The problem with comparing Ephesians 6:11 with the Saturday 6:11 pm assassination attempt is that Satan's threats in that Ephesians 6:11 text were
spiritual warfare - specifically a wrestling match which was "
not against flesh and blood", but was against
spiritual wickedness in high places. The "armor" in that Ephesians 6:11 text is composed of
non-physical defenses, such as faith, truth, righteousness, etc., the gospel, and the word of God. And as
@Josheb has brought up, this spiritual armor was to be utilized by those who were children of God.
Personally, I believe that Trump at present
IS entitled to utilize spiritual armor against the "children of the devil", (even though I believe Satan himself and his devils are no longer present on this earth to exercise a threat against believers). We can know a person by the fruit they are
PRESENTLY manifesting, and Trump's public acknowledgements of God are a testament to that, as you have brought up, Rella. Every person prior to their conversion has manifested wickedness in one way or another. Yes, Trump has been a covenant breaker in the past, as
@Josheb brought up. But we know that the scriptures are filled with examples of men who have done this and much, much worse, and God has still redeemed them.
Of course those were matters of providence. My "ad hominem" is reserved for those who look as such obvious evidences of God's providence, and still cannot acknowledge that God has been the cause of the outcome of those events. "The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God'." If scripture can call these people a fool for refusing to recognize God at work in this world, then my calling them obtuse is not forbidden.
Since Rella requested it, I am going to add something here to her comment that I also posted on her same post on another forum where we share a membership.
Many of you like me may have a copy of Spurgeon's "Chequebook of the Bank of Faith". This little book is a collection of a single daily Bible verse with an encouraging promise of God for each day of the year, and with a brief commentary of Spurgeon's below it. My own mother gave me a copy of this small book many years ago. Each time that a particular day's verse of promise is especially applicable for the problems of life for that day, I make a notation in the margin. Over the years, these kinds of notations are filling up this little book where I can see God's working in my life and in that of my family and friends.
Here is the verse that Spurgeon "
happened" to select for
July 13th, the day of the attempted assassination of Trump.
"For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 39:18)
Furthermore, I will add below another verse that Spurgeon's "Chequebook" selected for
October 10th.
"I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it" (Revelation 3:8)
This date of October 10th is most meaningful for me and my son particularly. It was the day my son
stepped through an open doorway onto a pressure plate under a floor tile in a booby-trapped house in Iraq. His stepping on that floor tile detonated a pipe bomb that had been placed in the wall facing that doorway. My son survived by a miracle, because the pipe bomb had accidentally been placed in the wall upside down, and the shrapnel blasted a massive hole in the concrete floor instead of in my son's body. He lost a toe after maybe a dozen plus surgeries, as a memorial of his close encounter with death and God's preservation of his life.
Our prayer group at church at the time before his deployment to Iraq asked me if I had any prayer request for him in particular. I told them that I wanted my son to experience a situation overseas where he would see a demonstration of God's power and deliverance that could only be explained by God Himself having accomplished that demonstration. I got the answer to that prayer in spades.
Additionally, that pipe bomb had been hard-wired to set off a series of other bombs which had been placed in that house, but fortunately, the wiring short-circuited, and the rest of the bombs failed to go off, thus saving the rest of my son's fellow-soldiers that were with him in the house. Were they all Christians? I have no idea, but that makes no difference in the fact that I know God's hand was in control of every piece of shrapnel flying through the air in that house at that moment in time.
