Once a benevolent King Cyrus, Trump has lately been considered a biblical avenger

(RNS) — He’s a type of Cyrus, the ancient Persian emperor. Or a modern Job, who defiantly endures diabolical persecution. He is Esther, placed by providence “for such a time as this.” Now he is a David, a flawed but anointed man of God…

Meet Donald Trump, biblical role model.

In the last decade, the Christian theologians of Trump, about whom I write my new bookthey have made a hobby of connecting the famously profane, greedy and greedy real estate mogul to biblical heroes and quoted Bible verses. The mix of biblical characters, all mirrors of Trump and his cosmic destiny to rule America, are a pillar of his appeal to evangelical Christians.

More recently, however, these biblical allusions and correlations have taken an ominous turn. The latest iteration of this trope is Trump as the obscure Hebrew Bible character King Jehu, an equivalence that may signal tacit acceptance that Trump is bringing a wave of violence.

Almost as soon as Trump entered the political scene in earnest, charismatic prophetswhose evangelical followers credit they are literally speaking the word of God today, they presented Trump as a figure of Bible prophecy. The original and perhaps still the most iconic such comparison was forwarded by the Alabama pastor Jeremiah Johnson just a month after Trump became a presidential candidate in 2015, matching Trump with Persian King Cyrus the Great.

After Cyrus and his Persian armies conquered the Babylonian Empire, Cyrus sent the Israelites, then captives in Babylon, home to rebuild Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah refers to Cyrus as God’s “anointed,” noting that the Gentile king does not recognize the Hebrew deity. In Isaiah’s vision, Cyrus is a secular liberator, an instrument in the hand of God.

This Cyrus-Trump comparison has become one of those key evangelical rationalizations for supporting Trump in 2016: He is not a believer or even a good man, but he is God’s man. Johnson and a handful of other prophets who bet big on Trump winning have become celebrities in the evangelical media. Charismatic prophets like Lance Wallnau and Paula White then brokered the embrace partnership between Trump and his ever-loyal evangelical voter base, viewing Trump as God’s chosen pseudo-biblical instrument for the restoration of American Christianity.

Thus began a avalanche of such prophecies. Encouraged to feed the fervent demands of his Christian supporters for increasingly positive messages about Trump, hundreds—perhaps thousands—of charismatic evangelical prophets have jumped into the pro-Trump prophecy market.

But since Harris became Trump’s opponent, the dominant biblical figure invoked in these prophecy circles has begun to shift away from Cyrus (or Job, Esther, or David) and toward Jehu, a chilling model for the post-election season.

Jehu ascended the throne of Israel after the infamous reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, two of the most disgusting characters in the biblical narrative, who led the people of Israel to worship false gods, persecuted the godly remnant of the Israelites, and faced against the famous prophets Elijah and Elisha.

The name Jezebel was once a common word for a scheming woman, but in charismatic circles, where the images of the Hebrew Bible are larger than life, it still has force as a description of sexual promiscuity, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and other attributes of what they consider. malignant feminism. Charismatic prophets have lamented for decades how the “Jezebel spirit” has taken over American culture, and Harris, after becoming the Democratic nominee, was almost instantaneous. labeled with the name.

Jehu, anointed king after Ahab’s death, he presides over Jezebel’s annihilation. He asks her servants to throw her from a high tower, then tramples her body with his horse. Wild dogs come and eat his corpse. The message of the story: Jezebel was so profane, so odious, that all memory of her was eradicated.

“Queen Isabella Punished by Jehu” by Andrea Celesti, late 17th century. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

A few weeks ago, tens of thousands of evangelicals gathered on the National Mall for a day of prayer, worship and prophecy to influence elections. At the culmination of 10 hours of politicized religious fervorone of the country’s most respected charismatic Christian leaders, a pastor and apostle from California named Ché Ahn, who this week was photographed in the center of a circle of Christian leaders laying hands and praying for Trump, he stood up declare God’s will: “Donald Trump is a Jehu type and Kamala Harris is a Jezebel type. As you know, Jehu banished Jezebel. … I decree in the mighty name of Jesus and I decree by faith that Trump will win on November 5th, he will be our 47th president and Kamala Harris will be kicked out and she will lose.”

The vice president’s connection—herself a Baptist Christian—to Izabela in our moment charged with political violence is limited to a threat on her life.

Another challenge came in the form of Trump COLLECTED with his National Faith Advisory Council, his official circle of evangelical advisers, on October 25 and The Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, bestselling author books about prophecyspeak this statement over Trump from the stage:

President Trump… God has called you to follow the pattern of Jehu, a warrior king. He called Jehu to make his nation great again. Jehu came to the capital with an agenda to drain the swamp… If (God) should now bring you to the pinnacle of power, it will be for his glory. It will be the last act and perhaps the last chance to save America.

Cahn and the other prophets who use this image don’t just note interesting parallels between Trump and Jehu. Rather, they direct Trump to operate according to Jehu’s template, a biblical script that must be fulfilled.

Notice, for example, how Jehu “drained the swamp” of Israel, a story told in the Bible. the second Book of Kings. Jezebel’s execution pales in comparison. After defenestration of Jezebel, Jehu goes on a rampage, slaughtering all of Ahab and Jezebel’s children, piling their heads at the city gates. He proceeds to kill hundreds of Israelite citizens, including religious leaders who supported Jezebel. One of the most brutal and vengeful scenes in the Bible, Jehu’s vengeance is offered as a God-ordained template for a second Trump term.

We might dismiss the Jehu comparisons as a metaphor if we hadn’t been listening to Trump’s recent rally speeches. These biblical quotes reflect Trump’s campaign rhetoric, which itself has taken a more vindictive and violent turn. He launched his 2024 campaign by saying“I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your punishment.” Close it with promises of eradication”the enemy within” and calling his American adversaries “parasite.”

Like Jehu’s rage against the old regime, Trump promises to cleanse government and society (with violence if necessary) of the evil forces his people hate and fear.

These biblical invocations reveal the accommodations Christians have made to embrace an authoritarian populist vulgarity. As the source for all truth and guidance in the evangelical faith, the Bible shapes the imagination of evangelical Christians. Casting Trump as Jehu creates theological permission for Christians to embrace Trump’s promised violence.

If he wins this election, the image of Jehu tells Trump’s Christian supporters that real-world violence may be necessary to cleanse America of its demons. If he loses, especially to Kamala Harris, the Jehu model prescribes revenge and violence until the Harris regime is annihilated.

(Matthew D. Taylor is a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore and author of the forthcoming book “The violent take by force: The Christian Movement That Threatens Our Democracy.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)