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Charismatics Issue ‘Prophetic Standards’ To Address False Trump Prophecies

By Julia Duin
Dr. Michael Brown
Michael Brown, a charismatic Christian leader and president of AskDrBrown Ministries who helped draft newly released “prophetic standards." (Photo courtesy of AskDrBrown Ministries)

After an embarrassing number of wrong prophecies and bungled predictions about the 2020 election, a group of charismatic Christian leaders have released a four-page statement of “prophetic standards” to help correct abuses in the movement.

The statement, released April 29 on the newly created propheticstandards.com, is the work of 85 Christian ministry heads, preachers, academics, denominational officials, authors, revivalists, evangelists and other participants in what’s been called the prophetic movement, a subset of Pentecostal Christianity. Their signatures are attached.

The movement came into much disrepute in recent months after scores of prophets incorrectly prophesied that former President Donald Trump would win a second term, while failing to prophesy major events such as COVID-19 and the storming of the U.S. Capitol. A handful that later apologized for the false prophecies said they received thousands of angry emails, and in the case of North Carolina prophet Jeremiah Johnson, death threats.

 “It’s a good document and I support everything included in it,” wrote the Rev. Loren Sandford, a Denver pastor who last year prophesied a 2020 Trump victory, then apologized when he got it wrong. After that, “I was called vile and hateful names and was accused of being faithless and a traitor,” he added.

Views on his YouTube channel dropped by 70% and 200 subscribers (out of about 15,700) abandoned him. It’s been common knowledge, he said, that the movement needed reforming and several years ago, he was part of a prophetic group that crafted a similar document.

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“We saw the imbalances coming and wanted to head them off,” he said.

At the heart of the statement is a call for all who’ve made false prophecies to publicly apologize.

If someone issues a public prophecy with specific details and dates that can be easily proved or disproved, “and that word does not come to pass as prophesied, the one who delivered the word must be willing to take full responsibility, demonstrating genuine contrition before God and people,” the statement says.

“If the word was delivered publicly, then a public apology (and/or explanation/clarification) should be presented,” it continues. “This is not meant to be a punishment but rather a mature act of love to protect the honor of the Lord, the integrity of prophetic ministry and the faith of those to whom the word was given.” The statement also calls for prophets to have their prophecies evaluated by peers in the movement, adding, “Those refusing such accountability should not be welcomed for ministry.”

James Beverly, a Toronto-based researcher of the movement, noted that the statement “chose the diplomatic path” in not naming some of the most egregious groups and individuals.

“While this is commendable since it provides an opportunity for various prophets to improve without being named, it runs the risk of not bringing to light those prophets who bring dishonor to the Christian world through reckless statements and false prophecies,” he said in a statement.

Beverley, author of “God’s Man in the White House” (a collection of 500 prophecies about Trump), noted that “these important standards will probably have the least impact among so-called prophets who continue to venerate Trump without limit and show no regret for false prophecies and ridiculous claims about January 6 (the Capitol raid), January 20 (President Joe Biden’s inauguration) and the future of Trump.”

The statement has been in the works since early February, when Michael Brown, president of AskDrBrown Ministries and Bishop Joseph Mattera, convenor of the U.S. Coalition of Apostolic Leaders, began drafting it. The statement was then reviewed by more than a dozen people during subsequent Zoom meetings.

 “It seems to have sparked greater interest and momentum than we expected,” Brown said last week during an interview at his Charlotte, N.C., headquarters. “We’ve a real hope that it’ll be a corrective to error and an encouragement to positive expression.”

The theologically diverse prophetic movement includes Christians from many denominations and groups. Brown said pastors and individuals were asking for guidance and outsiders were raking the movement across the coals for theological sloppiness.

“We’ve heard from many pastors saying ‘How do we clean up this mess?’” he said. “It also gives guidelines for all believers to test what they’re hearing on the internet and TV. Hopefully, if the body of Christ can be more discerning, there can be less of a market for error.”

Craig Keener, an Asbury Seminary professor who has written on the false Trump prophecies for the evangelical magazine Christianity Today and who signed the document, said it was important for charismatics to reform abuses in the movement.

 “I believe that the biblical gifts of the Spirit are for today but that they are often abused,” he said. “The recent fiasco of political prophecies was a case in point.”

He added, “I signed the document because I agree with its demand for greater accountability to Scripture and to reality and because it is important for charismatics (and not just anti-charismatics) to call for such reform.”

As the document has been tweaked and revised many times by those who saw its preliminary drafts, an early concern, Brown said, was the document could be used to stifle prophecies. This was dealt with in subsequent revisions.

There are more than 200 prophetic networks in the U.S. and Canada, most of them encompassing less than a dozen prophets, according to J. Gordon Melton, professor of American religious history at Baylor University and a longtime observer of the movement. Allowing for overlap, the total number of prophets numbers in the thousands, many of whom live in the Lone Star State. 

“A lot of the new [prophetic] movements are based here in Texas,” he said in an interview. “We have a whole set of prominent national leaders here, way out of proportion to the population.” 

Many of those leaders: Chuck Pierce of Global Spheres, Inc., Cindy Jacobs of Generals International, televangelist Ken Copeland and evangelists Lance Wallnau and Dutch Sheets all live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. None signed the document.

In fact, the majority of movement prophets declined to sign. Some, Brown said, were part of ministry networks that would not allow them to sign; others did not give reasons although, he added wryly, “I did tell them the ABSENCE of their names would speak loudly as well.”

