It Matters That Roger Stone Just Called Donald Trump the Lord's "Apostle"
And we should be paying close attention to where he said it.
Roger Stone caught a few people's attention (in our addle-brained times) this past week by saying, at a gathering of pastors, that Donald Trump is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Some people laughed this off as a bizarre theological remark from an eccentric and discredited political figure, but I’m not laughing. I think that Stone’s comments signal something far more important and ominous.
I wrote in The Bulwark back in May about a previous time that Roger Stone offered theological reflections at this particular series of “Pastors for Trump” events. There he invoked a prophecy about himself and cast himself (and Trump) as figures in a cosmic drama, a battle between light and darkness, between good and evil. I understand why people wisely question Stone’s sincerity speaking in these religious intonations, but I’m less interested in Stone’s earnestness and more in understanding how he is framing Donald Trump to a particular audience of Christians.
As I wrote about then, these Pastors for Trump events occur as an adjunct to the ReAwaken America tour, a popular-but-bizarre, far-right, pro-Trump roadshow full of COVID anti-vaxxers, Christian prophets, evangelical praise music, and conspiracy theorists. The ReAwaken America tour is headlined by former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (who was on stage with Stone during this speech) and Clay Clark, a Midwestern, charismatic Christian entrepreneur. The Pastors for Trump events are organized by an Oklahoma pastor named Jackson Lahmeyer, who ran for Senate in Oklahoma in 2022 – with support from Stone and Flynn – but lost in the primary.
Both of these events cater to what religion scholars call the Independent Charismatic sector of Christianity, which is important context for understanding Stone’s remarks. This is the unregulated, Wild West of American (and global) Christianity. It is charismatic, a technical term in Christian practice which means, that these are people, ministries, and churches that are very invested in the supernatural “spiritual gift” dimensions of Christianity – miracles, spiritual warfare, prophecy, healings, and so forth. I think it’s simplest to think of these folks as country cousins to the more well-known Pentecostals, similar in spirituality and outlook except for one crucial aspect: these Independent Charismatics are independent, which means they are nondenominational. In other words, there are very few organizing structures or accountability frameworks to keep the energy and exuberance of these supernaturally fixated Christians in check.
As I’ve explained in a five-part audio-documentary series I created about the Christian leaders and theologians who mobilized for January 6, these Independent Charismatic Christians played a hugely outsize role in Christian support for Donald Trump. There are millions of Independent Charismatic Christians in the United States, and this community has become quite radicalized around supporting Trump. Hundreds of these Christians were present on January 6th surrounding the US Capitol, and their distinctive forms of spirituality were rife throughout the Capitol Riot crowds. Put simply, Independent Charismatic communities are the epicenter of Christian Trumpism.
So with all of that context, let’s take a look at Stone’s actual comments: standing on the stage a few yards from Michael Flynn, Stone praises the erstwhile general and present-day far-right icon as “one of the greatest American patriots and one of the most brilliant geopolitical and military strategists in the history of this country.” He goes on to predict that Flynn’s “greatest public service and his greatest service to this nation lies ahead.” If you know anything about Flynn’s approach to American politics, this is a grim prediction.
Then Stone launches into calling Trump the Lord’s “apostle.” It’s worth remarking here that Independent Charismatics have a very different understanding of the role of apostles than most Christians do. For most Christians, the apostles were Jesus’ twelve disciples who were then commissioned (apostolos in Greek literally means “sent ones”) by Jesus to create the Christian church. The apostles all died off in the late 1st century of the Christian era, so most Christians would be utterly puzzled by this claim that Trump is one of Jesus’ apostles. But in Independent Charismatic-land, there is a widespread belief that there are new modern-day apostles, and, since the 1980s, there have been hundreds of American Independent Charismatic leaders who have claimed the title and role of apostle.
In the popular Independent Charismatic conception of apostleship – most prominently promoted by C. Peter Wagner and his New Apostolic Reformation networks – apostles are modern-day oligarchs of the church: individuals empowered by the Holy Spirit and endowed with extraordinary authority and power to build the kingdom of God on earth. Wagner even theorized about “marketplace apostles,” that is, Christian apostles whose primary focus was not the church but taking over business and government for the transformation of society. This seems to be what Roger Stone is gesturing toward in his Trump-as-apostle claim – that Donald Trump is really a devout Christian and that he has been endowed and commissioned by God to save America. In this context, calling Trump an “apostle” is much more akin to calling him a messiah – an anointed savior – than it is to calling him a pastor.
In fact, the tone of Stone’s speech is extremely apocalyptic. After recounting a series of five miracles God has performed for Stone – clearly a rhetorical flourish to enlist the Independent Charismatic imagination – he declares that the 2024 election “will be unlike any election you’ve ever seen – and the calamitous events in public that we’re about to experience will be like no others we have ever seen.” Dire words indeed from someone who was intimately involved in the ramp-up to January 6!
Continuing his oracular declarations, Stone proclaims: “As the world plunges into darkness, I pray for one more miracle” in this election. It was precisely this miracle-catnip language that fueled the charismatic spirituality around January 6 – things may look bad, but God is going to intervene miraculously and reinstate Donald Trump. That’s the prophetic propaganda that drew feverish crowds of Christians to Washington DC that day. As he concludes, Stone forecasts optimistically, saying, “I do think that Donald Trump was put at this time, at this place, as we all are for this final battle. This is, indeed, the final battle.”
Again, it’s easy to laugh this off, because, even at his most pious-sounding, Roger Stone comes across like a villainous cartoon cat ready to pounce on his unsuspecting audience, but we laugh it off at our own peril. This is the rhetoric and these are the theological ideas that undergirded the last attempt to overthrow a presidential election. And here’s the crucial point: this rhetoric of prophecy, of apocalyptic warfare, of divinely appointed apostles fulfilling America’s destiny serves dual purposes – one for before the 2024 election and one for after it.
Before the election, this rhetoric is meant to galvanize right-wing Christians, especially these charismatic evangelicals, to view the election as a pivot point in history. This means that, just as in 2016 and in 2020, there will be a massive mobilization of spiritual warfare campaigns to bolster Donald Trump as an apocalyptic savior. Millions of Christians will believe that the “destiny” of America hinges, eschatologically, on Donald Trump being elected. Talk about Get Out The Vote motivation!
After the election, in that vulnerable and too-long season between election day in November 2024 and inauguration day in January 2025, this rhetoric is preloaded to frame a contested (or lied about) election as an arena of cosmic combat. This is what we saw in 2020 – fervent prayer meetings, Jericho Marches, and mobilization of Christians to stand with Trump against God’s enemies. This mixture of hope and desperation and
of Christian-nationalist grandiosity, was one of the most potent factors in how the Capitol Insurrection came about.
In short, whatever the voting outcome in 2024, Roger Stone is instigating Christians toward narratives of apocalyptic desperation, where Donald Trump is God’s designee, where miracles are within reach, and where violence may be necessary to see “God’s will” fulfilled. If you think that sounds far-fetched, then you are a very poor student of recent American history.
Chilling! Look forward to your book!
Dear Matt Taylor, thanks for being the first one I know to connect the dots I saw three years ago. You are a godsend! I was in these streams many years ago before they became so radical, and God led me out. I didn't realize until recent years how I dodged a bullet and I know many folks who are still wading to their ankles cautiously or diving in at the deep end of these streams. My only complaint: your book needs to come out NOW, not in September. I want to share that book with dozens of folks and waiting six months when the election is around the corner is huge amount of time not to share this information! Is there any way at all that book could come out months earlier?