How Can You Tell Which Prophecies Are False?

 

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Predictions are confusing and risky

We take wonderful neighborhood walks here on Whidbey Island. I can often be seen going down the beach road with my neighbor, waving my arms and ranting about Donald Trump and the false charismatic prophecies that supported him for five years. Finally, my friend asked, “How do you tell a false prophecy from a true one? I would have no idea.”

After all, I’ve had a few predictions myself about Trump, and mine actually came to pass. I am not an ordained minister. I’ve seen no angels, have not been translated to heaven or hell, and I’m not an international speaker, but in times of national crisis, I have been given some astonishing revelations, either in dream form or in words spoken. That would include the resignation of President Nixon, the defection of Sadam Hussein’s sons in law, the assassination attempt of President Reagan, George W. Bush ordering troops into Iraq, the indictments of many of trump’s associates like Rick Gates and Paul Manafort, the Me, Too Movement, and of course President Trump. I have no list of followers, no private jet payments to make, no TV industry to support, no denominational masters to please, no church congregation to appease, and no reputation to preserve, so I am literally a Voice in the Wilderness—I can say what I want when I want. I’m not a prophet, but I’ve had many prophetic experiences, some quite spectacular, so I do know about bit about the subject.

So, energized by my neighbor, I came up with some rules about prophecy that I think will be helpful, but first a telling metaphor about following the wrong voices. At the risk of being repetitive, I have to say a word about Steve and Derene Schultz, founders of the Elijah List ministry to provide a platform for worldwide charismatic prophets and apostles to share their revelations. He began in good faith, and I am convinced he still believes that he is on the right track. When the prophets began their early ballyhoo about God’s chosen, Donald Trump, they compared him to King David in the Bible. They said he would bring protection to the US, seal our bond with Israel, nominate RW judges, and ban abortion. What I saw was a Saul, a man who knew how to use religion to pacify the populace, but who was shallow, who had no heart for obedience to God, and no patience to obey the word of the prophets.

Shortly after the inauguration, Trump invited three friends to the White House that I thought were rather crude. A mental picture formed of pristine and sacred carpets in The People’s House being soiled by rowdies with muddy boots. I shared that image with Steve in an email, but because they never respond, I can’t say they ever read it. The prophets kept those wonderful tributes to our anointed president rolling in. Their news outlet, breakingchristiannews.com joined in, as if they were an arm of Fox News, spinning every word and action into the very best light, and ignoring the warning signs that rolled in on a regular basis. As things got worse with Trump, I sent more emails, shouting louder (and a bit ruder), begging them to watch Rachel Maddow on MSNBC or CNN, and it seems that everything I wrote was countered by another mighty word from an anointed prophet. Outrage after outrage went unaddressed by the holy messengers, probably because their inspiration comes from Fox News or Breitbart as much as from God.

The Devil comes to collect on the deal

So, on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, the culmination of their pact with the devil came full circle. Trump’s team huddled in a tent on Pennsylvania Ave, watching on video screens as Trump, Don Jr., and Rudy Giuliani, who were on a platform outside, whipped a crowd of armed RW nationalists in combat gear into a frenzy of retribution against all those who oppose their trumpy lord, and that would include Mike Pence. It was all planned months ahead. I don’t have time to describe it all here, except to say that the crowd of hundreds marched to the capitol building, which was then vandalized during the counting of the electoral votes. They got in because, according to memos recently found, three top officials of the Trump administration, whose responsibility it was to call out the Natl Guard or the DC police, conspired to refuse to give an order for the National Guard to rescue the Capitol Police. Guess who had the authority to order those officials to hold back?

One of the people locked down inside a chamber called Larry Hogan, the governor of Maryland, and pleaded for help. Hogan couldn’t send his Natl Guard without approval from the acting Sec of Defense, a newly appointed Trump loyalist who replaced Mark Esper, who wasn’t sufficiently compliant, but Acting Sec of Def Christopher Miller wasn’t answering his phone. Finally, an hour and a half into the invasion, the Sec of the Army phoned the gov of Maryland and gave the order. (I suspect that he did that on his own. We’ll find out in time.) The Maryland Natl Guard were the first reinforcements to arrive to help the capitol police. For their loyalty to God’s anointed chosen one, Chris Miller and two others will probably be charged with sedition. One way or another, their professional lives are over.

