Michael Brown, chief enabler of all that is theologically weird and always eager to platform, promote, and advance every crazy-as-a-rat-in-a-coffee-can charismatic leader not named Todd Bentley, has shared some thoughts with us regarding coronavirus prophecies.
Titled This is a Great Time to Test Contemporary Prophetic Words, the purpose of the post is to say that two charismatic rockstar prophets of God have made some prophecies about Covid 19 and that we should test them. He suggests if they are not found wanting, then we ought to acquiesce to the evidence and rethink our distaste and abhorring for these holy, “thus sayeth the Lord” prophetic utterances. If they are, then perhaps they will.
What are the specifics of the prophecies and prophets he wants us to consider? Let’s review them.
The first is Chuck Pierce, who might as well be considered twice the son of hell for all the blasphemy he espouses, allegedly had a “word” in September 2019. He references this prophecy in a blog on March 12 when he wrote:
During that Head of the Year 5780 gathering on September 26-29, 2019, I began to prophesy that the nations would come into turmoil until Passover. (April 8-16) At Starting the Year Off Right 2020, God was saying that there would be a massive plague-like invasion that would test us through Passover.
That’s it. That’s the extent of the alleged prophecy that Brown wants us to judge. We don’t have any video from September, so let’s go with what he gave us. In the video that Brown references, Pastor Jimmy Owen adds more to the prophecy, saying “Chuck also said he believed there would be a massive redistribution of wealth that would take place during this time.” He points to the fact that when the Israelites were leaving the Land of Egypt, they also received great wealth from the Egyptians, suggesting the wealth is increased, not decreased. This doesn’t really follow the narrative of massive stock crashes, housing bubbles being burst, a two trillion dollar bailout and an insane spike in unemployment and layoffs, but we digress.
Still. The first thing that should strike you about the prophecy is that…it’s more than a little vague. “Great turmoil until Passover”? Isn’t there always great turmoil everywhere every day of the year all over the world? You can apply that to anything. It’s vague to the point of meaning nothing. It’s a nothing statement. We have no reason to believe that means anything, any more than a mentalist will ask a woman he pulls from the audience “I’m sensing that you have or had body pain..maybe in your legs or back, or neck….back? Lower back? Yes…I can sense that…” If that’s something we should be impressed with…we’re not.
What’s the other part of this prophecy? “God was saying that there would be a massive plague-like invasion that would test us through Passover.”
So? The emphasis is on the “invasion” not on the plague-like nature of it. Second, what does “plague-like” mean? What does this have to do with China or Wuhan or the coronavirus? Charismatics make their prophecies vague so that they can easily pivot. You could turn that into a hundred different things if pressed. It’s so thin it might as well be a fortune cookie for all the depth and specificity it has.
Heck, you can find see more accurate and insightful predictions in the horoscope section at the back of a teen vogue magazine. You have a more relevant reading from Crazy Linda’s Astrology Readings and Elixir Shoppe than you do this tiny blurb.
This prophecy is not objective evidence, which is the main issue with this whole article. Michael Brown seemingly does not understand what EVIDENCE is. Earlier in the article, when talking to an unconvinced critic, Brown points to two streams of evidence for the prophetic- The first is his friend having a prophetic word from Jesus who told him that Trump would win the election and become president back in 2016. The second is that 20 years ago he had a prophetic dream that he would one day meet with princes, and later met with Prince Andrew. When his doubting friend remained unmoved by these smoking guns of prophetic substantiation, Brown harrumphs
So much for fruitful dialogue. So much for responding dispassionately to evidence. Thankfully, most Christians would take a more objective look at the evidence, perhaps even reevaluating their understanding of Scripture if given sufficient reason.
That’s not evidence, though. In what world is that evidence that these people are downloading fresh, prophetic prophecies from God? I suppose it’s evidence in the same way that winning a coin flip is evidence that one is clairvoyant. Also, how is “I had a vague dream from the Lord about this, that or the other thing” an objective standard that we can measure? Why should I believe Brown even had a dream about meeting a prince? Because he says so? A lot of people say a lot of things.
For example, we at Pulpit & Pen broke quarantine protocols to take a stroll down to the well-curated Museum of Idolatry, where we found an exhibit from four years ago where the very same Chuck Pierce falsely prophesied that there would be intifada in France (think military-like uprising by Muslims) by the end of that year and that the Jews ought to be ready to go into hiding.
Clearly, it did not come to pass, and it’s simply another line-item on a long list of failed prophecies. Unlike his plague-like invasion one, it actually has some depth and details, and it’s utterly and completely wrong.
But here is another salient question: who says Chuck Pierce even gave this prophecy in the first place? Who’s to say he’s not making it up after the fact? As we wrote in another article:
Chuck Pierce’s first “prophecy” isn’t on the website for that event, Head of the Year 5780, even though all the video seems posted. Weird, right? Additionally, his “prophecy” isn’t present on the January conference website for Starting the Year Off Right 2020. Again, super weird, right? Even though Pierce referenced these prophecies in his blog post four days ago, he does not link them or provide audio or video. Weird, again?
That’s the thing about this sort of evidence that Brown accepts- you can say you prophesied whatever you want, and there is no way to back it up or prove that you didn’t.
And what about the other guy? Tracy Cooke whom Brown points to as prophesying about the coronavirus? Again, there is no video or audio of Cooke prophesying this back when it happened, months ago in Honduras, but rather he retells after all these events have already played out. So here is the prophecy that Cooke claims he had.