Some of the holdouts include people who still insist the Trump will be reinstalled as president this year, including Florida prophetess Kat Kerr, California evangelist Johnny Enlow and Jeff Jansen of the Nashville-based Global Fire Ministries. Steve Schultz of the Albany, Ore.-based Elijah List, who hosts many pro-Trump prophets on his Elijah Streams YouTube channel, also didn’t sign. 

When asked about this, Brown waxed philosophical.

“If the chief offenders have not publicly repented,” he asked, “why would they sign something like this?”

What’s often ignored, said Steven Strang, founder of Charisma Media in Lake Mary, Fla., and one of the signers, is that several of these same prophets correctly predicted Trump’s unlikely 2016 victory, but when they stumbled in 2020, “the knives came out by critics of the prophetic.” 

He added, “As a former secular journalist, I wonder how this statement will play in the secular community. I doubt it will satisfy most of the critics–some of whom have made a small industry of blasting not only the gift of prophecy but all spiritual gifts and often all Pentecostal doctrine.”

This is not the first effort to rein in the excesses of the movement. Nashville prophet James Goll, who signed the prophetic standards document, said there were efforts in the 1990s to establish guidelines for prophecy, and in 1999, the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders was formed. But many of the younger prophets who emerged later saw no need to affiliate with that group.

Another problem, he added, is there’s no doctrinal authority like what exists among Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Latter Day Saints and Eastern Orthodox Christians.

“There is no such thing as a one central hierarchy,” he said. “That’d be like forcing all Pentecostal and charismatic and non-denominational Spirit-filled churches to be put together in one giant pot, which is an enormous sector of the body of Christ.”

He attributes the movement’s growth in the past 20 years to social media and TV and YouTube channels that promoted almost anyone who claimed to be a prophet. A board of directors made up of sympathetic family members and friends could be assembled quickly. 

“The entire prophetic and prayer movement expanded with the digital age,” he said. “So, where’s the accountability then on the platforms? Everybody needs to learn self-responsibility, how to pray, how to walk in better wisdom. I have a board of directors. Do others? You can have three [board members] and get away with it, but is it functional?

Additionally, there are words from God that prophets should keep to themselves.

“I don’t put in social media three-quarters of what I receive,” Goll said. “A lot of people who do that are just getting a big mailing list. God wants us to be trustworthy and hold onto secrets and not shout them from the housetop. I wonder if what we have now is a result of saying too much on the wrong platforms.”

This article originally appeared in Religion Unplugged and is reprinted with permission.

Julia DuinJulia Duin is a Seattle-based journalist who has worked as a full-time reporter or editor for numerous publications, including the Houston Chronicle, Washington Times, and the Washington Post Sunday Magazine. 

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48 Responses

  1. If these “prophets” had to adhere to the standard of Deut 18:21-22, none of them would have ministries. So, they have to make up their own sub-biblical standards in order to save face.

    Deut 18:21-22 is written to the people, not the “prophets”. The most important part of this admonition is the last verse: “You need not be afraid of him (the false prophet).”

    The church need not be “afraid of” these people; in other words, we don’t need to listen to them. We don’t need to listen when they’re getting stuff wrong or when they’re releasing statements like this. Best to ignore them, as God commands.

    And, BTW, I like Michael Brown and some of those guys. They’re Christians who love people and preach the gospel in many cases. But they hopelessly confuse people in many cases as well…such as this statement.

    1. “If these “prophets” had to adhere to the standard of Deut 18:21-22, none of them would have ministries.”
      Or be alive for that matter, as it prescribes putting them to death. I guess we can discern God’s feelings on people putting words in His mouth.

      1. I’m having trouble seeing what I’m typing for some reason. If the above comment came off sounding sarcastic, it wasn’t meant to.

  2. A word of God spoken through the mouth of a true prophet will come to pass ie: 100% Accurate. No exceptions.

    It seems today’s false prophets prophesy neither with accuracy nor from the mouth of God.

    Therefore, as leaders biblically held to a higher standard they are the false prophets the Bible speaks of.

    God’s Word was 100% accurate about that.

    1. @Jackson, Paul K

      Greetings Brothers,

      I appreciate your comments. And I am sympathetic to the sentiments. But I would like to gently point out that Jonah was a true prophet who predicted that Nineveh would be destroyed. He did not say, “Repent, or God will destroy you!” He simply said what God told him to say, which was, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown”(3:4).

      As we know, the city was not overthrown in forty days. God relented of the disaster he was going to do to them. We might say, “Sure, but they repented.” Yes, that is true. But that is not what was prophesied. Jonah said in forty days the city would be destroyed. It was not. The prophecy did not come to pass. Without the knowledge we have today from the book of Jonah, an Israelite contemporary of Jonah’s who rigidly applied Deut. 18: 21-22 to him would be left to conclude that he was a false prophet. But he wasn’t. He was a true prophet. Which means that we cannot apply Deut. 18:21-22 in an absolute manner. Doing so is an overstatement.

      The same thing occurs in Micah 3:12. There, Micah prophesied that Judah would be destroyed and left in a heap of ruins. No conditions. He did not say “Unless you repent.” But it did not happen because the people repented. In fact, Jeremiah 26:18-19 acknowledges that what Micah prophesied did not happen.

