President Trump's Presidential Inauguration is just a day away. His speech will be heard around the world. What will he say?
Before I get into what Trump will say, I must remind what Trump has already said which has already marked the day. "ALL THE HOSTAGES have to be released." Otherwise, "There will be HELL TO PAY!" (Click to read my my post about "hell to pay.")
Notice Trump didn't say "a deal was reached" by Inauguration Day. Notice Trump didn't say some partial number of hostages.
Trump knew that ALL the hostages would NOT be released by Inauguration Day!! I believe Trump was foreshadowing something much bigger was ahead for his presidency.
Imagine if Trump sounded like Lincoln on Inauguration Day. President Lincoln is famous for working scriptures into his public addresses. Imagine if he quoted Matthew 6.9. Who can forget Lincoln's iconic "House Divided" speech.
Will Trump invoke the role of Devine Providence in bringing himself and our Nation to the moment? For openers, I'd like to think Trump will say something akin to Judaism's Shehecheyanu blessing:
"Blessed are You, L-rd our G‑d, King of the Universe, who has granted us life, sustained us and enabled us to reach this occasion."
Heads would explode if Trump sounded like Abraham Lincoln. Atheists, Satanists and Secularist would not like it, to say the least, if Trump made statements like Lincoln!
In 1863 Lincoln issued a proclamation. Lincoln began the way the Jesus taught us to pray, by first acknowledging the Power of the Almighty, El Shaddai, over the Government.
Lincoln said it was the "duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."
President Lincoln questioned whether the National calamity of the Civil War was a "punishment and chastisement in the world." Lincoln called the people's attention to our sinful nature and he accused the people of our great nation of forgetting the "gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us."
Furthermore, President Lincoln said that we are guilty of "vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Lincoln claimed that we had been "Intoxicated with unbroken success."
It is hard to look back at photographas of our country in the mid-1800's through Lincoln's eyes. It's hard to appreciate the numbers, wealth and power he perceived in America at that time. Nonetheless, President Lincoln said that as a result of our vanities we had become "too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"
Lincoln had a prescription for the Nation. That was the purpose of Lincoln's proclamation. He said it "behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." Lincoln, the President of had a biblical solution; to declare that our Nation set apart (make Holy) a day for National prayer and humiliation (fasting).
Imagine if Trump sounded like Lincoln on Inauguration Day!
One passionate student of American history has given considerable thought to the parallels between Lincoln and Trump. She is not alone! In February 2020 I posted a blog article in which I listed the ones I saw. I called that post "It's Hard to Tell the Differences."
A year later, on February 22nd 2021, Gretchen Wollart published a book titled "Born To Fight" which explores them. According to Ms. Wollart, Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump are two of a kind despite terms in office separated by 150-plus years.
Both encountered a biased press and deeply divisive political environments.
Each was viewed as an ill-equipped outlier. Their wives, the first ladies, were ostracized by Washington's elite.
Lincoln was known by those closest to him for his supreme self-confidence, inexhaustible ambition, mean streak, braggadocio, arrogance, vanity, and knack for thriving amid conflict. I could have just described Trump. Both Lincoln and Trump were born to fight!
On Monday we shall hear what Trump has to say. Will there be "hell to pay?" Where is Trump's "civil war" against the "Deep State" going to lead?
I already know this. There is something providential in the moment. Therefore, I believe it is correct to say that we need to pray for our nation.
"Yitgadal Ve-Yitkadash Shemei Rabbah" -- "Magnified and sanctified be His great name.”
In closing, I want to make an observation and a prediction about Mount Rushmore. Below is a picture of Mount Rushmore Monument.
First my observation: You'll notice that there is room for one more president to the side of Lincoln. I'm no sculptor, but it seems to me to be best suited for a side-profile rather than a front-profile like all the others.
That is no coincidence. 😉
"Trump will become a trumpet." How do you explain Kim Clements prophecy? Just another coincidence?
