ELECTION 2016:
A SPIRITUAL ALLEGORY
Charles Faupel
As I write
these lines, America is still taking in what took place on November 8
(2016). The election of Donald Trump as
the 45th president of the United States is monumental in its
historical significance. Many are
comparing this surprising upset to the vote by British citizens to leave the
European Union, a phenomenon known as “Brexit.”
It is not my purpose here to offer political insights or commentary, and
it is most certainly not to take a political position regarding what took place
in the United States on November 8. I
am, rather, gripped with the parallels between what took place in this election
and what is taking place in the Kingdom of God in our day.
As we ponder
the allegorical significance of this election, let us consider just how this
election caught this nation by surprise.
News commentators were stunned, and left without an explanation as to
what happened. All of the polls pointed
to an easy path to victory for the establishment candidate, Hillary
Clinton. Even the Trump campaign was
surprised by the election results in some of the states. Establishment politicians did not take Donald
Trump seriously in his bid for president.
No one thought he would throw his hat in the ring. When he did, no one believed that he would
survive long in the primary process, let alone win his party’s nomination.
Establishment
politicians and news commentators had a curious response to candidate Trump
upon his successful bid for the Republican nomination. His success was explained largely as due to
the large slate of contenders that divided the Republican base to such an
extent that Trump’s extreme fringe base was able to swoop in and take control. Most of the professional pundits still did
not take him seriously as a candidate. He
was vilified by his opponents as “unfit” to lead this country. His supporters were dubbed “a basket of deplorables.” Donald
Trump and his ardent supporters were characterized as a threat to world peace
and to the American way of life. Those
most strongly opposed to Trump fomented fear that a Trump presidency would
bring racial and religious hatred to minority populations, all in an attempt to
discourage people from voting for Trump.
Those more kindly disposed to Trump were sympathetic in their sentiments
for what he was trying to achieve, but regarded his attempts as
well-intentioned, perhaps, but misguided or at the very least unrealistic in
the face of the power of establishment politics.
There were,
however, a handful of voices in the wilderness who saw
something taking place in the social, cultural and political landscape that
others could not see. These prophetic
voices spoke of a groundswell of discontent with politics-as-usual that would
take the political establishment by surprise.
They contended that the models that conventional polls used to predict
the outcome of this presidential race were faulty because they failed to
recognize that there were many “secret” Trump supporters out there who were not
willing to express their views to pollsters.
They would wait to express their views on election day. These prophetic voices were largely ignored
or vilified, not unlike true prophetic voices throughout history.
Then came November 8, 2016. The coverage of the
election began with all of the projections displayed on large electronic
maps. Hillary had most of the electoral
votes with a “very narrow path to victory for Donald Trump”—or
so we were told. The results
began to come in. At first, there were
no real surprises. Then it looked like
Florida might go to Trump. Pundits began
to scratch their heads a bit. Then it
was North Carolina going to Trump. More
head scratching. Then voters began to do
the unthinkable. They started to
penetrate the “blue wall” by taking first Ohio, then Indiana, then Pennsylvania
and other rust belt states. Suddenly the
demeanor of the pundits began to change.
They were at a loss to explain what was happening. More partisan commentators could not hide
their dismay over what was taking place.
Donald Trump was being elected President of the United States and there
was nothing that they could do about it.
Clinton supporters were bewildered.
Many were seen to be sobbing, wringing their hands. It was all slipping through their fingers. It was not merely that the Republican Party
candidate was winning an election. Power
was being transferred from an establishment political
elite who operated according to familiar rules and procedures to a
populist-based movement that represented something that was unknown. How could this possibly have happened? Political pundits will be trying to explain
this for years to come.
But what does all of this
have to do with the Kingdom of God? Scripture sets forth a principle that
I believe is important for us to grasp if we are to appreciate what the events
in our nation signify spiritually. That
principle is that God will first bring things forth in the natural as a shadow
and a type of what He is about to do in the spiritual realm. The apostle Paul writes,
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual
body. And so it is written, “The first
man Adam became a living being.” The
last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual (1 Cor. 15:44-46; NKJV).
And so it is
that the story of the Hebrew people is itself a shadow and a type of the
spiritual journey that is in store for the people of God. I have written elsewhere of the ways in which
the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into the
Promised Land is the story of our own journey out of Egypt, our wilderness
journey, and our own preparation to enter the land of promise that God has
prepared for us.[1]
Just as the
natural experiences of the ancient Israelites speak to spiritual realities even
for today, I believe that the principle that Paul sets forth in I Corinthians is
dramatized in events our day as well.
That is to say, just as He did in days of old, God takes us through
experiences today in the natural that point to spiritual realities that are
taking place, or that are about to take place.
Election 2016 is such an event in our natural world that represents kingdom
realities that the Lord would have His sons discern.
The Allegory
The actors
that took part in this political election, and the parts that they played, are
analogous to what is taking place spiritually in the Kingdom of God today. Let us consider each part of the allegory respectively.
The Hidden Electorate
Neither the
political establishment, nor the mainstream media were able to see the growing
voter base that was being built around the candidacy of Donald Trump, energized
in large part from groundswell of discontent with establishment politics that
was growing throughout the country. This
was largely a “hidden” support that was developing for Donald Trump; a support
that was missed by the most reliable of the scientific polls.