      In the case of both Jonah and Micah, the prophecies did not come to pass. The outcome was averted because of repentance. But in both cases there was no hint that the prophecies were conditional on repentance. They were unqualified divine pronouncements of destruction.

      I say all this not to give any credibility to the failed and often strange character of modern prophecy. Of which I am highly skeptical. My purpose is to direct us back to Scripture and what it says and how it works. I merely want to point out that sometimes prophecy is a bit more complex than we might notice and it can be helpful to reflect that in our claims of it.

      Some judgments predicted by some prophets, do not come to pass because they are conditional on how the hearers respond. In other words what the prophet says, might not come to pass. But we don’t know which ones are conditional since the judgments predicted do not come with a disclaimer that says, “unless your repent.”

      Do I think this gives the Trump prophets a loophole to escape from their failure? Can they claim that their prophecy was conditional as well? Was God going to have Trump elected, but because of the unrepentant sin of America, he relented and he allowed Biden to win? No, not at all. There are major differences between the unfulfilled prophecy of Jonah and Micah and those of the Trump prophets. But I’ll refrain from highlighting those, this post is too long as it is.

      Peace,

      1. JM, I’ll just address the Jonah prophecy in the context of Deut 18. In Jonah 3:10, there is an explicit explanation (presumably given to the prophet) as to why God relented from the destruction that was coming.

        In the case of the Trump “prophets”, no explicit explanation was given to them. Even these “prophets” interpreted their prophecies as false. Jonah didn’t do that. Why? Because it was explicitly explained to him that God had mercy on Nineveh because of the Ninevites’ repentance. The whole of the book is about Jonah wrestling with God’s mercy.

        In the context of OT prophecy, so much of it is calls to repentance that it would be impossible to completely divorce Jonah’s prophecy of destruction from this context. I do not believe there is a legitimate reading of Jonah in which the author of the book is trying to point out that Jonah “got it wrong”. That is ludicrous. The point is that Jonah got it right! Destruction was coming, but God responded in mercy to the Ninevites’ repentance.

        Was Trump’s prophesied election victory judgement on America that was narrowly averted by nationwide repentance?

        1. Hi Paul,

          Thanks for your comments. I appreciate engaging with you on this. You have an obvious love for and knowledge of the word.

          I agree with you that there isn’t a legitimate reading of the book of Jonah that claims Jonah got it wrong.

          That wasn’t my point. Apologies if that is what I communicate. My point was specifically a technical one about the nature of prophecy and the importance of having a nuanced understanding of it.

          **In short, it was a response to the claim (mainly Jackson’s) that prophecy has to be “100% accurate. No exceptions”.

          The reason being, is that if we are going to say in an unqualified way, that an unfulfilled prophecy is always a sign of a false prophet, then we run into problems. Jonah, Micah and Isaiah (as you note) are examples of a prophet making divine pronouncements that didn’t come to pass as uttered. Which leaves us with two options. 1) they were false prophets, or 2) not all prophecy has to be 100% accurate as uttered by the prophet. naturally as believers we take them to be true prophets. But that’s because we have the inspired commentary of God’s word. But their contemporaries would have been left to wonder if they were legitimate prophets or not given the fact that their prophecy did not come to pass.

          However, your point about the context of OT prophecy is well taken. Repentance is a subtext that is relevant to many of the judgment prophecies.

          I am – perhaps not very convincingly, but hopefully graciously – trying make the case for recognizing the difference between conditional and unconditional prophecy. On the one hand, Jonah’s, Micah’s and Isaiah’s prophecies were conditional. All three conditional on repentance. But I think it’s important to notice that repentance was never part of the prophecy. Jesus on the other hand prophesied about his own death and resurrection. Those were unconditional prophecies.

          Not recognizing this and making unqualified statements about prophecy always being 100% correct isn’t quite accurate and can cause some folks to stumble when they are presented with unfulfilled (conditional) prophecy or the hyperbolic, nonliteral nature of some of OT prophecy. My concern is for those people.

          I really appreciate your comment:

          – “Deut 18:21-22 is written to the people, not the “prophets”. The most important part of this admonition is the last verse: “You need not be afraid of him (the false prophet).”

          I agree. And for the record, I think these people are false prophets. I am not defending them in any way.

          I will gladly offer you the last word on our discussion (unless you have a question or me).

          Thanks for your thoughts. May the Lord bless you and your commitment to the truth of his word.

          1. JM

            I appreciate your points, thank you.

            In the OT God spoke to His people through prophets. My point , probably not set out well enough is that if a word comes from the mouth of God (through an OT prophet) it shall succeed (ie 100% accurate as God is perfect.

            I was thinking of Isaiah 55 v 11 in terms if God’s word accomplishing the goal of God.

            “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
            ‭‭
            By the way JM “ I see you in a field, running joyfully and as you run the crops just burst into color as you pass through”

            That last bit was tongue in cheek but an actual prophecy given to a person close to me by a person who calls himself a prophet.

          2. “…making unqualified statements about prophecy always being 100% correct isn’t quite accurate…”

            If this is true, then Moses didn’t get the details right in Deut 18. The beauty of Moses’ explanation is its simplicity. As soon as a prophet makes a pronouncement that doesn’t come to pass, it makes logical sense not to ever listen to the prophet again because one would have no idea whether or not any additional prophesies would come to pass.

