Pro-Trump "Prophets" Taking Their Show on the Road
Hawley Seeks Revival of "Our Christian Nation"
"But you may wonder, "How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?" If the prophet speaks in the Lord's name, but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared." Deuteronomy 18:21-22, NLT
Mainstream conservative Evangelical doctrine does not accept that there are prophets being sent among us along the lines of those who are recorded to have delivered some very specific messages during Old Testament times, particularly when Israel became a divided monarchy after the reign of Solomon, and many of the kings fell under the influence of paganism. However, particularly among the Charismatic and Pentecostal traditions of Evangelicalism, there is a belief that God does provide individuals with a specific gift to predict future events, and they issue all kinds of pronouncements, mainly connecting specific persons or events with the "end times" or the coming end of the world, or involving politics.
Any observant person with reasonable intelligence can figure out the odds of someone making an accurate prediction based on a number of factors which point to it, and which doesn't necessarily depend on a supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit to make. Even at that, there is no religious prophet today, and I'll repeat that so we understand that what we are looking at when we examine self-proclaimed prophets today are frauds and phonies, there is no religious prophet today who has the record of the 100% accuracy required by the Old Testament standard found in Deuteronomy 12:21-22 to lay claim to being a true prophet of God. Not one.
And what that means to the observant who are intelligent enough to understand this simple principle, is that they are all false prophets, none of them is speaking for God, and they are evil demons masquerading as angels of light (see 2 Corinthians 11:14).
I'm old enough to have lived through a generation of false prophets who wrote books and made fortunes on predicting the "rapture," the return of Christ and the end times, and even with the obfuscation and denial that they incorporated to avoid looking foolish, still managed to do so. People like Salem Kirban, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye and others used a variety of timelines and twisted interpretations of passages of the book of Revelation and the Old Testament book of Daniel to get people to accept their prediction, and then another whole variety of claims that they weren't guilty of violating Deuteronomy because they didn't specifically predict the exact time, when they were flat wrong about it.
There was a flurry of "Jesus absolutely must return in 1988", because that is the end of the Armageddon calendar initiated by the re-establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948, and so that starts the 40 years after the gap of several thousand years between two chapters of Revelation, which coincides with Daniel. It didn't happen, but most of the "prophets" were never held accountable because, well, first of all, most Christians have little to no idea about doctrine or theology, and do not know this passage in Deuteronomy even exists, and because when they make celebrities out of religious personalities, they are always right in their eyes and that's where their loyalty goes.
The Religious Side of the Trump Train
It should be fairly obvious to anyone whose faith has been formed by the Christian gospel that anything having to do with Trump or his MAGA movement has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. The apostle Jude, who was the half-brother of Jesus, wrote a very short but very concise epistle to the church, warning about false teaching and doctrine that had the capability of rendering churches "apostate." He defined apostasy as an infiltration which creeps into churches, imitating true faith in a deliberately deceptive manner. Paul calls these individuals false apostles and deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, in the same way that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light.
Personally, I think Trump and the MAGA movement aren't deceptively Christian to the point where they can't be distinguished from true, faithful Christians. Trump's worldliness, which is his brand, is blatantly immoral, a contrast to the Christian gospel in every possible way. These road-show prophets, not all of whom even make any claim to being Christian, except culturally, have yet to hit the mark on their prophetic utterances. The characteristic they share in common with the movement's leader, Trump, is pathological lying, which violates the Ten Commandments as well as every principle of the Christian gospel.
The fact that they have been able to gain the trust, admiration and more importantly to them, the votes of people claiming to be Christian under the Evangelical label serves as a perfect example of satanic deception. Trump has replaced Christ. It's that simple. And that is apostasy.
These are grumblers, says Jude, and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage." v. 16
He could have written that yesterday, and he'd have aptly described what is happening to many conservative Evangelical Christians. They claim to believe the Bible, literally and implicitly, and that it is inerrant and infallible. And yet, false prophets who fail the Biblical test of accuracy are deluding them, masquerading as angels of light, and spouting prophetic statements that are false. Trump did not win in 2020 as they prophesied that he would, he was not "restored" after 2021 as their prophecy claimed.
