Longtime Supporter Pastor Jack Hibbs Receives Criticism for Telling Donald Trump, ‘It’s Time To Bow the Knee’ to Jesus Christ

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Pastor Jack Hibbs. Screengrab from YouTube / @RealLifeJackHibbs

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The day after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt, California Pastor Jack Hibbs used his Sunday sermon to implore the former president and 2024 Republican nominee to “say that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Referencing Trump’s bloodied ear and fist raised in defiance, Hibbs said he’d next like to see “Trump on his knees with his hands lifted up to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.”

In his July 14 message, the megachurch pastor also called on U.S. Christians to repent and to pray for God to bring America back to him. The situation in our country is “much more serious than what befell Donald Trump yesterday,” Hibbs said. He later clarified, “I’m not calling you to support Trump; I’m calling you to fall on your face before God.”

Hibbs, founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, was a member of former President Trump’s evangelical advisory board. He has indicated that Christians are morally obligated to back Trump and has offered support for other conservative candidates. Earlier this year, a group of Congressional Democrats objected to Hibbs as a guest chaplain, calling him a Christian nationalist.

RELATED: Pastor Jack Hibbs Endorses Steve Garvey for Senate From Pulpit in Apparent Violation of US Tax Code

Pastor Jack Hibbs Urged Donald Trump to Acknowledge God

Even before the assassination attempt, Jack Hibbs said, he had titled a sermon for that day “Can You Hear This?” He preached while wearing a colonial-era robe, something he said he does only during “times of tyranny.” Throughout the 70-minute sermon, the pastor referenced lessons from American history, including George Washington’s daily habit of bowing in prayer to God.

Before preaching, Hibbs played a clip of the July 13 shooting, which wounded Trump, killed a campaign-rally attendee, and seriously wounded two others. In American culture, a raised fist is a sign of victory, Hibbs noted. But he said he thinks Trump has “a very short window of time” to turn that posture into one of repentance and submission.

Trump surviving what Hibbs said was intended as a “kill shot” made the pastor think of Old Testament temple practices. Referencing Leviticus 14:14, Hibbs said:

God said all those who represent me in the priesthood, there’s to be a sacrificial basin of blood. And I want the toe of the priest to be dipped in the blood, the big toe, the right toe, dipped in blood. I want the priest’s thumb dipped in blood because his feet and his decision-making is covered in my blood. And then take the blood from the basin and put it on your right ear.

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Stephanie Martin
Stephanie Martin, a freelance writer and editor in Denver, has spent her entire 30-year journalism career in Christian publishing. She loves the Word and words, is a binge reader and grammar nut, and is fanatic (as her family can attest) about Jeopardy! and pro football.

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