For the past few days, the Twitter world has been abuzz with how the republican President Donald Trump’s spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders has gone public about her belief that God has chosen Donald Trump to be the US 45th president. The media is missing out on the bigger picture that the White Evangelical Christian rapture believing community as a whole believes that God has chosen President Trump as his tool for these times and that the president’s White House is replete with these members including the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. This is important in the context that this community has been a major catalyst for some of the president’s policies.
The White Evangelical rapture believing faction equals about 35% of the president’s cult-like base. Their beliefs include an abhorrence towards abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, the New World Order (NWO)/ international alliances, including the United Nations, global trade pacts, EU, NATO. They also are staunch climate change deniers as they’re convinced that our earth was created for man’s use, and that environmentalism is a form of blasphemy.
It is important to pay attention to how the Evangelical rapture ideology as practiced by key White House officials like the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have had an impact on US domestic and foreign policies. The comments by Sarah Huckabee Sanders that President Trump has been chosen by God is only a quick glimpse into a window that leads to a bigger reality of how influential this Evangelical minority has been in today’s politics.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said she believes God wanted US President Trump to win the 2016 election, the Christian Broadcasting Network reports https://cnn.it/2Utus6n
The president has followed through with many of his commitments to these members of his base, like the appointment of conservative justices throughout the federal juridical system and the US Supreme Court.
One recent policy that pleased the Evangelicals has to do with the president’s ban to bar transgender individuals from being able to serve in the US military.
US EMBASSY IN JERUSALEM / GETTY IMAGESOne foreign policy decision that comes to mind, were the president acted, in part, to please Evangelicals’s was his order to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv, Israel to Jerusalem that was a fait accomplis by May 2018.
The US Congressional approval to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem dates back to 1995. But presidents from both parties resisted implementing the move, worried it could set off deadly violence and take away a major leverage tool to push for a two state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians. They did not give into their major donors who had been pressuring them to take action.
I found the following analysis which describes well the influence of these Evangelicals on US politics. Here is the rest of the story…
On May 15, 2018, Heather Timmons of Quatrz penned the following report, “Trump’s foreign policy looks a lot like Rapture Christians’ plan to welcome the apocalypse”
Excerpts:
“In 1995, the US Congress voted to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. But until Donald Trump, presidents both Republican and Democratic resisted implementing the move, worried it could set off deadly violence. Yesterday, Trump’s advisors and family members Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner finally inaugurated the new Jerusalem embassy—while the death toll of Palestinian protestors ticked steadily up to over 50, including several children.”
“Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama all faced pressure from wealthy potential campaign donors to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but Trump is listening to a voice they were not: evangelical Christians who appear to believe in the “Rapture.” Some, like vice president Mike Pence and secretary of state Mike Pompeo, hold posts inside his cabinet. For Rapture Christians, returning Jerusalem to the Jewish people is a key to the second coming of Christ.”
A new ideology in the White House
“Belief in the Rapture, also known as millenarianism or eschatology, has multiple variations, but the core view is that there will an apocalyptic war, Jesus will return, and true Christians will be “raptured” or ascend to heaven, with the rest of the earth’s inhabitants punished. Rapture believers are split about the order of events, but they are united in the belief that only Christians will be saved.”
“Preachers of this scenario include the recently-deceased Billy Graham, mega-church founder Pat Robertson (who says Trump is implementing “God’s plan“) and many lesser-known “end is nigh” prophets around the country.”
“In the Trump White House, a weekly bible study group calls its brand of faith “historical evangelicalism.” Biblical scholars say the group shares the “end of times” message of “Rapture” theologians in its statement of faith and founder Ralph Drollinger’s own published lessons.”
“The bible study group is run by Capitol Ministries, an organization with the stated mission “to teach God’s Word and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with state legislators, judges, and constitutional officers.” Capitol Ministries supporters include ten members of Trump’s cabinet, including in addition to Pompeo, labor secretary Alex Acosta and housing secretary Ben Carson according to the Capitol Ministries website. Drollinger, a UCLA basketball player-turned politician-turned-preacher, has also been holding weekly bible study groups with dozens of Congress members since 2010.”
“On May 8, as Trump was pulling the US out of the Iran deal, Capitol Ministries put out its latest study, “The Bible on When War Is Justifiable,” rebutting pacifism. If Jesus calls us to be “peacemakers,” it asks, “then how could a Christian Cabinet Member or Congressman support the idea of going to war?” The answer, Drollinger, explains, is simple: Saint Peter instructs men to submit “to every human institution” and the Book of Revelations discusses the “righteousness” of a God who “judges and wages war.”
Jerusalem is key
“A fundamental part of believing in the Rapture is believing that all of Jerusalem (currently split between Arab and Israeli-held territory) must be returned to the Jewish people, and then the rest of the world must go to war. For Christians awaiting end times, Israel “is at the center of the end of history,” said Greg Carey, a professor of the New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary. “History will culminate with this great battle” in Israel, Carey said.”
