Does God Speak to the President?

The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC Minister Gerry Varella. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.

Earlier this month, President Trump shared a text message sent to him by Mike Huckabee, the US Ambassador to Israel. The text, which was reposted on both Trump’s personal X account and the official White House account, sends a bold message: Huckabee tells Trump he was spared by God in the assassination attempt on his life last year, and that reason is now clear.

According to Huckabee, God will tell Trump directly how to proceed in the Israel-Iran conflict. 

Many viewed Trump’s personal repost as an endorsement or cosigning of Huckabee’s sentiment, and Trump himself has stated previously he believes he was spared by God in Butler for a higher purpose.

I saw many people online critical of the president for endorsing Huckabee's message. They posed questions like: "Do we really want a commander in chief acting on the whims of what God whispers in his ear?"

But such an arrangement is not as unusual as it sounds. 

In fact, many presidents throughout U.S. history are claimed (by themselves or others) to be divinely guided. So here's my question: does God truly speak to the president? 

And if so, what does that mean for us? Here's what my research found. 

Providence and the President

Presidents often believe themselves to be God’s instrument in times of great conflict and turmoil.

Though he stopped short of ever claiming to speak directly with God, Abraham Lincoln often reflected on his role in God’s divine will in the depths of the Civil War. “I hold myself in my present position and with the authority vested in me as an instrument of Providence,” he is reported as saying.

“I am conscious every moment that all I am and all I have is subject to the control of a Higher Power, and that Power can use me or not use me in any manner, and at any time, as in His wisdom and might may be pleasing to Him.”

Lincoln believed he was chosen for this incredible moment in American history, but notably had to shut out other voices telling him the same. Indeed, Lincoln heard from both abolitionists and non-abolitionists alike that their agenda was God’s will; Lincoln didn’t claim to know God’s exact plan, just that He had one, and that it was often complicated and mysterious.

“God wills this contest,” he wrote of the Civil War, “and wills that it shall not end yet.”

Lincoln approached leadership with humility, suggesting that we should not ask whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God’s side.

‘I Am Cyrus’

Harry S. Truman seemingly believed he was carrying out God’s will in the creation of the state of Israel. In 1953, after his presidency, Truman was introduced at a speaking engagement by Eddie Jacobson as “the man who helped create the State of Israel.”

“What do you mean, ‘helped to create’?” Truman responded. “I am Cyrus, I am Cyrus.”

Truman was referencing the Persian king Cyrus the Great, who overthrew the Babylonian empire and helped bring the exiled Jews back to Jerusalem. Truman was a deeply faithful man, and his words reinforce a belief that he was not only like Cyrus; He was a modern-day Cyrus, chosen by God at an extraordinary moment of history to single-handedly return the Jews to Israel. 

A Direct Line to God

If Truman was chosen by God to create modern-day Israel, George W. Bush, a born-again Christian, said he was chosen by God to protect it. Bush reportedly said he often talked to God directly in the wake of 9/11.

According to former Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath, President Bush told him "I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did."

"I feel God's words coming to me: 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.',” Shaath says Bush explained. “And by God, I'm gonna do it."

Related: The People on Earth With a Direct Line to God

Does God Speak to the President?

I don't claim to have the answer. I do know there are plenty of examples of presidents saying the Almighty is on their side, from Washington’s belief that Providence had a hand in his field successes during the American Revolution, to Trump’s assertion God spared him from an assassin's bullet. 

The truth is, the line between faith and politics in American leadership has always been blurred. At times, this blending has inspired unity and moral conviction. At others, it has served to justify war, division, or unchecked power.

Either way, the suggestion that God speaks directly to the president carries profound implications, for the nation, for the world, and for the very spirit of democracy.