My blog has been quiet this year because I have been working on what turned out to be a 45000 word study on Politics, Church and State caused by the “chaos” in the Christian world regarding Donald Trump. Many “prophets” foretold his victory but many others have used his defeat as a battering ram against any type of political involvement of Christians or at least to recommend a new distance from conservative politics in particular.

This is my contribution to that debate provoked because I was very concerned with the tone of a presentation to a group of us “emerging prophets” (feel free to smirk) as how not to behave when interacting with the political world.

This is the Preface below, you can find a PDF here.

This essay began as a response to a ‘prophetic mentoring session’ that I was receiving as a subscription to a training programme that had a worldwide membership. The immediate concern of the session was the “chaos” within the prophetic movement with the apparent defeat of Donald Trump after the many prophecies of his victory and how the movement should respond by assessing its immaturity and failure. I felt there was plenty that was thoughtful and provocative in the presentation but also plenty that requires questioning and challenging in so far as how the argument was constructed, the view presented, and the conclusions drawn. As Proverbs 18:17 encourages us, such an examination is not unholy or forbidden:

“The first to present their case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.”

In fact, the Hebrew in this verse suggests a strong confrontation so much so that the ancient Greek translation of it (the LXX) uses a word for your adversary in a lawcourt. So, this is a non-trivial and a thorough examination but undertaken in a constructive spirit of engagement with the issues pertinent to a reorientation of our political theology. Thus, I hope this essay will be found to be useful in this respect.

There is always more that could be said on this subject and time constraints imposed by my ongoing studies have meant the writing and editing has had to stop somewhere, even though I recognise there are deficiencies, some repetition and omissions. I direct you to the Bibliography to pick up on the themes that interest or challenge you. You are welcome to post responses (email me longer ones!) or constructive comments.