Our days are numbered, and when God wants to take us home, he will. So if we believe these passages to be true, then we need to accept that it may have been time for Comperatore (who was a strong and devout Christian) to go to be with his Lord, while it was not yet Trump’s time. This of course does not answer every question, and likely will raise even more questions. But all we can do is try to carefully assess the biblical data as we try to make sense of events like this.
The biblical Christian knows that when any big theological questions arise as to significant – and not so insignificant – events and occurrences in this world, there are at least three major players that must be taken into account. The three of course are God (and his sovereignty), man (with his moral accountability for his actions), and Satan (with his malicious interference).
So if a person loses his job, for example, we can speak of God’s movements in this, human choices, and satanic influences. How all three can be part of the overall equation is of course a bit of a mystery. And we would have to say that while all three elements must be kept in mind, at the end of the day God and his purposes will be the overriding consideration.
Just one clear example (of many) found in Scripture would be the fate of Joseph as found in the lengthy story about him in Genesis 37-50. His brothers treated him terribly, inspired as they were by satanic influences, and yet divine purposes were fully taking place. As Joseph told his brothers in Gen. 50:20: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
And the prime example of ugly satanic attacks, bad human choices, and overriding divine sovereignty, can be seen in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How all three managed to cohere in this one mega-event is beyond our full comprehension, but we know that all three were involved. And in the end, the purposes of God stood.
The Trump Assassination Attempt
Let me examine one very recent and very well-known example of all this. Here we again find three main players: Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who sought to murder Trump, Satan who certainly influenced him in this, and God, who as always is working out his divine purposes in all of life.
Sure, we could discuss other people involved, such as the Secret Service agents and others who were meant to protect Trump, but so miserably failed in their duties in so many ways. But you get my point: for believers to understand this event means to consider all three.
Having said all that by way of background, I want to look in particular at one aspect of this that has many people – both Christian and non-Christian – asking many questions. And that is this: Why was the life of Trump spared, but the life of Corey Comperatore not?
Again, we can look at the three parts of the equation: Crooks wanted to kill Trump, carried along as he was by satanic inspiration. Trump happened to turn his head at just the right time, while 50-year-old Comperatore, the former fire chief, chose to dive on his family to save them, and he lost his life doing so.
But the question is, why did God allow one to be killed and the other spared? As mentioned, there is always mystery in such matters. And we can ask these sorts of questions about millions of things: Why did that guy get the job I was after? Why did that girl I liked so much marry another? Why did he get healed of cancer while I did not? On and on it goes.
As I say, so many are asking about all this. Let me offer just one high profile example. Yesterday at the Republican National Convention evangelist Franklin Graham not only briefly shared the gospel message in his short talk, but he led the crowd in prayer as well.
And he mentioned, as did so many others, that it was a God thing that Trump survived the assassin’s bullet. But he went on to say this: “I cannot explain why God would save one life and allow another one to be taken. I don’t have the answer for that.”
That is a good and proper response. There is plenty of mystery here. We just do not always know why God does what he does. When I posted his statement on the social media, one gal responded with these words: “God protection and divine intervention around one but not the other. It’s a tough one.”
Yes it is. But what I said above is part of how we can try to make some sense of it all.