Why do so many evangelical Christians support former President Donald Trump despite his decades of documented ungodly behavior?
An in-depth report from The Economist shows that it has a simple explanation: They believe that God personally appointed him to rule the United States.
In fact, the report cites a survey conducted by Denison University political scientist Paul Djupe that around 30 percent of Americans believe Trump “was anointed by God to become president.”
So:
At least that’s how I read it.
There’s plenty of prophesy in Judaism, and even Josephus claimed the prophesies say that Vespasian would become emperor (this was obviously self-serving as he was a prisoner at the time). That’s one important, relatively modern indication that Jews believed in prophesy (and Messianic prophesy at that). Whether you do is kind of irrelevant.
Pfft, that book isn’t included in Christian canon for a reason. It’s probably just a collection of stuff early Christians wrote down that may or may not have come from Jesus. It’s certainly interesting from an early Christian history perspective, but not particularly interesting from understanding anything about Jesus himself.
The same goes for other apocryphal books, they may have some value, but shouldn’t be taken at face value, hence why they weren’t included in the biblical canon.
No, they come from a completely slanted misinterpretation of biblical passages.
For example, you mentioned Jesus sending people out to evangelize as some kind of narcissism. I instead take it as preparing the church for his death, they’ll need a lot more than the 12 to hold things together, especially as the early church is expected to be persecuted, and sending this group out is a way to prepare them for building up his church in his absence. The focus isn’t on himself, but on the church.
And for praying in his name, it’s clear that he’s secondary to the father. He doesn’t want people to worship the man Jesus, but God in heaven. However, by taking on our sins, he essentially becomes our intermediary, taking the place of the sacrificial lamb in times past. So it’s through Jesus that we have our salvation, but it is God who grants that salvation. So it’s kind of like talking to a travel agent to arrange a flight, you’re getting the flight from the airline, the agent is merely handling the transaction for you and getting you the best possible deal. Jesus paid for our sins, so he is the one who will negotiate on our behalf. Some related verses: John 14:13, Colossians 3:17, 1 Timothy 2:5.
We need Jesus because he paid for our sins. That’s not narcissism, that’s a statement of fact (obviously according to Christian theology). Jesus consistently redirected praise to his father, so he absolutely does not come off as narcissistic.