            For example, would it make sense for the apostles to plan for the famine that Agabus prophesied if Agabus didn’t always get it right? Of course not. They’d have to take the “Wait and see” approach. Which, ironically, is the attitude of most “open but cautious” continuationists. There is no sense in this kind of approach to prophecy because one never knows which prophecies to respond to!

            I kind of get your point about “100% accuracy”, but it is so subtle and nit-picky, it’s hard for me to accept as something I should seriously consider. God had 100% knowledge that he was going to destroy Nineveh – he also had 100% knowledge that he would relent in the case (the contingency) that the people repented. God has contingent knowledge of what would happen under certain future conditions (Tyre and Sidon repenting, for example, Luke 10:13). Remember, God explains specifically why he relents and the whole period is no more than 40 days from prophesy to mercy.

            Jonah’s prophecy was absolutely going to happen. The Ninevites took it as an absolute certainty and threw themselves on God’s mercy – this is exactly the response our merciful God wanted. In contrast, these Trump prophets were just doing what these guys always do – prophesy out of their imaginations. When they were exposed they scrambled frantically to maintain their credibility.

            I also know a lot of the history of some of these signers, like Valloton, Goll, and the Campbells. They have consistently got it wrong with many, many prophesies. Their followers are just getting a little less able to swallow this tripe than they were in the past. Praise God.

            Anyway, this is how it makes sense to me. In the end, I count disagreements on these issues as important to Christian theology but not essential to the gospel. God bless you, JM.

      2. “”He did not say “Unless you repent.”.

        That is usually implied when God announces a calamity.

        “The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
        But after he pleaded ,God added more years to his life.
        You will notice that God did not say “Unless you pleaded”
        If the world had repented at the predication of Noah;the great flood would not have happened.
        If the people of Nineveh did not repent and the city was not destroyed;then Jonah would have been a false prophet.
        Why confusing the word of God?

        1. Hi Jopeli,

          I am saddened that you think I am, as you put it, “confusing the word of God.”

          That is not my intention. Let me try and do better.

          I am trying to bring more clarity to the discussion by pointing out the nature of conditional vs. unconditional prophecy and highlighting the problems that can come by confusing the two. Such confusion is demonstrated by saying, as did a commenter above, that prophecy has to be “100% accurate. No exceptions”.

          Prophecy in the Bible comes is two forms; conditional and unconditional. Conditional prophecies can unfold exactly as stated, be delayed in fulfillment, be altered in fulfillment or repealed.

          If we do not recognize this then we might be very disturbed to discover not only the unfulfilled prophecy I mentioned above (Jonah, Micah, etc) but also the prophetic hyperbole, where the prophet makes wild claims about judgment which a later prophet says is fulfilled, but looks nothing like what was predicted.

          But all of this seems far afield from the discussion that got this started, which is that there are many people speaking on behalf of God today who are false prophets. I do not support those folks. Nor would I want to be in their shoes.

          All the best,

          1. Let me add to this conversation by bringing to light additional truth. Much of this conversation has focused on the exception instead of the rule. I am aware of this because I have a friend I have been debating about who still thinks a number of these people who did not sign the document are great. He keeps emphasizing only the exception and never the rule. This is a kind of logical fallacy. The rule must be maintained while understanding where the exceptions are and, even more importantly, where they simply are not.

            The rule is from the Law that God set up for His own nation that anyone who prophesies something that does not happen must be put to death. This goes back to one of the 10 commandments to not take the name of God in vain. The primary way this was done originally was not cursing but by claiming to speak for God and using that as leverage over other human beings. False prophesy has never been winked at or tolerated, in spite of how people, like my friend, want to simply ignore the rule because God’s grace somehow has made that acceptable? Now God does not want us to be violent any more so we do not kill these people, but we should certainly be wary of false prophets because Jesus told us to be.

            The exception is when a prophecy of very bitter news is delivered. We see these delivered to kings and it was always implied that you could turn to God and repent and those things could be delayed. If you look at every prophecy you will see that none of them were permanently cancelled, not even the ones given to prophets in the exceptions already talked about to a great extent in this thread. A king’s life was extended, but he did indeed die and horrible things happened to his son which he appeared quite pleased about. If that is not crazy I do not know what is. The Assyrians were laid to waste by Babylon. It just happened later. All of the prophecies came true. A very tiny exception was postponed. I know of none that were cancelled. If you can think of one please respond back to this with it.

            There are no Biblical examples of exceptions for positive prophecies, such as telling Christians that the man you intend to vote for is certain to win! To bring up the exception in this case makes for absurd conclusions like that Trump is God’s judgment on the nation and if the people repent then God will make sure he does not win. Instead the norm from the O.T. was that the false prophets were always the ones telling people only what they wanted to hear. Very few of the prophecies in the Scriptures are what we would call positive, but they do exist in small number. If we take that as a rule than most prophecies in the N.T. should also be “negative” in the same way.

            I think the problem comes from a great misunderstanding of a single verse talking about how N,T, prophecies are supposed to: “But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.” 1 Cor. 14:3 This verse has been, by these people, removed from its original context. In context prophecy is better than speaking out loud in tongues because of this last reason. Then Paul says that He would rather have us prophecy than speaking in tongues out loud in the middle of a service. The section is about order in a church service, not about how different prophecy is in the N.T. from the Old. This group has taken this verse to mean that the only valid prophecy is that which strengthens, encourages and comforts during a service. This is what happens when you take a verse out of context.

