(UPDATE: Make sure you go listen to what Adam says! Well done!)
But that was a long, long time ago. I never really cared for his television program (it simply wasn't my style), but I was aware that his ministry had a lot of good and helpful outreaches. I've said he needs to get off the air before, and now I'm saying he MUST get off the air! He is destroying (has destroyed) his mission and his reputation:
Evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday that God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would cause a "mass killing" late in 2007."I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
"The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."
Robertson said God told him about the impending tragedy during a recent prayer retreat.
God also said, he claims, that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.
He is enabling the world to hold up Christ for mockery - and not for good reason. I don't know why Mr. Robertson is so enamored of making these false prophecies, but he has got to stop! The Word of God is very clear about God's displeasure when this happens:
"I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!' How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal." The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream;
And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the LORD.
"Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD,
"And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who steal My words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who use their tongues and say, 'He says.' Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," says the LORD, "and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all," says the LORD.
"So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, 'What is the oracle of the LORD?' you shall then say to them, 'What oracle?' I will even forsake you," says the LORD. "And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, 'The oracle of the LORD!' I will even punish that man and his house. Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, 'What has the LORD answered?' and, 'What has the LORD spoken?' And the oracle of the LORD you shall mention no more. For every man's word will be his oracle, for you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. Thus you shall say to the prophet, 'What has the LORD answered you?' and, 'What has the LORD spoken?' But since you say, 'The oracle of the LORD!' therefore thus says the LORD: 'Because you say this word, "The oracle of the LORD!" and I have sent to you, saying, "Do not say, 'The oracle of the LORD!'" therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.'"
Teachers and prophets are held to a higher standard, biblically, than lay people because of their influence and authority. They must be extremely diligent to "rightly divide the word of truth." In Old Testament times, a prophet had to be 100% accurate, no exceptions, as proof that they had indeed spoken God's words, and the consequences for inaccuracy were... dire. In James' epistle, he writes:
My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. [emphasis mine]
Pat Robertson may accidentally have said something that will happen in 2007... But because of his previous lack of accuracy, he has already proven that his prophecies are not from God. He has damaged his reputation beyond salvaging, and he needs to leave the ministry and remind himself just Who exactly is God... and who isn't.
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