Didaché - Did God Miraculously Intervene And Save Donald Trump?

Ephesians 6 and the Misuse of the Armor of God in a Political Crisis

I personally believe that God intervened today, not just on behalf of President Trump, but on behalf of our country.

God must have been watching down on the President Trace.

This is divine intervention. This is the God having his protective hand and wearing Ephesians 6, the armor of God over the president, because this right here, a millisecond or a millimeter and change, and this isn't an attempt at assassination.

This is an assassination of a president.

The devil was in Butler, Pennsylvania, but so was God.

Well, we've certainly been hearing a lot in the last few days about how God miraculously intervened on behalf of President Trump the other day. Did God intervene, and was that a miracle? Welcome to the program, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Justin Peters. I hope that this finds you and your family doing well today. I want to thank you so much for joining me. Now, the first thing I want to say is that gentleman in the clip said that what we saw with the assassination attempt and Trump escaping with his life, that was an example of Ephesians 6 .11 being fulfilled before our very eyes, because, you see, Trump was shot at 6 .11 p .m., and Ephesians 6 .11 talks about the armor of God.

Dear friends, that's not how we do hermeneutics. That's not how we do Bible interpretation. The chapter divisions and the verse numbers are not inspired. The text is, but the chapter divisions and verse numbers are not.

In fact, they weren't even in the Bible until the 1500s, about 1555, 1556 or so. So that's completely meaningless. And also, we might wonder, well, why don't we do that for, say, some other book in the.

Bible?

You know, pick a book.

I don't know.

Maybe a Leviticus 6 .11. Maybe that has something to say to us about Donald Trump. Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. I'm not sure how we apply that to Donald Trump.

So Ephesians 6 .11, dear friends, is meaningless. Furthermore, the armor of God has nothing to do with protecting Trump or any of us, for that matter, from physical harm, whether it's a bullet, an arrow, a dart, or an attack by a honey badger.

That's not how we do Bible interpretation.

Okay.

So now that I have that out of my system, just wanted to throw that out there because I've seen a lot of people talking about Ephesians 6 .11. Did God intervene here? A lot of people are saying that. Well-meaning people are saying that God intervened because it's just so extraordinary.

And admittedly, it is. It is extraordinary when you watch that clip, how Trump is up there and he turns his head. And just at the millisecond that he turns his head, that's when the shot fired. And had Trump not turned his head, it would have killed him.

You see something that said, take a look at what happened. You see something that said, take a look at what happened.

That is an extraordinary and sobering clip. And everyone is talking about how God intervened here. Religious people of all stripes are acknowledging. They say that God intervened. Even Vivek Ramaswamy, who is Hindu, he says God intervened here.

And Catholics are saying that God intervened here. In fact, here's a meme I saw of Mary redirecting the bullet. Well, I don't know which is more poorly represented here, the theology or the understanding of ballistics, because that's not how bullets work.

But at any rate, did God intervene here? Dear friends, I know what people mean when they say that. And I know the vast majority of people actually do believe that God intervenes. But I would submit to you that no, God did not intervene here.

In fact, I would submit to you that God never intervenes. Now, hear me out. To say that God intervenes is to suggest that most of the time, God is up in heaven just kind of twiddling his anthropomorphic thumbs without a whole lot to do, but he's looking down at us.

And every once in a while, he sees things getting just a little out of hand, going outside the lines a little bit too much. And so he reaches down and he intervenes to kind of get things back in line and back in order.

And then he kind of goes back to twiddling his thumbs and waiting for the next occasion or event in which he needs to intervene to get things back in.

Order.

But that is not the picture that scripture paints. God is not an intervening God. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. The writer of Hebrews says, God, having spoken long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, spoke to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.

Who is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature. And here it is, upholds all things by the word of his power, who having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

You see, dear ones, Jesus is not only the creator. He is also the sustainer. God not only created the universe, spoke it into existence. But the inspired word of God says that he upholds what he created.

