The Trump Prophecy and Cyrus

What started during his run for President, is back in the news with the release of a new film The Trump Prophecy. The movie claims that Trump is the King Cyrus of our times. This first surfaced when the religious right began strong support for Trump’s run for President.

The religious right believed that candidate Trump could act as a modern Cyrus with a Biblical mandate to run for the Presidency. Evangelical thinker, Dr. Lance Wallnau, for example, says that Trump is a “modern-day Cyrus,” chosen by God to “navigate in chaos. …With Trump, I believe we have a Cyrus to navigate through the storm.”

Vox reporter, Tara Isabella Burton, wrote in March:

“The comparison comes up frequently in the evangelical world. Many evangelical speakers and media outlets compare Trump to Cyrus, a historical Persian king who, in the sixth century BCE, conquered Babylon and ended the Babylonian captivity, a period during which Israelites had been forcibly resettled in exile. This allowed Jews to return to the area now known as Israel and build a temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus is referenced most prominently in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, in which he appears as a figure of deliverance.

But the Cyrus connection does not end with the USA.

In a visit to the White House, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu said “We remember the proclamation of the great King Cyrus the Great — Persian King. Twenty-five hundred years ago, he proclaimed that the Jewish exiles in Babylon can come back and rebuild our temple in Jerusalem …And we remember how a few weeks ago, President Donald J. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people throughout the ages.”

As we reported on the US Embassy move in May 2018. Quoting from Jeanine Pirro of Fox News:

“Donald Trump recognized history. He, like King Cyrus before him, fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods worshipped by Jews, Christians and, yes, Muslims, that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state and that the Jewish people deserve a righteous, free and sovereign Israel,” she wrote and “sends a clear message that the U.S. stands with the Jewish state.”

When Trump announced the move from  Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the nascent Sanhedrin in conjunction with the Temple Educational Center minted a replica silver half-shekel as mandated in Exodus to be donated by all Jewish men to the Temple.

The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Hashem, to make atonement for your souls.” Exodus 30:15

A month later they minted a second coin commemorating Israel’s 70th Anniversary as a modern nation called the 70 Year Redemption Coin.

“For thus said Hashem: When Babylon’s seventy years are over, I will take note of you, and I will fulfill to you My promise of favor—to bring you back to this place.” Jeremiah 29:10 (The Israel Bible™)

The above-mentioned film is a docu-drama is based on a testimonial written by Mark Taylor. The retired Flordia firefighter, whose book The Trump Prophecies: The Astonishing True Story of the Man Who Saw Tomorrow… and What He Says Is Coming Next, explains how a special message from God told him that one day Trump would president.

In April 2011, Taylor who was listening to an interview with Trump, long before he announced his candidacy, said that he heard “the voice of the Lord say, ‘You’re hearing the voice of a president.'” The words of his prophecy prompted Mary Colbert, to start a prayer movement nationwide asking that America’s leadership return to the Godly principles we were founded on as a nation.

After seeing the movie, Joel Baden, a professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale Divinity School wrote: “At the heart of the movie, however, is a particular claim that Trump is the King Cyrus of our times.” He continued:

“Cyrus the Great was the king of Persia in the second half of the sixth century BCE, given his impressive title by virtue of having conquered the mighty Babylon, along with most of the rest of the ancient Near East. He ruled over the greatest empire the region had ever seen.

“The Bible gives him an even more significant title: Messiah. For when Cyrus conquered Babylon, he allowed the Israelites who had been exiled there some 50 years earlier to return to their native land, to govern themselves according to their native laws and to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, the center of their religious life. For this, the book of Isaiah declares that Cyrus was anointed – the original meaning of the word ‘Messiah’—by God to deliver the Israelites.”

The Bible gives Cyrus an even more consequential title: Messiah. In at least some translations Isaiah 45:1 reads:

“Thus saith the Lord to his anointed (Messiah), to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him;

When Cyrus had conquered Babylon, he allowed Israelites who had been 50 years in captivity there, to return to Israel to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. To this end was Cyrus foreordained as God’s anointed, which is the original meaning of “Messiah”, to deliver the Israelites.

The Trump Prophecy was produced with the help of student’s at Jerry Falwell’s evangelical Liberty University. It argues that Trump’s presidency was divinely foretold. However, as Tara Isabella Burton wrote for VOX:

“The Trump Prophecy’s central message is disturbing. It’s not just that Trump himself is part of God’s plan. …It’s that God chooses America’s leaders and therefore, any leader who is chosen takes his authority not from the democratic process but from God himself. It’s an ideology that strikes at the heart of what democracy is all about. If God chose Trump, who are we to resist?”

What do you think?