            From my own life I have come to the conclusion that Paul wants everyone to prophesy because it takes guts to hear the normal, negative words from God and repeat them. This requires courage and a willingness to be rejected by the people. These are things completely lacking in the current movement. These words are actually an encouragement from God’s point of view. For those who are Christians who are not greedy, or sexually immoral or liars there is a lot of good to look forward to. I choose not to choose a negative attitude towards true “negative” prophecy. We are in a time of judgment right now which is a very good thing. God loves His Church enough to work on cleaning it up. If God does not clean it up then it is not His Church but something else completely…

    2. Your right Jackson, don’t need a 4 page guideline when the Word is very clear in fact the Bible takes it a step further and says even if it comes true but leads you from the” Way” he is also a false prophet do not listen to him.

  3. I’m not a Pentecostal, but I’m glad to see their organization attempt to reign in the egregious conduct of many of their affiliated pastors.

    The watching world doesn’t know Pentecostal from Lutheran; all they see is yet another “Christian” pastor saying crazy things and being proven wrong and facing no accountability.

  4. This all harkens back to the 80’s when the evangelical church embraced the republicans , Pat Robertson ran, and the church and republicans began a torrid affair. Since that time that partnership has been co-opted by news media, Fox, The most notable , which is beginning to resemble 700 club format. Jesus has been tightly embraced by and tied to second amendment rights.. Scripture verse gun parts now available. I’m waiting for the WWJC bumper stickers . What would a Jesus carry? I’m a second amendment supporter, all my life, but it’s pitiful how the gospel and politics have been grafted together . When I was still on social media, I posted a response similar to this and was called by a few born again believers a f**king lib-tard for not embracing trump and the republicans , even though I’m a life long conservative.
    The prophetic luminaries are becoming laugh-able , as most are warm fuzzy , god wants us happy and powerful triumphant warriors. Take these leaders to the third world countries and real world Christianity will send them packing and hiding

  5. Great article, thank you for the updates. I guess my one question would be, where in scripture do we see prophets doing anything like those who call themselves prophets in these movements? I remember years ago when I first heard of the Elijah list and the “school of the prophets”. I signed up to see what it was about and when I put in my “prophetic word” as part of the class, I quoted a passage straight out of the book of Jeremiah, without citing it and I was called a false prophet and thrown off the list. Steve Schultz was the “prophet” who did that. That told me all I had to know. Maybe if these people actually took the time to open the Bible and read it, none of this nonsense would be a problem. But in the last days many false prophets have arisen…

    1. Thank you Stacy. The real prophetic is when ordinary people like you and I look back to when the horse bolted out the stable door and continue open-endedly our joint inferring, especially privately. I am sceptical of the attempt by yet another high profile personality to control the damage to high profile (dominionist) personalities. Will ordinary Christians be sufficiently helped to share in the proper gifts? Ascension – this time of year for our especial prayers – is the heart of both Resurrection AND Pentecost. Jeremiah was commenting on the Josiah period false revival and Jonah on the Jeroboam II triumphalism. Of course these things will always come round again. James, Is 55, 58, 61, the feedings of the thousands, the talents, the crown, the firm portrayed in Proverbs 21:10-31 . . . are especially about helping the widows and the orphans exercise spiritual gifts and virtues like prudence and discernment and help the world.

    2. Steve Schultz – Sometime 6 or 7 years ago I ran across a blog post by a man who was formerly the Webmaster for this Elijah’s list website. He would see “Words” come in from people in their raw form. They would pay this site in order to advertise these things to a wider audience. He would also see incoming emails from the same celebrities whenever there was a problem as most would check their Words after being published just to make sure the site was doing its job properly. Yet it was not and it was not his fault.

      He had left a couple of years before I saw his post, I think, so maybe about 10 years ago based on what he was seeing going on. Schultz who is running this business was reading all of these words before he OK’d the Webmaster to put them up. The personal testimony of the Webmaster was that any sections that the owner deemed “too negative” he simply deleted before forwarding what was left for publishing. The Profits who had paid them to republish their words were getting more than a little ticked off. The conscience of the Webmaster started bothering him so very much that he just had to quit for peace of mind. The simple reality is that Mammon was at the center and the owner did not want to lose any audience by having them read negative words. Loss of audience meant loss of revenue.

      I not only read this blog post but ended up also interacting with the programmer via either email or his comment section and had quite an interesting conversation with him. The short of this is, I will just keep saying that Jesus warns us about not allowing ourselves to be deceived. Where ministry meets celebrity status and Mammon all kinds of odd things can go on behind the scenes. I currently see basically the whole prophetic movement as one great big lawless enterprise, which is sad because I know personally that the real does exist. You are not going to make any money and very, very few friends by being a real prophet.

      I hope that some journalist finds this programmer and interviews him. What he has said does need a bigger audience than just me.

      1. Can you remember this guy’s name or a URL to his post? Otherwise, it’s like hunting for a needle in a haystack. Sadly, most people in these circles don’t publicize their doubts because when they do, they are trashed by their fellow believers, so they just quietly leave. Even using Matthew 18 in terms of expressing your concerns to leaders doesn’t work. So true that most of what God said in the Bible was more of the repent-and-turn variety, but that sort of thing doesn’t go over well in your typical charismatic church.

