put it<\/a>\u00a0on X, there are two ways to hear this. The first is, while rightly acknowledging the moralistic false gospel, to target the president\u2019s theological failings and dismiss what could be real conviction needing humble help from the theologically astute. The second \u2014 and the one we should pray for \u2014 is that Trump might be hearing the effectual call. For a man whose top-tier willpower has reshaped nations, this could be the Holy Spirit cracking open his heart to the one truth that levels every king: Salvation is not earned. It is received. Repentance and faith are not prerequisites we perform, but gifts of God\u2019s Spirit.<\/p>\nTrump\u2019s half-joking humility echoes one of Jesus\u2019 parables. The prodigal son who blew his inheritance on pigs and parties, only to slink home with a scripted apology, only for the father to smother him in a robe and ring before he could finish his lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imagine the world\u2019s greatest architect, the guy who sketches skyscrapers that kiss the clouds, staring at his blueprint for eternity and realizing it is off by a millimeter. No amount of revisions or subcontractors will fix it; the foundation is cracked from the start. That is us \u2014 all of us \u2014 measuring our lives against God\u2019s perfect plumb line and coming up short. As the prophet Isaiah reminds us, even our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment (literally, period rags). Trump is not alone in this; he is just the latest high-profile soul to peek over the ledge.<\/p>\n
But here is the good news that turns despair into doxology: Heaven is not a gated community for the self-made, an eternal awards show for the elite. It is a feast thrown open to sinners who know they have no business crashing it. Heaven\u2019s joy is not merely in escape from punishment but in communion with the Triune God \u2014 the Father who receives, the Son who redeems, and the Spirit who renews.<\/p>\n
Jesus told a parable that cuts straight to the chase, one that feels tailor-made for a dealmaker like Trump. Two men went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee \u2014 picture the ultimate Type A, the guy with the corner office in the kingdom of the self-justified \u2014 strutted in, thanking God he was \u201cnot like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,\u201d or even like that wicked tax collector over there. He fasted twice a week, tithed mint and cumin and all. Spotless ledger, right?<\/p>\n
Then the tax collector, beaten down by a life of fleecing his neighbors for Rome\u2019s cut (and his own, of course), stood at a distance. He would not even lift his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and said, \u201cGod, be merciful to me, a sinner!\u201d Jesus did not mince words: \u201cThis man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dear Mr. President<\/strong><\/h2>\nMr. President, if you are reading this \u2014 and who knows, in God\u2019s economy, stranger things have happened \u2014 hear the Savior\u2019s voice in that story. You are the builder of walls and the broker of peace, the man who has stared down tyrants and assassins, and turned economies on a dime. You have \u201cmade life better for a lot of people,\u201d as you said, and for that, saints across this land thank God. But none of it \u2014 not the hostages freed from terror\u2019s grip, not the wars you have starved of oxygen \u2014 will tip the scales in your favor on Judgment Day.<\/p>\n
But if you come to Him humbly \u2014 confessing and repenting of your sin and trusting in Christ alone \u2014 you will find grace greater than all your sin. Jesus promises, \u201cWhoever comes to Me I will never cast out.\u201d Come to Him as that tax collector did, beating your chest not with false bravado but with the raw ache of a soul stripped bare for the holy God, and you will find mercy, forgiveness, and eternal life. It is not a transaction to negotiate; it is a transfer to cry out for \u2014 from death to life, from self to Savior. The same grace that felled Saul on the Damascus Road and turned a persecutor into a preacher can hunt you down in the Oval Office or on Air Force One.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pray for our president, saints.<\/p>\n
Objections Abound<\/strong><\/h2>\nOf course, not everyone is interceding for our president. Some replies to my own plea on X dripped with the sour grapes of superiority: Trump\u2019s too wicked \u2014 adulterer, enabler of wars, a pedophile even.<\/em> Fair enough; the man is no saint, and neither am I. But that is the point. The tax collector was not a choirboy; he was a collaborator, a traitor to his people, skimming off widows\u2019 mites for an empire that crucified his Messiah. If grace could reach him mid-prayer, why draw lines in the sand for Trump?\u00a0<\/p>\nOr others sneered, He\u2019s Jewish, so this doesn\u2019t apply.<\/em> As if God\u2019s mercy stops at bloodlines; tell that to Ruth the Moabite or Rahab the Canaanite, woven into the Savior\u2019s genealogy by faith, not pedigree.<\/p>\nThen there were the whataboutists: Why not beg prayers for Biden the same way?<\/em> Touch\u00e9. We should. Every knee will bow, every tongue confess, from Mar-a-Lago to the White House bunker. I have prayed for Joe Biden\u2019s salvation and will continue to do so, because the gospel is not a partisan weapon \u2014 it is salvation in the storm. And the ignorance charge? Surrounded by evangelicals, yet clueless on heaven\u2019s entry fee.<\/em> Pride goeth before a fall, friend. Billy Graham himself preached to presidents who nodded along but never knelt. Knowledge puffs up; conviction breaks down.<\/p>\nOne wag even quibbled that the tax collector\u2019s sins were \u201cjust\u201d tax fraud, not Gaza\u2019s toll or USAID cuts. As if God grades on a curve. Our wickedness before the Judge of all is not a spectrum; it is a chasm, and we are all dangling over it. The wage of every sin is death \u2014 white lies or red-handed betrayals. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, no fine print. Trump\u2019s quip about not being heaven-bound? It is the first step for any prodigal: Admitting the self-designed pigsty is no palace.<\/p>\n
The elites mock such talk as superstition because they cannot imagine a kingdom they did not build. But Trump\u2019s confession, however accidental, touches the one truth that no empire can spin: Eternity in heaven or hell is not negotiable.<\/p>\n
\n\n Dusty Deevers is a pastor at Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Elgin in Elgin, Oklahoma. He is also the state senator for Oklahoma Senate District 32 and a small business owner. He lives in Elgin with his wife and six children.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n