A female rioter was shot dead as she was climbing through the broken glass of a door. A 42-year-old capitol building police officer was clobbered on the head with a fire extinguisher and later died. Three people died of medical conditions, including one of the organizers of the march. Bombs were found nearby outside, and Molotov cocktails were found in cars. A laptop and other items were stolen, furniture was smashed, garbage was littered everywhere, and feces were smeared on the walls. The videos were terrifying. The mob was heard to shout, “Hang Pence. Where is Pence?” They did this because Donald Trump told them to take back their country and that Mike Pence wasn’t supporting the cause.

This is Trump’s America. This is the result of the Evangelical bargain with a man who was and is a liar and a cheat, an adulterer and rapist, a tax evader, a money launderer, and a traitor to his country. We went from men with muddy boots (including Russian officials) to a deranged and dangerous mob. Jesus said, “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” (Matthew 7:18) Trump is corrupt from head to toe, and always has been.

Make no mistake, since I have been studying the Bible avidly since 1970, I believe in prophecy and the right of genuine prophets to speak truth to power under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:11, 12 names the prophet and apostle as inspired God-appointed leadership for the edification of the church. I also believe that God intervenes in the geopolitical affairs of men and uses leaders of every ilk that He has prepared for years to step up and help to accomplish His will, so it’s not unreasonable that the church would spawn people with high prophetic callings to address important issues in a nation. Mostly, however, God wants us to live the life He taught us through the teachings of Jesus Christ. He wants us to do what is right. Then we won’t need prophets.

 Eleven Rules of Engagement

1]  A genuine prophet needs to be walking the talk. There is no room for adultery on the sly, no relationship with the pool boy while you rail against gays, and no fudging with the budget. They should skip tears for the destitute children if the money they’re raising for them will go to their therapists, wig consultant, or tax accountants. No false stories, exaggerations, “evangelistically speaking,” or adding to the word to polish their image. Phony accents, theatrical pauses, musical enhancement, or dramatic tears will send the Holy Spirit running the other way.

This rule is only somewhat helpful since offending prophets do their deeds in secret with no lapse in righteous talk. The average congregant or politician would not be able to properly assess who is doing what. However, the NSA has nothing on God. He knows it all. He has the receipts, and they will turn up on the day of judgment.

When a prophet goes off the rails, the gift doesn’t necessarily disappear, as with the case of an old has been prophet in the Old Testament book 1 Kings 13. Using his former status as a prophet, he soothed his loneliness and longing for action by luring a young prophet into disobeying a direct divine command. As a result, the old man then prophesied that the younger would be killed by a lion, which came soon to pass on his way home.

Two lessons there, don’t play with the gift because it will bring harm to you and others, and don’t think prophets are above divine accountability.

2]  Beware of familiar spirits. God won’t tell a genuine prophet which Kardashian is about to be divorced or that there will be a 3.5 earthquake in Guatemala next week any more than the CEO of your organization will chat about the price of beans with the mail boy. If you want that kind of info, buy a Ouija Board. No, wait, don’t actually, because that knowledge comes from spiritual sources outside of God’s kingdom. In the end, that kind of information, as intriguing as it is, can only be destructive. See Acts 16:16-21 for the attitude of the Apostle Paul on divination. He cast a demonic spirit out of a young female psychic who followed Paul and his companion for days and proclaimed who they were.

3]  A prophet should know the Bible really well. They should know it holistically, the way you know your own hometown, so that they aren’t snared in a net of dogma or bias, but they understand how God actually thinks. They will recognize the Spirit of the Law, rather than the letter (Romans 7:6). Education helps, because a solid, orthodox balanced doctrine is a safeguard for the prophet and those hearing. Rites and rituals are fine, but props like flags, ecclesiastical garments, statues, candles, tabernacles, or golden candle sticks have nothing to do with prophetic inspiration. “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 NKJV)

4]  Prophet, know yourself. Are you craving attention? Does your ministry need money? What reward are you hoping for in this function? Have you lost your first love? Everyone has baked in opinions and biases. Are you aware of yours and where they come from? Although we must try to not bring those to our predictions and words, we will inevitably do so. Finally, are you harboring resentments, unforgiveness, rage, a sense of being a victim, or jealousy of another’s ministry? That is deadly. Get on your knees and get over it.

5]  Beware of contrived, long, slick prophecies from people who are talented speakers anyway. Many so-called prophets and apostles in today’s charismatic environment are cunning wordsmiths, and have charming personalities. Their large churches and followings are impressive. However, when sermons become prophetic revelation, my antenna pops up and my nay-dar starts flashing.

