Exactly this. An important part of his self-created mystique is that he is just so brilliant that he can not only effortlessly understand and master any subject, but he can leap to realizations that experts were unable to come up with, even after years of study.
In a way I wish it would come true. President Camacho might not have been the brightest bulb in the group, but he cared enough about the United States to make sure the smartest man in the country was put in charge of solving their problems. Camacho put the interest of the country ahead of his own ego.
Damn. All the useless knowledge that’s still floating around my brain.
And when the experts tell him that he’s wrong, he declares them to be part of the great global anti-Trump conspiracy, who really know he’s right, and they are all lying.
If there is a heaven, then my Sunday school teacher grandma is up there right now banging her head on a desk at the sheer ignorance coming from this alleged Christian who doesn’t even seem to understand THE MAIN DEFINING ASPECT OF CHRISTIANITY.
Yep. At best, Trump was spewing kindergarten Christianity.
However, what’s relevant to the thread is whether his evident misunderstanding of Christian theology has increased in recent years. And it may have always been this bad. See this January 2016 WaPo article:
Trump says very curious things about God, church and the Bible
“I don’t know for sure, but people are saying that you go to Heaven if you’re a good person. Do you believe it? And all dogs go to Heaven. That’s a movie once. A cartoon, so it’s true. But what about bad dogs? There must be bad dogs in Heaven which is sad, so sad. You go to Heaven and get bit by a dog. That’s a thing.”
I can’t make up anything that’s crazier than anything he’s actually said about… Anything.
I’ll bite, what has he actually got wrong? What is THE MAIN DEFINING ASPECT that he doesn’t understand?
That Christians believe that it is only through belief in Jesus, and His redemption of their sins, that one gains entrance to Heaven, and that it’s essentially impossible to go to Heaven simply by one’s own deeds (i.e., “being good”). Christians believe that all people are sinners, and that that sin condemns their souls to damnation; they also believe that Jesus’s death occurred for the redemption of sinners – specifically, those who believe in Him.
This is particularly true of evangelical/fundamentalist Christians (a lot of Trump’s base), many of whom believe that one must actively accept Jesus as your personal savior in order to be saved (i.e., redeemed from a fate of going to Hell after death).
Trump on heaven: “you’re supposed to go to heaven if you’re good”
That’s not how getting to Heaven works in Christianity.
Also, 
Not only that, but more specifically kindergarten Norman Vincent Peale Power of Positive Thinking Christianity – that was his childhood church. Peale’s preaching was, at best, more of a system of self-help affirmation meant to condition yourself to see things as always looking up and God making it so.
But yeah, even in 2016 his comments on religion reflected a shallow unsophisticated congregant. “I never think of asking God for forgiveness”? Real Christians should have been shocked right then and there.
But again, the sad part is, many, many Americans DO hear in him the version of Christianity they follow: a kindergarten/children’s Sunday School version, supplemented later on by “name it and claim it” Prosperity Gospel. They stopped paying attention as soon as they learned that being quiet in church meant they were left alone, carried on practicing by rote, and for some of them it was only in adulthood when they ran into a preacher that told them what they craved to hear and thought THAT was some kind of revelation.
First implausibility: Trump has a friend, and that friend called him on the phone.
Obviously he knew the question ahead of time and his handlers fed him that old joke to tell.
Some Christians believe that. Not all. Many believe that good people of all faiths, and even atheists can enter heaven. I dispute that it is THE MAIN DEFINING ASPECT of Christianity.
And Jesus said “He who is not against me is for me.” (Mark 9:38) So, as long as you don’t actively go around attacking churches you’ll be OK.
But when you get to heaven, you’ll probably go to the section where you get bit by a dog. That’s a thing.
“Jesus saith unto him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’.”
John 14:6
Maybe, but discussing it any further would be a hijack. I just don’t think this specific comment by Trump is a particularly stupid one.
The single most famous verse in the Bible is " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". It’s just about the one thing every Christian sect agrees on - Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Mormons, the lot.
What Trump is espousing is how a parent tries to explain heaven and hell to a 4-year-old before they’re mature enough to understand concepts like original sin or atonement through sacrifice.
Cite? I mean, if I were asked to quote any bible verse, I might start with “let there be light” or “the lord is my shepherd” or “Jesus wept” or “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” or a hundred others before I would thin of that particular one.
Not disputing that.
It’s a common site, at public events, to see someone holding up a sign that simply says “John 3:16.” Which is the verse which Smapti quoted.
But, is it “the best-known Bible verse?” Debatable. However, it is a fundamental verse in explaining why Jesus came to earth, and why Christians believe that Jesus is the path to salvation.
At least it was 40 years ago, when the rainbow man was everywhere.
Now, maybe not so much.