Rick Perry, former Secretary of Energy and Governor of Texas, created a kerfuffle recently when he claimed during an interview that Donald Trump was “ordained by God” to be President of the United States. This theme has been around since candidate Trump sought to woo evangelicals as an acceptable alternative to not only Hillary Clinton, but other Republicans. Some evangelical Trump supporters eventually used such language to describe our president.

Trump was like Esther, chosen for “such a time as this.” He has been proclaimed as a modern day Cyrus, anointed by God. God “raised up” Donald Trump, God “showed up,” and the providential “hand of God” shaped the election itself.

There is much to unpack with this line of thinking, and though a blog post runs the risk of being simplistic, the matter is worth discussing. These statements should be distinguished from one another to a degree. In a Romans 13:1-7 sort of way, of course it is true that President Trump was “ordained” and “chosen” by God. To Rick Perry’s credit, in the interview linked above, he said the same was true for President Obama and other political leaders.

Scripture teaches, not only in Romans, but throughout the Old Testament, that God has not just an interest in the ways of kings, but a hand in their rise and fall. God uses, for his own glory and purpose, nations and leaders, ranging from Pharaoh in the story of Exodus to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. The book of Habakkuk is devoted to the prophet’s question for God. Why is it that “justice goes forth perverted?” God’s answer reveals much. “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Hab. 1:4-5). This work, of course, was the increase of the Babylonians and the decrease of God’s own people, even to the point of captivity.

If we take these principles and passages to heart, statements like Perry’s are true and orthodox. God does not wake up the day after America’s elections worrying about who might have won. Donald Trump is “chosen” just as every leader is chosen. This language, though, does not mark God’s “approval” or “blessing,” or even the goodness of the leader. God uses “good” leaders and “evil” leaders for his own ends. To say that Donald Trump is chosen says nothing else about him as a leader. It merely signifies his status.

This thinking strains orthodoxy when there is an effort to move past a leader’s status and toward an affiliation or special relationship with God’s will. Claiming President Trump is “anointed” by God, for example, suggests he has been set apart and marked by God. God’s anointed, especially in the Old Testament, carry divine authority. They bear his imprimatur.

The connection between Trump and Cyrus probably comes closest to such excess. In 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and in pieces of Isaiah, we see references to Cyrus as God’s anointed even though there is no indication he was a believer. He freed Jewish captives in Babylon and assisted in the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. Trump is sometimes hailed as a modern Cyrus, a flawed vessel still carrying out holy ends. His decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem especially accelerated such talk. One Israeli group even minted special coins depicting Trump alongside Cyrus to commemorate the event.

Candidly, Christians should stay away from such rhetoric for several reasons. First, and maybe most obviously, the United States is not Israel and cannot claim to be God’s chosen people. Donald Trump’s actions on behalf of Americans has no relationship to Cyrus’s actions designed to promote and protect the people of God. As for Trump’s movement of the embassy, it is difficult to imagine such an act bears the same weight as rebuilding God’s holy dwelling place. In other words, the connections between Cyrus’s actions and President Trump’s are strained at best and absent at worst.

Second, while it is possible that God has “set apart” or “anointed” Donald Trump as he did Cyrus, we have no way of knowing that. We can have full confidence of what the Bible says about Cyrus and God’s use of him. We have no similar record of God’s use of Donald Trump. We have suppositions, but those are not sufficient to say, affirmatively, this leader has been deliberately used by God to do God’s good work.

Third, and finally, associating President Trump with God improperly also redefines those who oppose the President. If he is “God’s man” in the White House, what does that make his critics? At minimum, they are opposed to God and his will. At maximum, as Franklin Graham and Eric Metaxas suggest, those who oppose President Trump are “demonic.”

By elevating political disagreements, which could be valid, into struggles between the forces of God and the forces of Satan, political critics are marginalized. If some evangelicals truly believe those who oppose President Trump are demonic, could they worship alongside such a people? Or, is support of the President required for fellowship? The divisiveness inherent in such language is obvious and troubling.