Evangelical Leaders Promote Claim Rain was a “Prophetic Sign” at Trump Inauguration

Here’s one I missed from a few days ago: from Charisma News:

A Major Prophetic Sign Appeared the Moment Donald Trump Stepped to the Inauguration Platform

The inauguration of Donald Trump was being watched live by tens of millions of people all over the world, and it was at that precise moment that God gave all of us another little reminder that He is in control. It had not been raining prior to the time Trump stepped up to the inauguration platform, but when he did, the rain began to fall…

The author is one Michael Snyder, who is an increasingly significant figure in the process of mainstreaming David Icke-style conspiracy theories in American evangelicalism (e.g. here and here). The neo-Pentecostal evangelical leader Rick Joyner concurs, as noted by Right Wing Watch:

After declaring that Trump’s election was “a miracle,” Joyner explained that, with the exception of Noah’s flood, “everywhere in scripture that rain is mentioned, it is a blessing,” meaning that the presence of rain during Trump’s inauguration was a heavenly sign.

“Anywhere that rain is mentioned in scripture, it is referenced as a blessing to bring fruitfulness to the earth,” Joyner said. “And it was so extraordinary that it was like the rain held off until he stepped up to the podium and then there was just enough for people to know it was raining, and then it seemed to quit again right away. But there was just a touch and I think that was a blessing from God.”

Of course, Franklin Graham himself had said something similar at Trump’s inauguration, although he held back from an explicit claim of supernatural causation, and I took it as a light-hearted quip rather than a serious proposition:

“Mr. President, in the Bible, rain is a sign of God’s blessing. And it started to rain, Mr. President, when you came to the platform. It’s my prayer that God will bless you, your family, your administration, and may He bless America.”

There are several texts in the Hebrew Bible in which God promises to either provide or withhold rainfall depending on how the Israelites behaved; one of religion’s primal functions is to explain why seemingly random disasters such as drought and famine occur, and to offer guidance about how heavenly powers might be appeased so that future calamities are avoided. However, these passages obviously refer to rainfall as a general condition required to sustain life in the Levant. To my recollection, there is no instance in the Bible where God uses rainfall as a sign to bless a particular individual or action at a particular moment.

Further, these evangelical leaders have conveniently forgotten a passage in the New Testament – the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:45:

[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

In other words, everyone gets rained on – it is not a sign of a special blessing or a curse, although we all know from personal experience that it is usually annoying and slightly unpleasant, and that it may be hazardous to health. I do not believe for a moment that these “prophets” and “Bible teachers” would have interpreted rain at a Democratic candidate’s inauguration as any kind of “blessing” – indeed, they probably would have said that such “bad weather” indicates divine disapproval. The idea that the rain was a “prophetic sign” at Trump’s inauguration merely highlights the shameless opportunism of the USA’s evangelical leadership.

Meanwhile, Trump’s own version of what happened with the rain is slightly different, as related by a critical article in the Daily Beast about Trump’s constant lying:

It stopped raining immediately when I started speaking, he said. No—it started raining when he started speaking; it was visible to any viewer that some on the podium started donning ponchos (it was a light rain that didn’t last long, but it was still rain). There was a huge rainstorm after, he said. No, there wasn’t. Again, the whole world could see this.

7 Responses

  1. Rain or no rain, the defeat of Hillary is the defeat of WW3. Thank god for his Mercy.

    • This is a new phenomena. Your post really has nothing to do with the subject matter. About 6 months before the election of Donald Trump I noticed that so-called ‘left’ leaning publications were getting an endless stream of comments that had little to do with whatever the story was but were blatant pro-Trump / anti-Clinton posts which repeated Breibart style talking points. Trump good, Clinton bad. Since then it has become liek an epidemic as they invade websites you just know they never read in the past and by the nature of their comments, could not possibly have any interest in the leanings of the particular website. With the government announcing an investigation into ‘fake news’ I think there also needs to be a look at what seems to be a co-ordinated team of posters who surf the net (most links seem to emanated from Twitter) and deliberately flood sites with pro-Trump comments.

  2. And, if the rain stopped and the sun shone through the clouds, it would have been a sign.

    Christians have become superstitious prognosticators equal to any any pagan tea leaf-reader.

    Of course, a warming earth, melting ice, and rising oceans are not a sign of anything and can be completely ignored.

  3. They play with fire with this superstitious nonsense, Despite Trump’s claims the crowd was the biggest ever- how does he know that they were all supporters?
    Most undoubtedly were but what if a deranged person was among that crowd who intended to do Trump harm? Every president gets them.

    What if that person listened intently and heard not only did Graham make a silly remark about God also reads that God shined on them as well with the rain, God was telling that person to indeed, do Trump harm.
    Read about Sirhan Sirhan’s reasons for killing Bobby Kennedy or John Hinkley’s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and shooting of 3 others and his claimed reason being to impress actress Jodie Foster. Tempting fate.

    • The truth is that it is clearly observed that the main stream media are trying to under mine the Presidency of Trump even the impact of the crowd size, the media do have wicked agendas of their own & is a very very serious matter, changing human opinion , proving its untrustworthy ness & is no wonder the Bible in Prophecy calls it as the ” Prince of the power of air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience”
      The Bible does not lie.

      • No-one needs to undermine Donald Trump. He’s doing it all by himself.
        The bible is a mass of contradictions and any point of view can be confirmed within various passages but also the opposite can also be found. And the claim about the rain is a perfect example.
        Perhaps it’s a sign from God blessing the Orange One (imagine all the other souls on the planet being blessed at the same time with a slight shower- perhaps even ISIL) or is it sign the Great Flood may be coming to wipe out humanity.

  4. When responded, you delete, unwilling to hear the truth, therein lies your “Mass of Contradictions ” blaming the Bible.

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