Trump, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Blood Bath of God
Whether he knows it or not, the 45th president is ushering in a dangerous - and likely violent - new era in American politics. The question is what happens next?
It is now an indisputable fact of history that Donald Trump is no longer merely a former and future President, or just another “chaos agent” or even a once-in-a-lifetime political candidate.
Something else is going on with Donald Trump. Something much weirder - and no, not the amorphous DNC talking point kind of weird - and far more substantive than the mere political circus our dying mainstream media want us to see.
There is a sense that in every bit as much as Barack Obama had his own indecipherable transcendent sheen (no doubt magnified on an unprecedented scale by a willing and fawning MSM), so, too, does Trump possess an almost exact counterpart in form and function - and all with a hostile media scrutinizing his every step.
Consider the evidence.
Obama smirked at the American Flag. Trump hugged it.
Obama embraced and expanded the domestic reach of the U.S. intelligence community. Trump is clearly at war with it.
Obama employed pagan deity imagery - remember the temple of Zeus for the 2008 Democratic National Convention? - to officially launch his first presidential nomination. Trump aligns himself with Messianic language and iconography, whether its his own “Trump Heights” in Israel or his declaration that he is the “chosen one” (more on that later).
Obama sat under a church which teaches Black Liberation Theology as his home. Trump regularly aligns himself with White Evangelical figures who may never outright signal such blasphemy, but still come dangerously close to approaching it nonetheless with their Trump worship.
And then there are the headlines.
While our decrepit establishment news media eventually made their way to the (accurate) descriptions of “shooting” and “attempted assassination,” it took them a minute, which in the era of push notifications and viral videos, simply isn’t good enough.
With vague descriptors like “loud noises” and “popping sounds” to describe what anyone who was watching the rally would easily identify as gunfire, esteemed Fourth Estate shareholders like the Washington Post and USA Today just couldn’t bring themselves to acknowledge the obvious fact that Trump was nearly assassinated on live TV.
Even after the 45th president was seen clearly bleeding onstage, CNN could barely muster the following headline: “Trump injured in incident at rally.”
Take a second look at the time stamp on that one - 7:10 p.m. Eastern time. According to authorities, gunfire erupted at approximately 6:11 p.m., nearly a full hour before that headline was published.
That, dear reader, encapsulates the state of our gatekeeper media today.
But perhaps most unsettling - and even more unexpected - about all of this is the parallels between how both Trump and Obama have been deified by their respective bases.
You may recall the meteoric rise of Barack Hussein Obama from state senator to history-making presidential candidate amid a full-on media blitz touting his piety and even sublimity with repeated references to Obama as various deities, including the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
There were the Newsweek covers that proclaimed “The Second Coming” of Obama and the 44th president as “God of All Things.”
The 2010 cover - which featured Obama with six arms, standing on one leg, in a pose reminiscent of the Hindu deity Shiva Nataraja - reportedly outraged Hindus, whose idolatry is unparalleled among the world’s religions.
Shiva Nataraja, by the way, is the Hindu god of creation, destruction and grace. Just sayin’.
During and even prior to his presidency, Obama, in a departure from every single one of his predecessors dating all the way back to George Washington, didn’t shy away from attacking Christianity in order to score political points.
In a 2006 speech he delivered at a “Call to Renewal” conference sponsored by the liberal Christian group Sojourners, then-Sen. Barack Obama said: “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation – at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”
“We are no longer a Christian nation, or at least not just," he claimed, "We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers."
Because of this, Obama argued, making political policy based solely on religious beliefs is unsustainable. He gives the example of a Christian who objects to abortion on religious grounds: though they may feel strongly that is wrong because of their religion, he says, they cannot use the Bible as their evidence.
Absolutely mockery of the inspiration, infallibility and inerrancy of the Scriptures. But because he did so openly, leftist Evangelical groups like the National Association of Evangelicals threw their support behind his blasphemous words.
In his now-infamous speech, Obama also noted that, if the government was led by religion, many books of the Bible would not be applicable for making policy. As the audience laughs, he argued that Biblical books such as Leviticus, which condones slavery but forbids shellfish, or Deuteronomy, which allows for the stoning of wayward children, would not be suitable for modern laws.
Then-Sen. Obama openly mocked the idea that Christianity and Christian ethics should lead the way when it comes American civics - and the so-called Christian audience just laughed and laughed. How droll.
Or when a bold young man interrupted Obama during a fundraiser event in Los Angeles and declared, “The Christian God is the one and only true living God, the Creator of heaven and the universe! Jesus Christ is God! Jesus Christ is God!...You are the antichrist!”
While a chorus of jeers rained down on this young man, Obama politely nodded his head in agreement with a piercing stare that betrayed seething contempt. As he was dragged out by security, the crowd defiantly chanted, “Four more years! Four more years!”
Or when a post-presidency Obama, already fuming over the Trump’s election, called him the now-familiar “threat to democracy” and chastised his own supporters at the “State of our Democracy” event at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus in 2018, telling them they “don’t need a Messiah.”
