PENnED

Dear friends,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts through the comments you made on my Facebook posts as well as the messages and links you sent through Messenger. To me, that means you are concerned, as I am, about the current affairs.

I also appreciate the attempts you have made to defend Donald Trump and the efforts to try to show that you are right, and I am wrong, about him. The time you invested in conversing with me must mean that you care about me and that you’re worried that I ‘get it wrong’. I feel that strongly from those of you who claim that Trump is ‘God’s chosen one.’

But why would I believe Donald Trump has been chosen by God to lead this country and the world? Should I believe simply because someone says he is? Or, because he himself claimed “I am the chosen one”? On the contrary, I should not believe Trump especially because he claims he is!

Who would believe Donald Trump? According to his own niece, a clinical psychologist, he uses lying “as a power play”? If you are honest to yourself, you cannot deny that he lies all the time! But of course, you wouldn’t really know that if your sources of information are only Fox News and those that Trump recommends or whose stories align with the ‘neo-Republican’ narrative.

You have not said it directly, but I have a feeling that some of you think I am lost. In the course of arguing for the idea that Donald Trump is the candidate to support (because, citing Christian author, Eric Metaxas, “US President Donald Trump’s thoughts and values have evolved over the years to ones that align with a Christian worldview“, which is really a big joke), one of you asked me, point blank, “How did you get radicalized?”

After a brief shock (“What?”), I said, “…If facts and truth make me a radical, so be it. Jesus was too!” That is why the Lord was crucified (that’s aside from the theological answer, which I assume you know).

But let us just forget everything I’ve said. Let us take it for granted that you are right, and I am wrong. Let us see how that would go.

If I remember it right, most of you have claimed, in one way or another, that Donald Trump is ‘God’s chosen one.’ So, he’s more than just an ‘abrasive individual’ who is like Nebuchadnezzar, as some of you have said. He is the anointed one, ‘the king’ who has already come!

No one has expressed such grandiose view of Donald Trump more than Wayne Allyn Root, who described himself as a “Jew turned evangelical Christian.” Such praise had not escaped Trump’s attention. How could it? Wowed by a comment worthy of royalty—no, a god!—he tweets:

“Thank you to Wayne Allyn Root for the very nice words. ‘President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world…and the Jewish people in Israel love him….[sic].

“…like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God…But American Jews don’t know him or like him. They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense! But that’s OK, if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’s good for…..[sic].

…..[sic] all Jews, Blacks, Gays, everyone. And importantly, he’s good for everyone in America who wants a job.’ Wow!”

“They love him like the second coming of God”? Wow!”

Intrigued, I looked up Revelation 6:2 and read it closely: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer” (KJV).

What my friend, who supports Trump, perhaps missed is that “a crown (which he interprets as “‘corona’ virus”) was given unto him”. Since we are taking it for granted that he is—and all my friends, for that matter are—right, who comes out as the one who was given the corona virus?

You got it: Donald Trump!

I spent many years in seminary studying and exegeting Bible passages, but I must confess I am not a Revelation expert. So for now, I leave it to those who are and trust their conclusion: most scholars agree that the horseman of Revelation 6:2 who was given the crown is the Antichrist.

Hilton Sutton, who fundamentalist Christians regard as “was one of the world’s foremost authorities on the prophetic Scriptures, with a special love for the majestic book of Revelation,” believes that the rider on this white horse is the man destined to become the Antichrist. “Sutton refers to Daniel 9:24-27 for a description of how this Antichrist will come to power. He will make a covenant of peace between Israel and its adversaries for a seven-year period, referred to as ‘one week’.”

So if my friend is right, and the experts’ interpretation that the horseman is the Antichrist, who then fits the role today?

You are right: Donald Trump!

Note that the white horse rider carries a bow, a weapon of war, but no arrows!

Strangely, John makes no mention of arrows or a quiver, although we may infer the former, since a bow is nearly worthless without arrows. (Then again, the lack of arrows may suggest war fought, not with blood-letting weapons, but with words or ideas (italics mine); see Psalm 11:2; 64:2-4; Jeremiah 9:8; Ephesians 6:16.) A bow is a purely offensive weapon, even more so than a sword, and is highly effective from long range…. Thus, the foremost idea behind this biblical symbol is powerful, penetrating, deadly accuracy with an intimation of distance (emphasis added).

Who fits the picture of a man who fights not with a sword but with words?

Right: Donald Trump!

What if Donald Trump is indeed ‘the chosen one’ but chosen not by God but by the evil one?

What if he is the Antichrist, the trump or “little horn” that Daniel 7:8 that “spoke boastfully”? (See also Donald Trump ― 666 Fifth Avenue Mark of the Beast, Born on a Blood Moon! Is Donald Trump the Anti-Christ?…).

What if the Seventh Day Adventists are right?

“…the little horn of Daniel 7 is none other than Donald J. Trump. There has never been a United States president like him; of him could the prophet accurately say, ‘After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones’….

“It is significant that when the prophet saw the little horn in vision, he notes his mouth. Trump’s bragging, pouting mouth is his most frequently caricatured feature.”

What if my former New Testament professor is right? In a message he sent to me, he wrote, “He is unquestionably one of a long line of Antichrists in history. The Republican party is the second Beast of Revelation 13. Christians who vote for him are marking themselves with 666.”

What if you are right about Donald Trump being the chosen one, but not by God?

What if Donald Trump is an anti-Christ, if not the Antichrist?

What if your support of him will result in him winning the election?

And what if, because of victory, he would begin to believe that he is not just a mere man–that he is divine and the “the second coming of God”?

Just imagine what Donald Trump might do if he is emboldened by your vote of confidence and faith in him. The tremendous surge of power and invincibility, I am afraid, would inspire in Trump a deeper level of narcissism and a new and more grandiose image of himself. The “little horn” might just believe he is the Messiah, albeit a false one, and one who would bring more chaos to the world.

It’s up to you, my friends. But think about it.

May God give you wisdom and a clear mind.

Sincerely in Christ,

Ed Fernandez