the leaders struggled with the task of how to relate to and instruct secular rulers. They realized that they had a responsibility to teach unsaved mayors and magistrates how to apply the Bible to their newly converted Protestant territories.
I explained how the Reformers eventually identified two kinds of grace, saving grace and common grace. Saving grace is what enables a person to respond to the gospel and get saved, but common grace is the grace that comes from God upon fallen man, especially those whose role in society involves restraining evil, such as judges, governors and law enforcement. Civil servants receive “common grace” from God to restrain evil and promote virtue. A Churchill, Lincoln, FDR, and Donald Trump would fall into this category. Thus, a modern Cyrus could receive a similar word – “Thus says the Lord to Cyrus whom I’ve anointed…” and later add, “though you do not know Me.”
Imagine all this happening in Trump’s New York office in 2015! When the meeting was over, the future President came over to thank me, and not knowing "Christian-ese" he struggled a moment to find words similar to “that really ministered to me,” or “that blessed me,” and finally put a hand over his heart and settled on, “I want you to know that meant a lot.”
You don’t always have to ask, “Are they Christians?” in order to get behind them. In due time they may become Christians but what you need to notice is if they are anointed for the task! Cyrus was anointed and didn’t know the God of the Hebrews when he came to power.