A History of Effects: Enscripturation and the Church

Spring 2025

A History of Effects: Enscripturation and the Church

Enscripturation was brought into the public consciousness through an online article which Lance Wallnau wrote during the 2016 Republican leadership race. According to Wallnau, the Lord told him that while there were, at the time, many evangelicals running for the Republican leadership, the Lord would ask someone from outside of the fold–Donald Trump–to lead them back to the promised land, just as the Lord had anointed the pagan King Cyrus to shepherd his people Israel and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. Wallnau’s claim found defenders and detractors across various social media platforms in the build up to the 2016 election, and once Trump was in office, it was even picked up by President Benjamin Netenyahu of Israel. Netenyahu stated that the people of Israel would steadfastly honour Donald Trump as they continue to honour Cyrus the Great, since Trump moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, and recognized Israel’s claim to Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

Those who have considered the claim that Trump is Cyrus have variously interpreted it as prophecy, typology, simile, or metaphor. On one hand, attributing the epithet “Cyrus” to the President is a matter of applying the Scriptures to today. But it is more than just that. It is a matter of placing the President within the Scriptural story in order to make a particular claim about providence, what God is doing in and through Mr. Trump. The idea that Trump is Cyrus, or at least that he was asked to lead as Cyrus, continues to be deeply held by some Americans, just as it continues to be vehemently denounced by others. Yet–whether we decide to approve of this particular appellation or reject it–we must recognize that it is just the tip of the iceberg, or at the very least, a piece of sea ice that has been broken off of the larger mass. God’s people have consistently enscripturated themselves and others since Old Testament times. And now that Christianity is a truly global religion, enscripturation is practiced wherever the waves of the sea wash up on the shore.

To study enscripturation in the history of the Church is to study Christian history as a history of effects, to use Ebbling’s phrase. It is to behold the Bible at work as the word of God which goes out from God’s mouth and does not return to Him empty. In this seminar course, students will study the early church, the Medieval Church, the Reformation Church, and the Modern Church as histories of effects, in order to understand the work that Scripture has done in the lives of Christians over the course of time. They will consider whether there are guidelines for the practice of enscripturation, and whether pursuing it self-consciously can be a means of Christian ministry today.

Instructor: The Rev. Dr. David Ney

The Rev. Dr. David Ney bio.

Book List

Bunyan, John. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN-10: 0199554986. $10.99.

Students will photocopy primary and secondary readings for each week, as well as draft chapters of Dr. Ney’s forthcoming book, Introducing Enscripturation.

If this is your first credit class at Trinity, or you are not taking the course as part of a degree, please complete the non-matriculated application. A bachelor’s degree is required to obtain credit.

To register to audit a Master’s Level course, please complete an audit application.