GOD’S (false?) PROPHETS: KEEPING THE FAITH AND MOVING THE GOALPOSTS

This is the fifth post on God’s (false?) prophets.  Here are links to the first and most recent posts.

I’ve learned so much about the diversity of charismatic Christian practice over the past several months, observing those who boldly prophesied a second term for President Trump, declaring it as God’s will for America.  About two months ago, I encountered the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement, and today, while doing some online research, I discovered Independent Network Charismatic (INC) Christianity.  I shared some additional information about the NAR movement in a previous post.  Here is a 2017 article on INC Christianity from Christianity Today, and here is a January 2021 article.

The world of the NAR and INC Christianity is quite unsettled right now.  Something big was supposed to happen before President Biden was inaugurated; something that would have resulted in President Trump remaining as the president.  Nothing happened, other than what 99.9% of the U.S. population expected to happen – that is, President-elect Biden being inaugurated as the 46th president.  The 0.1% is scrambling right now for explanations and next steps.

Why do I say 0.1%?  Rough estimate.  My observation of those actively engaged with following the monetized YouTube prophets versus the entire U.S. population (330,000 divided by 330 million yields 0.1% - and for anyone challenged by percentages, that’s one-tenth of one percent).

I wasn’t certain what exactly to expect after President Biden was inaugurated, but I had some ideas.  I certainly expected some of the less profit-motivated YouTube prophets to reconsider the accuracy of their prophesies, apologize, and lead his/her followers to repent and refocus their attention on Christian practice (rather than on political ideology).  I also expected the more monetized YouTube prophets to recast the issue in some way, in an attempt to hold onto subscribers and viewers.  I was interested in seeing how viewers would react – if the chat feeds would change from strong support, to expressions of anger, and betrayal. 

The outcome:  The prophets are not acknowledging incorrect prophesies, but have simply moved the goalposts.  God’s timing does not necessarily align with man’s expectations, the prophets declare.  Keep the faith, pray for light to shine on the evil and lies which resulted in the stolen election, and God will restore President Trump to his rightful position soon, but we don’t know when.  So now, it’s a waiting game on God’s timing (which originally was November 3rd, then December 14th, then January 6th, then January 21st).  The majority of viewers are still very supportive, although there are many more people speaking up against the prophets, asserting they are false, or liars.  This is resulting in chat battles, with some of the prophets attempting to address the discord.  It reminds me of a scene in the movie Antman, where Antman is fighting Yellowjacket – a huge battle on a really small scale. 

It’s quite clear this is a hugely significant moment for the true believers in Christian American Nationalism and the Dominion theology (if you’re not familiar with Dominionism, here is an article link providing an excellent overview).

In my opinion, it’s a very sad sight to behold.  For the most part, these are genuine Christian believers, who love God, and love a particular concept and vision of the USA.  They’ve somehow become convinced that the fulfillment of the Great Commission requires political power, and many of them accuse anyone questioning their passionate desire for political power and devotion to President Trump as workers of Satan, and among their enemies.  The real issue here is that reality conflicts with their strong values and beliefs.  Psychology research has demonstrated repeatedly that people will reject reality in order to maintain beliefs and values.  Here’s a good summary article explaining how cognitive dissonance causes many people to deny reality, in order to preserve their beliefs.  My hope is that over time, some of these good people will realize that they don’t need to seize political power in the U.S. in order to participate in the Great Commission.  America can’t be saved, but individual people can be.  Click here for the next post in this series.