I’ve been disturbed and grieved by statements from many Christians since the US Presidential election that God’s sovereign will is now clear: Trump and other Republican Party wins of the presidency, Senate and House of Representatives reflect God’s choices. The underlying assumption is that God is sovereign: behind-the-scenes controlling and even micro-managing of national and world political affairs.
If whoever comes to power is there in accordance with God’s sovereign will, then presidents like Barack Obama and Joe Biden were also God’s chosen candidates, which many conservative Christians would not affirm. If God is the mastermind behind every governing leader’s action, then Stalin’s totalitarian reign of terror, Hitler’s ascendancy and subsequent extermination of 6 million Jews, Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack overseen by democratically-elected Yahya Sinwar, Israel’s brutal response, as well as oppressive regimes and genocides the world over must logically be considered God’s will. A hyper-sovereign theology attributes whatever happens, good or evil (and not just what we want) to God.
There are a few key Scriptures that are misused to support this theology which I want to briefly examine here, before looking at some other ways to identify God’s movement in history.
Romans 13:1 is mistakenly cited to support the notion that God establishes human leaders, and that we must all submit to them. Let’s take a closer look at this text.
“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”
The Greek term used here for authority, exousia, refers to non-human systems rather than to individual leaders. In fact, Colossians 1:16 states that that all things “have been created through him [Christ] and for him.” While “all things” include human beings and the material world, non-human powers are mentioned, including exousia: “whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities (exousia).”
Thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities refer to positions, roles, systems, laws, ideologies, economies, borders, organizations and such that allow for human organization. Paul is calling Jesus-followers to respect human organizational systems as being established by God as part of creation– and not individual, human leaders.
Elsewhere Peter writes that believers are to subject to “every human institution,” and to human leaders like emperors or governors (1 Pt 2:13-14), for whom we are also called to pray (1 Tm 2:1-4). But he doesn’t mention these leaders are chosen or established by God!
Colossians 1:17 clarifies that Jesus is “head of the body, the church; and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself [and not an earthly leader] will come to have first place in everything.”
Yet we see Jesus himself subjecting himself to the rulers and authorities as Paul and Peter affirm, willingly accepting crucifixion by the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman Empire as the means whereby he defeats the Ruler of this world, destroying death and “making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1:20).
Systems made “by Christ and for Christ,” who is “head” and has “first place,” evokes Psalm 2, which uses some of the same language regarding rulers as Romans 13 and Colossians, and echoes Christ’s supremacy.
“The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed” (Ps 2:1).
Kings and rulers are openly hostile to the Lord and his anointed throughout this Psalm. They do not behave like they were created by and for Christ, nor do they do not govern according to God’s will. Here’s what the Lord says about them and about his King, Christ and Son:
“The One who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “as for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill” (Ps 2:4-6).
The Anointed one (Christ in the Septuagint), identified as the Son of God then speaks:
“I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps 2:7-9).
The declarations in Psalm 2 fit with later statements about Jesus’ victory over the rulers, powers and authorities (exousia) in the New Testament (Eph 1:20-23), all of which God put “in subjection under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church” (Eph 2:22). These non-human powers and the last enemy, death itself, will be destroyed by Jesus at the end of history (1 Cor 15:24-25. In the meantime, these powers are commanded to themselves submit to God’s Anointed.
“Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Ps 2:10-12).
The role of the prophet in the Biblical tradition was to hold human leaders accountable, requiring them to act in accordance with God’s will, which includes justice for the poor and oppressed. Moses is sent by the Lord as a prophet before Pharaoh to advocate for his enslaved people, commanding him on the Lord’s behalf: “Let my people go!” The prophets anointed Israel’s kings, and spoke truth to them, warning, challenging and opposing them on behalf of God.
The prophet Samuel resisted the people’s will to have a king like the other nations. God told Samuel to give the people the king they wanted: “They are not rejecting you, but they have rejected me from being king over them” (1 Sam 8:7). Samuel warned the people of the negative consequences, before anointing Saul, whom he challenged regularly as God’s prophet.
God’s prophets often warned kings and the people that their choices would lead to negative consequences—such as the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and people being killed and exile and enslavement by foreign powers. Prophetic challenge was often met by severe persecution by authorities- like Jeremiah, who was thrown into a pit.
Remember that Paul wrote Romans 13 while he was under house arrest by the Roman Empire. Romans 13 immediately follows Romans 12:14-21, where he calls disciples to bless those who persecute them, to never pay back evil for evil and to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good. This is most clearly visible in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
God’s will does not equal the people’s will
It is more accurate to say that in a democratic election it is not God’s will that prevails, but rather the will of the people. It was a majority of US citizen voters who elected Donald Trump. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that the majority vote determines the will of God, that people’s voice equaling God’s voice!
God does let us as human beings freely make bad choices that go against his will. Scripture describes people as sheep, lost, or easily led astray by bad shepherds.
“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Is 53:6).
“My people have become lost sheep; Their shepherds have led them astray” (Jer 50:6).
The Apostle Paul, quoting from Psalm 14:1-3 writes in Romans 3:10-12:
As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one” (Rom 3:10-12).
To the extent that repentance doesn’t happen, we can be assured we will have a fatally-flawed electorate, that will choose reckless leaders like Israel did when they wanted a king. These leaders may bring judgement on their enemies (deserved in some cases?). They will also bring chaos and devastation from which God will not shield us—the just consequences for believing lies and trusting the untrustworthy. And as usual, the weakest and most vulnerable will suffer the most.
Who is the Ruler of this World?
Finally, during this time before the end of history, when Jesus will return to fully usher in the Kingdom of God, the Bible describes “the whole world as lying under the power of the Evil One (1 Jn 5:19). It is the “dragon” who “gave authority to the beast,” (Rv 13:4), and not God.
“The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rv 12:9).
When Jesus is tempted by the devil in the wilderness, the devil said to him: “I will give you all this domain (exousia) and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. “Therefore if you worship before me, it shall all be yours” (Lk 4:6-7).
Jesus doesn’t disagree with the devil’s statements. Rather he puts the devil in his place, under his feet. Jesus simultaneously gives us a clear directive to resist the devil’s temptation to political power, reflecting his sovereign will:
“It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only” (Lk 4:8).
In 2 Thessalonians Paul describes “a man of lawlessness as coming, a son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship… whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan [and not the will of God], with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth” (2 Thes 2:3-4, 9-10).
Notice here that the consequences of human choices are highlighted. People “did not receive the love of the truth.” And God then sends a consequent judgment:
“For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (1 Thes 2:11-12).
It seems we are seeing this now– evidenced in the blatant use and acceptance of unchecked deception in Trump’s election campaign. As an antidote, let us now pursue the truth that will make us free. I invite you to listen to my podcast released today: “How do you know what is true?”
