Among the leaders of the false prophets of MAGA are prosperity preacher Wayne T. Jackson, Che Ahn – Harvest International Ministries in Pasadena, CA, Bill Johnson – Bethel Church, Redding, CA, Chuck Pierce – Glory of Zion Ministries, Corinth, TX, Cindy Jacobs – General International, Red Oak, TX, Lou Engle – The Call in Colorado Springs, CO, Dutch Sheets – Dallas, TX, Paula White-Cain, Che Ahn, and Todd White.
Evangelicals are now saddled with the powerful influence of these false prophets such as Johnny Enlow, a 61-year-old, California-based Pentecostal pastor. Enlow, on January 29, 2021, “prophesied” Trump would return to the White House and he wasn’t talking in 2024.
Greg Locke, a Nashville pastor with a massive social media following, said after Trump’s loss that he would “100 percent remain president of the United States for another term.” Kat Kerr, a pink-haired preacher from Jacksonville, Florida, declared repeatedly last month that Trump had won the election “by a landslide” and that God had told her he would serve for eight years. In his video, Enlow went further. “There’s not going to be just Trump coming back,” he said. “There’s going to be at least two more Trumps that will be in office in some way.” Donald Trump, he proclaimed elsewhere, was “the primary government leader on Planet Earth.”
Not by any stretch of the imagination do this difference let evangelicals off the hook. They still have to be accountable for listening to and embracing the false prophets, for inviting wolves in sheep’s clothing to enter the sheepfold. Which is the greater evil: The false prophet speaking lies or the audience allowing the false prophet to be at home among them?
One doesn’t need to be a biblical scholar to recognize a false prophet. If the false prophets of America were baseball players, they would all be demoted to the minor leagues – to A ball – because they are batting less than .100.
A Biblical Warning for Evangelicals
Even among the charismatic prophets there have been warnings to not trust the message of false prophets. Jeremiah Johnson has repented of his predictions about Trump, for example. There is a movement among the independent charismatics to have some governance over the “prophets.”
Instead of addressing the false prophets themselves, I want to speak to my own people, the evangelicals, who are tempted by these fantastical prophecies.
I feel for my people, the evangelicals, as St. Paul felt for his people: “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh” (Romans 9:2 – 5).
I believe God has called me to speak to my people. Like Amos, I say to them, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a preacher, and a writer, and the Lord took me from my work, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people the evangelicals.”
After eight years of researching the relationship between evangelicals and Trump, you can explain the depth of my concern as my determination to offer an intelligent and informed rebuttal or you can accept my biblical understanding. I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!’ (Isaiah 6:8).
I know “I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5), but I cannot hold back the word I have received. If I do not speak, these words will burn a hole in my heart. I have been called of God to warn my people of the false prophets leading them astray. The prophets of MAGA are doing an appalling and horrible work in our midst. Their prophets prophesy falsely, and the preachers do as the prophets direct. God’s people “love to have it so” and they follow willingly and blindly, “but what will you do when the end comes?” (Jeremiah 5:30 – 31).
Look at the greed and untold wealth of the false prophets. Like the evil sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the false prophets are “scoundrels”; they take for themselves what they want (I Samuel 2:12 – 14). They are stealing from God’s people. They are making a mockery of God’s Word to evangelical faith. I beg you not to follow the prophets of prosperity who build great houses, purchase private jets, and take millions from the people. “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion.”
Jeremiah, a true prophet of God, tells us:
For from the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely. (Jeremiah 6:13 – 15).
Jeremiah’s warnings stack up to enlighten us. “They bend their tongues like bows; they have grown strong in the land for falsehood and not for truth, for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:3). “I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out, and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you” (Jeremiah 27:15). “Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes but have seen oracles for you that are false and misleading” (Lamentations 2:14)
The false prophets, as Ezekiel puts it, “have disheartened the righteous falsely” (Ezekiel 13:22). They have caused God’s people to think they are victims. They have taught them they are ignored and persecuted, trapped and besieged by an evil world, and have exhausted them with tales of gloom and doom. In desperation they turned to a man who is the incarnation of evil, Trump, and asked him to save them.
The prophets have lied to the people. They have told you not to be ashamed. They have preached that you are victims. They have insisted you are ignored and pushed aside.
As Elijah once offered the people of Israel a choice, I now offer my people, my fellow evangelicals, a choice: “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Trump, then follow him” (I Kings 18:21)
I will know your answer on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
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