6]  Beware of an attraction to wealth and luxury. I can’t do a comprehensive summary of the name-it-and-claim-it movement here, or the seed faith movement. It’s true that in general, God rewards generosity, but to make a doctrine of giving that enriches large mega-ministries where the top leaders live luxurious lives is to put the ministry and the leaders in spiritual jeopardy. Jesus did warn about the difficulties of entering heaven for the rich. He said it’s literally a miracle if they manage it. (Matt. 19:24)

7]  Beware of weird, legalistic, condemning, rigid, or fringe doctrines. I’m particularly alarmed by high government officials who participate in secretive religious movements requiring oaths. That’s dangerous in church let alone in the halls of congress or the White House. Beware of a ministry that is always exposing the sins of others. Run from religious leadership that is connected to wealthy, partisan benefactors, that has a vast stock portfolio, or that exercises a program of personal control. This is the kind of swamp that monsters love to live in. Some wise person once said that if fascism ever comes to America, it will be carrying a cross and wrapped in a flag. I think every president should have a spiritual council, but a large crowd of partisan, prophesying charismatics and no one else for restraint or balance is a recipe for disaster.

8]  For God’s sake, a genuine prophet should watch the right news!  That means grown up news from mainstream media where managers vet the information before journalists and media hosts publish it. Christians are famous for the mantra “You’ll never hear this in the lamestream media.” Your RW uncle thinks that all the biggest journals in all the major cities in the US, all the hosts and contributors on MSNBC and CNN, all the stories on PBS and NPR, ABC, CBS, and NBC…all are lies, errors, propaganda. Our intelligence community, the FBI, the CIA, NSA, they are all part of a Deep State conspiracy to take down trump or, in spite of the fact that they lean heavily Republican, to obstruct the GOP agenda. Independent online news outlets like Politico, Buzzfeed News, Axios, journals such as The New Yorker, Atlantic, and Vanity Fair are a dangerous leftwing swamp. The Jezebel conspiracy has been gathering for decades to oppress God’s people and obstruct God’s righteous agenda, just waiting for Trump to arise, and when he did, Jezebel pounces. Gotcha!

But any media, no matter how new or how nuts, that supports RW issues is a fount of truth, including trump himself. Does that even make sense? The stranglehold that RW media like Fox News, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, OANN, and a thousand outlets that I don’t know about, some of which are dumping grounds for Russian propaganda, is so powerful that it ran Steve Schultz’s ministry off a cliff and has millions of conservative Christians bound to informational nonsense.

Jesus said, “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?” (Luke 6:39) In this parable, both the blind leader and the follower are sure they are safe and know where they are going, but the ditch is there as the ultimate arbiter of who is really on the right track. That ditch can be a well of pain, so choose wisely. If you follow the wrong information, if your prophecies are on a foundation of someone else’s deceit or twisted dogmas, no matter how much you love Jesus and want to spread His message, the gift will go awry. A prophet, of all people, should be able to recognize rock solid news rather than shape shifting stories that morph according to the winds of the day.

A prophet may say, "The sky will be red tomorrow," even though it's blue today, but not "the sky is red today, and your eyes are bad." When the prophets call bad good and good bad, up down and down up, when heroes get fired and scoundrels take their place, yet the prophets crow about God being glorified, something is WRONG. Wake up. Prophecies about politics need to be grounded in reality!

9]  Watch to see if the prophecies come to pass. Keep track of what they say. Don’t blow it off if they don’t. That is something important a listener can do.

10]  Don’t be too impressed with miracles. UFO aliens and shamans can heal, sorcerers can curse your enemies, and fortune tellers can predict when someone will die. Psychics solve crimes and find lost dogs. That’s nice, but it doesn’t qualify them to terrify millions of people into voting for the anti-christ on pain of committing a grave sin.

11]  Beware of greasy grace, which is a willingness to consistently overlook sin and ascribe the characteristic of continual mercy and forgiveness to Jesus Christ. Jesus sent a message to the lukewarm church in Laodicea, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked–I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” (Rev 3:17, 18)

There will be a reckoning. You cannot traipse around crowning yourself with the title of apostle and prophet while looking away from corruption and sin that is taking place under your nose. You cannot smear good people and contribute to the division of the American populace, all in the name of the Holy Spirit, without divine consequences. The leaders themselves whom God deems as blind will fall into the deepest part of the ditch.