Dozens of charismatic “prophets” stirred up a hornet’s nest of political passion by claiming that Donald Trump is God’s man to make America great again and that he would be re-elected in 2020. At a Trump rally in Las Vegas in Oct. 2020, Denise Goulet told the crowd, “The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘I am going to give your president a second wind.’” Charisma magazine editor Stephen Strange predicted that Trump would top 400 electors. Kat Kerr said that God caught her up to heaven and told her that Trump would win in 2020 and that he would be followed by eight years of a Pence presidency and eight more years of Pence’s vice-president. Kerr concluded, “For 24 years, we will have God in that White House.” Alex Jones said that Trump is advancing “a Kingdom agenda.” Lana Vawser claimed she had a vision of Jesus clothing Trump with a purple robe and crown. These and similar prophecies were viewed millions of times on social media. A few of the “prophets” have acknowledged that they were wrong and apologized. These include Jeremiah Johnson, who published his mea culpa on a YouTube series “I Was Wrong: Donald Trump and the Prophetic Controversy” and lost large numbers of supporters. He said, “I believe that this election cycle has revealed how desperately we need reformation in the prophetic movement.” In fact, it has revealed yet again that the so-called prophetic movement is unscriptural at its very foundation. There is no such thing biblically as a true prophet of God who mis-prophesies like these people routinely do! Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church in Redding, California, a “chief prophetic voice” who has the “office” of a prophet and has written books on prophecy, acknowledged that he was wrong in his prophecy about Trump, but he added, “I think it doesn’t make me a false prophet.” But what else could it possibly make you, Kris! Michael Brown, who was one of the leaders of the so-called Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida, said about the Trump prophecies, “As a full-blooded charismatic, I’ll say we’ve earned the world’s mockery for our foolishness.” He’s right, but they have been earning well-deserved mockery since the inception of Pentecostalism at Azusa Street, and all because the movement is not Bible-based and thus has been absolutely permeated with heresies and nonsense. The Brownsville meetings that Brown was associated with witnessed the pastor, John Kilpatrick, lying on the church platform for as long as four hours, “drunk in the spirit” and unable to get up and exercise his responsibilities as a pastor. Whatever this “revival” is, it is not Bible based. Brown recently asked, “How did so many of us end up with almost a cultlike devotion to a [political] leader, compromise our ethics for a seat at the table and drape the Gospel in an American flag?” That’s a question that a whole bunch of non-Pentecostals should also be asking. We see no political aspects to the apostle Paul’s Christian life and ministry. It is impossible to conceive of Paul being a Trump fan and being caught up in conservative politics. “And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).
(Friday Church News Notes, July 30, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)