Dear friend,
I need you to think about something this Wednesday morning.
Two years ago yesterday, a young man climbed onto a rooftop in Butler, Pennsylvania and pointed a rifle at Donald Trump.
The bullet missed by one inch.
One inch.
I want you to sit with that for a moment before you read anything else. Not as a political statement. Not as a news headline. As a fact about physical reality. One inch. The width of your thumb. The difference between one outcome and another so different that the entire course of human history would have changed with it.
One inch.
And today, two years later, that same man is sitting in the White House threatening to strike an Iranian nuclear site. Warning a hostile government that thousands of missiles will be launched if they try to kill him. Standing at the centre of a war in the Middle East that has no clear end in sight. Still there. Still standing. Still making decisions that affect every person reading this letter.
I have been in the Church for fifty years. I do not believe in coincidences. I especially do not believe in one inch coincidences.
Before I go further I want to place something in your hands.
I wrote a guide called They Tried To Stop Him: What The Bible Says About Donald Trump. I wrote it because what I am describing this morning — the survival, the opposition, the pattern of attack after attack after attack, each one failing — is not something I invented. It is something Scripture described thousands of years before any of us were born. The guide walks through that pattern passage by passage. Many of you have written to me saying it gave you peace you had not felt in years. If you have not read it yet today is the right day. You can find it by clicking the link below
Alternatively, you may find it here: https://fatherthomasletters.com/products/they-tried-to-stop-him-what-the-bible-says-about-donald-trump
Now let me show you what I mean.
The pattern is old. It did not start in Butler.
In First Samuel chapter 18, King Saul tried to kill David with a spear. Not once. Twice. He threw it at him while David was playing music. Both times David moved out of the way.
Then Saul sent soldiers to David's house to kill him in the night. David escaped through a window.
Then Saul sent three groups of soldiers to capture him. Each time something happened that stopped them.
Then Saul went himself. And even then he could not do it.
I want you to count the attempts. The spear twice. The soldiers at the house. Three groups sent after him. Saul himself. That is at least seven attempts to end one man's life. And David was still there. Still anointed. Still moving toward the thing God had already decided he would become.
Why could no one stop him?
Because God had already decided the story did not end there.
The pattern continued with Paul.
In Acts chapter 9, the religious leaders in Damascus decided to kill Paul. They watched the city gates day and night to catch him. Paul's friends had to lower him over the city wall in a basket in the middle of the night for him to escape.
Then he went to Jerusalem and the same thing happened. People were waiting to kill him.
Then he was beaten with rods. Three times. Stoned and left for dead. Shipwrecked three times. In danger from rivers, from bandits, from his own countrymen, from Gentiles, in the city, in the wilderness, at sea.
And yet in Second Corinthians chapter 11 he listed all of it as if it were simply the cost of the assignment. Not as tragedy. As evidence that the assignment was real.
The people who are assigned to something specific are always opposed in ways that the people around them cannot fully explain. That is not an accident. That is the pattern.
Now look at the last two years.
A bullet that missed by one inch. Two impeachments. Dozens of criminal charges. Members of his own party turning against him. A media that has declared him finished more times than I can count. A ceasefire that collapsed. A war that will not stay ended. Iran threatening his life again today.
And he is still there.
I am not telling you he is a perfect man. David was not a perfect man. Paul was not a perfect man. The Bible has never required perfection from the people it places at the centre of important moments. It has only ever required availability — the willingness to stay in the assignment when every reasonable person would have walked away.
He has stayed.
Two years after a bullet missed him by one inch, he is still in the assignment. Still standing at the centre of the most consequential moment in a generation. Still making decisions that will shape what kind of world your grandchildren grow up in.
I do not think that happened by accident.
What does Scripture say about why some men survive what should have destroyed them?
In Isaiah chapter 54, verse 17, God made a promise that I have returned to more times than I can count.
No weapon formed against you shall prosper.
Not no weapon shall be formed. Weapons will be formed. The spear will be thrown. The soldiers will come in the night. The rooftop in Butler will happen. The charges will be filed. The votes will be held.
But not one of them shall prosper against the man God has placed in the path of something He is determined to accomplish.
That is the promise. Not safety from the attempt. Safety from the outcome.
David felt the spear go past him. Paul felt the rods. The bullet in Butler was real. The danger today in the Strait of Hormuz is real. The threats from Iran are real.
But the outcome is not in the hands of the people making the threats. It never has been.
What this means for you this Wednesday morning.
I know many of you have been watching the news this week with a heavy heart. The ceasefire collapsed. Strikes are happening again. The word nuclear is being used in ways that make people's stomachs drop. The world feels unstable in a way that is hard to describe to people who are not paying attention.
I want you to hold this today.
The God who moved David one inch to the left of Saul's spear is the same God who is watching what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz right now. The same God who lowered Paul over the wall in a basket in the middle of the night is the same God who allowed a bullet to miss by one inch two years ago today. The same God who has never once abandoned a man He placed in an assignment is the same God who is present in everything you are watching right now.
He is not surprised. He is not scrambling. He is not watching the news and wondering what to do next.
He already knows how this ends. He has always known. And the pattern He has used throughout Scripture to get there has not changed.
That is not a reason to be naive. It is a reason to be steady.
Two years ago today a bullet missed by one inch.
Today that same man is still standing.
I believe that means something. I believe Scripture makes it clear what it means. And I believe the people who understand what it means are the ones who will not lose hope when the next attempt comes. Because there will be a next attempt. There always is.
But the pattern does not change either.
God bless you, friend. Hold onto what you know today.
With you in prayer,
Father Thomas
This week I want you to do three things:
One. Read First Samuel chapter 18, verses 1 through 16. Read the whole section. Count how many times Saul tried to stop David. Notice that David did not fight back. He simply kept showing up. Let that pattern sit with you this week when the news feels overwhelming.
Two. Write down the words of Isaiah chapter 54, verse 17 on a piece of paper. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. Put it somewhere you will see it this week. Not as a decoration. As a reminder of a promise that was made before any of the threats you are watching right now existed.
Three. If you have not yet read They Tried To Stop Him — today is the day. Two years after Butler, with everything that is happening right now, the pattern this guide describes has never been more visible or more relevant. Read it this week. You can find it here: https://fatherthomasletters.com/products/they-tried-to-stop-him-what-the-bible-says-about-donald-trump