Trump's Head Wound and Revelation 13:3

 Reminder: If you're new to my blog, make sure to start here with my initial post outlining the many links between Donald Trump and the scriptural figure known as the Antichrist.

                In this relatively brief post, I want to discuss Trump’s head wound and Revelation 13. In Butler, PA, on July 13, 2024, an assassin named Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to take Donald Trump’s life. Crooks failed, only (apparently) succeeding in clipping the top of Trump’s right ear with a bullet fragment – or, as some speculated after congressional testimony by then-FBI director Christopher Wray, with perhaps a shard of glass. Other attendees in the crowd were shot by bullets coming from Crooks’ rifle, with one of them (a man named Corey Comperatore) dying from his wounds. Trump’s survival of this assassination attempt led to his later claims that God has specifically spared his life so that he could save America. Trump thus uses the events of that day to claim that he is a sort of messiah (“anointed one," which is what the word Christ means), designated by God to preserve the future prosperity of Americans.

                The question that some prophecy researchers were asking in the aftermath of this event was, “Does the ear wound that Trump suffered on that day have any connection to the prophecy in Revelation 13:3 of the Antichrist suffering a head wound that miraculously heals?” Here is that passage from Rev. 13:3: “One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.”

                Now, what some immediately pointed out was that the wound on Trump’s upper right ear was not truly fatal – it apparently led to the loss of a lot of blood, but Trump probably wasn’t in immediate danger of dying from a mere ear wound. Since John mentions that the wound suffered by the Antichrist’s head is mortal – the common translation of the Greek word thanatos (Greek Strong’s # 2288) – it would thus be incorrect to depict the events of Butler, PA on that summer day as a fulfillment of this specific prophecy, would it not?

                Note up front, though, that it is said that the beast “seemed to” – Greek hos, Strong’s # 5613 - have had a fatal wound. It is clear from analyzing this Greek word hos (translated as ‘seemed to’ or ‘as it were’ in commonly used NT translations) that John the Revelator could possibly be understood to describe the head wound as only seemingly mortal – not truly mortal. Dig into Bible Hub’s analysis of this Greek word’s scriptural usage here: https://biblehub.com/greek/5613.htm

                Secondly, I believe it’s crucial to also note that the miraculous revival from the head wound probably had a primary application to the Roman emperor Nero, who, according to the historian Suetonius, killed himself by stabbing himself in the throat. This fatal wound then served as the precursor to the eventual Nero Redivivus scenario that I keep discussing on this blog: that Nero would return in the end days as the eschatological Antichrist – an instance of Bible prophecy being reflected in what scholars call a double fulfillment. John was referring specifically to Nero, not to the ultimate end times Nero figure, because John lived in Nero’s time, not in our own. However, the principle of double fulfillment lets us consider both the original Nero and the end times Nero as one composite figure manifested in two separate earthly comings.

There are other instances of double fulfillment in eschatological prophecies. For example, in Mark 13, Jesus’s words have a primary application to the coming destruction of Herod’s temple in 70 AD, yet other comments within that chapter make it clear that the text as a whole *also* applies to the end times Tribulation. In other words, certain verses in Mark 13 – for instance, the mention of the ‘abomination of desolation’ found in the Book of Daniel, or the language reflecting the prophecies in Isaiah 13 about apocalyptic celestial events – clarify that the passage not only had an ancient fulfillment, but that this ancient fulfillment would again be reflected in an ultimate end times manifestation of prophetic predictions. In fact, the entire reason why scholars of Revelation discuss Nero (and why scholars of Daniel study Antiochus IV Epiphanes) is that these two historical figures were also the Antichrist - or perhaps were also the same malevolent spirit - which will return in our days at the eschaton.

                Therefore, if the primary application of Revelation 13:3 is that Nero will return hundreds of years later to incarnate in the figure we call the Man of Sin (2 Thess. 2), then we might conclude that this return to power itself will fulfill Revelation 13:3. In other words, the return of Nero to control of the White House is itself, I would surmise, the fulfillment of the stab wound in Nero’s neck miraculously healing so that he could return to control the world’s governments. We see this more clearly in analyzing Rev. 13:14, which describes the head wound as being caused by a dagger or knife (machaira, Strong’s Greek # 3162). Such an instrument would probably have been used in Nero’s suicide.

                With that understanding, then, we can probably conclude that the fact that Trump’s ear wound in Butler, PA doesn’t strictly count as “mortal” or “fatal” does not preclude us from seeing it as nevertheless an instance of scriptural types and shadows playing out in front of our eyes. Here’s another one: consider that the t-shirts printed up and sold worldwide after the photo of Trump raising his fist that day were accompanied by the phrase “Fight, Fight, Fight” and that, since F is the 6^th letter, this is a type and shadow of 666 (a descending FFF for F.ight F.ight F.ight) being displayed in connection with this event:

                Also, note that the concluding language of Rev. 13:3 would also seem to dovetail with what happened on social media after Trump’s famous survival and recovery took place: “The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.” Indeed, the whole world saw video of the events of that day. Images and footage spread throughout social media to an incredible extent, such that much of the world also literally followed Trump on his platform Truth Social, or followed other accounts that depicted the footage through retweets and posts. This process generated wonder – or thaumazo, Strong’s Greek # 2296. The NASB translation associates thaumazo with the words: amazed, marveled, marvel, wondered, astonished, marveling, surprised. This cluster of associated words indicates that the ‘marvel’ or ‘wonder’ many in the world felt on July 13, 2024 was not necessarily defined by respect or admiration for Trump himself (who is unpopular amongst many globally). One can be ‘amazed,’ ‘astonished,’ or ‘surprised’ without necessarily respecting or admiring the character of the 45^th president. Many still follow Trump on social media even though they may disagree with him, because his posts have effects that reverberate throughout government and society, worldwide.               

    In addition, there's nothing preventing Trump (if he indeed is the Antichrist figure we’re looking for) from suffering another head wound in the future which may more strictly be defined as ‘mortal’ or ‘fatal.’ Other examples of this would include people like former Reagan press secretary James Brady and former Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords, who were both shot directly in the brain, yet still survived.

                Finally, stepping back to take a larger-focus view of Butler, PA in our analysis of Trump’s rise from being a small horn to becoming a great horn, it is clear that Trump’s popularity grew massively worldwide amongst those who decided, based on the evidence, that Trump’s life was specifically spared by God in a miracle that would be a harbinger of the future salvation of the United States in a political sense. I say ‘in a political sense,’ because salvation as applied to the salvation of souls is a radically different concept from the notion of salvation as applied to the continued economic, political and military superiority of this country. Indeed, the main thesis of this website is that saving souls in the end times will require pointing out to the rest of our countrymen and countrywomen that there will be no future prosperity and security of the current geopolitical entity we know as the United States of America.