Oct 11, 2004
False Prophets Quoting False Prophets
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of
God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
When I learned Oral Roberts had yet another prophetic vision he
was sharing with the rest of the world, I just shook my head and continued
on with the Lord's work. Because Roberts' message has been featured by
several Word of Faith preachers and a host of prophetic ministries, I
thought it would be wise for me to address this issue.
First, there is nothing special about Oral's so-called vision. He rambled on
about some type of doom eventually coming to America and how time is about
to run out. The following segment will give you a taste of what he had to say:
"Instantly I heard that voice and then I saw with my eyes something I'd
never seen. Suddenly, in the clouds in the skies above New York City and the
east part of the United States, and which hung there for quite some time and
then spread out across America, without touching the ground, and then God
defused it away from America and sent it out to the nations of the earth.
"I saw something coming down from above: Smoke and vapor and blood, or it
looked like that to my eyes, to my spiritual eyes. There it was hanging so
huge until it almost blotted out the sky. And then I heard God's voice. He
said, 'This is one of the signs of the end time because the world is not
ready for the Second Coming of my Son. My Church is not ready for the Second
Coming of my Son. The Jews, with whom I've had the covenant for thousands of
years, they're not ready for the Second Coming of my Son.The nations of the
earth are not ready for the Second Coming of my Son.' " -Oral Roberts
Second, I do not see why people are giving credibility to this man. Roberts
has a long history of predicting events that never come to pass. In fact,
his attempts at prognosticating have repeatedly led to disastrous results.
In 1983, Roberts claimed Jesus had appeared to him in person and
commissioned him to find a cure for cancer (Time, July 4, 1983). To date,
no cure has been found.
Roberts once had a special "word of wisdom" for Jamie Buckingham, who was
suffering from cancer. Roberts assured him that he would live to continue his
ministry. Within a year, Buckingham was dead.
In 1986, Roberts caused a huge uproar in the media when he announced
God would kill him if he didn't raise $8 million to fund medical
scholarships at Oral Roberts University. The money was raised in time to
save Oral's life, but the funds were never used for their intended purpose.
Within a year, the decision was made to close the medical school.
The Bible is very clear about what is required for someone to be a prophet.
If they make one single mistake, they're out of the club. We have completely lost
sight of the fact that death is the prescribed punishment of anyone who uses
God as a reference in a failed prediction.
"But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I
have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other
gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall
we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in
the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the
thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it
presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him" (Deut. 18:20-22).
Both Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland, false prophets in their own
rights, have featured Oral Roberts on their programs. I find it very
telling of our age to see how these men are joining forces to try to lend
one another respectability.
There is one prediction that Roberts and his fellow soothsayers can be given
credit for helping to fulfill. One of the most common signs of the end times
is the proliferation of false prophets.
"The Earth Was Filled With Violence"
I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I didn't wake up and
check the world headlines without being confronted with news of yet another
terror incident in some region of the world. I know generally it was around
the year 2000 that this cycle of using various forms of weaponry to kill
large groups of people become the thing to do.
Islamic extremists are now so closely connected to with the usage explosives,
I have to wonder if the Koran contains instructions on how to make a car
bombs.
Because violence was the main motivation for God's decision to destroy the
earth in the Great Flood, we should be mindful of how violent our generation
has become. Because man has greatly improved upon his killing methods, I
don't see why the Creator would not be more disturbed about the violence
occurring today.
"And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the
earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them
with the earth" (Gen. 6:13).
If the Lord had not promised never again to destroy the earth with water, Mt.
Everest would probably be beachfront property by now. However, man is not
safe from God's wrath. When Jesus described what the end times will be like,
He used Sodom as an example to show how the next deluge will be one of fire.
"But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone
from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when
the Son of man is revealed" (Lk. 17:29-30).
The desensitization process has caused us to lose touch with how violent our
generation has become. When a bomb kills many innocent people in Israel or
Iraq, the news channels no longer automatically break into their regular programming.