The Apostle Jude provides an apt, prophetic description:
But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam's error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah's rebellion. These are blemishes on your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds, autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever. Jude, v. 10-13, NRSV
It almost seems as if Jude had met Trump and the pseudo-Christians who support him and then sat down and wrote his epistle.
Self-Glorification in Persecution
Hank Kunneman, a pastor who says his predictions are remarkably accurate, has indulged in a little bit of persecution as confirmation of his correctness.
"People have laughed at you," he prayed. "They've laughed at your prophets, they've laughed at your church, they've laughed at your intercessors, they've laughed at the patriots, they've laughed at those who voted for 45."
Of course they've laughed. How else can they deal with such blatant contradictions and hijacking of true Christian faith? It is, in fact, funny to hear people who were involved in a riot aimed at bringing down the Constitution claim to be patriots. They laugh because people who claim to be better Christians than those they label "liberals" and "woke" lie through their teeth with a straight face and make ridiculous predictions which a six year old can check out and determine is absolutely false, and then, they lie with a straight face while saying, "I never said that." These are all men who already have a reputation as charlatans, deceivers and who use Christian faith as a means to make themselves rich, so they already have a credibility problem. The fact that they're going on a nationwide tour, obviously to rake in more cash from the duped, is, frankly, laughable. So why not?
I suggest going back to Deuteronomy 18, and doing some self-evaluation. Trump lost the 2020 election, and the prophecy that he would win is not true. Nor was the prophecy, a year later, that he would be "restored" when it was discovered the election was stolen, true. No proof has ever turned up proving the election was stolen, another prophecy that hasn't turned out to be true. I'd suggest sticking with easier prophecy, such as "the sun will rise over the horizon this morning," and "the sun will set below the horizon later today." Or, "It might rain today or it might not." That way, you don't have to meet any standard of accuracy and your dupes can still ooh and ahh over your prophetic power.
Yes, I'm laughing too. Not at God, because he knows what he's doing. I'm laughing at all of this prophetic foolishness, and especially at Senators Josh Hawley and Rand Paul, and Representative Lauren Boebert, who were foolish enough to get involved with this and lend their names to its promotion. Well, that's to be expected from a high school dropout, teen mom, reckless driver, and business failure. There's a potential GOP star if there ever was one. I guess Hawley, known as Fascist Gump after his gallop through the Capitol on January 6th, is a good addition to a traveling religion-on-the-road crusade.
"I would sometimes spread misinformation," said Rand Paul. "This is a great tactic. Misinformation can be very important."
Yep, he belongs with the religious road show too.
Truth in conservative, Evangelical Christianity in America has been turned upside down. God never requires his people to commit their loyalty to evil men, even if he does use them for his purposes. But there's nothing in the Bible that even remotely can support the idea that God is using Trump, and if he's thought of as an evil man, then that's heresy and apostasy in the church. It might be a good time to just get out, before judgment really falls on it.
Prediction is Not Necessarily Prophecy
I will predict that Joe Biden will win the Presidency in 2024 by a relatively easy margin, picking up nearly 400 electoral votes, and that he will go into his second term with a Democratic dominated Congress. Things will get done. Things got done in his first term, and with a favorable Congress, that doesn't take spiritually empowered prophecy, that's just keen observation.
I've got better than 50/50 odds on being correct. By the time the election rolls around, Trump will have been convicted on multiple counts, regarding both January 6th and his meddling with the election in Georgia. I watch the news, read the polls, and am basing that prediction on the 33% of Republican voters who say they won't support Trump if he is convicted, and the 65% of independent voters who say they won't vote for him, period. I don't need spiritual help to make this prediction, I would never ask God for something that trivial and selfish anyway, and so it's not accountable to the Deuteronomy 18 verse.
The prophets who are embarking on this tour have already been proven false.
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