My Dear Friend,

This is a wonderful yet dangerous and potentially confusing moment for Christians. Why? We must beware of well-intended but false hopes.

After the recent dramatic, highly visible, providential sparing of Donald Trump from an assassin's bullet, many are soaring with high hopes that his election - still yet to be determined - will "kingdomize" America. That is, it will make this nation Jesus' visible, political realm. Few actually say this, but millions subconsciously hope for it.

While God will without doubt visit the churches of this and every nation any day now (Matthew 25:6-7), and gloriously reveal Jesus, save millions of unbelievers, recall millions of backslidden Christians, and teach, train, and raise up a mature church composed of overcoming believers from every nation, He will not "kingdomize" America. Or, to put it differently, Americanize His kingdom.

Please don't misunderstand me. I love America deeply and thank God daily for the immense privilege of living, laboring, and enjoying many blessings here for 68 years. But I do not love America more than God's kingdom. And I have not become confused and, in nationalistic fervor, fused the two. They are separate entities and will remain so.

Rather, through the impending awakening - which is coming irrespective of whoever is our next "Caesar" - Christ will strengthen, grow, and mature all believers who will allow Him to change them. There will be many tests of loyalty and obedience, great challenges to faith, public rejection by adamant unbelievers and unregenerated churchgoers, and persecution in one form or another. Any Trump presidency will not change the ancient and true New Testament way of Christianity in this Christ-rejecting world ruled by Satan, his sin-serving servants, and his antichrist spirit. Excellent political agendas cannot change the underlying spiritual realities nor cause demons to stand by idly while the gospel thrives and millions of newly born-again Christians become ardent, Spirit-led disciples of the One this world hung on a tree.

Also, we must realize the church's "end game" will not be controlling America's power structure so that righteousness may fill the land by means of elections, legislation, and court rulings. No, that's our way, not God's way. His way is far more powerful, and begins deep within the body politic and then works its way outward. It is the gospel! "The gospel of Christ . . . is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes" (Romans 1:16). It is high time we wake up and realize that only regenerated hearts with renewed minds vote from God's viewpoint for the renewal of biblical values in the land.

The church's true end game, as described in the biblical plan, is something vastly different, something which, sadly, many born-again Christians have completely forgotten in our generation. It is nothing less than the awesome exodus of the bride of Christ, taken suddenly, supernaturally, and sovereignly by the power of the Spirit to meet her Bridegroom-Lord in the air - and then live, worship, and serve in His presence forever. And ever. And ever. That's our end game.

So, I humbly suggest the following. Observe and consider what God did last weekend in Pennsylvania by sparing our former President. Admire His hand. Praise His mercy. Acknowledge His guardian angels' work. Confess it was not accidental but providential. Also acknowledge it was done in answer to the millions of prayers that have ascended to heaven in Jesus' name for God to graciously protect and preserve Trump through the tsunami of injustice, humiliation, and cruelty that has inundated him in the last two years. But don't stop there.

Pray that Donald J. Trump, and his family, repent of sin and receive Jesus as their personal Savior, if they have not done so already. And also, however distasteful it may seem to you politically, pray the same for Joe Biden and his family. Don't want to do this? "Biden's a terrible sinner," you say? Well, aren't we all!? And isn't that why the Savior came, to save sinners? Furthermore, may I remind you Christians are ordered by the inspired, authoritative Word of God, written by no less than the apostle Paul, to pray for all our leaders, good and bad, so that peace and order may prevail in our land, and the gospel may spread and sinners be saved (1 Timothy 2:1-4). Still unwilling?

Then remember this fact: Paul wrote this injunction when Nero reigned, the same Nero who sparked the church's first Roman persecution (the Fire of Rome, 64 AD), burned Christians alive in his garden, and later ordered Paul's and Peter's executions. If Paul could pray for Nero, surely we can pray for any President to come to repentance (see 2 Peter 3:9).

So, as you see the apparent turn for good in our land, rejoice at the prospect of an impending change in our so-troubled, so-compromised, so-false, so-unjust federal government and its deeply corrupted agency leaders. But don't be short-sighted or idolatrous.

Don't put such trust in Trump's powerful persona, conservative agenda, and current wave of popular support that you imagine him to be a second savior. He is not. Don't repeat the error of Jesus' first-century Jewish followers by thinking the kingdom of God will immediately appear on earth. It will not. The church is the present spiritual kingdom of God on earth and we are very near the end of this church age. End-Times prophecy has already been being fulfilled now for over 75 years, and it will continue until every detail is fulfilled precisely as prophesied.

Succinctly, that prophetic plan is as follows:

• Another western head of state is coming who will be, not grazed, but killed by an assassin - and rise from death by satanic power in imitation of Christ's resurrection.

• Driven by his proud envy, Satan will try to use this to go "one up" on God by "topping" his Son, Jesus', resurrection. Why? So this widely seen satanic miracle will "wow" the world into submitting to and worshiping Satan's "son," the beast, thus fulfilling the evil desire that has obsessed him since his expulsion from heaven eons ago.

• The beast's 3 1/2-year "kingdom" will be ungodly, not Christlike, and his government will persecute Jews, especially Jewish Jesus-believers, on a scale that will dwarf the Holocaust.

• But millions of Jews worldwide will repent of their unbelief and turn to Jesus before, during, and after this cruel but crucial crucible.

• After this Great Tribulation runs its predestined course, Jesus will return to earth to establish His kingdom. Literally, not spiritually. At that time, not now. In Israel, not in America. Headquartered in Jerusalem, not Washington, DC.

• Jesus will personally reside in His glory in the yet-to-be built 4th temple. As the "Sun of righteousness," His brilliant, divine, glory-light will shine brighter than our current sun. His laws will be perfect, His authority absolute, His appointed leaders righteous, and their rulings just.

• Co-ruled and administrated by overcoming Jews and Christians, His kingdom will endure free from wars, uprisings, and satanic interference - for a thousand years!

These things are prophesied in the Bible and thus sure. They are written and thus permanent. They are God's message and thus inspired, inerrant, and infallible. God has spoken them in His inviolable holiness and immutable, irresistible power. Like Persian law, they cannot be reversed. Thus, they must come to pass: "The scriptures must be fulfilled" (Mark 14:49). And all these things will occur in our generation.

Based on this, God's looming divine prophetic message, my message is this: if Trump is elected this fall, whatever good may come of it will not, it cannot, change this "pattern” shown us “in the mount" (Hebrews 8:5). That should give us joy, not kill it, because, however good our plans, God's plans are always far better in the end.

Remember this . Believe it. Rejoice in it. Hope in it. Draw strength from it. Rest in it. Don't just see what God does presently in America. See through the present - all the way to the end of the story.

Maranatha - He comes!

Dr. Greg Hinnant

GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES