Once a beneficent King Cyrus, Trump has lately been cast as a biblical avenger

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

Meet Donald Trump, biblical paragon.

In the past decade, Trump’s Christian theologizers, whom I write about in my new book, have made a hobby of connecting the famously profane, philandering, greedy real estate mogul to biblical heroes and quotable Bible verses. The medley of Bible characters, all mirrors of Trump and his cosmic destiny to lead America, are a pillar of his appeal to evangelical Christians.

More recently, however, these biblical allusions and correlations have taken a menacing 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 in a tide of violence.

Almost as soon as Trump entered the political scene in earnest, charismatic prophets, whose evangelical followers believe they literally speak the word of God today, have cast Trump as a figure of biblical prophecy. The original and perhaps still the most iconic such comparison was put forward by Alabama pastor Jeremiah Johnson just a month after Trump became a presidential candidate in 2015, matching Trump with the Persian King Cyrus the Great. 

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

This Cyrus-Trump comparison became one of the key evangelical rationalizations for supporting Trump in 2016: He’s not a believer, or even a good man, but he’s God’s man. Johnson and the handful of other prophets who wagered big on Trump’s win became celebrities in evangelical media. Charismatic prophets such as Lance Wallnau and Paula White then brokered the porcupine-hugging partnership between Trump and his ever-loyal evangelical voter base by casting Trump as the pseudo-biblical, God-selected instrument for restoring American Christianity.

Thus started an avalanche of such prophecies. Incentivized to feed the ravenous demands of his Christian supporters for more and more positive messages about Trump, hundreds — perhaps thousands — of charismatic evangelical prophets have jumped into the pro-Trump prophecy marketplace. 

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 to the throne of Israel after the infamously wicked rule of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, two of the most loathsome characters in the biblical narrative, who had led the people of Israel into worshipping false gods, persecuted the godly Israelite remnant and squared off against the famed prophets Elijah and Elisha.

Jezebel’s name was once a common byword for a scheming woman, but in charismatic circles, where the Hebrew Bible’s imagery looms larger than life, it still has force as a description of sexual promiscuity, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and other attributes of what they view as malign feminism. Charismatic prophets have, for decades, lamented how the “spirit of Jezebel” has taken over American culture, and Harris, upon becoming the Democratic nominee, was almost instantly tagged with the name.

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

“Queen Jezebel Being Punished by Jehu” by Andrea Celesti, late 17th century. (Image courtesy 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 sway the election. At the culmination of 10 hours of politicized religious fervor, one of the most respected charismatic Christian leaders in the country, a California pastor and apostle named Ché Ahn, who this week was photographed at the center of a circle of Christian leaders laying hands on and praying over Trump, got up to declare the will of God: “Donald Trump is a type of Jehu, and Kamala Harris is a type of Jezebel. As you know, Jehu cast out Jezebel. … I decree in Jesus’ mighty name, and I decree it by faith that Trump will win on November the 5th, he will be our 47th president, and Kamala Harris will be cast out, and she will lose.”

Linking the vice president — herself a Baptist Christian — to Jezebel in our political violence-charged moment verges on a threat on her life. 

Another provocation came as Trump gathered with his National Faith Advisory Board, his formal circle of evangelical advisers, on Oct. 25, and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of bestselling books about prophecy, uttered this pronouncement over Trump from the stage: 

President Trump… God called you to walk according to the template of Jehu, a warrior king. He called Jehu to make his nation great again. Jehu came to the capital city with an agenda to drain the swamp … If (God) should now bring you to the height of power, it will be for his glory. It will be the last act and maybe America’s last chance of redemption.

Cahn and the other prophets employing this image are not merely noting interesting parallels between Trump and Jehu. Rather, they are directing Trump to operate according to the template of Jehu, a biblical script that must be fulfilled.

Note, for instance, how Jehu “drained the swamp” of Israel, a story related in the Bible’s second Book of Kings. The execution of Jezebel pales in comparison. After Jezebel’s defenestration, Jehu goes on a rampage, slaughtering all of Ahab and Jezebel’s children, piling up their heads at the city gates. He goes on to murder hundreds of Israelite citizens, including religious leaders who backed Jezebel. One of the most brutal and vindictive scenes in the Bible, Jehu’s vengeance is being offered as the divinely ordained template for a second Trump term.

We might dismiss the comparisons to Jehu as metaphor if we had not listened to Trump’s recent rally speeches. These biblical citations echo Trump’s own campaign rhetoric, which itself has taken a more vengeful, violent turn. He launched his 2024 campaign by declaring, “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.” He’s closing it with promises to eradicate “the enemy within” and calling his American opponents “vermin.”

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

These biblical invocations reveal the accommodations Christians have made to embrace a populist authoritarian vulgarian. As the sourcebook for all truth and guidance in evangelical belief, the Bible shapes evangelical Christians’ imaginations. Casting Trump as a Jehu creates theological permission for Christians to embrace Trump’s promised violence.

If he wins in this election, the Jehu image tells Trump’s Christian supporters that some real-world violence may be needed to purge America of her demons. If he loses, particularly to Kamala Harris, the Jehu template prescribes vengeance 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 is the author of the forthcoming book “The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)