“You cannot sit back and wait for a savior,” said Obama. “You can’t opt out because you don’t feel sufficiently inspired by this or that particular candidate. This is not a rock concert. This is not Coachella.
“We don’t need a messiah. All we need are decent, honest, hard-working people who are accountable and who have America’s best interests at heart.”
During the Obama era, I wondered how people who were “religious” - which is how I viewed any Christian before I surrendered my own life to Jesus Christ - couldn’t see what I saw.
How did they not get the antichrist vibes emanating from the Obama campaign and his subsequent two-term presidency? Were they watching the same person I was?
I could never understand how Evangelicals in particular were blinded by the sheen and swagger of BHO. Until, that is, I witnessed that same phenomenon with Donald Trump, only the inverse.
In Trump, Evangelicals truly believe they have a champion, someone who will fight for them - whatever that means - in Washington. As though every president before him, including BHO, was some sort of well-intended advocate for the supremacy of the Gospel across this great land we call America.
And maybe in 2016, there was a palpable sense that Trump could even restore that Evangelical heyday of the “Religious Right” and the “Moral Majority,” when the rest of the country, in their unconverted, cultural Christianity, at least acknowledged the blessing of God’s people on the US of A.
Like Peter who earnestly but erroneously believed the risen Jesus would immediately usher in the kingdom of God, some of us, present company included, thought Trump might actually go to the mat for us on some of the bigger issues we cared about.
Yes, the Dobbs decision was a monumental one, a turning of the tide where abortion is no longer protected as a federal right and has been returned back to the states to decide how to deal with it. Truly a moment of God’s grace upon America, and one for which those of us who name the name of Christ should give thanks.
But here in the dying summer days of 2024, do you get the sense, Christian, that we are “winning” right now?
Is there an aura of inevitability around a second Trump administration and whatever privilege that may or may not bestow on Evangelicals?
Or does it feel like something has changed with Trump? Like he seems to think he doesn’t even need to bother with patronizing us anymore?
He openly makes room for abortion despite appointing two Supreme Court justice for the explicit purpose of overturning Roe. He goes on about bringing more immigrants into this country when we’ve let in approximately 12 million unknown, unverified, illegal invaders who are currently ravaging our inner cities and slowly spreading to the suburbs.
And then there’s the idolatry. Oh, the idolatry. Trump is nothing if not an idolater.
We’ve already covered his habit of hugging flags. That Bible he held up in front of St. John’s Church while communist radicals burned our cities now feels he was waving it like a souvenir rather than making an actual reference to its power and authority.
Trump isn’t the only one that pretends to be a Christian to manipulate people and garner their support, but he’s probably the most obvious about it.
Weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Trump shared a bizarre three-minute video on social media which claimed “God gave us Trump.”
What about the sheer number of books exalting Trump into a form of deity, even comparing him to our Messiah? For a litigious guy like Trump who protects his brand at every turn, it’s fascination how these escaped his legal team’s radar.
“President Donald J. Trump - The Son of Man, The Christ.” “Donald J. Trump, The Second Coming of Christ.” “ChrisTrump - The Persecution Of A Man.” Each of these titles is a real book, written by real people (including “Holy Ghost Writer) and intended for distribution for real audiences.
Natasha Owens, an established Christian singer-songwriter, who wrote the hit song “Trump Won” after the 2020 eleection, wrote a song proclaiming Trump to be “the chosen one,” with the following lyrics:
“I’m not saying / He’s something divine / He gets in trouble bigly / Time after time/ He’s controversial /But one thing is true / Imperfect people / A perfect God can use/ I’m standing with the Chosen one /Ain’t no stopping what the Lord’s begun /He’s only human Like you and me / Just a chosen one /The chosen one…”
Trump has repeatedly used the phrase to describe himself, including in 2019 when he declared “I am the chosen one” and looked skyward while speaking to reporters about fixing the U.S. trade imbalance with China.
On July 10, 2023, almost a year to the day before the shooting, about 150 Orthodox Jews with the Israel Heritage Foundation awarded the former president the “Crown of Jerusalem” at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, in New Jersey.
An inscription on the crown quoted Psalm 136:1: “Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good, For His lovingkindness endures forever.” (LSB)
It’s not the first time Trump has been “crowned” a king: in 2018, the Mikdash Educational Center released the “Temple Coin” featuring Trump alongside King Cyrus, who 2,500 years ago allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.
And then there are the artifacts.
For some reason, Trump has made it a habit to host Israeli artifacts at Mar a Lago, including a “replica” of the Ark of the Covenant.
And yet here they are, described by independent journalist James O’Keefe as “a perfect replicant” of the Ark.
Another independent journalist, Laura Loomer, denied the Ark was anything other than a well-crafted replica, a fact she could confirm due to her “attendance at a private dinner which was very focused on the topics of spiritual warfare and Judaism.”
Does Donald Trump strike you as someone who collects replicas of anything?
Isn’t that a reasonable question to ask here?
The botched assassination attempt only accelerated this phenomenon: we saw delegates at the RNC wear bandages on their ears - including at least one with a T on it, presumably for Trump but also the Tau, a primitive form of the Christian cross. We saw every faith identity from Jews, Muslims and Sikhs pray for his recovery, even in the names of false and nonexistent gods.
