There seems to be a consensus among most Christians that God delivered Donald Trump from sure death when he now famously turned his head and had his ear clipped by a speeding bullet.
But there’s a big elephant in the room. If God cared enough to turn the head of the former president, why didn’t He protect Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old former fire chief who was killed while attempting to shield his beloved family from the gunfire? And so, a family lost their precious father, and we are left with an unanswered question. Or are we?
In the book of Acts, we are told that severe persecution came upon the Church: “Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also,” (Acts 12:1-3).
We are then told that an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, and Peter miraculously went free. James wasn’t so fortunate. Peter escaped the bullet. James didn’t.
Sometimes God sees fit to miraculously save people, and sometimes He doesn’t. And it’s something we often see happening in Scripture. For example, Jesus allowed Stephen to be murdered by an angry mob: “When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:54-56).
Jesus wasn’t shocked by the murder of a Christian. He even prophesied that it would happen. He said, “The time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service” (John 16:2).
But there is another important piece to this puzzle. There are at least two “wills” of God, according to Scripture: one is the perfect will of God, and the other is the permissive will of God.
He permitted both James and Stephen to die. He also allowed that bullet to take one of His children from this life into the next. Corey Comperatore was a Christian, and at his funeral, his pastor said, “He knew that he belonged to Jesus Christ. That’s the reason he lived a life of service the way he did. He was a witness to the grace of God at work in his life.” And, as with all Christians, Corey had the promise that whatever came his way—whether it be in this life or in death—God would work it out for his good: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose,” (Romans 8:28).
And then, like Handel’s glorious “Messiah” (just after that verse), Scripture climaxes in our victory over death: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing [including bullets], shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:38-39).
Why didn’t God save Corey Comperatore? God had already saved him. He just changed his location.
