The Word the Lord Has Not Spoken
The United States has been through the wringer in the past few weeks. This election has turned friends into enemies and tolerance seems to have all but died. But there is another side of this election that affects evangelism greatly. There have been many self-proclaimed prophets claiming that they had heard from God that Donald Trump would win the election, and they “prophesied” just that. Now, before I continue, there are a couple of things I need to make clear:
1) This is not a political article. The point I hope to get across is that there are many Christians who claim to have the gift of prophecy, and their actions affect the spreading of the gospel, as I will explain.
2) I am aware that the election, at the time of my writing this article on Monday, November 9, is not officially over (despite the media coverage). All of the ballots are not yet counted due to mail-in voting, and there are allegations of potential foul play at the ballot processing facilities that may be litigated and so prolong this already ridiculously lengthy election. The reason I am writing on this subject is that it does not seem plausible at this point that if wide-spread voter fraud was indeed committed across the country that it is within the margin of any major effect on the results of the election. That is to say, it looks like Biden is far enough ahead that even if he loses a state or two, he would still win the presidency, which is a major problem for the prophets “prophesying” that Trump will win.
3) I am not a cessationist (one who believes that the miraculous gifts such as prophecy, healing, and tongues are not given to believers anymore), nor am I a continuationist in the common use of the word. If I were to summarize my position on the gifts, I would describe myself as a continuation-ish (believing that the gifts are still granted to believers by the will of the Holy Spirit, but that they are much more rare now than they were in the early church).
4) This article is not meant to attack or demonize the people in question. I believe that there are true born-again believers in Christ who believe that they have the gift of prophecy, who are simply mistaken and speaking from their own heart and understanding rather than from God.
So with all of that out of the way, how exactly do people prophesying the results of the election affect the gospel? Simply put, it doesn’t affect the gospel itself; the gospel is the same from the time it was first preached. The effect lies in the reception of the gospel into the hearts of the lost. Imagine, if you will, that an unsaved person is curious and open to the validity of Christianity, perhaps even hopeful of its reality! Now this person could be scrolling through facebook and stumble across a video of someone claiming to know the results of the upcoming election through a God-given revelation of the future. He or She is curious and invested in the election as well as to trying to find out if Christianity is true, and so they watch the video of a man or woman claiming to prophesy the future by the power of God saying that Trump will win the election. You can imagine how they could be feeling after watching such a thing in their situation. They would likely be excited to have found this prophet!
“This,” they may think to themselves, “is just the kind of test I need to know whether God really is real!”
And alas, the official results come out and Trump does not win.
How is this likely to affect this person’s receptiveness to the truth of Christianity and the gospel from then on? It sure doesn’t look good!
Any self-proclaimed prophet can do this type of damage by giving false prophecies. They are all over the internet. You can’t throw a virtual stone in YouTube without hitting a video of someone claiming to hear from God. However, the timing of this article and the subject at hand is more relevant than it has been in four years, because this phenomenon is greatly amplified. This election has gotten massive media attention and everyone’s eyes for the last few months have been on the White House. Everybody has been dying to know who the next president is going to be to get a glimpse at what the future of the nation will look like. So when someone who claims to have a God-given gift of prophecy comes out with a revelation, they are plastered all over the media. Millions of people will see these videos of these men and women claiming to speak from God; many of those people unbelievers. And they will surely remember those “prophetic” words when the official results are revealed.
The body of Christ desperately needs discernment, and this is just as true in the realm of prophecy as in other aspects of the Christian life. Thankfully, God has given us a simple test to help sort out the real prophets from the fake. Deuteronomy 18:22 says, “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.” Prophecy was of such importance to God that in the Old Testament law, if a prophet claimed to speak in the name of God, and is found to have spoken presumptuously, as recorded in verse 20 of the same chapter, they are to be put to death.
Prophesying future events is something that God has used throughout the centuries to prove to people His reality and His sovereignty. Just look up all the occasions in the Old
Testament where God says, “Then they will know I am the Lord.” It is often preceded with a prophecy of future events. He uses prophecy to prove that He is the one true God. Read this from Isaiah 41:
Tell us the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them,
that we may know their outcome;
or declare to us the things to come.
Tell us what is to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do harm,
that we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold, you are nothing,
and your work is less than nothing;
an abomination is he who chooses you.
God is glorified in displaying His sovereignty and omnipotence. When we turn a blind eye to false prophecy, we go harm to the advancement of the kingdom, and I believe it is a serious offense to the God who Is.
I must apologize, as I do not have any recommended resources on this subject.