  6. its funny but also sad how they said all these things were gonna happen with trump and nothing happened lol but i like what brown and everyone else is doing so its good! i hope they start slowly changing everything up yk?

    anyways what do i know, im just a kid haha

    1. J, there is that, let’s pray and hope. But genuine Christians would press to abolish the college of electors (when electing your President is very narrow, just let it be very narrow) and the two-party system, and for counting standards (crucial eh). Also the US has too few polling stations. Genuine Christians would pray for just quality of government, not ad hominem.

  7. I suppose we should be glad for some effort at accountability, but this really seems to suggest, “Be more careful’ rather than upholding a biblical standard for prophets. Let’s tell the truth. God speaks clearly, and if you can’t tell the difference between an infallible voice of God and your own desires, dreams or impressions, then stop blaspheming the name of God. It’s not just embarrassing, it is sin — a disqualifying sin for ministry.

  8. Michael Brown is joke. Why does anyone listen to this enabled of heretics? He is absolutely in the same camp as these prophets and he does he best to legitimize them. He (along with the people he supports) are an embarrassment to it faith.
    By the way – these false prophecy’s are not from a wide spectrum of Christianity but represent a rotten core of false teaching.

  9. “We here at Rent-and-Move acknowledge that a number of our drivers have driven erratically, gone down Wrong Way signs multiple times, dented your cars and even backed over a mailbox when they were moving people.

    We apologize for the misunderstanding and have have signed a petition to not do it again. Here’s the signatures of some of the most egregious offenders who have in no way been stripped of their duties at our company. It’s even got that one guy who plagiarized and verbally abused his flock, so you know we’re serious. Please continue to buy our books and choose our services when once this all blows over.

    We good?”

  10. I found some interesting names on the list of who did sign the statement. These include Mark Driscoll, Larry Tomzak, Robert Morris, Patricia King, Dr. Wayne Grudem (not a charismatic, but a theologian promoting the eternal subordination of the Son of God.) These are the names I recognized off of the whole list except for those clearly mentioned directly in this article. All of these people have been involved in their own controversies over other things, Likely some of the other names have been too, just not ones I have had the chance to read about. I would be more inclined to believe their sincerity if they actually addressed their own issues and apologized for what they have done wrong. It is so easy to point fingers. It is much more difficult to admit you have problems to that you need to address and simply stop doing.

  11. Hard to imagine most of these guys signing on to “peer reviewed” prophecy. Sounds like trying to herd cats.

  12. The Bible already has standards for prophets. Very clear ones, in fact. I guess it was too much trouble for them to look those up and use them. Gotta make it up themselves as they go along instead. What a joke.

    If you claim to be a prophet of God and get it wrong, you’re a false prophet. End of story.

    These guys might do well to read that take to heart a certain Bible story about Elijah on Mt. Carmel.

    1. Of course they don’t want to be subject to the OT sanctions for false prophets (i.e. ones whose prophecies don’t come to pass) since that will be their very painful deaths. So instead they have a completely useless document which is only as good for wiping one’s posterior with.

  13. Some of these people,(not prophets) made correct predictions. Most of them made incorrect predictions. That’s it! Except, why do they do it? For profit.

  14. While this statement could be considered good, in a sense, for its attempt to at least say something about the worst offenders of the fake prophets for profit, I doubt it will have much or any practical benefit, and the club of self-enriching, self-gratifying, self-enabling, self-styled “prophets” will continue on their merry way deceiving many world-wide, as evidenced already by their refusal to sign it. Maybe the most it can do is draw a little bit of attention to this rampant, heinous evil in the Church.

    As some have noted above, the credibility of the document is called into question by issues with some of its signers, perhaps most famously Mark Driscoll. Most of the “leaders” seem to be relative no-names, and they lack any cohesive structure to hold false prophets accountable.

    Speaking of holding people accountable, the signers have already repeatedly proven themselves failed in this capacity over decades regarding charlatan “prophets,” along with flagrant sins among other famous ministry leaders. For instance, Michael Brown belatedly wrote about Ravi Zacharias’ sin in Feb. 2021, but where was his voice, and that of other so-called leaders, years ago in calling out Ravi, and other abusive, predatory, lying wolves in the Church? This statement would be more believable if the so-called leaders actually did something to call out sin among prominent ministry leaders before it was safe to do so, in a way that might even cost them something, rather than just riding the wave of public sentiment.

    Their allowance of wiggle room for wrong prophecy is highly suspect. Consider:

    “19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

    2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” 2 Peter 1:19-2:3

    Could their statement actually do more harm than good by legitimizing the soft type of bogus “prophecies” that happen daily all around the world?

    The majority of these bogus “prophecies” are just feel-good words that get details wrong when they do say anything specific, as I have personally witnessed, although they can also do real damage in people’s lives, as with a friend whose marriage was largely based on “prophecies” but tragically ended in divorce a few years later, or when another friend became more and more depressed, even suicidal, when “prophecies” about his deliverance did not come to pass.

    1. Micaiah

      You are right about the feel-good words masquerading as prophecy, and I gave a real example of classic word play prophecy in a comment above (which doesn’t bear repeating).

      I have also seen and read of the damage done in people’s lives from an apparent prophetic word particularly with regard to marriage or career changes that have left good people in terrible incompatible situations and relationships.

      The sad thing is that those struck by a false prophetic word usually all reject caring and discerning Christian counseling that does not line up with the prophetic word, and they reject any and all advice given, believing that the prophetic word was from God.

