The Astonishing Phenomenon of Contemporary Political Prophecy

Nita Johnson, prophetess since 1980 gets her inspiration from Fox News, sees only the surface and not what lies beneath.

Sources: Nita Johnson, Prepare for the Winds of Change, World for Jesus Ministries, 1991; The Ever Speaking Voice of God, (Omaha NB: Eagles Nest Publishing, 1997) and various books and pamphlets from the ministry.

Who is Nita Johnson?

Today, I was rummaging through my book shelves and found a couple of thin paperbacks written by a Pentecostal prophetess named Nita Johnson. Beginning in the 1980’s, she had a very active ministry in which her dreams and visions were laid out in books, pamphlets, and newsletters. She traveled to speaking engagements all around the world and soon developed a website where her prophecies could be read. There were so many, it was overwhelming if you hadn’t been following it from the beginning.

For decades, I read just about everything of hers I could get my hands on, trying to figure out if she is a charlatan, the real deal sent by God, or if she is functioning by way of a familiar spirit or a major New Age demon. I imagine that Nita and her daughter would attribute Marian apparitions to a deceiving spirit. They would certainly never assume that the same thing could happen to them. Nita has allegedly seen the very throne of God, has had angels command her to vanquish demons, and has wept with Jesus on many occasions. That has to be real, right? How could it not? Why would God allow such deception into the lives of those who adore him? But read the lives of the Catholic saints, and you see many of the same events. So, I was never able to nail down who or what Nita Johnson was, but I still can’t bring myself to think that she’s a charlatan, psychotic, or a liar. However, after reviewing some of her writings and visiting her website, and having the advantage of current events, I am approaching some welcome clarity.

The two books that I have kept are Prepare for the Winds of Change, 1991, and The Ever Speaking Voice of God, 1997. They predict the usual doom, apocalypses, judgment for egregious sin, etc. In the first, she shares a vision of an angel on a red horse that announces judgment on America and other nations. The idea is to prepare for the rise of the anti-Christ and the Second Coming. The sins for which the US and the world will be judged with cataclysmic disasters are those that have always been with us--child and spousal abuse, sex trafficking, abortion, abusing children and other perversions, homosexuality, corruption in the church, etc. In another book which I can only recall, she predicts that various part of the US will suffer tremendous ruin. She drew a map of one of her visions showing where the worst damage will be.

In the second book, she writes about the damage that the lure of wealth can cause in the life and ministry of those called to serve the church professionally. She shares visions of God's throne, of heaven, of angel messengers calling her to rebuke demons, etc. More than once she saves America from God's wrath. She claims to have seen a vision of all of human history, including Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden. That caught my attention because I am convinced that the chapters 1-11 of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are a Hebrew version, with the Hebrew deity and Hebrew values, of ancient Mesopotamian stories. I believe that they were written while priests, prophets, and scribes were in captivity in places like Nineveh where there were libraries and archives written in cuneiform that the holy scholars could peruse. They are freighted with important theology; conveyers of monotheism with a strong moral component. Adam and Eve, if they lived, wouldn't have been called by those names because they would have been pre-historic, pre-Sumerian individuals living in the primitive Chalcolithic era before the existence of writing. 

She also claimed that Jesus told her that "Some of the worst times in the history of mankind are going to take place during this administration." That would be toward the end of the Clinton administration. This is a false statement aimed at stirring fear and fascination, keeping everyone on tenterhooks for the next book or the next word. The fact is, any political corruption that would have existed during Clinton's presidency would have common in previous administrations from Nixon to Reagan to George H.W. The most dangerous times in our history began began not under Clinton, but under George W. Bush on September 11, 2001.

Nita goes trumpy, becomes a Fox News high priestess

This year (2021) has been a continuum of disasters. There are fires raging in the west and floods ruining the east and south. We have a plague killing hundreds of thousands of us. We also have a profound division in the nation due to a former president who is a sociopath. He taught the GOP that lying really works. Disinformation through media can do absolute wonders to manipulate the masses. Today we have a truth crisis. We can't even agree on what is fact and what is not. The damage that disinformation has done to our nation is incalculable. As for the geological ruin foretold by Nita, we don't need prophets--we need to listen to the scientists who have been telling us for decades that disaster is coming because we aren't mitigating the damage of climate change fast enough. 

I think Nita may have started a trend. Mighty prophets like Elijah rose up, David's Mighty Men, people I could name, visionaries to herald the Donald Trump phenomenon into the world. Trump will make America safe and wealthy. He will turn us back to God and restore righteousness in the White House and Supreme Court. Who needs the NSC, the FBI, CIA, spies, ambassadors, analysts, advisors, historians, investigative journalists, or State Department experts when you have the Voice of God before you, happy to inform you that you should always vote for the Republican candidate because the Democrats are damned, under God's judgment. They are the spirit of Jezebel. The prophets will tell you who to vote for and whether or not to go to war. The Republican god will fix your finances. Elect a Democrat and a devastating recession will result. Elect a Republican and America will turn to God. If only life and politics could be so simple. 

It’s clear that some of what Nita Johnson says we must do to save America is from her own cultural tendencies. On the other hand, her website today is very trumpy. I read a post written while Trump was still president. The trumpy prophets were all predicting another term for Donald. They said he and his family are Christians. Of course, he is. He is prolife and he approved of everything Israel wanted to do under Benjamin Netanyahu, even the occupation of Palestinian territory and appropriation of Palestinian property. The prophet Nita assures us that dividing the land into two states would bring instant and deadly judgment, but Nita hasn't informed us what to do with millions of Palestinians who are cooped up in a small, underserved region with no avenue of hope for their youth. But let's not get nuancy here. The Voice of God has spoken. Israel gets all the land and gets to do whatever they want to anyone any time. 

