\n<\/p>\n
White Evangelicalism\u2019s overwhelming support for Donald Trump continues to be a source of bewilderment, if not exasperation, among Christians of a wider swath.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s well documented moral corruption, both personal and professional, are undeniable. This certainly puts Evangelicals in a tight spot: how to defend a president whom they see as God\u2019s Chosen One for such a time as this, but who brazenly thumbs his nose at Evangelical moral ideals that pre-Trump supporters defended tooth and nail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2016 a biblical solution to this dilemma began rearing its head: Donald Trump is a modern-day King Cyrus of Old Testament times. A year later tele-evangelist Jim Bakker was selling a Cyrus-Trump coin for $45. And if you wanted to drop $450, you could get the whole \u201cCyrus Trump Bundle,\u201d which includes a booklet and DVD.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the Cyrus-Trump connection rests on a bizarre, fast-and-loose, handling of the Bible that never should have gotten off the ground on the first place. It violates an otherwise staunchly defended Evangelical rule of interpretation, namely: the Bible\u2019s \u201coriginal meaning\u201d governs Christian faith and life. <\/p>\n
Nothing could be further from this Evangelical rule of interpretation than the Cyrus-Trump connection.<\/p>\n
So, who is Cyrus, anyway?<\/p>\n
In 586 BCE, the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar had taken captive the residents of Jerusalem<\/a>, the capital of Judah, thus in effect bringing the final blow to the once glorious but troubled nation of Israel. The Judahite captives were resettled throughout Babylonia, left to lament their sins, for which their God was now punishing them, and praying to God to have mercy and deliver them from their conquerors. <\/p>\n And delivered they were\u2014by Cyrus, king of Persia. In 539 BCE he conquered the heretofore mighty Babylonians and allowed all captive peoples to return to their homeland and rebuild their lives, though under the long shadow of Persian domination.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Hebrew Bible has high praise for the pagan King Cyrus. Yahweh is said to have \u201cstirred up the Spirit of King Cyrus\u201d to do his bidding, namely to release the captives as spoken by the prophet Jeremiah (Ezra 1:1). A prophet from the sixth century BCE writes that Cyrus is God\u2019s \u201cshepherd\u201d who will carry out God\u2019s purpose (Isaiah 44:28). Elsewhere Cyrus is called God\u2019s \u201canointed,\u201d which in Hebrew is \u201cmashiach\u201d\u2014messiah in English (Isaiah 45:1).<\/p>\n Cyrus is no slouch in the eyes of biblical writers\u2014a pagan king whose reign was orchestrated by God to further the well-being of God\u2019s people, to \u201cMake Israel Great Again,\u201d as it were.<\/p>\n This is all the pretext some Evangelicals have needed to defend Trump as God\u2019s anointed. \u201cSure, he\u2019s no choirboy,\u201d they say, \u201cand no, we wouldn\u2019t want him as a pastor. But just like Cyrus<\/em>, God today is using this powerful ruler for a holy purpose. We know<\/em> he doesn\u2019t act like he\u2019s one of us, but that doesn\u2019t mean God isn\u2019t using Donald J. Trump to turn this country back to God.\u201d<\/p>\n In this bizarre use of the Bible, Evangelicals see themselves as the captive Judahites, left-leaning politicians and the US citizens that voted for them as the Babylonians, and Trump as their Cyrus.<\/p>\n The \u201cTrump is a modern-day Cyrus\u201d argument breaks down rather quickly.<\/p>\n For the story of Cyrus to have any meaningful parallel for today, the root of Evangelicalism\u2019s problems and the source of their deliverance would need to come from foreign soil. Justin Trudeau rescuing us from Vladimir Putin\u2019s interference in our elections would be a closer parallel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n