  15. Evangelicals were much kinder to their prophetic teachers of the past and now, who while not claiming to be prophets, interpreted prophetic portions of the Bible pointing to End Times events wrong again and again. The list is long: Common Market as the ten nation coalition of Anti-Christ of Revelation, the dollar’s demise 50 years ago, bar coding as the Mark of the Beast, the Left Behind series, assurances the Anti-Christ had already been born, date setting for the Return of Christ, etc. Evangelicals rolled with these interpretations for the last century. They justified them by saying the prophecies got some people to read the Bible and others saved. These prophecy teachers were popular speakers at Evangelical camps and conferences. So, Evangelicals are in no position to throw stones here.

    Setting standards is a good idea. Accountability in preaching, teaching, and all Spirit-led speaking is important. Biblical prophets in the Old Testament spent a lot of time “forthtelling,” that is calling people back to following God. When prophecy became democratized in the New Testament via the prophetic people, the Church, prophecies were numerous in their assemblies, but they were also evaluated. 1 Thess 5:20 indicates that there were issues then too. Paul tells them to both to “not despise prophecies,” but also not to quench the Spirit and hold on to what is good. I think the best we can make of 1 Cor 12-14 and 1 Jn 4:1-3 indicates that most prophecies in the assemblies weren’t predictions of the future but proclamations of the glories of God and Christ as well as spontaneous calls to walk in power, purity, and love with the Lord. It is likely that some of the NT passages referred to as hymns of the Church for their poetic or lyrical quality were originally memorable spontaneous prophetic utterances. NT prophecy has a contribution to make to the Christian community life, just like other gifts of the Spirit, Christian music, poems, plays, etc.

  16. This document as does the Manhattan Declaration emanates from hell. A prophecy that is wrong comes from a false prophet, period. It is no wonder that they quote only one old testament verse which as they always do they twist to accuse their opponents. They have absolutely no respect for God Who is “holy, holy, holy”. We have His inerrant and holy word for a guide. A false prophet faces the wrath and fiery indignation of a thrice holy God as does each of his followers. Be warned. “………..,and all liars , shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”(Rev. 21-8b KJV)

  17. I think this article demonstrates what has gone wrong with the evangelical church in America… between the 2020 election and the Covid-19 pandemic I have never seen so many nasty e-mails sent by evangelicals…the result… in 50 years the U.S. evangelical church will be much smaller… the kids in their teens and 20’s do not like bologna that is going on…

    1. I totally agree, TJ. When Israel became corrupt, she went into exile. When the Pharisees became corrupt, the nation was destroyed. When the Catholic church became corrupt, the Great Schism and the Reformation happened. The evangelical church today has largely become corrupt as well, filled with power-hungry, immoral, corrupt pastors, who instead of preaching the word of God, have focused on building their earthly kingdoms; and the result is that churches are filled with unbelievers who think they are Christians. But their fruit is showing who they really are.

    2. TJ,

      I concur. Minor quibble, the Evangelical church is the US is smaller now than it was 20 years ago, and will be much smaller in 20 years (far less than 50 years). It will be curious to see the rate of increase in the “Nones” and “Dones” in religion surveys and the rate of increasing decline in the Evangelical church numbers, attendance, etc. in the years following Trump as POTUS. I suspect the trends will only accelerate.

      1. CM,

        Yes the College kids and the folks in their 20’s are checking out of the church…becoming a None or Done is much more appealing …..

  18. What is modern day prophecy? Who has been 100% correct in the past 500 years? Is it relevant? Why not love God and your neighbor and trust in Him for and in all things?

  19. Jackson, I agree with your May 1st comment, and got a chuckle out of the the nonsense “prophecy” example you gave on April 30 above: “I see you in a field, running joyfully and as you run the crops just burst into color as you pass through.” It reminded me of a “prophecy” I heard given to a seminarian friend that God wanted to use him in “the dance.” My friend was the opposite of an artsy, dancer type, and we found the idea of God using him in dance amusing and completely off then, and I still find that image of him funny now.

    At that same “prophecy” conference some 3 decades ago, I was also told by the “prophet” he could see I had been going from job to job. Although I had long hair and was wearing a faded flannel shirt, generally looking like a vagrant, in actuality I was in graduate school, studying for the profession I’ve been in my whole life.

    Similar to most of what people call speaking in tongues in the modern Charismatic movement, which involves coaching people how to do it as they learn to imitate others, as I also did in my early years as a believer, the “prophets” of today copy others, perhaps sincere (or not in the more egregious abuses) but misled, as they “prophecy” over people, teaching others to do the same.

    1. Editorial note: Sorry, please delete the reduplicated “the” in the first sentence’s “out of the the nonsense” and then this comment. Thanks.

    2. I too have received a prophecy that was like this one you mention. But the worst was a friend of mine who was with his second wife at an event with the now gone John Paul Jackson. They received a word that God had a ministry for them helping people to have better marriages. That never happened but a couple of years later when she was running their little boutique they started, she started having an affair with a customer. Soon, she divorced my friend and married the other man. And she was the one big on going to prophetic events. Now that is what I call a major pathetic word! Most of what gets spoken is either repeating of God’s word which is truth but not prophecy in this sense, or it is just the giving of pathetic words like these which are so silly an so off that they really turn the prophetic into a parody of it and the saddest part is these idealists do not even recognize it.

