of the political elites, he was viewed as a solution because he was uninfected by the Petri dish of Washington, D.C. This stunning, shocking victory was truly about the rejection of the agenda of the Democratic party and elite politicians and bureaucrats who have forgotten that they are to serve the people by upholding the Constitution of the United States, and have put this nation on a course which strengthens their power rather than the lot of the citizens.
No, Trump was not elected because of his character—it is deeply flawed. He was not elected because of his spiritual focus—by all accounts he is not a godly man and perhaps not even a believer in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. He was not elected because of his political acumen—for he demonstrated by his uncontrolled tongue that he has little.
Donald Trump was elected because he was not Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Trump represented a platform of ideas that were the polar opposite to those of the Democratic party. Clinton personified all that was wrong with the elite ruling class and the arrogant donor class. Her toxic corruption, sociopathic lying and elitist values that applied one standard to herself and her cronies and another to everyone else made America sick. As a nation we had gradually become so inured to corruption, deception and manipulation by government officials that we had almost forgotten what normal should have been. Like an abused spouse or child forgets about normal life, as a nation we had forgotten the founding values that made us unique, prosperous and the envy of the world. And we realized—at perhaps the last possible moment—that if we did not assert ourselves, the American dream would die.
In the gracious providence of God, Who rules over the affairs of men, America was granted a respite. We received a momentary reprieve to see if we would continue down the path of rejecting the values of our forefathers, or turn back. Many times in the early history of Israel, the Israelites rejected the Torah and the prophets and turned to idols. God would give them a grace period to see if they would return to Him. If not—usually not—then God brought discipline upon His people (see the book of Judges).
Clinton represented a Democratic party that had lost all touch with the values which made the United States of America a unique and remarkable culture and society. For the last 50 years the Democratic party became associated with—and then fully embraced—atheistic secularism, which at its root rejected the belief in the Judeo-Christian God, the God of the Bible, the God of the cross of Christ and the God of the Founding Fathers of this nation.
Though not all of the Founding Fathers were Christians in the strict Biblical sense, they were all, to a man, the product of a Judeo-Christian, theistic worldview. A 10-year project led by Donald Lutz, political science professor at the University of Houston, discovered that the most often quoted source of influence on the founders was the Bible, usually the Hebrew Scriptures of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The Bible was quoted four times more often than Montesquieu, 12 times more often than Blackstone and 16 times more often than Locke. And about a third of the quotes from these other sources were based on the Bible.[1]
These men assumed the existence of a personal God, an absolute, universal morality and righteousness, the reality of punishment for sin, evil and lawlessness, the depravity of the human heart and the danger of a government which gave too much power to depraved human beings. On that metaphysical foundation—the reality of a personal, infinite God, the corruption of human sin and the need of limited government—the founders built a remarkable document as the foundation for—not a perfect union, for they rejected the possibility of an earthly utopia—but the striving for “a more perfect union.” Their dream was the death of tyranny, at least here in this new nation.
Over the last 50 years, the Democratic party came to reject the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical foundation for the Constitution, the foundation of liberty. All political views rest on some view of ultimate reality, which informs their view of truth and right and wrong. Together, these form the foundation of any political viewpoint. Their Judeo-Christian beliefs created a nation where all the world aspired to come—a nation that embodied that precious value of liberty. Liberty is also the enemy of tyrants who desire its death. Liberty was the hope, the dream and the developing reality that this Constitution, built on Divine revelation, made possible.
The Democratic party came to wage a war against the very intellectual and spiritual foundation of that which gave them the freedom to accumulate their wealth and power. But in rejecting the God of the Bible, the Judeo-Christian God, Who is the source of our “unalienable Rights,” the source of life and liberty and the One Who defines happiness, they declared war on the foundation stone on which this nation was built. They made a choice, and they chose death.
In an earlier time Moses set this same choice before ancient Israel:
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. (Deut. 30:15)
The Democratic platform replaced God with government. They sought to redefine reality, acting as their own god.
We will pick up the discussion once again there in Part 2.
(Read Part 2)
Dr. Robert Dean is the pastor of West Houston Bible Church in Houston, Tex. He is also the president of Dean Bible Ministries and serves on the governing board of Chafer Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous articles and has written or contributed to several books. We enthusiastically commend him to you as a contributing author to Dispensational Publishing House.
Copyright © 2016 by Dr. Robert Dean. Used by permission of the author.
All blog posts are the opinions of the author alone.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Way to go Robby…ahem…Dr. Dean! My family eagerly awaits the next part. Thank you for placing this election where it needs to be in the Word of God. Keep the positive Bible Doctrine coming.
Trump is apart of the same Elite class of people as Clinton. In Satan system, Lucifer has always use the rich and powerful to execute his plan. And as a Christian I know the kingdoms of this world belong to Satan that includes the United States of America. As Christians we should be the light of the USA as it pertains to holy living. If this Kingdom of United States of America refuses the Light then judgment will come and no president can’t stop it.