He upholds all things by the constant exertion of the power of his word. God is constantly working. Everything that has ever existed, everything that God created right now is being held together, being upheld by the constant exertion of the power of God.

All of the universe in this incomprehensibly vast and spectacularly beautiful and orderly universe, all of it is being held together right now, being upheld by the power of God. We're in the Milky Way galaxy, which has about 100 billion stars.

And our galaxy is just one of we don't even know how many galaxies, trillions probably. We're discovering new ones all the time. The human mind cannot comprehend that kind of vastness, our circuit breakers trip.

We can't even begin to understand that kind of enormity and vastness. But you could go out to some far-flung galaxy out in the universe, find one teeny tiny little dot that we see in the photographs that we take with our Hubble or James Webb telescopes.

Let's take this one for an example. See this little pinprick of white there? That's a star. I suppose it could be a galaxy depending on how far away. But let's just say this is a star. So this is a star.

You could find that one little star, which is not so little, but find that star, drill down into the middle of it, find one molecule of hydrogen or helium. And that one molecule, every single atom in the entire universe is being held in its proper place by the constant exertion of God.

God is always working. There is never a time when He is not working. And so, therefore, God never intervenes because that suggests that most of the time He's not really upholding things. But the text of Scripture says that He is.

He is upholding all things by the word of His power. Do you know what would happen if God ever stopped working? Even for a millisecond, if He stopped working, we would disappear. The entire universe would be de-created.

We would cease to exist instantly. That is the God we serve. That is our great God. He is always working. He is never not working, upholding all things by the word of His power. Selah. So did God intervene?

No.

What were the chances of the shooter being successful in his attempt to kill Donald Trump? Zero. Job tells us this. Let's look at Job 42, verse 2. Then Job answered Yahweh and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

And then Job 14, verse 5. Man's days are determined. The number of his months is with you and his limits you have set so that he cannot pass. Psalm 31, 14 through 15. But as for me, I trust in you, O Yahweh.

I say, you are my God. My times are in your hand. The reason Donald Trump was not killed the other day is because his times are in the hand of God. And so are yours and so are mine. So does that mean we can just go outside and play in traffic blindfolded or run with scissors or, you know, stick our feet in a wood chipper hoping it'll turn off right before they get in there?

No.

God gave us a mind. He wants us to use it. We are to use the mental faculties that God gave us. We're to make wise decisions. And yet somehow in God's providence, in the way that He upholds all of creation, we cannot die one single second before we're supposed to die.

Yes, we are responsible. Yes, we are accountable. Yes, our actions, wise or foolish, have consequences, whether good or bad. And yet somehow in God's sovereignty, in ways that none of us can fully understand, all of that is under the providence of God.

All of that He is holding in His hand. And I've heard it said, I have a friend of mine who's a missionary in Africa, South Africa. And he said one time, I don't know if he saw this somewhere else or not or if it's original to him, but he said, I am immortal until God takes me.

You know what? That's right. I'm immortal. You're immortal until God takes you, until it's your time. Again, this doesn't mean we make stupid decisions and we go, you know, jump off of a building or something like that.

But somehow in God's providence, His sovereignty and man's responsibility and accountability for his own decisions, somehow those things which seem to be incongruous to us actually run along parallel tracks.

Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher and evangelist, Charles Spurgeon said this, As well might a gnat seek to drink in the ocean, as a finite creature to comprehend the eternal God. A God whom we could understand would be no God.

If we could grasp Him, He could not be infinite. If we could understand Him, He could not be divine. Well said. If I could fully grasp and fully understand God with my puny, finite, fallen mind, then God would not be much of a God at all.

And so in a kind of a counterintuitive way, I and you, if you're a Christian, we can take great comfort in the fact that we cannot fully understand God. As well might a gnat seek to drink in the ocean, so might we seek to fully comprehend the infinite God.