“Some White House officials and supporters have described the Trump administration’s actions in Israel with similar language. ”When we open the American Embassy in Jerusalem, we will in a very real sense end this historic friction, we’ll embrace reality,” vice president Pence said in an interview with the Christian Broadcast Network on May 3. Trump supporter and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro said that the president had fulfilled a biblical prophesy.”
Josh Marshall
✔@joshtpm
Judge Jeanine: Trump fulfilled biblical prophecy by moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
“Critics warn that Rapture-believing evangelicals pose a threat to global peace. “They want to bring on the Kingdom of Christ, and their version is weaponized,” said Mikey Weinstein, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group that tracks Christian fundamentalism in the military. “They want to do whatever they can do to bring their version of Jesus back.”
“If you believe in the Rapture, “there are only two groups, the righteous and the unrighteous, or the godly and the ungodly,” said Valarie Ziegler, a professor of religious studies at DePauw University. “Any other religion will be a false religion, by definition.”
“Last January (2018), some Christian leaders in the Middle East refused to meet with Pence when he came to the region, calling his push for the relocation of the Embassy part of a “sick ideology” that perverts Christianity’s message of justice and compassion.”
Widespread in the US
“Rapture theology is not a majority position but it is a powerful enough force to shape elections,” he said. White, evangelical Christians voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016.”
Anti-environmentalism, isolationism, King Cyrus
“Rapture theologists and historical evangelicals hold several other views that hew closely to Trump administration policies. They believe that earth was created for man’s use, for example, and that environmentalism is a form of blasphemy.”
“In an April 2 Bible study, Drollinger focused on the “huge and dire error” of “radical environmentalism”. He argues that humans are incapable of destroying the earth on their own, because it is up to God to “continually renew the face of the earth until He forms a new heaven and a new earth in the end times.”
“Rapture believers also tend to be suspicious of international alliances, including the United Nations, global trade pacts, and even the European Union, Carey said. In particular, “they are very suspicious of any international alliance that can accomplish peace,” he added. “Because history is not headed towards peace.”
“While Trump’s alleged adulterous affairs and irreverent style might make him seem an unlikely vessel for Christian prophesy, he has been compared in evangelical circles to King Cyrus the Great, an ancient Persian king who predicted the Jews’ return to Jerusalem. In March, Benjamin Netanyahu made the comparison, and Pirro did the same on Fox News today.”
“Christian evangelicals “don’t like Trump because they think he is holy,” explains Ziegler. “They like him because they think he’s God’s tool.”
Gronda Morin 
Gronda, as an imperfect person and Christian, comments like that of Sarah Huckabee Sanders are offensive to me. To gain conservative justices and judges on courts, too many evangelicals have embraced a man whose actions and words over his entite life (and as President) do not serve as an exemplar of What Would Jesus Do? Here are a few:
– Jesus says turn the other cheek, The Donald says demean, name-call and promote violence;
– God commands us to tell the truth and The Donald lies far more than he does not;
– God says to take care of the earth, yet The Donald makes it easier for industry to pollute and us pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Change accord;
– Jesus says to take care of your neighbors in need, but The Donald causes ACA premiums to increase more by sabotaging the ACA, gives a huge tax break to companies and the wealthy, demeans allied relationships and denigrates the civil rights of people who do not support him.
And, so on. If someone’s picture of God wanted this man to be President, then I have many questions for that person as that is not the image of God that I have.
Keith
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PS – After typing the above, I read an article about several GOP state legislative members in Kansas, California and New Jersey who have changed parties to Democrat since the last election saying that the Trump GOP continues to narrow its definition of what it means to be a Republican. I would be curious to know what Ms. Sanders would say about that. Going back to a mantra of mine about religion – when religion is inclusive it is at its absolute finest, when it is exclusive it is at its absolute worst. The GOP is becoming more exclusive. Interesting.
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Dear Keith,
The Sarah Huckabee Sanders story is that she’s not alone. She reflects the cult like rapture believing White Evangelicals who claim the pro-life mantra, who are anti-LGBTQ rights. They back the president regarding his SW border wall, his withdrawal from organizations like NATO, UN as they’ve bought into conspiracy theories regarding NWO New World Order. They don’t buy into the science of climate change.
I agree that you’d think folks who are pro-life would be pro ACA, against separation of children from refugee families seeking asylum at SW US border; against President’s acting on racist impulses.
They are glued to him because they’ve no where else to go, along with the racists, anti-immigration hardliners; anti-Semitics and the wealthy who were also single-minded in wanting tax cuts and deregulation like the Evangelicals wanting conservative justices in the federal courts.
