Pat Robertson’s Latest Prediction of "Mass Killings"

Posted On
01/03/2007

Pat Robertson’s Latest Prediction of "Mass Killings"

I’m sitting in the Dallas airport watching CNN’s story on the latest “prophetic” revelations by Pat Robertson. Now I’m not going to argue his credibility as a religious leader at some level. There’s no question in my book that he was one of the important pioneers of religious television, and that Regent University is carving out an important place in academia. Plus, Operation Blessing pours millions into needy areas around the world in the form of humanitarian relief. So this isn’t about the ministry or his intentions. But it’s about the media and how his pronouncements look to the mainstream culture.

Sitting at the gate in Dallas I can see a visible sigh come over the faces of the people as the news reports the story. It’s a combination of awkward embarrassment (probably the Christians on the flight) and downright derision (probably the non-Christians).

The point is that even if he proves to be right about the “mass killings” (sometime after September 2007), all his previous prophetic utterances undermine this one. In the style of “calling wolf” one too many times, not a single person in this airport audience seems to be taking him seriously. If I judge from most facial expressions, they seem to think of him more as a mental patient.

The mass media has changed the world from the day of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness. Today, simply blurting out what you feel like God told you is the exact opposite way of being heard – and more importantly – of being taken seriously.

Sure I’ll get some hate mail from people who think the world hasn’t changed in 2,000 years. But the truth is, in a media driven culture, we need to understand and respect how people communicate, and just as Jesus tailored his messages for the audience of His time, we need to do the same.

The message here isn’t about “mass killings” as much as “mass media.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 4:54 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Stevan Speheger

Just yesterday as I was doing some research in a totally different area, I came upon a website dedicated to labeling Benny Hinn as a false prophet because some (actually many) of his predictions made in or about the year 2000 did not come to pass.

I'm not in a position to make judgments on Benny or Pat in this area, but I agree that we must be very careful we say, in essence, "Thus saith the Lord". If it later becomes obvious that the Lord didn't "saith", our credibility both inside and outside the kingdom is severly damaged.

I wonder if the old saying, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" might have some application here. These incidents have certainly refocused my attention on the incredible responsibility we assume when we dare to "speak for God" beyond simply quoting His written Word verbatum.
http://www.kingdomfirst.tv George Bakalov

Great article and comments!

Mr. Robertson is wrong. There will be no nuclear attack on the US. How do I know? Simply because if this was the case, God would have been revealing this to a lot more prophets who would be in agreement with what the Spirit is saying. In the New Testament the prophet always worked with an apostles and they all moved in teams. When Paul had a vision in Acts 16, he then says, "we" came to the conclusion God is calling us to go to Macedonia.

If this was a word from God on such a grand scale, there would be more than one person who was getting it. Pat is acting like an Old Testament prophet when it comes to predictions.

It's sad to see the Church is still so undiscerning when it comes to the things of God.

We should have mercy with Mr. Robertson, who knows what most of us would do in a position of influence like his.
http://childoftelevision.blogspot.com/ Tony Figueroa

I don't know what is worse the fact that Pat is selling a bag of magic Christian beans or that people are buying it.
J W Majors

Although not to be believed,I received a similar message in 12/06 that Pat received-and I am no fan of Robertson. In short,the Lord said: There will be a short period of peace-which I took to be several months-and then catastrophes would start. I believe several cities will be nuked b4 the end of this year,and this Nation will be in chaos. The Lord gave me opediah 4 to verify this prophecy. You can kiss New York goodbye.
http://myspace.com/americanmissionary Gregory Montella

Either you've taken this season's shows 24 and Heroes WAAAAAAAY too seriously, or someone needs to interrogate you.
J W Majors

Sorry you are wrong. I am a prophet and I received the same prophecy. You will see several cities nuked this year. And you will soon see a massive earthquake along the New Madrid faultline that will almost split this Nation in half. God is now going to move this wicked Nation from Judgment to destruction.
http://www.myspace.com/greggmontella Gregg Montella

I guess A LOT of people have been watching too much 24 and Heroes this year.