It cannot be done. And that is a comfort to me. So did God redirect that bullet?

No.

That bullet went exactly where it was supposed to go. Did God protect Donald Trump's life the other day? Absolutely, He did. Yes. Was that His intervention?

No. No.

Theologically speaking, it was not Him intervening. It was simply one fleeting moment in one tiny expression of God upholding and sustaining all things by the word of His power, sustaining His own creation.

Selah.

Miracle, Providence, and the Difference Between the Two

Was Donald Trump surviving the assassination attempt a miracle? A lot of people are saying that it was. Watch this from Tim Scott.

Listen, if you didn't believe in miracles before Saturday, you better be believing right now. Thank God Almighty that we live in a country that still believes in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega.

Now I like Tim Scott. I think he's a very affable and seems like a genuinely nice guy. But he says that this was absolutely a miracle, and he's not alone. Here is Steve Turley. He operates a political YouTube channel, and I found what he said here particularly interesting.

Listen carefully to what he says.

What I'm about to say to you, I say as a trained theologian. If you don't know, my doctorate is actually New Testament and early Christianity. That's how I came across what's called post-secular studies and how I discovered the rise of a new conservative age, the end of a liberal era and the rise of a conservative religious.

Era.

So what I'm about to say to you, I am saying as a trained theologian. What we all witnessed together on Saturday was a literal bonafide miracle.

Except it was not a literal bonafide miracle. Did God protect Trump's life? Yes, of course he did. It was a kind providence of God for Donald Trump that his life was protected. But it was not a miracle by definition of the term.

You see, dear friends, God has set up the universe to work within natural laws that God himself has established and ordained. And when God does something that is outside of those natural laws, or you could even say in a sense violates the very natural laws that he himself created, that is what we call a miracle.

For example, a bush that might be on fire somewhere in the desert, that's not a miracle. But if the bush is on fire and not being consumed, and the voice of God is coming out of it, that would be a miracle.

The rain stopping just before you go to your picnic is not a miracle. But Jesus commanding the storm to cease, and it does instantly, that is a miracle. An axe head floating, that is a miracle. A red sea parting, that is a miracle.

Jesus telling Peter to throw his hook in the water and the first fish that comes up will have a coin in its mouth, that is a miracle. But if you're going through some lean times, financially speaking, and someone comes up to you at random and presses a hundred dollar bill in your hand and says, I just want to bless you, that's not a miracle.

Is it a kind providence of God? Yes, of course it is, but it's not a miracle. Todd White lengthening someone's legs by a half an inch, that's not a miracle. But if an amputee were to grow a new limb, that would be a miracle.

What Todd White does, those are not miracles, those are parlor tricks. So what happened with Trump was not a miracle, it was a kind providence of God. And we see these things in our lives all the time, kind providences of God.

So if I were to contract cancer, let me say it this way, I was born with cerebral palsy. There is no cure for cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy doesn't go away. If you're born with it, you're going to die with it.

If God were to heal me instantly of cerebral palsy, that would be a miracle. But if I were to contract cancer and have cancer for months or a couple years or whatever, and then slowly over time I recover from my cancer, the cancer goes into remission, that's not a miracle.

Would I still give God credit for recovering from cancer? Absolutely I would, 100%. Because He upholds all things by the Word of His power, He is sustaining His own creation. And even in me slowly recovering from cancer, I would give God credit for that.

But it's not a miracle because it's not going outside of the natural order of things. Me being healed of cerebral palsy, that would. So we need to be careful in how we use the term miracle. Miracle is a term that is very much overused.

And if everything is miraculous, well, then nothing is. So yes, God did indeed spare Donald Trump's life the other day. But there was another man in attendance at that rally whose life God did not spare.

His name was Corey Compratore, and I'm not certain I'm pronouncing that correctly. Please forgive me if I'm not. But Corey was a man 50 years of age. He was married, had two daughters in their 20s. And he and his family were at the rally.

