On the 20th of October 2020, veteran televangelist Pat Robertson made a bold prophecy declaring that God had spoken to him during a prayer time with the Lord.
Robertson proclaimed that “without question,” Donald Trump would win the 2020 Presidential Election. Not only that, Trump’s successful re-election would usher in an era of civil unrest, assassination attempts, world war, and ultimately, the “End Times.”
You can watch Pat Robertson’s prophecy here:
Robertson’s prophecy was as audacious as it was wrong.
None of that happened… obviously.
Trump didn’t win, no one tried to assassinate him, and World War 3 hasn’t started (yet). Sure, there was a little bit of civil unrest, but well… that was kinda Trump’s doing, ironically enough.
Yet, apparently, Robertson heard all this directly from God.
So what happened? Did God get it wrong? Or is this just another example of a Christian recklessly evoking the name of God to perpetuate an idea that probably originated in their own head? Or dare, I say it… to push a particular agenda.
The problem with saying, “God told me…”
Whenever I hear a Christian say something like, “God told me to tell you…” or “God has given me a message,” or “God showed me this….” I immediately assume a defensive position. In fact, I think it’s safest to do so. Why? Because there are some inherent problems with prefacing anything you say by evoking the name of God. Let me explain the potential dangers:
It can be used to add weight to our personal opinion
If someone convinces me that they have a message from God for me, then even if I find that message at odds with what I believe, how can I argue? After all… this is a message from God! Either accidentally or by design, certain people will add weight to their personal opinions by prefacing them with, “God told me to tell you…” so that the matter is not up for discussion.
It is open to abuse by those in positions of power
I am particularly at risk if the person delivering the message is someone who carries a position of leadership or responsibility in the church. Perhaps I might silence the voices of doubt in my own head based on the idea that: “This person must know what they are talking about since they are a leader in the church and have an — apparently — more sophisticated knowledge of the Bible than me.” Subsequently, the phrase: “God told me to tell you…” is very much open to abuse by those in positions of power.
Televangelists included.
It can be used to avoid scrutiny
On the other hand, I can use the line, “God told me to do it,” as a way of avoiding scrutiny. I might make a decision that, on the surface, looks completely unethical, unbiblical, and at odds with the loving and compassionate nature of God, but if I play the “God-told-me-to-do-it” card, then how can anyone argue with that?
I know of a pastor who left his wife for a younger woman, and both he and his mistress believed that their extra-marital affair was God’s will for their lives. If you’re going to participate in an act of blatant unfaithfulness towards the woman to whom you made a vow of lifelong commitment before God, at least have the decency to recognize that your actions are contrary to the nature of our faithful God and, thus, they are probably not his idea, but yours.
I get it. Divorces happen, but it’s not God’s idea.
There is a particular type of Christian that believes that all of life is supposed to be one glorious victory after another. They believe that if you are a good person, then everything should go well for you. Blessings and prosperity automatically follow Christians because they are God’s favorites.
These types of believers cannot handle the fact that pain, suffering, disease, and loss are actually part of the human experience, affecting the good and the bad indiscriminately in unequal measure. The idea that maybe — just maybe — suffering has a redemptive purpose is preposterous to those who subscribe to this way of thinking.
For those who believe that following a savior who suffered more than anyone else would somehow lead to an easy life, the only response to pain and suffering is to deny, explain away, and suppress: “God told me it’s all going to be over soon, and it’s all going to work out fine!”
Sound familiar? Yet, this kind of approach belies the reality of life.
It can cause people to become stuck
I know of a man who was told by another member of his church, “God told me to tell you that one day you will preach to the nations.” What an overwhelming prophecy! Well, the man took this message to heart and has since been waiting for his big opportunity. He literally put his life on hold to prepare himself for the day when he would preach to the nations. It was almost as if he were expecting that one day, he might receive a phone call:
“Hello, this is the nations. We were wondering if you might come and speak to us all.”
It’s not going to happen. What was supposed to be a promise of great things to come has, inadvertently, become the very thing that has prevented this man from doing anything great at all.
God rarely seems to disagree with us
How often do you hear someone say: “God told me to sell my possessions and give to the poor,”“God told me that I ought to judge people less,” or even, “God told me to inconvenience myself for the benefit of someone else?”
Rarely.
It is much more common for me to hear things like: “God says that he has great plans for me,” or “God told me you’re going to do this great thing.”
It is amazing how God always seems to speak to our egos — our personal quest for significance, power, and greatness, rather than inviting us to humility, surrender, and simplicity. Equally amazing is how often God supposedly tells us things that are exactly what we want to hear anyway.
Let me level with you. If your God never disagrees with you, challenges you, or tells you things you don’t like to hear, then it is possible that the ‘god’ you follow is nothing more than a construct in your own head. If your God thinks like you, acts like you, and only tells you to do things you’d like to do anyway, then your God might actually be looking at you in the mirror.
If you’re wrong, it makes both you and God look stupid
The problem with making a statement prefaced by the suggestion that you are speaking the very words of God is that if you end up being wrong, you look a little bit silly.
Like Pat Robertson.
Worse than that, you only serve to discredit God, adding fuel to the fire of those who mock Christianity as a farce. Christianity is already suffering enough of a credibility crisis without you making claims that God is speaking to you, only to have the passage of time reveal that your claims were nothing more than your own thoughts and ideas.
A Biblical approach to those who make false claims in the name of God:
In the Bible, if a person told others, “God has given me a message,” the people would test if that message was actually from God by simply waiting to see if that prophecy came true or not.
If the predicted event did not occur, the person who was wrongly presumed to be speaking for God was considered a false prophet and was actually put to death. Don’t believe me? Here’s a little snippet from the Bible:
“A prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death. You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.”
Consequently, back in those days, people were a little bit more cautious before they used the name of God to propagate their own agendas, ideas, and opinions. Basically, a person had to be completely and totally certain that their message was, in fact, a real message from God before they dared utter it because their life depended on it.
Now, I’m not suggesting for one second that we kill anyone who falsely declares that they have a message from God. But, put it this way: If Pat Robertson were around in Old Testament days, he’d be in a spot of bother right now.
What do you do if you think God is saying something to you?
To anyone who believes that they may have received a message from God, I have some simple advice:
Before you go telling anyone and everyone, wait. Just wait. Sit with it for a while because often, the fullness of time reveals whether or not your revelation is really from God.
The other thing to consider is this: Do you really need to utter the words, “God told me?” Is there any harm in avoiding that phrase even if you believe it? By leaving it out, you permit others to use their God-given mind to consider your message without the divine weight you might place on it.
As for me, I believe that God can speak to people. Absolutely! He would be a fairly impotent God if that were not possible. However, I will never recklessly espouse my own views and beliefs as if they were the word of God. I am far too prone to get it wrong!