President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) survived an assassination attempt in March 1981, just 69 days into his first term. The would-be assassin, John Hinckley Jr., took six shots in 1.7 seconds, nearly taking the president’s life and changing the trajectory of history.
Just 44 days later, Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) was gravely wounded in yet another assassination attempt. The assault profoundly deepened the pope’s commitment to his Lord and devotion to the church. In the spirit of Christian love and forgiveness, 2 1/2 years after the assassination attempt, he visited his assailant.
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It is unknown if it was Pope John’s unselfish gesture and true forgiveness, since love “keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor. 13:5b, NIV), but in 2007, the Pope’s Turkish assailant, Mehmet Ali Ağca, “decided to renounce the Muslim faith and becom[e] a member of the Roman Catholic Church.”
Ronald Reagan required eight pints of blood during surgery, and Pope John Paul needed six pints to survive. Both believed they had been spared for a purpose, which President Reagan described as God’s “DP,” or divine plan.
In Scripture, a mantle is a cape worn to ward off the cold. In the spiritual sense, the mantle represents a man’s anointing, a calling to fulfill divine purposes. Reagan’s and John Paul’s mantles provided an ultimate change in their personal lives and world history alike, resulting in the bringing down of godless communism.
A.W. Pink notes in “An Exposition of Hebrews” that it is not the raw recruit but the scarred veteran who is assigned a place in the front ranks of the battle. For those who have come so close to death, the devil’s pageantry no longer beckons. The day following the assassination attempt, Reagan recorded in his diary, “Whatever happens now, I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can.”
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