And when the shots rang out, Corey instantly shielded his family from the bullets. He jumped on top of them to protect them. And sadly, one of those bullets found its mark in Corey's body, and he died.

He's my hero, Helen Compratore, Corey's wife, said to the newspaper from her home in nearby Sarver, Pennsylvania. He just said, get down. That was the last thing he said. Me and the kids were all there as a family, she added.

He was just excited. It was going to be a nice day with the family. So God spared Donald Trump's life, but he did not spare Corey Compratore's life. Does that mean that Corey Compratore was less important than Donald Trump?

No.

Does it mean that Corey Compratore was somehow a worse sinner than Donald Trump?

No.

Suffering, Sovereignty, and the Call to Repentance

Look with me in Luke chapter 13, verses 1 through 5. Now at that same time, there were some present who were reporting to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, do you think that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered these things?

I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you think that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse offenders than all the men who live in Jerusalem?

I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So Jesus speaks of two different instances. A group of people, group of Galileans who were killed by Pilate and his forces. And Jesus says, do you suppose they were worse than all the other Galileans because they suffered that fate?

No.

And then he spoke of a tower in Siloam that apparently wasn't built real well and it collapsed and it killed 18 people living in Jerusalem. He said, do you suppose those 18 people on whom that tower fell were worse offenders, worse sinners than all the other people in Jerusalem?

I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So why did God spare Donald Trump's life and not Corey Comperatore's life? Not because Donald Trump is more important, not because he's a better person.

God did it just because it pleased him to do so. It is part of God's will. God sustaining all of his creation. It was God's will that Corey Comperatore die that day. And it was not God's will that Donald Trump die that day.

All of our times are in the hands of God. And dear friends, death is an appointment that one day we will all meet. And our life is so very short. It is fleeting. We are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

This is what James says in his book. We're a vapor, even if you live to be 100, your life is a vapor. And we don't know when our appointment with death is coming. I'm sure it never crossed Donald Trump's mind that that day might be his last.

I'm sure it never crossed Corey Comperatore's life that that day would be his last. We don't know when our appointment with death is coming. The point is this, is be ready now. Earlier I was speaking of miracles.

And I do believe that God still performs miracles today when it is his sovereign will to do so. But the greatest miracle is not when the blind see. It's not when the lame walk. The greatest miracle is when the dead are raised.

And not physically dead, but spiritually dead. Dead in trespasses and sins raised to newness of life in Christ. That is the greatest miracle. And I want that miracle for you. And Mr. Trump, if by chance you happen to be watching this video, sir, I want that miracle in your life.

Mr. Trump, I have seen you on a couple of different occasions in interviews say that you have never asked God for forgiveness. That you've never seen a need to do that. But there is a need. There is a great need, an eternal need.

Someone who has never asked God for forgiveness is by definition, someone who does not know God. You cannot be a Christian and never have come to grips with your own sin. Whether you're Donald Trump or whether you are anyone.

Has the miracle of the new birth taken place, dear one? Whoever is watching right now, has that miracle taken place in your life? Here's the gospel. The gospel is good news. But for there to be good news, there must first be bad news.

And there is indeed bad news, a lot of it. All of us are sinners. God has given us his moral code, the ten commandments, his standard of goodness. And there is none righteous, not even one. There is only one who is good, and that is God.

Because God defines goodness, not you and not me. God's standard of goodness is perfection. His standard of goodness is himself. And all of us have broken God's laws. Thou shalt not lie. Have you ever told a lie?

Of course you have. Because all of us have. All of us have told lies. And so all of us are liars. I'm a liar, you're a liar. Thou shalt not steal. Have you ever taken something that does not belong to you?

The value of what you take is irrelevant. If you've ever taken something that doesn't belong to you, you are a thief. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Don't let yourself off the hook too quickly, because Jesus says if you look at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery already in your heart.

