A Needed Reckoning with the Nationalistic “Prophetic” Movement in the US
There was someone that I knew when I was at Illinois State University who now considered himself a type of prophet. He actually has a fairly large platform and is right in line with QANON, Lin Wood, and other conspiratorial voices. He of course “prophesied” that Trump would win by a landslide and when that did not happen, he then jumped onto the bandwagon that everything had been stolen and that he really won. After the first false prophecy, he did not even flinch and made sequential prophecies that Trump would still remain president.
For good or ill, I decided to comment on a couple of his posts and asked him if this did not occur would he admit that these prophecies he is getting were not from God. He ended up blocking me, and so I have not been able to see his most recent post. It would be one thing if this was a very small, insignificant segment of American Christianity, but the reality is that this type of new apostolic movement or extreme charismatic movement is very strong in the United States and around the world. This is not to discredit every Pentecostal voice as some of the most amazing people I’ve met are from the tradition. Neither is it to downplay the fact that they’re really can be miraculous aspects or to dismiss that God does still speak to us through his Spirit. I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Some pastors who have come from this movement like Brian Zahnd and Greg Boyd have been instrumental in my life.
However, what we have seen in the US, especially during the Trump years, is something that is beyond profane. Using the name of God and Jesus to make one false prophecy after another and then not even stating that they are sorry for making a false prophecy afterwards but just reframing it and continuing on to the next false prophecies.
Sometimes these prophecies are very obscure or vague and so can be interpreted in many different ways, but that was not the case with Trump as they made direct declarations that he would remain president. The inauguration of Biden this week shows them to be what they have been for the whole time-frauds. It is time for the American church to have a real reckoning and to stop listening to these destructive voices who are often tied to other Christian movements like the prosperity gospel.
We have a window here. Within a month new issues will be in the headlines and the false prophecies and craziness will be there for the history books. It is time for a real reckoning and exposure of this dangerous movement in the church that almost led to an insurrection and damaged the messages Jesus in United States in horrific ways.
