Posted on 03/17/2016 8:52:48 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Ever since Donald Trump began to surge as a candidate last year, Christians have been pointing to the book of Isaiah and comparing Trump with the ancient Persian King Cyrus. Some have even claimed that God has revealed to them that He will use Trump for the good of America just as He used Cyrus for the good of the Jewish people, even though Cyrus was a "pagan" king.
Could this be true?
Let's first look at the biblical and ancient Near Eastern evidence.
Cyrus (whose name was pronounced "ko-resh" in Hebrew) became king of Persia in 559 B.C. and conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. He is mentioned in a majestic passage in Isaiah where the Lord says of Cyrus, "'He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My desire'; and he declares to Jerusalem, 'You shall be built,' and to the temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid'" (Is. 44:28).
In other words, Cyrus would be the one who would cause Jerusalem to be rebuilt after it had been destroyed decades earlier by the Babylonians.
But there's more that Isaiah says about Cyrus as the prophecy continues into chapter 45: "Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, His anointed, whose right hand I have held—to subdue nations before him and to loosen the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that the gates will not be shut: I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and shatter the bars of iron. And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places so that you may know that I, the Lord, who calls you by your name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant's sake and Israel My chosen one, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me'" (Is. 45:1-4).
Notice the beginning and the end of this passage. First, Cyrus, a non-Israelite king, is called God's anointed, a term elsewhere only used for Israelite leaders. Second, Cyrus, although called by the God of Israel, doesn't actually know the God of Israel. Instead, like the vast majority of people in the ancient world, he worshipped different deities in the form of idols.
In fulfillment of this prophecy, the Scriptures record how Cyrus made this decree to the Jewish people living in Babylon, where they had been taken in exile: "The LORD [meaning Yahweh] God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has commanded me to build for Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all His people, may the LORD [Yahweh] his God be with him. Let him go up" (2 Chr. 36:23).
So a pagan king encouraged the Jewish people to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple, also helping to finance the endeavor.
But Cyrus did not only do this for the people of Israel.
This became a standard Persian policy, allowing exiles to return to their homelands and rebuild their temples as subjects of the Persian empire.
We know this from the famous Cyrus Cylinder that was discovered in 1879. There, we read that Marduk, the chief god of the Babylonian pantheon and called "the king of the gods" in the text, "took the hand of Cyrus ... and called him by his name, proclaiming him aloud for the kingship over all of everything."
We also read in the text that Cyrus restored the various idol temples in his empire, which gives further confirmation to the biblical account.
So, here, it is Marduk who is given credit for the reign of Cyrus. In the Bible, it is Yahweh, the God of Israel and the only true God, who takes the credit. Obviously, Cyrus did not know Him, just as Isaiah said.
Could Donald Trump, then, be a modern-day Cyrus? Could it be that Trump, like Cyrus, clearly does not know the Lord in a real and personal way but could still be used by God to accomplish His purposes?
As the saying goes, let God be God, meaning, it's up to Him to do what He wants to do. Only He can answer this question for sure.
Or, from a more secular perspective, only time will tell.
What's clear, though, is that God did not raise up an idol-worshipping king to rule the nation of Israel. That would have been a curse rather than a blessing.
In contrast, Christians are talking about God raising up Trump to lead America, which would be very different than Cyrus being used to help the exiles return to Jerusalem and rebuild it.
That doesn't mean, of course, that Trump could not be a Cyrus-type of figure. It simply means that the parallel breaks down when applied.
But there's another possibility to consider.
There was another ancient king named Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian leader who, decades before Cyrus became king, led his armies to destroy Jerusalem, burn down the temple and send the Jewish people into exile in 586 B.C.
He too was an idol worshipper, yet shockingly, Yahweh called him "My servant," stating plainly, "I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land [meaning Judah] and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations" (Jer. 25:9; see also 27:6; 43:10).
So Cyrus was anointed by God to restore the Jewish people from captivity and to rebuild Jerusalem after Nebuchadnezzar, as a vessel of divine judgment, was called by God to send the Jewish people into exile and to destroy Jerusalem.
Two pagan kings, one raised up to bring judgment and the other raised up to bring restoration.
Is Donald Trump a Cyrus or a Nebuchadnezzar, if either?
Let God be God, and only time will tell.
But while we wait and watch and vote and act, let's not forget to pray: God, have mercy on America!
The one thing of which we are sure is that this is a very critical season in the history of our nation.
“Can you Dig it?”
Lol, that’s exactly what came to my mind when I saw the title of this thread!
If he gets the Muslims to give up the Dome and allow Israel (or help Israel) build the Temple...Head for the hills.
I can imagine the anti-Messiah making the world population get genetic tests.
snow in the future
for you’s?
weather.com rarely agrees with local weathermen on TV
https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/USCT0249:1:US
2 Timothy 4:3 New International Version
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
Matthew 7:15-20(NKJV) You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” - Samuel Adams
” Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” - John Quincy Adams
Not really. But, Teddy was a big fan of busting up crony capitalists. That is well known.
Problem is with Teddy, he was a progressive. And, caused us the problem we have with government controlled lands.
Gak, seems it might snow a bit here on Saturday night, it’ll melt though.
Ever since Donald Trump began to surge as a candidate last year, Christians have been pointing to the book of Isaiah and comparing Trump with the ancient Persian King Cyrus. Some have even claimed that God has revealed to them that He will use Trump for the good of America just as He used Cyrus for the good of the Jewish people, even though Cyrus was a "pagan" king.This is the first I'd seen of this nonsense, but it has appeared in about five-ten topics, including explicitly in 2011.
I’d speculated for some time that doomsday Christians were the driving force of Trump bashing.
Survival food, gold, etc.
They have learned the truth, that Trump is Cyrus reincarnated.
So we might as well gloat. It’s too late, foolish people! We serve Cyrus! Our evil overlord! He’s blond, but never mind that.
And we have a Death Star of our very own, supposedly to take out asteroids bound for earth ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3404829/posts
The Death Star is named Cyrus!
Muahahah!
If others wish to join Super Villains for Trump, here is our world domination pamphlet ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3403254/posts
PING to this article and you have FReepmail
OOPS on the FReep handle.
HTRN you have FReepmail.
If you dont know a little history while reading that title....then you can be forgiven for being very confused.
No one does pompous quite as well as Ole’ Newtie.
I’m wonder if anyone will take this game all the way to it’s logical messianic conclusion, we’re getting pretty close.
miley cyrus?
I pissed off HTRN not too long ago. It was fun, but admin zotted the whole thread. I’m hoping to make him angry again soon!
...and all of them phony as a three dollar bill.
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