“Right,” Trump replied.

“You know our current president is one,” the questioner, wearing a “Trump” T-shirt continued. “You know he’s not even an American.”

“We need this question,” Trump interrupted with a laugh. “This is the first question.”

"But anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us,” the man, said. “That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?"

“We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things,” Trump replied. “You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We’re going to be looking at that and many other things.”

Many were bewildered that Trump would even dignify such a question, much less seem open to the idea of getting rid of American Muslims. Those who were alarmed soon had more reason to feel anxious. Over the past several months Trump has continued to suggest that the United States should consider forcibly shutting down some mosques in order to fight terrorism. His support for the idea seems to oscillate between “strongly consider” and “absolutely no choice [except to close some mosques].”

“Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything, but you know, you understand it,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “A lot of people understand it. We’re going to have no choice.”

One might assume that Christians of the “Bible-believing” variety would be alarmed by such rhetoric. Trump’s proposals are eerily similar to passages in the Bible’s book of Revelation, which many Christians believe predict a future apocalypse.

Some Christians have let Revelation prophecies influence their political positions on issues such as climate change and supporting Israel. But the Bible also tells of oppressive government power that forces the registration and issuance of special forms of identification—a “mark,” which is used to discriminate against religious people in the marketplace and broader society. If Christians believe such a future is possible and coming, they might ask whether Trump’s support could become a gateway to it.

Many Christians, however, find Revelation’s predictions far-fetched or consider them allegorical. These believers can still look to the Old Testament book of Proverbs, which warns, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them” or the New Testament book of Galatians, which similarly teaches that “A person harvests whatever he plants.”

Some conservative Christians look more to the Constitution than to the Bible for guidance on political matters. For them, the gaping problem with Trump’s proposals is that they run afoul of freedom of religion. In America, houses of worship enjoy special kinds of exemptions. They do not pay taxes on the money they collect or the land they own, and they have always been protected from government regulation and interference.