For the uninitiated, every year televangelist Pat Robertson has predictions dressed up as prophecy. He contends that the Lord speaks to him [in his heart presumably] and let’s him know about things for the future.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think that God can and sometimes does speak to people. He does this for His reasons. I must admit that I don’t think that God and Pat are on very good speaking terms.
Now I have made my predictions for 2009. Prescient or imbecilic, they are mine. Other than creating my weak little brain, God had nothing to do with it. The stupidity is my own. Pat is not satisfied with such personal prognostication so he often infuses them with the aura of a prophetic word. To Robertson’s ear, the Lord is a part time commodities trader.
“The Lord said the dollar is going to go down dramatically,” Robertson said in the interview. “If I’m hearing him right, gold will go to about $1900 dollars an ounce and oil to $300 a barrel.”
Does God really inspire his own to predict commodities futures? Now I am not saying that Pat is wrong, just presumtuous to claim this is from God. For instance, Pat says:
Socialist policies and massive government spending, Robertson told Meeuwsen, could lead to heavy hyperinflation, sending prices through the roof and the value of the dollar through the floor.
I have said as much in my predictions, but I think it would be rather uppity of me to claim God’s imprimatur.
It is one thing to make a fool of yourself with faulty predictions, quite another to smear God with your own stupidity. Pat has done just that in the past. In the past Robertson has predicted a massive attack on U.S. soil [2007], predicted that the Republican would retain congress [2006 – Ouch!], a tsunami to hit the U.S. in 2006, the stock market will surge this year [2005: Closed down 67 points for the year. And so on.
Do your predictions Pat, they are very entertaining even if mostly spectacularly wrong. Just stop claiming that God is telling you these things. It’s embarrassing.
January 5, 2009 at 3:44 am
I wonder if such predictions violate the Second Commandment.
January 5, 2009 at 6:49 am
Anonymous, Would you be referring to:
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image?” (The Protestant 2nd Commandment)
or
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain?” (The Catholic 2nd Commandment)
; )
January 5, 2009 at 9:04 am
Our parish bulletin today contained a timely piece.
An informed and balanced article on private revelations by Fr. Peter Joseph, vice-rector of Vianney College seminary, reads in part: “Catholics ought to be very cautious in giving credence to visions and messages before they have received approbation from the Church, as they may distract people from genuine private revelations; lead them into exercises not blessed as such by God; bring private revelations into complete disrepute; and worst of all, subtly lead some people out of the Church altogether.”
Later, Fr. Joseph says: “The Church… must avoid both credulity and unfounded skepticism. ‘Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything,…’ [1 Thess. 5:19-21].”
And elsewhere: “Many Catholics think that as soon as any prodigy occurs, it must be the work of God. But messages and prodigies can issue from three sources ultimately: God, man, or the devil. It is the work of discernment to identify who is at work in a given case.”
Mr. Robertson might do well to take a vow of silence.
January 5, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I and most other evangelicals have little use for Pat Robertson. I wonder if he is aware of the Old Testament commandment ordering death to any prophet who claims to speak for God and is wrong in his prophesy.
January 5, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I remember on the 700 Club, Pat said God told him George H.W. Bush would beat Bill Clinton in 1992. As Get Smart would say, “…missed it by that much.”
January 6, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Stuff and nonsense. And I’m referring to Pat Robertson, Evangelicals and anyone foolish enough to believe and follow either.