If you've ever looked at another person with lust, you are an adulterer. That's just three of the ten commandments. Go through them. And dear friends, we have all broken God's laws thousands of times.

We are sinners by nature. We are sinners by choice. We are sinners by action. And just like when you break laws on earth, there is a penalty to be paid. How much more so when we break the laws of God.

But because we have sinned against God who is eternal, the punishment of that sin is also eternal. And if we die in our sin, we will very rightly and very justly go to a very real place that the Bible calls hell, where the worm will not die, the fire will not be quenched, there will be wailing, weeping, gnashing of teeth.

That is what your sins have earned you. If you die in your sin, you will go to hell and the full undiluted fury of the wrath of God will be poured out on you day and night, forever and ever, and it will never end.

Eternal torture. And you may be thinking, well, that sounds so harsh. Remember who it is against whom we have sinned, God. Because we have sinned against God who is eternal, the punishment is eternal.

Because we have sinned against God who is infinite, the punishment is also infinite. And a lot of people think erroneously, well, God is a good God, and because He's good, yeah, I may have done a few things wrong, but He's a good God and so He'll let me off.

The hook.

That's not how the goodness of God works. In fact, that doesn't even work in a court of law here. If I were to be arrested because I robbed a bank and shot the clerk, killed someone, you know, serious crime, and I fled the scene, but the law called up to me and I was arrested, I had my day in court, they played the tape, security cameras were on, of course, and so all the evidence is there, it's laid out, and I am found guilty.

And the judge says to me right before I'm sentenced, he says, Justin, you've been found guilty by a court of your peers, you committed robbery and you committed murder, do you have anything to say for yourself before I pass judgment?

What if I were to say, well, Judge, I think you're a good judge, and because you're good, I think you should let me go. You see, Judge, I've only killed one person on one day in my life. I'm 51 years old.

I've lived thousands and thousands of other days, and I've never killed anybody on any of those other days, just one person on one day, and so I think my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, and yeah, I may have done a few bad things, but overall, I'm a good person.

My good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, and so I think you should let me go because you're a good judge. What if the judge said, huh, well, that's interesting, Justin, I've never really thought.

About it that way.

Yeah, I am a good judge, and so yeah, your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, and so you're free to go, we'll see you later, have a nice day, and I'll walk out the door. Would that be a good judge? Of course not.

It would be a terrible judge, right? Because a good judge must punish crime. God is the ultimate good judge, and He must punish sin. If He does not punish sin, then He would not be good. And so many people are counting on the goodness of God to get them off the hook, but it is the goodness of God that will seal their fate.

God is good, and He must punish sin. And if you die in your sin, God will punish you for all of eternity. And there's no escape, and there's no amount of good works that you can do to overcome the sin debt that you owe to God.

Just like in my courtroom example, I couldn't say to the judge, well, judge, tell you what, I'll go work at the soup kitchen for a few weeks, and I'll volunteer my time at Habitat for Humanity if you'll let me off the hook.

Wouldn't work, right? Certainly not going to work with God. Our works, the Bible says, Isaiah chapter 64, our works are as filthy rags before a thrice holy God. You're not going to impress God with your piddling little good works.

So we stand condemned, and there's nothing that we can do to earn God's favor. So God has made a way of escape. God has made a way for us to escape His own wrath. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth.

And Jesus was and is the God-Man. Jesus was one person with two distinct natures, truly God, truly man. And as the God-Man, Jesus lived a perfect life. He never broke any of God's laws. Because He was human and is human, He could stand in our place and take the punishment of our sins that we deserve.

Because He is divine, because He is deity, He could live that perfect life and have perfect righteousness. So Jesus gave His perfect life on the cross. His life was not taken, He gave it. And on the cross, this perfect person offered His perfect life as a perfect sacrifice to perfectly satisfy the perfect wrath of God, died on the cross, three days later was bodily raised from the dead, proving Himself to be who He said He was, God in human flesh.

