There are dangerous people out there. The gullible let them into their homes, make their books best sellers, collect their CDs, support them with tons of cash, and fill their auditoriums. These dangerous people may be male or female. They're eloquent with an outgoing personality and an appealing smile.
They come with a dangerous three-word claim, a claim that all too often is accepted by the gullible sheep. The claim is only three words: "God told me." They're saying that that God spoke directly to them. It’s a claim that they received special revelation from God.
In the 1990s we had an up-close look at just such a dangerous man in David Koresh who mesmerized his followers to actually believe that he was a prophet who received various revelations directly from God.
Those revelations included, but were not limited to, his telling a father in the compound in Waco, TX, that God told him, that he, the father, was to give his daughter in marriage to David Koresh. The girl was 10 years old!
The father obeyed because he believed that God talked to David. God also told Koresh to tell his followers, men, women, and their children to prepare for a holy war. Their preparation included purchasing over $90,000 worth of guns and ammunition. They were to sacrifice their lives if need be, in this war. God also told David that polygamy and adultery were OK, for, guess who? David K.
Let's move on to a more modern date, a pre-election date.
On Oct. 20, 2020, there was this report: “Televangelist Pat Robertson said on Tuesday that God told him President Trump will win reelection, and more than five years later an asteroid will hit Earth and maybe bring the end.”
Pat wasn’t the only one: Kris Vallotton prophesied to all who would listen that God had told him Donald Trump would win re-election. As a minister at California’s 11,000-member Bethel Church, the eager sheep received his prophecy as God’s unshakeable will. He went on, explaining that “I am commissioned by God to do this today. I had three dreams in one night.”
Vallotton was far from the only Christian leader claiming before the election that the Almighty had rigged the outcome. J. Gordon Melton, religion professor at Baylor University, counted at least 40 influential Christian prophets who foretold a Trump triumph.
There we have it: that prophecy "from God" didn't work out so well for Republicans near and far. In other words, the "prophets" were wrong. What does claiming to be a prophet then being wrong mean? Deuteronomy 18 tells us in plain English, so clearly that even a child can't miss it:
"And if you say in your heart, ‘How will we recognize the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you are not to be afraid of him."
What can we say regarding all these 40 "prophets?" We can say, "One strike and you're out!" But these "prophets" have been given innumerable at-bats over the course of time. For example: In January 2012, Pat Robertson claimed that God had spoken to him. He then expressed that God had told him that Mitt Romney would win and would be a two-term President. We all know how that went.
Strike out after strike out, but do the sheep ever leave the their pasture land of hay, wood, and stubble or turn off the TV? If these "prophets" had an ounce of honesty, they would have resigned immediately after the first strike. But no, they are like the energizer bunny. They keep on keeping on.
And the sheep are all ears. They love to have it so.
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