The Assassination Attempt on President Trump and Interpreting Providence

I was dozing off at 6:20 pm one Saturday last summer when a friend called me to say, “They shot Trump.” I was fully awake after hearing those three words! Anyone who doesn’t hate President Trump is very happy that the bullet from the high-powered rifle just grazed his ear. I don’t want to think what might be happening in America if the shot would have been fatal. 

Some of the comments you hear on TV, social media, radio, etc., centers around this thought, “God saved President Trump’s life.” If that is true, why didn’t God save the life of Corey Comperatore — the fireman who was assassinated by the rogue gunman? When I hear the statement, “God saved Trump’s life/turned his head” my mind immediately goes to the wife and children of Comperatore and the other injured victims. What must they think? Was President Trump’s life more important than their injured or lost lives? No, of course not. 

Let us look at the subject of interpreting providence, and what do we mean by providence? Providence is that which is directly influenced and affected by the hand of God. There are three reasons why events happen. 1) God causes them. 2) Nature affects them. 3) The freewill choices of people. All events can be categorized under these three causes. 

“Is it possible to interpret providence? Can we accurately interpret God’s will in the events that occur around us? Generally speaking, the answer to such questions is no, with a qualification to be mentioned shortly. The problem lies in our inability to distinguish between God’s purposive will and His permissive will without special revelation” (What The Bible Says About God The Ruler, Cottrell, p. 326, emphasis in original). This was the purpose of the prophets in the Old Testament. Under God’s divine inspiration, the prophets warned the people of His judgment. There are no divinely inspired prophets today. They ceased when the word of God was completed (1 Cor. 13:8-10). How can someone say, “I know God did this or that” when we don’t have divine inspiration to validate what we supposedly “know?” 

“Now, whenever anything occurs because of a human action, it is really impossible for us to tell whether God is working out some purpose via special providence, or whether He is just permitting it to take place. That is, it is impossible to tell this without special revelation from God … only God can give a sure interpretation of His own acts” (What The Bible Says About God The Ruler, Cottrell, p. 327). 

The problem you run into with the “I know God did this or that” is another person may be just as certain that God did the opposite of what you think He did in the same event. What makes you right and them wrong? For example, a Christian farmer prays for dry weather to get his hay crop baled while his Christian neighbor prays for rain for his corn crop. If it doesn’t rain, does that mean God said “yes” to one prayer and “no” another? I once heard a preacher tell the following story. He said, a man told him he was supposed to do something. The preacher said, “How do you know that?” The man said, “God told me.” To this the preacher replied, “When God tells me what you said he told you to tell me then I will believe what you said God told you to tell me!” 

Much of what goes on in the world falls under the freewill choices of people and that which God allows but does not cause. We reject the Calvinist teaching that everything that happens is God’s will as in His determinative will/what He purposes to happen. If that was true, and it isn’t, that would make God responsible for every evil event under the sun including the subject we are addressing here. If not, why not? 

More than twenty years ago, a tree fell on a preacher’s car while he and his family were driving along some woods east of Indianapolis, Indiana. The preacher, his wife, and two children perished when the tree smashed their car. Only a baby in a car seat survived. The next day on the noon news, I heard people from their church say, “It was just God’s will.” Really? When that baby grew up and was old enough to understand what happened to his/her parents, would you say to them, “God dropped a tree on your family’s car, and they all died except you, now don’t you want to become a Christian?” NO! The explanation for the tree incident falls under number two above — an act of nature. Trees fall and that family was in the wrong place at the wrong time just as Jesus explained about the deaths caused by the fall of the tower of Siloam (Luke 13:4-5). God had nothing to do with it. 

“The point is that we must curb our tendencies to offer quick and glib interpretations of events in terms of God’s will … But now for the qualification mentioned above. While recognizing that we cannot give a sure interpretation without a prophetic message from God, I believe it is appropriate for a Christian to entertain his own private speculations as to what God may be doing in a particular event or situation … That is especially true with regard to answered prayer. How can a Christian who has prayed for a specific favor with perseverance and intensity avoid the conclusion that God has answered his prayers, if that particular favor becomes his? Such a conviction is proper, at least within the bounds of his own personal piety” (What The Bible Says About God The Ruler, p. 329). Amen, we must always give God credit for all good. 

We don’t know if God turned President Trump’s head at just the right time because Jeremiah and Paul are not here to tell us. However, we can thank God that President Trump’s life was spared either by His divine intervention or by the chance of a missed shot. 

In conclusion, let me caution you about saying, “I know God did this” when your statement may cause someone else to say, “If that’s true, why didn’t God do the same thing in my family? He let your child live, but my child died.” Sometimes well-intentioned comments hurt others who had a different outcome. Let us always trust and rejoice in this fact, whether God caused something, or the outcome was random, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

That is a divine promise!