Updated the post. See above. And then ask the question? ;-) (Sorry, that song has been stuck in my head for weeks.)
Ahhh, just saw the news after your heads up. There is no jesus or devil as you probably already know. This jesus / devil nonsense, it makes for simplistic answers that sheeple guzzle down with self contentment on how enlightened god has made them.
Christians! Be honest with yourself for once, just once. I'm not asking much. Imagine the following scenario. There are 100 missionaries in a room, one from every different kind christian sect. Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Bahai, Mormon, Scientology, Catholic, Brethren (open and closed), Lutheran, Orthodox, Amish, Jehovah Witness, Calvanist, Anglican, Quaker, Pentecostal, and within these are more subsects, eg there are numerous different versions of Catholic and Presbyterian etc. There is a common message from these churches; " We worship Jesus and for you own good you should join us". Now which one? Which are the true ones and which are the false ones? Well there are millions of people in each sect, they can't be all right surely. So you've got to make a decision as the alternative of not making a decision is go direct to hell, do not pass Go. The one you choose will have a common thread with you, they are convincing, they are smooth talkers with the gift of the gab, something the church is never short of. Now Obama had the gift of the gab, Trump has the gift of the gab, Biden gift of the gab, all politicians (bless their lying hearts) have the gift of the gab. All good salespeople have the gift. So you join for example the Amish church because they don't come across as bullshit artists. You know what happens next? The longer you stay and listen to the bullshit coming from the pulpit, the more you become convinced you made the right choice and are on the way to heaven.
Sunday services paint Trump as God’s chosen one The portrayal could solidify the inevitability of Trump’s presidency among some Evangelicals. A chorus of Christian leaders is giving various degrees of credit to God for Trump’s survival. | Evan Vucci/AP By Natalie Fertig and Ry Rivard 07/14/2024 Pastors at megachurches across the country on Sunday credited God with sparing the life of former President Donald Trump. Pastor Jack Hibbs, who leads a congregation of more than 10,000, wore a colonial preachers’ robe that usually hangs on a rack in the church with a placard that reads: “Use in case of acts of TYRANNY.” “My question is why is Donald Trump alive?” Hibbs said to his congregants at the Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California, less than 24 hours after the attempted assassination of Trump. Hibbs, who replayed Fox News footage of Saturday’s Pennsylvania shooting, suggested God saw from heaven that Trump was “Israel’s best friend.” “It wasn’t the man,” Hibbs said. “It was the decision he made regarding the blessing of Israel.” Hibbs is part of a chorus of Christian leaders giving various degrees of credit to God for Trump’s survival. Their Sunday sermons, prayers and reactions on social media paint Trump as a political leader with the protection and backing of God. The message could further his historically overwhelming support among many conservative, Evangelical Christians. Trump had a similar message, posting on social media that “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.” Other Republican leaders shared the sentiment. Some — like New York Rep. Brandon Williams — correlated the survival of Trump with the survival of the Republic. Pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel in Georgia referenced Old Testament prophecies about the healing of Israel and asked God to make Trump “a man on a mission,” to keep America “strong and powerful.” “You preserved [Trump’s] life, and you don’t preserve anything you don’t have a purpose for,” Franklin said in a prerecorded prayer that was shared during service Sunday morning. Mark Burns, a pastor at the Harvest Praise & Worship Center in South Carolina who is close to Trump, said the former president is now “stronger than ever” and called for supporters to exercise restraint in coming days. “We will not take to the streets to retaliate, but we will operate in the heavenly realms, the spiritual realms,” Burns said. While the belief that God intervenes in the world is common among Evangelicals, the political impact of this moment will vary among different sects, said Andrew Walker, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Providence is best understood in the rearview mirror,” he cautioned. The belief that Trump is God’s chosen one is entrenched more deeply among fundamentalist, revivalist and pentecostal sects, Walker says. Hibbs’ Calvary Chapel denomination, for example, originates in pentecostalism. Among those groups, the idea that God protected Trump is likely to strengthen their belief that Trump is meant to be president. “That is not representative of how all evangelical christians think about this,” Walker added. Dino Rizzo, an associate pastor at Church of the Highlands in Alabama, tied this weekend’s shooting to previous decades of tumult in the country. “What we saw in the ’60s and ’70s with President Kennedy and, of course, Dr. King, that tragedy and that pain and the Vietnam War, and what happened?” Rizzo said. “People began to pray and out of that came a Jesus revolution and here we are all these years later and it’s still impacting our world today because we decided to pray.” The way Trump turned his head right before being grazed by the bullet is now a key point in the divine intervention argument. Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor Greg Laurie and Christian musician and speaker Sean Feucht both called the timing miraculous, and Hibbs also discussed it. “The way Trump turns his head at the very last second in this angle is WILD,” Feuchts posted on X with prayer and dove emojis. (Doves are often symbols of God’s faithfulness to humanity.) Less than an hour from Hibbs, another Los Angeles pastor presented an alternate interpretation. Doug Andersen at The Church on the Way urged his congregation to push past politics. “We need to recognize and respect the fact that other people around us — that may have views different than we might have — are not wrong, but probably listening to God just as well as you are,” Anderson said, before calling on his congregation to join hands and pray for peace.
Maybe Trump is lucky to be alive because the shooter was a clueless and emotional 20yo kid with zero experience with firearms. But no, God God God God done it.