Over the summer I had a conversation with a friend, and he mused about the threat within the church of Christian nationalism. I said I’d first like to see it defined, as the left’s pre-occupation with Christian nationalism had basically pinned that label on anybody that believes Christian values system should underlie political positions (e.g., if you’re pro-life, you’re a Christian nationalist). I shared that I, on the other hand, was much more concerned about idolatry of Donald Trump in the Church than Christian nationalism. My concern is not with those that want Donald Trump to be president, nor with those that believe God is actively using Donald Trump to fight against the monstrous positions of the left on social issues (e.g., Kamala Harris’ monomaniacal commitment to killing unborn children in the womb), or those that are just big, big Trump supporters. Of the two parties, my own Hobbesian preference would be for Mr. Trump to win over Ms. Harris. So varying levels of political support for Donald Trump are perfectly ok in my book, despite his manifest shortcomings. My concern was and is some Christians suggesting that God is using Donald Trump to “save” America, and that “only Donald Trump” can save America from the evil the Democrats want to inflict. Now I don’t think they are meaning “save” in the same sense that we use that term in the church–they don’t think that Donald Trump is a path to reconcile them to a Holy God. However, some language I see among believers (including in their social media posts) suggests that they place their hope for our earthly future in Donald Trump. He is the only guy that God can or will use to stop evil in our times. Few will actually admit it, but I see more of this than I’d like, such as the cringy prayers for Donald Trump at his rallies. Fortunately there is a Biblical antidote for such thinking in the book of Daniel. So I’m going to share a series of posts from my own study and teaching of Daniel in my own church over the next couple of weeks before the election, to focus on some of the key points of this book with application in our own time. We have a better hope, a better model of leadership, and a better Kingdom that is to come.

The book of Daniel* was written to give the Israelites hope. Their wickedness and rebellion against God had finally brought the curses of Deuteronomy Ch 28-29 upon them. Jerusalem had been captured and many of the Israelites had been taken into captivity–seemingly God had given up on them. Was there a future for them as the world was getting worse and worse? The book of Daniel is written to give hope and clarity to the reality that God never is far away from everything that is happening, and His faithfulness will ultimately deliver his people in His own good timing. The message of Daniel is similar to the role of the book of Revelation in the New Testament in this regard–hope in the face of persecution and the promise that God ultimately wins. Daniel features two main messages that are intimately connected (and may be two sides of the same coin): 1) God is sovereign over the affairs of men, and puts leaders in place according to His own purposes, and 2) While our view of history is about kingdoms of men pursuing earthly power, God is actually working in history to raise up the Kingdom of God, which will grow ever larger and ultimately crush every kingdom of man. As we’ll see when we get to Ch 4 in a later post, God uses the events of history such that “the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.” We can see the beginnings of this right in the first two verses of Daniel:

¹ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ² And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.

Daniel 1:1-2

In v1, we see the Kingdoms of men in play–Nebuchadnezzar is seeking to expand his own earthly kingdom, using the tools of humanity (war, army) to gain what he seeks. Yet v2 gives us the bigger picture: the Lord gave Jehoiakim into his hand. What was seen was the Kingdom of men at work, but actively working behind the scenes was God in His purposes to orchestrate history according to His own purposes. The latter part of v2 gives us hints of the spiritual dimension and conflict that is to come with a description of the vessels of God being captured and sent to the house of a pagan God; we’ll see this come back into play later.

So what is the application for us today? One application is that we need to recognize there is a spiritual dimension to everything that we see happening in this world, which should provide us comfort when we see wicked men (and women) prosper. We need not be dismayed should a modern Nebuchadnezzar despoil our Jerusalem, because 1) God is actively working for our good and His glory, and 2) we are seeking a better country, a heavenly one. Not to mention that Washington DC is much more akin to Babylon than Jerusalem! An implication of this is that yes, Donald Trump was God’s choice for America in 2016. And it was God’s active providence that spared Donald Trump from an assassin’s bullet this summer. But it was also God’s choice to put Joe Biden in place in 2020. That God used Donald Trump, for example, to strike down Roe v Wade does not mean that Donald Trump is his “anointed” man. He was simply a tool in the Master’s hand. As is always the case, the question is not who is God for, but who is for God? As we’ll see in subsequent posts, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris represent Kingdoms of Men, not the Kingdom of God. One may be preferable to the other, but neither are particularly interested in the Kingdom of God (even though both claim a faith perspective). More to come tomorrow.

* This is such an awesome book to study. For a quick overview of Daniel, check out Chris Miller’s overview of Daniel from CU’s online Old Testament survey on Youtube. For a more detailed view, Alistair Begg had a preaching series in Daniel that will be quite helpful. For an accessible commentary on Daniel, consider Sinclair Ferguson‘s.