But it was the now-famous images from the rally in Butler, Penn., that are perhaps the most telling signs we’re dealing with leakage from the spiritual realm.
What do I mean by that?
In a Pulitzer-worthy series of images, photojournalist Evan Vucci of the Associated Press captured Trump bloodied and defiant, moments of terror book-ended by a victorious fist-pump and a turning point for his bid for a second term.
Perhaps the strangest confluence of divine providence and media hysteria arrived not that fateful day in Butler, but nearly six months early at another Trump rally in Ohio, one which the New York Times, in now-trademark fashion, quoted Trump out of context and suggested he warned of a “blood bath if he loses.”
Take a moment to study this image. Take in the elements depicted in frame.
An American flag waving in the breeze. Trump, wearing his trademark red MAGA cap, standing at the podium addressing his supporters. And an oddly familiar, slightly sloped roof off to his left.
All this under the headline with the words “blood bath,” four months before this scene would literally play out in the flesh.
Now look at the image you’ve likely seen flashed on every social media site, news channel and TV screen.
Coincidence? Surely. Creepy? Absolutely.
So, what, exactly is a blood bath?
According to Merriam-Webster, bloodbath is a “word that describes a great slaughter, a violent or destructive contest, or a major economic disaster.”
Read that again.
The phrase itself can suggest a “slaughter, a violent or destructive contest, or a major economic disaster.”
Now compare that definition with what we’re being told awaits us in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, which at least for the moment, is still scheduled to take place Nov. 5.
“I mean, if Trump loses I’m not confident at all. He means what he says, we don’t take him seriously. He means it—all that stuff about ‘if we lose, it will be a bloodbath.’ - President Joe Biden, Aug. 7, 2024
Biden’s comments referred to the same quote from the Times story weeks earlier, but his words, and that of the Times headline echo a far deeper and potentially more profound Biblical truth, one alluded to by Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.
Noting the similarities between Trump’s wound and Old Testament priestly rituals involving blood, Hibbs saw “prophetic significance” in the fact that Trump was hit in the right ear, just as Levitical priests would apply the blood of the sacrifice to their own bodies.
Take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head. Slaughter the ram, take some of its blood, and put it on the right earlobes of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Sprinkle the remaining blood on all sides of the altar.
Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on Aaron's right earlobe, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.
Moses also presented Aaron's sons and put some of the blood on their right earlobes, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he sprinkled the blood on all sides of the altar.
Leviticus 8:23-24
The priest is to take some of the blood from the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot…
And after he slaughters the lamb for the guilt offering, the priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Leviticus 14:14,25
In January 2024, Trump was photographed waving to reporters after leaving a New York City courthouse in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial. He emerged from the courtroom with what appeared to blood splattered his right hand, specifically his right thumb and index finger.
The bizarre moment prompted endless speculation on social media, and TMZ later reported the bleeding was caused by a “paper cut.”
But for whatever reason, Trump, forever fixated on how the media treats him, wasn’t the least bit hesitant to hold up his blood-spattered hand high and wide, almost daring someone to ask him what happened.
There is a fascinating, albeit extra-Biblical, account that suggests the skull of Adam, or the first ruddy/red-in-the-face human being, is buried under Mount Calvary, or Golgatha, the “place of the skull” where Christ was crucified.
Via Catholic author and speaker Scott Smith:
“There is an amazing tradition among the Jews at the time of Jesus. Noah confided the skull of Adam to his son, Shem - remember Shem? I told you we would circle back to Shem.
Shem, then, passed on the skull of Adam to Melchizedek, the priest of Salem.
There is strong support for this tradition among the Church Fathers, as well. Saints Cyprian of Carthage , Jerome , and Ambrose all make reference to Adam being buried at Calvary.”
This narrative further suggests that the skull and bones of Adam - or Skull & Bones - was literally bathed in the blood of the Messiah as He hung there on that rugged Cross, shedding every precious drop of divine life in His body.
The blood of the last Adam, it is said, flowed deep into the heart of Calvary, touching the bones of the first Adam in a picture of cosmic reconciliation that only the Rock of Ages could design in His sovereign wisdom and authority.
This is the original blood bath. This is the source of all life and a picture of the mercy and judgment of God.
However, Isaiah and John both described a final blood bath coming for the nations of the world. There is One covered in the blood of His enemies who will destroy all rulers and kingdoms, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.
Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress? "I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained.
Isaiah 63:2-3
He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God.
And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
While it may not be as overt as the Crown of Jerusalem or the King Cyrus coin, I believe this blood bath is an announcement of what is to come under a Trump presidency - a divine cleansing that could result in untold political violence unlike anything we have seen before in the United States.
Under Trump, the newly-crowned King of Jerusalem, they tell us, we will see a “blood bath” - but which one?
Will it be that of the lawless one who the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and who will change the feasts and laws of Yahweh?1
Or will it be the King of Kings whose robe is dipped in the blood of His enemies?
Be honest: which blood bath are you waiting for? Which one are you expecting to arrive first?
2 Thess. 2:3; Daniel 7:25