“What Happened?”
With apologies to Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”. Since I made predictions about President Trump that have not come to pass, I need to address that. I have not delayed due to fear, but rather, working 51 of the last 54 days (I have a full time secular job). I will address my blog entries of 10/22/20, 10/26/20, 11/30/20 and 1/3/21, but first, some background: I had no idea that Donald Trump would run for, or become, President back in 2015 when he announced. I never followed him; I only knew of one comment he had made about his second wife. So, I was not in the camp of those prophets who predicted Donald Trump would win the first time, nor those who said he would definitely serve another four year term. I was fascinated that the “Fireman Prophet” and Dilbert’s creator, Scott Adams, had both predicted his first victory. I did find out, after the 2nd Election, that many, many, prophets had said that President Trump would win “in a landslide”, including Pat Robertson and the Fireman Prophet.
So, what did happen? In fact, President Trump did win in a landslide. There are documented facts, enough. Mike Lindell has documented, in a two hour video featuring dozens of computer forensic experts and witnesses, the “scientific” election data “proof” that millions of votes were changed in the voting machines, remotely, through the internet connections they had (which they were not supposed to have). The IP addresses show locations in 65 different countries accessing U.S. election sites in at least 7 states on November 3-4, 2020. When Sydney Powell filed her Supreme Court briefs she had 2,760 exhibits of fraud attached to just one of the two complaints. The fact that the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as every other Court, has turned a blind eye and would not even let the filed facts be looked into, was because the Judges, like all the election officials in the 6 contested states; as well as all the Democrat political operatives; and media owners; as well as the U.S. CIA, FBI, NSA and the State Department; did not want President Trump to win; thus, he was not allowed to win, and no one will be able to ever argue, successfully, that he did, at least for another two years; likely, never. So, I am not a “conspiracy theorist”; there is no “theory” here – it is documented fact there was a conspiracy of the highest magnitude in the history of the world, as 75 million voters, living under a republican form of Government, not a communist dictatorship, were disenfranchised, for the sake of the global elite, who are setting up a world government. So, when I “predicted”, not “prophesied” in my 10/22 blog that President Trump would win in landslide, I was correct, and so was everyone else who said that same thing, as, in fact President Trump was elected in a landslide.
My Predictions
When I stated, on 10/26, that I thought President Trump would prevail, in order to carry on the tradition of God’s government on the earth, because, if not, the foundations would be destroyed, and “what would the righteous do?”, my belief was wrong, and the foundations are being destroyed, and will be destroyed daily, and I’m not sure what the righteous are going to do.
When I stated, on 11/30, that I thought President Trump would be be vindicated by the Supreme Court by Christmas, I was wrong, but we did learn that, on December 23, President Trump was told of the proof of election fraud by Sydney Powell, Mike Flynn and Patrick Byrne in the White House, and they told him there was an Executive Action the President could have taken to require a new election in the 6 contested states; and that, on Christmas Eve, he was told by Maria Zack of Nations in Action, personally, that there had been an affidavit filed in an Italian court, by an Italian lawyer, that an employee of an Italian defense company had used a company computer to upload data to hack the computers in some contested states on the night of November 3rd, on the direct orders and pay from the CIA and the American Embassy in Rome. Maria Zack spent a half million of her own savings to prove it. These two instances occurred before Christmas and the President could have acted if he had wanted to, but he chose not to act upon the information presented to him.
Finally, when I stated, on 1/3/21, that I thought the President needed to be in the White House so the U.S. could be a place of refuge for Jewish people in the days of the rule of the antichrist, I believe that still will be the role of the U.S., irrespective of whether Donald Trump is President or not.
A Prophet’s True Role
So, do all the Prophets need to be stoned, since their predictions about President Trump did not come to pass? The role of a prophet is misconstrued. Both in the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) a prophet is “…one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation…one who prophesies edifies the church.” 1 Corinthians 14:3-4. Practically, what this means is that the prophet is supposed to hear what the Holy Spirit, out of all the thousands of words and examples in the Scriptures, is emphasizing for that moment of time, in order to bring edification, exhortation or consolation. This is summed up by Proverbs 15:23, “A man has joy in an apt answer, and how delightful is a timely word!” and Proverbs 25:11, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.” The one actual NT example of this is in Acts 13:1, “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas…”, and Acts 11:22-24, “…the church at Jerusalem…sent Barnabas off to Antioch. Then when he had come and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” Barnabas, whose name means “Son of Encouragement” (“Bar” means “son of” in Hebrew) was, according to Acts 13:1, recognized as a prophet. What did he do with his gift and calling? Did he predict the future? No, he encouraged the believers to stand fast in their faith, he likely spoke strongly to them; as well as pat them on the back.