  20. Thanks Micaiah

    All true, your comment bears great discernment over the modern “prophetic” movements of today.

    And worse rather that I can’t get a handle on is the ridiculous repetitive babbling glossolalia called tongues. There is a YouTube preacher who not only babbles in a tongue but then interprets himself for the audience….huh?

    In church I ask the pastor when he is going to give a sermon exclusively and for over an hour teaching us to eagerly desire the gift of interpretation of tongues.

    I never get an answer, nor a sermon, but I do get a lot of blank stares.

    May you remain always in the true vine of Christ and bear much fruit.

  21. “In fact, the majority of movement prophets declined to sign. ” …

    The majority of these so-called “prophets” whole theological framework is based on being individualistic lone rangers WITHOUT Any Accountability. (Some are pretty specific and open about how anything outside their methods “quenches” the spirit… they literally believe that outside discernment, the use of one’s mind/rational faculties or using “reality”/facts is tantamount to committing grave sin…)
    They’ve never wanted it from the beginning… I’d wager it was a founding event in their “ministry” lives… They were zealous, maybe rightly so… good intentions maybe, but ran up against some wiser, more mature members of the faith and rather than learn from or heed any given advice, they said, “forget these old fogeys, I’m going to start my own thing… where nobody can tell me what to do!” So here we are today; and they’re nearly hopelessly lost in their own narcissistic lying narratives/worldviews in which it’s basically impossible to re-assess…
    And they wouldn’t be able to make mucho MONEY (or just a living) if they had to be accountable to anyone… In God’s economy they are criminals, thieves and wolves. But I’m really glad to see them outed this way and even choosing to do so on their own. By refusing to participate in this discernment/accountability or refusing to sign, they loudly proclaim their corruption and untrustworthiness. May it be a hindering indictment that endlessly follows them around, until they repent and turn from their wicked ways.

  22. Michael Maddox

    Prophecies aren’t always direct and can be extremely nuanced; I’m reminded of an incident that occurred during the Hundred Years War just before Joan of Arc was active.

    Brother Richard, a fire brand preacher /prophet of uneven reputation who predicted the apocalypse and the rise of the antichrist, had traveled, preached and prophesied throughout France. Among other things, to people near Troyes, he told them “Sow, good people, sow beans aplenty, for this will bring good things soon.”

    A year later, in 1429, Joan of Arc emerged victorious from several battles and was escorting Charles VII to Reims for his official coronation there as king of France negating the English claim. However, in sieging the various towns and cities along the way among them Troyes in late June 1429; the French army was out of food and was in danger of breaking up because of starvation. They discovered Brother Richards’ plantings, harvested the ripened beans and continued onward with their March to Reims.

    The successful coronation of Charles in Reims as initiated by a peasant teenage girl was considered miraculous by many and the stage was set for France and England to pursue separate national destinies.

    France ruled over by England could have never have intervened in the American Revolution some centuries later. Also England was later a major supplier of missionaries and exporter of Protestant Christianity throughout the world, something unlikely to happen if they were preoccupied in trying to govern France.

    Brother Richard’s prophecy may not have manifested in the way that the locals thought it would when they sweated hard planting beans beyond what their own needs were, but this inadvertent contribution was nevertheless critical in saving the French army.

    The prophecies concerning Donald Trump being placed back into the office for a second term? That drama is still unfolding.

    Best regards
    Michael Maddox

  23. It’s generous to say, as Steven Strang does, that some of this year’s stubborn “prophets” accurately predicted Trump’s 2016 win. The polls were so close that year that any so-called “prophet” essentially had a 1 in 2 chance of seeming to have heard from God in saying Trump would win. This means that to affirm any prophesy as divinely given simply because something happens that it says will happen is unwarranted and, because of this, ultimately harmful to Christ’s mission.

    The recognition in the statement “that prophets do not serve as spiritual fortune tellers or prognosticators, nor is their role to satisfy our curiosity about the future or reveal abstract information” is the first step on the path away from this terrible recent turn of events for the church. Indeed, “God’s purpose in prophecy is redemptive, calling for repentance, giving supernatural guidance, bringing comfort, deliverance, restoration, and glorifying Jesus as Lord.” Everything else is an enormous waste of time and money.

    And, let’s be honest, money is probably a lot of why these false prophets keep spinning out their Trump-praising “words.” It’s got to be really good, in the short-fun, for their bottom line.

  24. You can also add the names of Pastor Hank Kunneman of Omaha and Prophet Robin D. Bullock of Warrior, AL who also prophesied Trump’s return and both of them are steadfast in what the Lord has told them…and I 100% believe they heard from the Lord and not backing down. I’m glad they haven’t signed some list either! Further, they have a proven track record of hearing from God and being accurate as to what He is saying to us and they haven’t had the need for some man-made list to say what the Lord is telling them to say. No, we are not putting man on a pedestal, but as the Bible teaches, we are to trust in them so that we can have success. And we’ll know that as we know God’s Word which gives us confirmation. Can you imagine the folks who probably thought Isaiah lost his marbles about a virgin conceiving and then it not happen for 700 years??? By the standards this council set, Isaiah was a false prophet. Yes, we know there are those that are false as the Bible teaches. However, true prophets are servants of the Lord–they’re not our servants, and to suggest they adhere to some man-made standard is unrealistic. It sounds a bit Pharisee/Sadducee/Sandhedrin like.

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