The need for radical groups to constantly top
themselves to maintain global media attention is one reason I believe we
will eventually see weapons of mass destruction used in terrorist attacks.
-- Todd
The Global Test
Presidential candidate US Sen. John Kerry spoke two totally divergent promises involving US foreign policy on defending America. Cochese, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, or any of the Indian chiefs would have said the senator was speaking with forked tongue -for that's exactly what he did. Today, we say that he spoke out of both sides of his mouth.
The moderator for Thursday, September 30, 2004 presidential debate between Kerry and President George W. Bush was Jim Lehrer of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He asked Kerry how he would handle any future threat to US security when it comes to preemptive action.
Kerry answered:
"The president always has the right, and always has had the right, for preemptive strike. That was a great doctrine throughout the Cold War. And it was always one of the things we argued about with respect to arms control.
"No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.
"But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.
"Here we have our own secretary of state who has had to apologize to the world for the presentation he made to the United Nations.
"I mean, we can remember when President Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with DeGaulle. And in the middle of the discussion, to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, he said, 'Here, let me show you the photos.' And DeGaulle waved them off and said, 'No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me.'"
Let's dissect Mr. Kerry's answer to the moderator's vitally important question. The senator's mannerisms were smooth, practiced, patrician. The se nse he made was pure political upside-down, forked-tongue babble.
Kerry, who has over the past 20 years in the Senate voted against almost every defense measure, first proclaimed: "No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America."
Then he -I cringe to have to employ the overly used political phrase, but I can't think of one better-flip-flopped, and said with his very next thought:
"But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."
The aspirant to the nation's highest office just told the American people that American presidents must never give any other authority the right to determine whether America preemptively strikes militarily in order to defend this nation. He says he would not, as president, give that right to any other entity.
But next he says that before we strike preemptively, America must first get permission of the global powers that be--the UN, I presume. We must pass a test-issued by the globalists, again, I presume.
Remember the time that elapsed while President Bush sought to build a coalition that would, he hoped, include France, Germany, Russia, etc.?
Remember when the UN resolutions passed, giving permission to remove Saddam Hussein? The nations of the world, and many within the American political establishment, nonetheless dug in like an anchor plowing the Atlantic's bottom, stalling, hem-hawing, slowing the process to an agonizing crawl.
It is physically impossible to implement, not just insane, for a president of the United States, in today's nuclear-tipped missile world, to propose a defense policy that would take preemptive action, while at the same time waiting interminably for the United Nations to get on board. Think of the way the UN is constituted. It is made up, in large part, of nations whose leaders themselves are tyrants, dictators and terrorists. How much success can be expected in trying to get them to join in to remove one of their own kind? An even better question is: Who needs them?
Alas! The world today is not a sane place to be.
God's prophetic Word clearly foretells that globalism is to be the ultimate outcome of all we see developing at present. The 18th and 19th chapters of Revelation report, in advance, the scope and the catastrophic end of the global system we can observe coming together all around us.
The humanistic effort to establish total control over Planet Earth, kicking God out in the process, will duplicate Nimrod's effort on the plains of Shinar as reported in Genesis, Chapter 11.
Sadly, the United States of America is headed toward Mr. Kerry's vision for the nation's future. The "global test" is coming. Bible prophecy foretells it!
The coming "global test," in the final analysis, is found in the following:
"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" (Rev. 13:16-17).
Antichrist is the world dictator who will give the test to find out who agrees with his global designs. Just as America's falling for agreeing to a global test today would be foolish, even tragic, those who fall for the future global test given by the last great dictator will be catastrophic.
There is another test that all must take. It is global, universal, the greatest of all tests. The one-question test was given by the Lord Jesus almost 2000 years ago, and the answer given has eternal consequences. The
question: "Whom say ye that I am?" (Matt. 16:15).
Make sure you answer this question God's way.
--Terry