They are all compromising their souls.
Hugs, Gronda
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it never ceases to amaze me just how stupid people can be.
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Dear Suze,
This is frightening. This is why VP Pence would never get elected President. It scares me that Sec. of State Pompeo is a true rapture believing Evangelical to where he would openly talk about this at a speech delivered in Egypt.
Hugs, Gronda
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They believe that “the earth was created for man’s use”??? WHAT UTTER ARROGANCE!!! These people make me growl, they make me want to hurl my laptop across the room! Arrogance. Greed. If I ever forget why I am not a religious person, this is a great reminder! It is so hard to believe that in this, the 21st century, there are still such uneducated, ignorant fools about. Sigh. Good post, Gronda … I learned some things and you got my adrenaline going this morning!
Hugs!!!
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Dear Jill,
What’s worse is that their beliefs are cult-like where nothing short of a miracle would alter their firmly held hold on an alternate reality. They’ve been sold a bill of goods that they’ve bought hook line and sinker. They were easy pickens for the likes of President Trump.
Hugs, Gronda
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Reblogged this on Scotties Toy Box and commented:
Thank you Gronda for an informative post. This subject has concerned me for several years. The idea of our democracy becoming more and more theological is deeply worrying for minorities and any religious faith other than the majority one in charge. Hugs
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Dear Scottie,
That’s why our forefathers intended for the USA to be a country were the state and religions were to be kept separate. It was their intent for the US democratic republic to protect the rights of its citizens to practice their faith without intrusion from the state and vice versa.
Now we have a minority with an outsize influence on US politics where their beliefs are trespassing on the rights of the rest of us.
Thanks a million for all of your support and for this reblog.
Hugs, Gronda
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The “rapture war” is also the same war radical islamists such as daesh seek, they both focus on it happening in the Levant area. Where in the “christian” belief Jesus will return to earth and take the true believers to heaven or make a heaven on earth— so its ok for millions of people to die because the true believers will be saved— and in the radical islamists version both Mohammad and Jesus return to earth, the Jews are all killed, Jesus bows down to and pays homage to Mohammad and christians convert to islam.
Since I can remember in 1960s the evangelical christians have aggressively supported US funding Israel military in the hope of creating this “war” between the jews and the muslims to bring this rapture on.
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Dear Steve Naegele,
These Evangelicals still believe in the Rapture. I and my daughter are familiar with this as my ex-Father in law, her grandpa was a believer. There was no way to move him off this belief system.
He was a good man who had been sold this conspiracy theory and he couldn’t be moved. But he did not have a leadership role in the US government where his beliefs could influence US policies like the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Hugs, Gronda
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If these crazy people have their way, there will be a war alright and all the atrocities that go along with one usually before it starts. It’s unfathomable to me that people in a modern leading technologically advanced country like the US, has this kind of people living among us! These people won’t give up even long after trump is gone. They are a dangerous cancer that will spread nothing but war, killing and climate destruction and terrifyingly, there are counterparts in other countries like South America and probably elsewhere.
And the end result will be a lot of dead people including many of them and they won’t be in their fantasy white supremacy heaven, but deep in the ground or cremated like the rest of us…just dead and gone. And it will all be for NOTHING.
If I was a religious person, which thank goodness I’m not, I believe that trump is indeed the anti christ and these stupid ignorant arrogant hateful people are his tools that will end up in hell along with him.
Yes I find this extremely disturbing and it has me riled up.
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Dear Mary Plumbago,
You’re not the only one who’s riled up. Thee’s supposed to be a wall, a separation between the state and religious organizations for a reason. No one has a problem with Evangelicals practicing their faith as they see fit, but not when they work to impose their belief systems on the rest of us.
It is frustrating to see these religious conspiracy theory believing Evangelicals having an outsize influence on the US body politics when they are a minority.
They need to called out as I’m tired of their culture wars like, “there’s a war on Christmas, etc.
Hugs, Gronda
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Yeah. And Hitler was convinced he was the Messiah!
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Dear Hugh,
These authoritarian type leaders do suffer from a God-like complex. That’s why they demand others demonstrate fealty to them.
Hugs, Gronda
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I don’t think there’s anything more guaranteed to make my blood pressure skyrocket than to listen to “good Christians” try to defend Trump or people like Roy Moore.Trump is a “tool of God?” Well, they’ve got it half right. He’s definitely a TOOL. Just not one of God.
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Dear Kim,
I like your thinking. President Trump is definitely not doing God’s work. It is frustrating to watch this Evangelical minority having an outsize influence on the president’s policy making. They are trying to impose their beliefs on the rest of us.
Hugs, Gronda
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Well Trump is a tool, but certainly not God’s tool.
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Dear Joanne the geek,
You could say that President Donald Trump has been doing the Devil’s work.
Hugs, Gronda
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