If you're right, and I'm still alive, by the end of this year, I'll contribute to your ministry for the rest of my life. (Unless you are implicated in the attacks and somehow in the earthquake, too.)

I just hope Jack Bauer finally gets the heck out of L.A. to save us all.
larry goodrie

I don't know how any one can believe in the bible. It is easy to write everything after the fact and then claim natural disasters are the work of god. the god of the bible who ordered that every man, woman, child, ass, foal every living thing be killed has to be off his rocker or mentally ill. Religion is nothing more than a tool to get people who have no will of their own to do the dirty work of some maniac god who commend his people to kill. Or in reality those who claim to be the personal messenger of god.
John Stableman

When 2007 began, Robertson predicted that 2007 would see a “horrific terrorist act on the United States that will result in "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 last January. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."Robertson said God told him that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September 2007.
It’s 2008—and unless I missed something, it didn’t happen.

His 2008 prediction is a bit “looser” –harder to pin point:

Robertson stated “that 2008 will be a year of violence worldwide and a recession in the United States, followed by a major stock-market crash by 2010,” he said Wednesday on the 700 Club. Perhaps Robertson should forgo this tradition in the future. It isn’t helping us in our fight to show the world that the church is relevant.
Brian Sinks

I agree with you Phil (as well as Stevan and Mary) when it comes to “open” prophetic words on many Christian programs. After last year’s negative media reaction to his annual prophetic words I was hoping (praying) Pat would put this year’s prophetic word in a letter to the partners of his ministry. Unfortunately he spoke them openly again this year on the public/cable airwaves where the immature find fear, the unspiritual misunderstand, and the un-Christian can easily mock. Maybe he thinks this is his open-door to be a witness in the public news media.

In all my studies and experience with prophecy – actually the gift of prophecy – I find the ones that ring true are not foretelling (fortunetelling) the future but are God giving us an immediate word “to edify, exhort, and comfort” (I Corinthians 14:3).
Royzoner

I agree Pat tends to go overboard, but I don’t agree that speaking prophetically is outdated and not for today’s audience, when there are some really great prophetic media-wise ministries out there (patricia king, cindy jacobs, john paul jackson, wendy alec).

As someone who has spent many a new year’s day hearing Pat’s yearly word from God, I would say that the news media tend to take his words out of context and in the wrong spirit. But lots of people do that with Jesus’ words too (not trying to compare the two).
Sue Ellen

Phil didn't say anything about the validity of prophecy. He was speaking about how it's done in a media-driven culture. I watched Pat's program, and believe me, the media didn't take him out of context. He may have been sincere, but as usual, he's set himself up for ridicule. Certainly the apostles were mocked, ridiculed, and even tortured. But it wasn't because they went about blurting out things innapropriately. They spoke to the audience of their time in an appropriate way, and we'd better learn how to do the same. I'm frankly tired of Christians who keep justifiying things like this as "Well, it's out of context" or "We're just being persecuted." Trust me – Christians in Iraq or Darfur know about persecution…and there's a difference between real persecution and stupidity.
Royzoner

Point taken. Modern day Christians are going through horrendous persecution, yes. But I never said Pat or Christians were being persecuted in this incident– just taken out of context.

For me it’s difficult to judge whether Pat was being inappropriate, coming from a culture where it’s normal for the church to get prophetic messages. The guy was giving a warning, and it was conditional. Maybe instead he could have done a stylish MTV segment on his latest word and expressed it in a way that a post post modern media-drenched culture could understand, or maybe he should have just kept quiet and only talked to donors/employees. But still he is free to speak out what he believes. The church can test it to see if it’s a real word, or dismiss it accordingly.

