Donald Trump Inaugurated Totally New Multi-Faith National Day of Prayer
Donald Trump Inaugurated Totally New Multi-Faith National Day of Prayer
By Julio Severo
President Donald Trump inaugurated a totally new multifaith National Day of Prayer, where Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Jain, Unitarian Universalist, Christian and Jewish leaders made their prayers for those suffering from the coronavirus, the families who had lost loved ones and the healthcare workers leading the battle against the disease.
Even though the National Day of Prayer was created by evangelical Christians, who predominated in such public events for many decades, Trump decided that for 2020 the National Day of Prayer would have a different look, a multifaith look, with many different religions, even non-Christian and anti-Christian religions, praying to their own gods and spirits.
It is the first time in the U.S. history that leaders from different religions hold together the National Day of Prayer, departing from its evangelical origin and predominance.
“On this National Day of Prayer, America is engaged in a fierce battle against a very terrible disease. Throughout our history, in times of challenge, our people have always called upon the gift of faith, the blessing of belief, the power of prayer, and the eternal glory of God. I ask all Americans to join their voices and their hearts in spiritual union as we ask our Lord in Heaven for strength and solace, for courage and comfort, for hope and healing, for recovery and for renewal,” Trump said during the ceremony on May 7, 2020 in the White House Rose Garden.
“We’re also profoundly grateful to be joined by many faith leaders,” he added.
During the event, Trump allowed evangelicals, Catholics, Hindus, Muslims and other religious leaders to lead their prayers. Pujari Harish Brahmbhatt, invited by Trump, made a Vedic mantra or prayer derived from the traditional Hindu mantra Yajurveda.
Invited by Trump, Ibraheem Raheem, who is an Islamic chaplain in the U.S. army, led an Islamic prayer.
Trump also invited Jews and Catholics to pray.
One of those offering prayers was the charismatic televangelist Paula White, who is Trump’s adviser and serves as the chair of his evangelical advisory board. She is hated by some because she is an advocate of the Prosperity Gospel.
Trump said, “Pastor Paula White, please come up. Thank you, Paula.”
White said:
What an honor to be here with you, President and First Lady, Vice President, Second Lady. It’s a beautiful day to lift up our Lord and Savior. He is a certain God in uncertain times. And the Bible says, if two or three of us agree as touching anything, it will be done.
Job 22, verse 28 says: If you decree a thing and declare a thing, it will be established. So, God, we come in agreement with your Word and with your Name — the name of Jesus.
Psalm 40, verse 17 says: You are my help and my deliver. Do not delay, Oh God. I declare no more delays to the deliverance of COVID-19. No more delays to healing and a vaccination. No more delays to restoration of this great nation, the United States of America.
For Psalm 71:2 says: In your righteousness, deliver us and rescue us, incline your ear and save us.
Psalm 107 says: You deliver us out of the stress and out of destruction.
Your Word will not return void, according to Isaiah chapter 55, verse 11. So I declare your Word. I declare divine intervention and supernatural turnaround. You will restore this land.
According to Psalm 118:25: Save our nation, oh Lord, and send prosperity now.
For Deuteronomy 28:8 says: Command your blessing upon this land. You said in Deuteronomy 8:9 to bring us into good land without any lack.
For your word declares in Psalm 33:2: Blessed is the nation whose God is Lord.
So I declare you right now to be Lord over this nation, over the United States of America, and we receive your blessing over any plague, over any economic distress.
You will stay the hand of the enemy, according to Second Samuel chapter 21, verse 16: When 70,000 men died by a plague, David cried out as he covered himself in prayer. And the Lord answered and said, “It is enough.”
Stay now thine hand. Lord, let that be the cry today, and let that be your answer. Lord, enough coronavirus, enough to death, enough to fear, enough to poverty. Stay thine your hand.
We pray over President Trump and First Lady, Vice President and Second Lady, and this administration. I declare Psalm 89, verse 21: Let your hand establish President Trump, and let your arm strengthen him. I declare Psalm 98:1 that your right hand and your holy arm will give Him victory. We declare victory in the name of Jesus.
Isaiah 58:11 says: Guide him continually. And you said in Psalm 78:72 that you would guide him by the skillfulness of your hand.
You declared in Psalm 43 that send out your light and truth and let him lead his household, his administration, in the name of Jesus.
Now, Lord, we pray for your mercies, for they are new every single day. And every morning, your mercies are new. Your steadfast love never ceases. I declare new mercies for hospital workers, new mercies for doctors and nurses, moms and dads, pastors and clergies, CEOs and employers, for the President and Vice President.
God, your love is steadfast and it endures forever. So right now, wrap your arms of love around every person who is hurting, every person who is confused, scared, tired, weary sick, lonely. Let them know your love. Let them know that you will never leave them and you will never forsake them.
And in conclusion, I declare Isaiah chapter 43, verse 19: I ask the Lord to do a new thing in our nation by giving waters in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
Malachi 4:2 says: Jesus, arise over the nation with healing in your wings.
President, one last word: Like David, who had had victory, after victory, after victory, after victory, would face his biggest battle — it was called Ziklag. And they would take his wives and his children, and the city would be burned down. And he cried and he wept, and he began to pray out to God. And God gave him a word.
And through fasting and praying, I believe this is the word for you and for this nation: The Lord spoke to him and said: Pursue and go after them, and you shall, without fail, recover all.
Sir, the word of the Lord, I believe, for this nation and for this administration is: You will recover all.
Trump thanked televangelist Paula White by saying: “Well, thank you very much, Paula. Incredible, Paula. Thank you.”
It was not correct for Trump to turn the National Day of Prayer, which was created by evangelicals and was a predominantly evangelical event to call upon Jesus Christ, into a multifaith event with non-Christian and anti-Christian religions, to call upon all kinds of gods and demons. But White should not reject the invitation to pray for America and Trump.
The National Day of Prayer, first marked by Democrat President Harry Truman under the inspiration of evangelist Billy Graham in 1952, has become a yearly White House tradition.
Because Trump opened the way, now the National Day of Prayer will not be any more a predominantly evangelical event. It will be a multifaith event. It will be an event to pray to many gods and spirits.
This is religious confusion. It is religious Babylon. In 1985 Rev. David Wilkerson said that America is modern Babylon. It is very hard now to doubt it.
The difference between the old Babylon and the modern Babylon is that in the old Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king, used to gather together different pagan religions because he was not a Christian. In the modern Babylon, why is Trump, who a Protestant president, beginning to gather together pagan religions?
In my 2015 article “Conservative Babylon in ‘Persecuted’: Hybrid Televangelist Framed by Pagan Neocon, and the Free Speech or Patriotic or Equality ‘Gospel’ Replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” I warned about a conservative movie portraying a televangelist with Catholic and evangelical characteristics:
“Persecuted” pleases Catholics and evangelicals by creating a hybrid Catholic-evangelical conservative: a “Billy Graham” with a rosary. Why not a hybrid Catholic-Orthodox-evangelical-Jewish conservative? My worry is that this dangerous trend can lead to a future hybrid Muslim-Christian-Hindu-Buddhist conservative, and all of us know how America is prone to “diversity.”
The hybrid religious future of the National Day of Prayer is here, with Trump’s approval. What kind of benefit and answers prayers and mantras to several gods and spirits are going to bring to the U.S. is something that remains to be seen.