The Lord gave me a two hour dream and showed me the corruption that’s in the government of China, the corruption that’s in the United States, so many- even about Russia and on and on, and the Lord took me into this scientific lab and I saw them creating this virus…and they’re going to use it to vaccine…to…uh…try to stop life from living, and they’re going to do it through some type of machine I saw it in the dream, and it shooting into the air and then rubbing on people’s clothing and it was just spreading. But the good news of it is we’re going to come to the first stages of this in April 15 and 16 during passover season, that the blood’s going to be applied and every time the blood is applied the plague passed over. So the blood of Jesus, the blood of Yeshua is going to cause the (ram it)? to come alive.
In the rest of the video, Cooke states that as of April 15-16, Passover, that the virus will come down and “diminish” and also claims God showed him Donald Trump is going to be re-elected, so long as Trump follows secret instructions from God that will be given to him privately, by May 21 and the first week of June, as well as engages in some grade B bible twisting of Amos 3. In fact, both him and Pastor Jimmy grotesquely molest the scriptures with their abuse of Amos right before they give their alleged prophecy. It doesn’t give us a lot of confidence that God is speaking to them through dreams and visions when they can’t even understand what he’s saying in the text right in front of them.
But while this prophecy is certainly more specific than Pierce’s, it does little to engender credibility. Not only must we believe he prophesied about coronavirus, but that the virus itself was created in a Chinese lab by Chinese scientists, and that they created some type of machine to purposefully shoot the virus into the air and kill tens of thousands of their own citizens and bring the world to a halt. These are all part of the prophecy, and therefore must all be true. And again, who says he even had this dream? Prove it.
Interestingly enough, back in January of 2020, in a clip that does not age well, arch-heretic Michael Brown’s bestie Sid Roth uploaded an hour-long video where he has 20 prophets give 20 prophecies for 2020, one which was Tracy Cooke. Captioned “By hearing what these prophets have to say, you can be in tune with God’s plans! You can know what to expect and how to prepare. I don’t know about you, but if I had the option to know what God wants to accomplish in the next year, I’m going to hear what He has to say!” Featuring David Herzog, Patricia King, Hank Kunneman, Clarice Fluitt, Kynan Bridges, Joan Hunter, James Goll, Katherine Ruonala, Jeremiah Johnson, Hakeem Collins, Perry Stone, Kevin Zadai, Ana Werner, Mario Murillo, David Hernandez, Cindy Jacobs, Tracy Cooke, Lana Vawser, Larry Sparks, and Glenda Jackson, you might think these prophetic giants might have some insight into this.
Nope. None of these men or women – not a single one – prophesied that coronavirus was coming. No, not one. “Like a parade of fortune-telling soothsayers and crystal ball-gazing seers, a multitudinous flood of charismatic prophets issued declarations about what would be coming in the year 2020. And on our horizon is the most significant health crisis of the last hundred years. Coronavirus will change, and already has changed the world. Economies are collapsing. Entire industries are going under. Whole markets are faltering. People are panicking. Grocery stores are bare.
And yet not one, not a single one, of these prophets saw it coming. You’ll forgive us if we don’t take it seriously.”
Michael Brown lifts up these two men’s prophecies as possibly words from God and finishes with:
If these words come to pass, then skeptics and mockers should take notice while Christians who do not believe in prophecy today should rethink their views and look at the Scriptures afresh.
If these words do not come to pass, those of us who do believe in prophecy today should ask some serious questions, including how we deal with inaccurate or false prophecies in our midst. (And yes, the skeptics and mockers will have more fuel for their fire while non-charismatic Christians will challenge us to rethink our views.)
We like how the consequence for declaring a false prophecy in the charismatic world is barely a slap on the wrist and should result in “asking some serious questions.” Giving a false prophecy is really no big deal- Mike Bickle famously considered a 65% prophetic accuracy rate to be a ‘good prophet. But we know that the biblical standard for a prophethood isn’t who is the most accurate, but rather perfection.
But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. Deut 18:20-22
Lastly, isn’t it telling that these two pitiful prophecies are the most convincing statements that these charismatic ne’er-do-wells have as evidence that show their sort of prophecies really are legit and happening today? Pointing to these some sad, unconvincing prophetic words which could kinda, sorta relate back to COVID-19 in some manner, meanwhile all their prophets were prohesying health and wealth and a bunch of other buzzwords for 2020, and none of it came true.
Michael Brown, this is not evidence. This is not objective. When you say “If these words do not come to pass, those of us who do believe in prophecy today should ask some serious questions, including how we deal with inaccurate or false prophecies in our midst…” You missed the boat.
Why are you only asking questions now? What in the hell kind of If-Then statement is that? The christian landscape is littered with the stinking refuse of false prophecies. The charismatic church is a third-world river where the bloated bellies of dead fish rot in the hot sun due to the poisonous false prophecies that pollute the water.
You should have been asking years ago. Decades ago. Almost all of the charismatic people you associate with and whom you platform and vouch for as godly men and women have given false prophecies for decades. Where were your “serious questions” then? Why do you need this coronavirus thing as a precursor to you asking questions and dealing with false inaccuracies in your midst? You’ve had inaccurate and false prophecies in your midst for as long as this Frankenstein’s monster has been alive- this walking corpse of contradiction made up of false prophets, false words from the Lord, false miracles, and false teachers stitched together by some madman’s design to create the most wretched and pitiful of creatures.
May God save everyone from the thing that is the charismatic church.