There is a
parallel spiritual movement emerging today which has also been largely
hidden. This movement is comprised of a
growing body of believers who have been called of God to a Kingdom purpose that
defies understanding by those who are immersed in an old wineskin paradigm of
the church age, and are devoted to a religious system. Despite the fact that
they are not understood by the religious establishment, some of these hidden believers
continue to function within institutional church structures, even as they are
misunderstood by fellow congregants and church leaders. They are misunderstood because the message
that has been birthed in them is of a kingdom found within the true temple of which they are, wherein, Christ and Christ alone is Head. Their ultimate loyalty is only to Him, and
because of this, these post-church age believers cannot blindly follow any
human leader. These do not comfortably
fit in a programmed church structure, but must be responsive to the Word of God
that has come alive within them. For
this reason, they are often seen as troublemakers by those who do not have
spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear the Spirit of God Who is being manifest
through them. They are often regarded as
nuisances at best by those who are responsible for the operation of the
bureaucratic church system.
There are
also many, however, who have been called out of the organized church system
altogether. These who have been called
out have also been greatly misunderstood. Just as the motives for Trump supporters were
maligned, so have the motives of those who have been called out of institutional
Christianity. Often, it is a mistaken belief that they have been disgruntled
for some reason and have left their churches in hurt and anger. Some have even questioned the salvation of
these called-out-ones, believing that to leave the church (i.e. organized religion)
is to abandon their relationship with Christ.
For those who have been truly called to the Kingdom agenda that God is
now bringing forth, nothing could be further from the truth. My experience tells me that most of those who
make up this true ecclesia (called
out ones) have a deep love for the fellowships from which they were called out
and often experience deep sorrow in leaving those fellowships, even as they
know that they are being obedient to the Lord, and can do nothing else.
Donald Trump
The
figurative leader of the political movement culminating in the 2016 election is
Donald Trump. Donald Trump is not just
another presidential candidate. His
successful candidacy did not represent merely a shift in power from Democrats
to Republicans. Donald Trump represents
a major challenge to the entrenched political establishment in Washington. Indeed, Trump represents a challenge to the
agenda of the global establishment
that has been asserting itself over the past half century at an amazing
pace. He was a man whom the hidden
electorate could get behind, support, and call their leader. Their loyalty is not to a political
party. It is to Donald Trump, and the
policy agendas that he represents.
Similarly,
the true ecclesia of God have a loyalty only to Jesus
Christ and His Kingdom agenda. Their
loyalty is not to a denomination, nor even ultimately to a local church
fellowship. Indeed, they have and are
willing to suffer persecution at the hands of the religious establishment, just
as their Master said they would. Jesus
and Him alone is their head—their commander-in-chief.
The Political Establishment
The final
actor, collectively, that I want to consider is the political establishment. Establishment politicians, both Democrat and
Republican, grew increasingly uncomfortable with Donald Trump. Indeed, they became overtly hostile to him
when he won the Republican nomination. First,
they began to minimize his plausibility as a candidate. Then, when he won the nomination for the
Republican party, they began to distance themselves
from him. Some, who were in fear of
their own “down ballot” candidacies, openly repudiated him. Democratic establishment candidates were even
more openly hostile, charging both Trump and his followers as being racists,
bigots, intolerant and, yes, deplorable.
The established,
organized church system is no less dismissive of the emerging, though still
largely hidden, ecclesia of God.
Organized religion is desperately seeking to retain its false and
misleading hegemony over a religio-cultural
enterprise that it dares to call “the body of Christ.” Because of its need to dominate, it cannot
recognize the true ecclesia of God, whose allegiance is only to Christ
Himself--whether they are functioning within the church system or have been
called out of it. The religious system
of our day has slandered this remnant that I am calling the true ecclesia of
God in much the same way Trump the establishment slandered supporters of Donald
Trump. These called-out-ones have been
called troublemakers, disturbed, deceived and even heretics because they do not
align themselves with the religious powers that be. They have been dismissed and written
off. In a very real sense, they have
been “left for dead.” I would argue
that, indeed, they are the embodied
“dying seed” of this vision of God’s heart.
In Conclusion
God is not
deterred by the failure of the church system to recognize those whom He has
chosen to fulfill his Kingdom agenda on the earth. He is moving among these faithful ones
without the benefit of paid clergy, comfortable churches and pews, or
sophisticated church programs. He is
moving among a people who are connected to one another in the Spirit, often
communicating only through email, telephone, or possibly in and among what they
would call worldly venues or maybe only through indirect communication through
mutual friends and connections. Formal
organization is not necessary for these called-out-ones to recognize that they
are connected with one another to make up a living organism with Christ as
their Head and Commander-in-Chief.
Oh yes, dear
friend, Christ is forming His body, and the body that He is forming does not
fit within traditional religious “boxes.”
God is now moving this body to speak forth His Word and act in obedience
to that Word. As this takes place, we
who are part of this living organism that is coming into maturity will become
ever more threatening to the religious establishment out of which many of us
came. But this is a Movement that cannot
be held back. He, whose resources are
far more vast than a Donald Trump—or for that matter, more vast than the global
(religious) elite that would come against His people—is orchestrating a
Movement that will ultimately change the world.
Please
understand that I am not suggesting that the political movement ushering in the
presidency of Donald Trump is this
move of God. And I am certainly not
suggesting that Donald Trump, who is the representative leader of this
contemporary political movement in our time, can be compared morally or
spiritually to our Head, King Jesus. This
political movement which has culminated in the totally surprising election of
Donald Trump as president of the United States is but a picture—an allegory—for
what God is doing in the spiritual realm.
As significant as this historic election might be in the political
history of the United States, the real story is the Kingdom drama that is
unfolding through the underground ecclesia of God in our day.
© 2016
Charles Faupel