GTY Comments on Trump Assassination Attempt – Steve Lawson from John MacArthur’s Pulpit

Highlight points [bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening are mine]:

• Christians often look to pastors to help them interpret social events, especially major ones like this one
• Many pastors, according to Pastor Michael Grant (PMG) seem reluctant to do so
• Also, we have learned that news outlets are not reliable [see point 1 below highlights]
• Additionally, our political leaders don’t seem competent in many ways [see point 2 below highlights]
• Pastor John MacArthur is a pastor that is not afraid to interpret events unfolding around us, and he does it in a biblical manner
• He is currently ill, having undergone medical procedure from which he has not yet recuperated
• Steven Lawson, while speaking from the pulpit of Grace Community Chapel, MacArthur’s church, addressed the matter of the attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump
• Lawson mentioned a verse from Job and noted that the days and months… of our lives remain in God’s hands
• God’s sovereign will has set the day of our birth and death and has numbered each of our days in between
• Today, he said, this truth is important for several reasons [one is given on the excerpt]
• Firstly, regarding the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump: it was not his time
• God has determined the number of his days and it was not yet that day
• PMG- that is the biblical response
• Listeners asked PMG about the words of another pastor that spoke before the RNC, speaking words like “anointed” when referring to Trump
• PMG distinguished the term as used in the Old and New Testaments: in the Old, King David, e.g., was anointed by the Prophet Samuel – people who were significantly used by God carrying out His plan were anointed like that in the Old Testament
• In the New Testament, born-again believers are anointed
• So, if Trump were born again, then he would be anointed by the Holy Spirit
• PMG cannot assess that matter accurately [PMG is speaking biblically on this matter, the term “anointed” is thrown around loosely by many, Charismatics, the NAR… who do not use it according to scripture]
• Many Christians may not like Pastors MacArthur or Lawson, but they do not go beyond the words of scripture when they speak about the things of God
• People asked PMG if Trump’s surviving the assassination attempt was a miracle
• No, a miracle is a supernatural event wherein God, e.g., overrules the laws of nature, as in the parting of the Red Sea; or the resurrection of Jesus
• God’s sovereign decrees are carried out regardless of the choices of men – that is, the shooter (s) were attempting to kill Trump, he did not die because God’s appointed time for his death has not yet come
• PMG gave a couple of verses on God’s sovereignty [a few more added at end of post]
• Psalm 115:3  Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases
• Proverbs 19:21  Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand
• Also, all verses that speak of God “predestining”
• Also, see the biblical account of the life of Joseph: Genesis 37-50 [therein, the evil plans of Joseph’s brothers were used by God for good, Joseph perceived and articulated that as well]
• You personally might not care about the political machinations that are causing distress to many in this country; you might only have anxiety about your own problems
• Still, you may be calmed, comforted… by reading and thinking on verses about God’s sovereignty
• Having faith in His sovereignty should bring you peace [End PMG]

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Additional points:

1. Many news outlets are owned by leftists and are most focused on reporting ‘news’ that supports their agenda; that agenda seems to derive from globalists and is patterned after Communist China
2. I have heard Pastors MacArthur and Morecraft speak on God’s judgments on America.

From the books of Isaiah and Romans (chapter 1) in particular. When God is bringing down a nation, He removes competent leaders in all spheres of society and replaces them with incompetent ones. 

Example text from Isaiah 3 of the Christian Standard Bible, CSB:

Isaiah 3:1  Note this: The Lord GOD of Armies is about to remove from Jerusalem and from Judah every kind of security: the entire supply of bread and water, 2  heroes and warriors, judges and prophets, fortune-tellers and elders, 3  commanders of fifty and dignitaries, counselors, cunning magicians, and necromancers. 
Isaiah 3:4  “I will make youths their leaders, and unstable rulers will govern them.”
Isa 3:5  The people will oppress one another, man against man, neighbor against neighbor; the young will act arrogantly toward the old, and the worthless toward the honorable.
Isa 3:6  A man will even seize his brother in his father’s house, saying: “You have a cloak—you be our leader! This heap of rubble will be under your control.”
Isa 3:7  On that day he will cry out, saying: “I’m not a healer. I don’t even have food or clothing in my house. Don’t make me the leader of the people!”
Isa 3:8  For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they have spoken and acted against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.
Isa 3:9  The look on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom, they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster on themselves.

MacArthur and Morecraft show that such things have been happening for 50 years or more. MacArthur noted, in a sermon, that he always wondered what the “reprobate” mind would look like, but since he has witnessed the trans movement he understands: “it’s when a man thinks he’s a woman….” And he further noted, that there is not coming back from that. [No return to ‘normal’]

Romans 1:28 …God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient [KJV]

MacArthur said that we are in that phase of Romans 1, the last phase; that he doesn’t know how long it will last, a few years or a few decades (my paraphrase).

Some other things he spoke of in sermons like the above was the legislating of evil; the punishing of the righteous; forcing law-abiding citizens to become reprobates, because the reprobate mind is governing this society…. Therein he was speaking biblically, as in Romans 13, the Bible states that the laws of a society are to protect the law-abiding citizen and to punish criminals…. This society is legislating more freedom to criminals.

Those things happen to a society when it is under judgment by God. The answer is not to find a more competent political leader… but to repent of sins and turn from them.

Below are some other verses, of the many in the Bible, that speak of God’s sovereignty:

Ephesians 1:11  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will

Romans 8:28  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Psalm 139:16  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of themESV

Psa 139:16  Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began CSV

Acts 17:26  And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place

Psalm 33:11  The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

Psalm 135:6  Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

Isaiah 46:9  remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10  declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’