So, someone we must (a) initially assume is damned and (b) we should pray for the strengthening of their Faith.
Yes. Pretty much. Though we should pray for men like Mitt Romney too.
Some people, reading the signs of grace surrounding Donald Trump, could say this looks a whole lot like a case of the elect. That it seems to surpass a Constantine case, who liked Christians around but never seemed to rise to believing. Dr. James Dobson put it as “a baby Christian.”
“Christianized” is a veneer with no real spiritual force behind it when tested. This is looking a bit more like Joseph of the Old Testament... even Donald’s mistakes are blessed.
But, we’d be wrong to stop scanning the signs of our times with a look at Donald Trump alone. Obviously there is Mike Pence. If Donald has a hole in his current expressed worldview with respect to gays, Mike Pence with his belief in regeneration and rehab, does not. What we have here on the horizon bears a lot of signs of a mighty deliverance, heavily imbued with grace. All such deliverances are carried out by God for His own glory, and He often ignores the status of the earth dwellers who play supportive parts.
Anyhow, being Christian is not a fixed once-for-all set of behaviors. At the risk of sounding irreverent, it’s a transformation program in which a person is enrolled. Disciple means learner, or student.
But yes... even the witness of his old time Presbyterian baptism is there.
I get a strong sense that Donald’s schooling in Christ is going to coincide largely with his role as President, and that we will actually watch Donald grow before our eyes.
Some technicalities may not apply. The dispute about asking forgiveness is one, though what I say here is from a Calvinist viewpoint. As the Calvinist would aver from his viewpoint on the bible, one accepts forgiveness forever when one accepts the embrace of Christ unto eternity. Donald CAN ask — that is a valid move in the face of a conflicted conscience — but technically, if Donald has believed, Christ has already asked on Donald’s behalf, looking forward. Accepting that Christ has done this (note Donald’s reference to the communion, by which we remember Christ’s death until He comes) and accepting the answer and moving forward in an ever more spiritually corrected state, is therefore valid. The bible says, if we confess (homologia: agree with what God says about) our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some people confess with their actions of turning from sin, some put it in literal words. Donald seems to be more of an action man than a talk man.
Some may not apply such grace to viewing the situation and that’s between them and God. However I try to read the most favorable signs possible until I meet a dead stark contradiction.