Trump – God’s wrecking ball which is shaking things up

Introduction

Whatever you may think about U.S. President Trump I think we can all agree that he has certainly shaken things up in the last 4 years.  You could say that he is a human “wrecking ball” which is smashing through long-held prejudices both at home in America and overseas.  My particular interest is in what is happening in the Middle East particularly now that we have just seen the latest installment with his so-called “peace agreements” with Arab states Bahrain and UAE.  They are only the third and fourth Arab states to recognise Israel after Egypt and Jordan so this is a big deal in some respects particularly with Biblical prophecy.

6000 years nearly up

As I have mentioned in many of my posts, my view is that we are moving steadily towards the very last seven years known as the “Great Tribulation.”  This is partly because we are nearing the end of a 6000 year period of the earth’s history since creation which can be calculated using “mini timelines” in the Bible.  The first 2000 years from Adam up to Abraham can be calculated using the genealogies in the book of Genesis.  The next 2000 years can be measured using 4 timelines of lots of 500 year periods up to the coming of Jesus Christ.  These consist of 500 years from Abraham to the Exodus out of Egypt, the 500 year period of the judges, the 500 year period of the kings starting with Saul, David, and Solomon, and then a final 500 year period prophesied in Daniel known as the 70 weeks prophecy.¹  We know that Christ died in 30 A.D. leaving us a final 2000 year period up to 2030 A.D. or so.  According to a number of early church fathers, they believed that history would culminate after 6000 years with the final 1000 years being a type of Sabbath rest which we know to be the millennial kingdom.  This was known as “Chiliasm.” The key is the statement twice in the Bible that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day.  The thinking is that the creation week is being replicated in lots of 1000 years for each day.

Biblical significance of Donald Trump

So with all of that, I believe that we are definitely in the last days and Trump has had a significant role to play in getting things ready not that he is probably even cognizant of this at all.  It is more likely an appeasement to evangelical voters in the U.S.  So what has he done in the first term of his presidency in terms of possible Biblical significance?

Well, for starters in December 2017, Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced that the U.S. Embassy would be relocating there.  In May 2018 it actually moved to Jerusalem.  In March 2019, Trump recognised the northern Golan Heights near Syria as being a part of Israel.  In January 2020, Trump ordered the assassination of Iran’s second most powerful leader, General Soleimani to the uproar of the Palestinians and many in the Muslim world.  And in September we have just seen the so-called “Abraham Accords” with the the UAE and Bahrain which isolate Iran and Palestine.  The significance of this is that this has shaken up decades of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.  Trump truly is a human wrecking ball.  What other U.S. leaders including Bush and Obama have been too scared or unwilling to do, he has done with the stroke of a thick pen.  The man is a walking disaster in terms of his pride and narcissism and the world is gobsmacked at the things that he says and does via tweets and social media.  But there is one thing that we need to remember!  God is the one who raises kings and presidents and leaders and He is the one who is ultimately in control as it says in Daniel 2:20-21, “Praise be to the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are his.  He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them.”

Major conflict brewing in the Middle East

Trump may be a human wrecking ball and is doing what he thinks is right but God is using this man to accomplish His great purposes.  And that may be very well to get us to the point, prophetically and politically speaking, where there will be a major conflict where the Arab and Muslim nations form an alliance against Israel.  This is outlined in Psalm 83 and Isaiah 17 in the oracle against Damascus in Syria.  It seems upon study that there will be an alliance of many Muslim countries against Israel where the northern part of Israel known as Ephraim will be suddenly destroyed overnight.²  Damascus will be collateral damage in this attack aimed at Israel and Damascus will be no more–completely flattened, a heap of ruins.³  This will open the door for southern Jordan to be a place of refuge in God’s hidden place in the wilderness hinted at in Daniel 11:41, Matthew 24:15-20, and Revelation 12:6.  The northern part of Jordan, the northern part of Israel, and Syria will have been devastated by this sudden likely nuclear attack.  This will take some faith on the part of worldwide believers as probably only a few years later they will need to travel to an area that is very close to a nuclear zone to get to a place of refuge.  But hey, no one said it was going to be a walk in the park.  Just as Abraham was tested in his faith journey in leaving Mesopotamia (modern-day Kuwait) we too will be tested in our own faith journey in the coming days.

Conclusion

The scene is being set for the final few years and Trump is unwittingly a part of this.  I believe God is using his headstrong and proud nature to bring about His will.  These so-called “peace agreements” that we are seeing at the moment, I believe, are bringing pressure upon Iran.  It is bringing things to a head where they will be forced to act against their nemesis whom they hate so much.  It wasn’t that many years ago when former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to wipe Israel off the map.  We know that will never happen because Israel is God’s inheritance.⁴