The first mention of a prophet in the NT is Stephen who was also a “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit”, Acts 6:5, who was stoned by the Jews for asking them, “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and did not keep it.” Acts 7:52-53. Then, in Acts 21:9, it is said that “Philip, the evangelist… had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses; and finally “…a certain prophet named Agabus, came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul’s own belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, ‘This is what the Holy Spirit says: “In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.”‘” This last instance, which came to pass, is a prophet predicting the future as inspired by the Holy Spirit. Paul could easily have avoided this result by avoiding Jerusalem, but he decided to go anyway.
Old Testament Prophets, as Well
Surprisingly, the role of most prophets in the OT was also, as we saw above, one who prophesies, speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. This is seen in many OT Scriptures, but a few will suffice: In 2 Chronicles 20:2-3, “Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat [the King of Judah], saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea out of Aram…And Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord; and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 2 Chronicles 20:13-15, 17, “And all Judah was standing before the Lord, with their infants, their wives, and their children. Then in the midst of the assembly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel…of the sons of Asaph; and he said, ‘Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: thus says the Lord to you, “Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s…You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you.'”” The next day, “…Jehoshaphat stood and said, ‘Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.'” 2 Chronicles 20:20. The battle was won by Judah that day. Jahaziel was never mentioned in Scripture again; God used him that one time in a big way to encourage and exhort the believers.
Another series of outstanding examples of this kind of prophecy is in the books of Haggai and Zechariah. These two prophets, along with Malachi, were the last three prophets in the OT, and they arose after the return of the exiles from Babylon in 535 B.C. to rebuild the Temple upon the orders of Cyrus (see my Blog entry from 10/22/20). When they got to Jerusalem, they encountered opposition and their own laziness and inertia. As a consequence, after they had laid the cornerstone, they stopped building and concentrated on their own lives. God sent them Haggai, very specifically on September 1st, in the year 520 B.C., “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, ‘Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the Temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,’ says the Lord.” Haggai 1:7-8. “Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people showed reverence for the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people saying, ‘I am with you’, declares the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel…and the spirit of Joshua…and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God.” Haggai 1:12-14. Then, on October 21, 520 B.C. “…the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying…’But now take courage, Zerubbabel’, declares the Lord, ‘take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ says the Lord of Hosts. ‘As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!'” Haggai 2:1, 4-5.
And finally, on December 24, 520 B.C., “Then the word of the Lord came…to Haggai…saying, Speak to Zerubbabel…saying, ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth’…’On that day,’ declares the Lord of Hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 1:20, 23. Then, Zechariah prophesied on February 24, 519 B.C., “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?’…And the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts, If you will walk in My ways, and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here.'” Zechariah 3:1-2, 6-7. In these four prophesies, taken from a 6 month period in 520 – 519 B.C., we see the gift of a prophet being exercised for the dual role of encouragement and admonishment, not prediction, per se.
How to Test for a Prophet
With the rest of the OT prophets, from Samuel, through Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, etc. there is a combination of encouragement and admonishment; and outright predictions of all kinds, many of then related to the coming of Jesus as Messiah the first time, but many related to his coming again the second time, as yet unfulfilled. Prediction is difficult. It is thought that the penalty for a false prophecy was stoning; hence the title of this blog entry. However, our understanding of the concept of stoning prophets for predicting something that does not come to pass, is, in itself, false. There are two teachings that the Lord outlined for prophecy in the OT. In Deuteronomy 13:1-3, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”…”But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the the Lord your God…to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.” Deuteronomy 13:5. “So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Deuteronomy 13:10. So, the stoning has nothing at all to do with predicting something that did not come to pass; it has to do with using a completed prediction to lead believers away from the path of life.
The second place in Deuteronomy is Chapter 18:18-19, where it first is actually talking about Jesus: “‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.'” Continuing on, in Deuteronomy 18:20-22: “‘But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And you may say in your hearts, “How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?” When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.'” So, the second condition, in Deuteronomy 18:20, is consistent with Deuteronomy 13:5 when a prophet who tries to lead believers to follow other gods, must be stoned. However, the first condition, in Deuteronomy 18:20 says if the prophet speaks “presumptuously” in God’s name he must also be stoned. However, the definition in Deuteronomy 18:22 of presumptuous, in hindsight, is anything that the prophet has predicted that did not come to pass; but goes on to say you do not need to be afraid of that prophet. So, it is not clear, to me, whether an OT prophet who predicted something that did not come to pass, but was not enticing believers to follow other gods, could just be ignored, or should be stoned.
