Yes, Joe Biden’s presidency is the will of God
This is the second piece I’ve written about something Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said. And like the other one, it’s not political but theological.
The first time, Johnson went way off the rails when he said “the Lord told me very clearly” to prepare to become a “Moses” who will lead America through a “Red Sea moment.” Oy.
But this time, he’s right.
Johnson was asked whether he believes Joe Biden’s presidency was God’s will. “God is the one that allows people to be raised in authority,” he said. “It must have been God’s will, then. That’s my belief.”
Some conservatives didn’t take kindly to that. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said, “Joe Biden’s not a legitimate president of the United States. No to the Speaker. So no, God did not raise him up.”
It’s understandable why many conservatives would recoil at the idea of God raising up Biden, who leads a wicked party that champions the genocide of preborn babies. That’s certainly not in dispute here.
But they only have to read their Bibles to see that God raising up evil leaders is far from unprecedented.
First, there’s the much-discussed passage on government in Romans 13, which Johnson alluded to. Verse 1 says, “For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” Paul goes on to call civil authorities “God’s ministers.” Remember that he was writing this under the wicked tyranny of the Roman Empire, which persecuted Christians and would execute Paul himself.
But let’s say that passage is about offices and not individuals. It’s not needed to show that God has sovereignly and intentionally installed specific evil leaders:
Pharaoh
The Egyptian Pharaoh in the book of Exodus was a cruel, hard-hearted monster who enslaved and oppressed God’s people, and openly defied the Lord even when his nation was being destroyed by the plagues. “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” he said (Exodus 5:2).
Here’s what God replied: “for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16, quoted in Romans 9:17).
Pharaoh’s rule was God’s will.
Saul
King Saul was mostly successful from a “policy” standpoint; he defeated Israel’s enemies, which is what the people wanted when they demanded a strong king so they could be like all the pagan nations around them.
But God removed Saul because he disobeyed Him. Saul then went on a murderous rampage against his successor, David, which included the slaughter of a city of priests and their families in 1 Samuel 22. In the end, the Lord condemned Saul to death.
Saul would certainly fall on the “bad” side of a ledger of Israel’s kings — yet it was God who personally chose Saul to be king. “There he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over My people,” the Lord told Samuel in 1 Samuel 9:17.
Saul’s rule was God’s will.
Jeroboam
Jeroboam was a servant of King Solomon, but he challenged the house of David after Solomon’s son Rehoboam succeeded the king. That separated the ten northern tribes of Israel from Judah, and they made Jeroboam their king.
Jeroboam’s first act in power was to set up two golden calves and practically establish his own religion. “You have done more evil than all who were before you,” the Lord said of Jeroboam in 1 Kings 14:9. Jeroboam was so evil that he’s mentioned with almost every wicked king of Israel who followed him.
And yet, Jeroboam had been personally chosen by God. “So I will take you, and you shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel,” the Lord told him through the prophet Ahijah in 1 Kings 11:37. “I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel,” the Lord said in 1 Kings 14:7.
Jeroboam’s rule was God’s will.
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar was the pagan king of the Babylonian empire when it conquered Judah, destroyed the temple and most of Jerusalem, and took its citizens into exile. In Daniel 3, he created a golden image of himself and demanded that the captive Jews worship it. He had faithful Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego thrown into a furnace of fire when they refused.
Obviously, Nebuchadnezzar was a brutal enemy of God’s people. But he was an instrument of God’s judgment. Three times in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord calls wicked Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” (25:9, 27:6, 43:10).
In Daniel 4:30, Nebuchadnezzar pridefully took credit for his conquests: “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” The Lord immediately struck him with madness for this, “until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses” (Daniel 4:32). The message was clear:
Nebuchadnezzar’s rule was God’s will.
Pontius Pilate
The Roman governor of Judea was known for his vicious crackdowns on the Jewish people, including a bloody, blasphemous slaughter at the temple mentioned in Luke 13:1.
And of course, he unjustly condemned Jesus to be crucified, even though Pilate explictly and repeatedly said that He was innocent.
But even as Jesus stood before Pilate tortured and humiliated, He told him, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11). It was.
The apostles prayed in Acts 4:27-28 that Pilate, Herod, and everyone else involved in Christ’s crucifixion “were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.”
Pilate’s rule was God’s will.
‘The Most High rules in the kingdom of men’
The Lord’s proclamation in Daniel of His absolute, sovereign control over who is in office may be the most pertinent Scripture here. God has all power and authority over all the kingdoms and nations of the earth.
Nebuchadnezzar went on to say:
“All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing;
He does according to His will in the army of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth.
No one can restrain His hand
Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
Daniel 4:35
Nothing, then, happens outside of God’s authorization, including the rule of every king, governor and president, no matter how evil they are. Even if God doesn’t expressly commission a certain individual like with those examples, His permission is no less authoritative. Whatever God allows, He has chosen not to stop. Therefore, it can be said that the reign of every ruler the world has ever seen was His will, whether it’s Jeroboam, Nebuchadnezzar, Hitler, Stalin, Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
How do we know God raised up Biden? Because he’s the president.
But Trump really won!
But like Bannon, many conservatives, including some who claim the name of Christ, object on the grounds that Biden wasn’t legitimately elected. Even after Biden was certified and inaugurated, some in the hypercharismatic movement (trying to save face after their prophecies of a Donald Trump re-election were proven wrong) claimed Trump was “inaugurated in heaven.” They really think that God had chosen Trump for a second term, but His plans were thwarted by a deep state conspiracy.
What kind of a weak, impotent, puny god can have an election, or anything else, stolen from him? As Nebuchadnezzar said, no one can restrain the Lord’s hand. All the deep states in the world combined are nothing to Him whom every atom obeys.
Even if the 2020 outcome did not reflect the will of the voters — a claim that has been nowhere near proven, either in any of the dozens of courts in which it was challenged, or according to the Biblical standard of evidence — that just means it was God who took it from them.
Why would He do that? In the cases of Saul, Jeroboam and Nebuchadnezzar, it was judgment on Israel. As John Calvin said, “When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.”
Many of Trump’s supporters can’t fathom even the possibility that God removed him (like Saul) and chose Biden to win. But in light of all the Biblical examples above, it should come as no surprise at all.
The LORD has made everything for its own purpose,
Even the wicked for the day of evil.
Proverbs 16:4
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