If you’ve ever spent some time watching TBN, or flip through any of the psychics airing all over the place, you’ll find there’s a lot more wacky predictions out there. Blessings.
Mack

No doubt Pat’s so called prophesy did exactly what it was suppose to – light up the phone and mail lines with pledges. He’s using the media for fundraising and done to perfection. He probably could care less what people say as long as the money keeps coming, and like Phil says he does do some good work with it. But please, that’s not prophesy folks, any more than me prophesying that after September it will rain – sometime. Is there anyone that really thinks we will not be attacked again? So those of us that do are all prophets.
Josh Ansley

I'm am terribly sad to hear of different Christian leaders uttering false prophesies. We see in the Bible how God would use various methods to communicate to his poeple and how those methods (Not God of course) would change over time from the Old Testament to the New. God has given us so many more and different ways to communicate his word to the world, specifically the written word and media. Until recently in terms of world history a majority of people could not read, but most can now, so a major means of learning more about God, particularly in western culture, is through reading. Now the media has erupted and God will use that as another way of communication. The time for standing on street corners and preaching is over. Just because we read about the apostles doing that 2000 years ago doesn't mean it is an effective mode today. They used what worked best for them at the time and so should we. I noticed a few comments saying that even though some leaders prophetic utterances never came to pass it is ok, they are still great leaders of the church. No they're not. In the Old Testament the one method for judging the authenticity of a prophet was, and still is logically speaking, to see if what they said actually occurred. If it did not than they were considered a false prophet. There really is no other way around it. It appears that we as Christians are always a step behind the cultural window and oppurtunity that God provides for us. This is our chance. God has given us this incredible oppurtunity to communicate through media. We ought not to pass it up. Seize it.
Mack

Well said Josh but lets not forget God does still use all the old methods at His pleasure. One example will be when the two “prophet” Witnesses of Rev. 11 will exercise their gifts with His true power and authority.
Phil

…but hopefully, the Biblical witnesses will have a more accurate track record than Pat…
Mack

Amen to that -God help us if they don't.
mike smith

Okay, I believe I understand your point about Pat's "poor presentation". Question: HOW should Pat have presented his views? What points would be better for Pat, or anyone, to follow in today's society?

Thank you.

Mike
Phil

Great question. First – understand that you can't just blurt out whatever you feel God tells you to a national TV audience. They won't get it. I had the same problem working with Oral Roberts many years ago. Brilliant guy, and I love him dearly, but he (like Pat) came from a generation that didn't understand public relations. So Oral would go on national television and just say what he felt God had revealed to him. As a result, he looked like a crazy person to a national, secular TV audience, and most of the time, even believers didn't get it. Think about it – Pat, Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, Swaggart, others in that generation – all don't really understand the language of the media. They build media empires from Christian support, but when it comes to speaking the language of the mainstream culture (the one we're actually supposed to be reaching), they don't get it.

We have to understand the audience we're speaking to. When we're in the media, it's not like talking to our family or even our congregation. There's plenty of things I will say to my family that I wouldn't share with millions of strangers on TV.

Second, make sure you get it right. Like Peter crying "Wolf" the mass media audience is very unforgiving. Miss your predictions a few times and you're considered a nut. So be very careful what, when, and how you say it, and make sure it's solid.

Third – get better advice. Pat built a university and a TV network. Somebody around there could give him better advice – if he'd listen. As ministry leaders, we have to stay open to people around us and listen to their counsel. I believe people around pastors and ministry leaders are anointed for their work just as much as the pastors and leaders themselves.

Finally – know the difference between a small group of confidants, and a mass media audience. As I mentioned before, you say it differently to different groups. It's not about hypocrisy – it's about being appropriate to the audience.

That's a start – it's 2am in Washington DC, and I just finished a conference. Any of you public relations experts out there, please jump in… :-)
AmeriKan, aka Phil

Phil, I know I am not your most favorite "contributor" but I have to give credit where credit is due. Your comments and points above were well received and conveyed in a thoughtful and professional manner that neither showed bias, for or against. Just facts interspersed with wisdom.

The flip side of this is, also, some of these men you mentioned were speaking and addressing a more private audience and somehow, somewhere the media got ahold of it and still broadcast it to the world. Seems the "walls have ears." What's a man/woman of God supposed to do…hide in a closet with sealed lips.? Jesus sat, openly, on a hillside and drew thousands for an audience. The religious forces went ballistic over what He said and then crucified Him.

Phil Cooke

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