New Testament Prophets
The OT was not abrogated by the NT except in the manner of how our sins are cleansed before God; in the OT, animal sacrifices; in the NT, Jesus’ blood shed once for all, and for all time. Thus, the rules for prophets should still apply in the NT age. The prophets who declared that President Trump would win re-election in a landslide, including myself, were not being presumptuous, as President Trump did win in a landslide, as discussed previously. Query whether the prophets who said President Trump would serve another 4 years (myself not included) were being presumptuous, and must be stoned, or at the least ignored. It depends: The gift of prophetic inspiration has existed in the modern age, at least since the Holy Spirit was poured out on Agnes Ozman in Topeka, Kansas on January 1, 1901 and she spoke in tongues. I became a born again Christian in the fall of 1973. My Aunt Mary was the 2nd person “baptized in the Spirit” in Mankato, Minnesota. I was not baptized in the Spirit (a separate occurrence) until March of 1975, when my Uncle Ralph laid his hands on me and prayed for me. When I heard my first prophecy in the Mankato prayer meeting in in 1975, the Holy Spirit impressed on me that someday I would have the gift and do the same.
I gave my first, of five, prophecies in one night; prophesying over 5 different men in a men’s group meeting in St. Paul, in the fall of 1978. How did I get the gift? In Ephesians 4:7-12, it says, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.’ (Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ…” 1 Corinthians 12:4-11: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God, who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; and to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits…But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” And Hebrews 5:4, “And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.” But, nevertheless, in the constant tension found all through scripture, 1 Corinthians 12:31 says, “But earnestly desire the greater gifts”, and 1 Corinthians 14:1 states, “Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.”
My Experience
That is what I did when I saw that scripture; I desired earnestly to prophesy. But, I had to “step out” and give utterance with my voice to that which God put into my spirit. If not, I would never have prophesied, nor would have anyone else, in either the OT or NT. All work for God is done by faith, first. Thus, God said to Ezekiel: “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me.” Ezekiel 3:17. And Jeremiah 1:7, “But the Lord said to me ‘Do not say, “I am a youth,” because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.'” So, I had been giving words of the Lord since that night in 1978, but I only spoke them out if I was in a church that was amenable to them, and that has not been the case since 1989; so, I generally give one prophecy a year on New Year’s Eve in my own house to my own family (down to me and my wife). About 5 years ago, I started putting the gist of my word for the coming year in my annual Christmas letter. So, I am versed in prophecy, from the 11 years of my life when I routinely expressed the gift in a number of churches in Minnesota, and one in Virginia. My point is this: There are an estimated 571 million Pentecostal or Charismatic Christians in the world who speak in tongues and believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including prophecy. 35,000 are being added to this number daily. These statistics are from the online “Atlas of Pentecostalism”. So, this is not a passing fad, as the overall number represents 1/4 of all Christians and 1/13th of all persons on the planet. Of course “all do not prophesy”, but some do. So, those of us who do, know when we hear from the Holy Spirit, and when we don’t.
The following example is why Christians who are not prophets should not harshly judge, and shun, or refuse to listen to them, just because of those prophets who said President Trump would serve a second four year term. In April of 1982, when I was carrying two bags of groceries up the back steps of my house in St. Paul, on a sunny Saturday morning, the Holy Spirit, clear as a bell (not audibly) spoke to my spirit and said, “Someday you will be living in Washington D.C.” Once I heard it, it was like I had known it all my life, but before that moment, I had never even thought such a thought. I didn’t know anyone in D.C., or who had ever lived on the East Coast. I thought the vision would be fulfilled immediately. After I had tried, in 1985, to get a job in D.C. with a Senator, and two companies (all three interviews on the same day) and received rejection letters (all on the same day months later) I had given up on the vision. In 1986, after two firings in a span of 6 months, with our savings down to our last $8,000 and no reasonable prospects in the Twin Cities, while our family was driving to Fargo, my wife saw a car from Virginia (which is the only time it ever happened to me in Minnesota), and she said, “Why don’t you try to get a job in Virginia?” I said, “I won’t try again if I see 100 cars from Virginia!” But, having run out of options in Minnesota, I called a headhunter that I found in the Washington Post in the local library. Within 6 weeks I was in my car and off to Virginia (our house in Minnesota did not sell for another 9 months).
How to Approach the Future
So, I had heard from God clearly, after all; but, when it didn’t work out the way I thought it should (a “normal” job move), I thought I must have heard wrong; was embarrassed; was angry; it was my “flesh”; and then, it was God. But, the proof is in the pudding: I have worked at 3 jobs in Virginia over the last 35 years; was out of work only 9 months in that time; am still working at a high level job; we homeschooled and raised 4 children, all college graduates; and our savings went from $1,000, after we got here and bought a used Caravan in 1987, to enough money to safely retire when the time comes. So, God wanted me here – why – I don’t know, but He did, so we stayed. Maybe we are here as salt and light to preserve Washington D. C. from destruction (think of the “ten righteous” that would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah), Genesis 18:32 (there are 8 of here now).
Donald Trump may still serve another 4 years as President. Time will tell. But the prophets who heard from God, and some did, not presumptuously, according to their own testimony, heard what they heard, had the courage to speak out, and they are not to be maligned by those who do not have the gift of hearing from God, since it is one of the highest “gifts given to men” after apostles; so, no, none of the prophets must be stoned.