‘Mr. President, let your bloodied ear lead you to Jesus Christ,’ says Pastor Jack Hibbs

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, July 15, 2024

Jack Hibbs is the senior and founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, in Southern California. | YouTube/Real Life with Jack Hibbs

Megachurch Pastor Jack Hibbs says the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life on Saturday is a warning shot from God urging him to “bow the knee” and truly get to know the Lord.

Hibbs, who is the senior and founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Southern California, was also a member of the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s Evangelical Advisory Board.

“Mr. President, if you’re watching this right now, your right ear was bloodied. It wasn’t your eye that got shot. It wasn’t your nose that got shot. It wasn’t your temple that was intended to be shot. Your ear was hit, but we would like and pledge and pray that you might bow your knee before the Lord Almighty and say, not only did God do this, because I know Mr. President you said that today that God protected me,” Hibbs said in his sermon on Sunday in the wake of Trump’s survival of the assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally which left one bystander dead and two seriously injured.

“But who is God, Mr. President? Who is He? What’s His name? You’ve heard it for years. It’s time to bow the knee. It’s time to say that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He’s the one that rules over the affairs of man. He loves and died on the cross and rose again from the grave. It is Jesus Christ. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and He desires that all men should come to worship him in spirit and in truth,” Hibbs declared.

“This has been a warning by Almighty God that your ear might be sanctified. Will you hear this? Can you hear this? Listen to the Word of God. Stop talking about God and come to know God. It makes all the difference in the world.”

Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. Donald Trump was hit in the ear in an assassination attempt by a gunman at a campaign rally on Saturday, in a chaotic and shocking incident that will fuel fears of instability ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The 78-year-old former president was rushed off stage with blood smeared across his face after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, while the gunman and a bystander were killed and two spectators critically injured. | REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images

Hours after the assassination attempt, Trump noted in a statement on Truth Social that it was God who kept him alive.

“Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” he said.

“We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed. In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”

Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, based in Riverside, California, who also served on Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board, said in a statement to The Christian Post that he hoped the former president's faith in Christ will be renewed, the same way an assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan’s life helped renew his faith and gave him “a sense of destiny, wanting to find God’s will for his life.”

Laurie also announced that he’ll be preaching at the 35th annual Harvest Crusade at Angel Stadium on July 20th and he is looking forward to thousands of people turning to Jesus.

“We often speak of someone ‘dodging a bullet,’ but for President Trump, this became reality. We thank God he was spared and pray for his complete recovery. Our hearts go out to the family of Corey Comperatore who died shielding his family from the assassin’s bullets,” Laurie said.

Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer fire chief, died while trying to protect his family during Trump’s attempted assassination. Others wounded during the attack were 57-year-old David Dutch, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.

“Corey was a heroic husband and father and firefighter who was a regular churchgoer who had a love for Christ and needless to say, for his family. We fervently pray for the swift healing of the two critically wounded individuals and for God’s hand of comfort over everyone who was affected by this senseless act of political violence,” Laurie said.

He also spoke out against “an unprecedented level of hostility” in political discourse as well as inflammatory rhetoric that may have inspired the now deceased 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to try to kill the former president.

“Labeling President Trump an ‘existential threat’ and drawing comparisons to Hitler must stop. It is crucial that we dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and allow the American people to make their choice at the ballot box,” Laurie said, pointing to the upcoming presidential election in November.

“America stands at a pivotal crossroads, and now more than ever, we need God, we need the Bible, and we need the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.”