And the only way to be saved is to repent of sin, turn from sin, and place your trust in what Jesus did on the cross. There is salvation in no one else. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by Me. You will find salvation nowhere else, only in Christ. And it must be, dear friends, let me say this, it must be the right Christ, the right Jesus. There are a lot of different Jesuses out there.

The Jesus of Mormonism is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of Buddhism or Islam, Muslims believe in Jesus, that is not the Jesus of the Bible. And I'll be honest, the Jesus of Roman Catholicism is not the Jesus of the Bible, because they do not believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

But that is exactly how salvation comes, by grace, through faith, alone. No mixture of works. If you are trusting in your works at all for your salvation, then you do not know Christ. But if you will come to Christ empty-handed, lay your works down, they will profit you nothing.

Come to Him empty-handed, believe in Christ, believe in the gospel, place your trust in Him, and come to Christ seeking not only a Savior from hell, which is good. You should want a Savior from hell.

But just as much as we should want a Savior from hell, we should want a Savior from sin. The person who wants a Savior from hell, but not a Savior from sin, has a Savior from neither. Does your sin grieve you?

It's not enough to just acknowledge, yeah, I'm a sinner. But do you understand what that means? Do you understand what your sin is? Do you grieve over your sin? You see, our sin grieves God. We know that from Ephesians chapter 5.

Our sin grieves God, and we should not want to grieve Him. God has been so good, so kind, so faithful, so patient, so merciful towards us, that when we sin, it grieves us. Does your sin grieve you? Do you want a Savior from your sin?

And if you do, come to Christ. Cry out to Him. Ask God to forgive you. Confess your sins before Him and place your trust in Christ. And if you will come to Christ empty-handed, seeking Him, He will save you.

You will pass from death to life. God will take out the heart of stone, put in the heart of flesh. He will give you new desires, new affections. One of the surest ways you can know, most everybody goes through a time when they doubt, am I truly saved?

Am I truly a Christian? One of the surest ways you can know that you have a new relationship with the Savior is if you have a new relationship with sin. If you're truly a Christian, your sin will grieve you.

If you're truly a Christian, you will desire what God desires. You will love what God loves. You will hate what God hates. So do you have a new relationship with sin? Does your sin grieve you? Do you desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Do you desire to grow in holiness? Do you desire to grow in purity? Do you desire to live a life fully to the glory of Christ your King? Do you have these desires? Do you have a love for the God's word?

Do you have a love for the brethren? Do you have a love for other Christians? Do you have a desire to be in church? These are all hallmarks of the regenerate heart. And if you're not certain that these things are in your life, maybe you made a decision as a kid.

Maybe, like me, I was seven years old and I prayed the sinner's prayer and I got baptized, but I wasn't saved. I wasn't saved. A lot of you watching me right now, maybe that's you. You prayed a prayer, you got baptized when you were a kid, but there was never any change.

Has there been a change in your life? You cannot go from being dead in trespasses and sins and alive to Christ and there be no change. The miracle of the new birth is just that, it is a miracle. So if you're not certain, the Bible says examine yourself to see if you're in the faith, 2 Corinthians 13, 5.

If you're not certain, get real honest before God, cry out to Him, confess your sins, come to Christ empty-handed, trusting Him and Him alone, and He will save you. Jesus says, the one who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

All right, dear ones, thank you very much for watching. And I pray by God's grace that the gospel that was just presented, I pray that God will use that to call lost sheep to Himself. And Mr. Trump, if by chance you're watching, come to Christ.

Let me say this, Mr. Trump. Your spiritual advisors have served you very, very poorly. Paula White is not a real Christian. You've surrounded yourself with prosperity preachers, health and wealth, word of faith preachers, they're wolves, they're charlatans.

So Mr. Trump, if you have questions, please contact me through my website. Be glad to help any way that I can. All right, thank you so much, dear ones. Until our next time together, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all.