The holy fount of RW media

Thanks to RW media these Pentecostal prophesiers have NO idea who Trump is. They rant about abortion and sex trafficking as a repeated talking point, the Scare of the Month, all of which can be traced back to libertarian billionaires. They undoubtedly obsess about sex trafficking because the original schtick was that it was the Democrat elite that was doing most of it. Are they aware that Donald Trump was friends with Jeffrey Epstein, the Great Trafficker of our times, and that there is video of trump drooling over some of the young ladies? Do they know that trump knew that the girls were underage? Do they know that trump cheated on all of three of his wives, and that just before the 2016 election he paid off two sex workers to keep them quiet? His own attorney, Michael Cohen went to prison for it. Trump was designated as unindicted Individual One. Do they know that about 20 women have made allegations of everything from inappropriate touching to rape, but not one GOP leader or holy prophet gives a s*** about that?

Do they know that Robert Mueller made a strong case for obstruction of justice in his two-year Special Council investigation but Trump’s AG refused to proceed with the obvious recommendation? That Trump’s administration is the most corrupt administration ever? Do they know that trump dismissed the Covid-19 virus for a whole year so he could keep the numbers low so he could look good to his followers and make lots of money for the GOP congress people who were invested in the health industry? The count today of deaths is about 660,000 deaths. It could be a million by Christmas. Idaho is so swamped with Covid patients, they ship them to states far away to get care, and when they can’t do that, they triage and only take care of those most likely to survive. ERs and ICUs all across the nation are overwhelmed. Nurses and doctors are exhausted and burnt out. These prophets know nothing of that because the RW media world won’t tell them and jesus and the mighty angels of judgment apparently haven't told them either. Unfortunately, the average Republican would literally rather die than watch Rachel Maddow on MSNBC or Jake Tapper on CNN. And in fact, Republicans are dying in droves.

I lump Nita and her daughter Ricci in with Kathie Walters, who has supernatural experiences all the time, the Elijah List prophets, Sid Roth (It’s Supernatural) and all of his network of prophets and miracle workers, and all the Marian apparitions that I’ve ever studied. The entire swath of Pentecostal prophets of our day is marinated in RW media and bias. They are Fox News addicts, believing that the Biden administration is preparing camps to lock up the unvaccinated and that the Covid vaccine will change your DNA. They are prophesying RW propaganda, believing everything they hear from the Right, hating everything and everyone from the Left, and drinking the Trump/Fox News/Steve Bannon Kool aide. 

Today even former Gov of New Jersey Chris Christie called Trump a liar. He said it’s a waste of time and energy to pretend you won an election that you lost. He said it is damaging America. Wow, this guy used to kiss the ring in a most abject manner, but now he wants to run for president himself so he's cutting the umbilical cord. 

George Bush made a speech today saying that the biggest terror threat against the US comes from within. He didn’t name names or point a finger, but all the insurrectionists like GOP Rep Madison Cawthorn, GOP Sen Mo Brooks, and the Trumps were in Dubya’s crosshairs.

Trump's attorneys and enablers were some of the dumbest people on the planet. I hear what they say and I think how in tarnation did they ever earn a law degree? How do they maintain their certification? They are a clown show. Whatever Rudy Giuliani ever used to be, he's pathetic now. He threw everything out the window for Trump, and now he can't even afford his own attorney bills. But any of these trumpy enablers can get a crowd to cheer and laugh and jeer the present administration. 

RW boogey men

Nita talks about the elites who want to establish a One World Religion. But taking over the world is what the Christian nationalists want to do and they want to be the ones to run it. Nita undoubtedly assumes that the evil Clinton cabal and the Soros network is behind the Illuminati, but does she know who the Kochs are and the Mercers? And the Prince family? Does she know how Donald Trump spent yesterday while all other living presidents were at 9/11 memorials? Would she call it witchcraft if I told her that he was a keynote speaker at a conference put on by the Unification Church established by Rev. Moon and his wife? Now, there is a controlling cult that wants to rule the world. Are they what you call elites or do you have to be a Democrat to qualify? Elite is a buzzword for RW media. It means rich, greedy, powerful, clueless, destructive to the good in the US. Republicans apparently have no elites, no Deep State. Only Democrats.

The Moonies are certainly not Christians, but last May former VP Michael Pence and former Sec of State Mike Pompeo were at one of their conferences, all praising the Moons and thanking them for all the good they do in the world. (Hey, the donate lots of money to Republican causes. God must be proud.) 

It’s astonishing. It makes the whole concept of prophets and prophecy look stupid, ignorant, and ugly. It reflects badly of the biblical prophets of the Old Testament. I think that what these people are experiencing is a major anti-Christ, New Age, paranormal principality like what the Apostle Paul spoke of in the New Testament. As with the Marian apparitions, it’s all so convincing and scary to resist, because absolutely dire consequences are foretold for disobedience. But then, these spirits don’t pick on resisters. They know who will go the last mile, who will throw themselves off a cliff to save the world. I doubt few of these prophets will ever admit they were wrong. I only know of one.

It’s all too complex to deal with here, but I can’t help but think how weird, contradictory, and complex religion can get when you cross over into the world of charismata and supernatural and then add to the recipe unquantifiable amounts of dark money, modern media technology, and extreme partisan politics.