(CHARISMATIC) PROPHETS BEHAVING BADLY FOR 2008

FALSE PROPHETS AND A GEORGE BUSH OBSESSION

No one in their right minds or prophetic souls could or should declare that George Bush will this year be touched before the world to become God’s special instrument for moral change. However, by a supreme irony - itself a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts - just this kind of insanity has been endorsed by some people including by the very person and organization, Patricia King at eXtreme Prophetic
(http://www.extremeprophetic.com/)
who near the end of 2007 gave out the most serious warnings that 2008 would be a year of “the wheat and the tares”, of terrible spiritual deceptions, false prophecy and lying miracles. The latest “Burning Bush” (i.e Holy George Bush) declaration is accordingly so absurd it’s hilarious, though if one cares for prophecy at all, as I do, it’s almost tragic.

The latest Burning Bush nonsense, a reflection of the Religious Right’s Bush idolatry (which, thankfully is at last waning in some quarters), begins with a reportedly very gifted “prophetic worshipper”, Julie Meyer. You can see her (if you join Extreme Prophetic for free) shouting, pointing and half way to a Delphi Pythoness uttering repetitive phrases including about redemptive second born red headed English childen. The effect is almost more demonic - Patricia King diplomatically calls it “chilling” - than godly and it finally gives my would-be liberal self thoughts about why St Paul might have been so careful around people prophecying and anti-woman in his church arrangements! But Meyer’s main point is that “The Burning Bush”, George Bush, is going to be so overcome by God and while on the media as to become a tearful prophetic witness to the Lord and commit to changing America’s (admittedly particularly liberal) abortion laws to decree that life starts at conception.

While it’s most unlikely this event will occur because one must reckon almost anything imaginable does happen in America, just possibly something of the kind will arrive to shock us if we’re not beyond shock itself by now. What however needs to be stated, whether as regards such an event actually occurring or the mere idea that it could do so, is:

It would not and could not be of God. If it occurred it could only be part of a larger deception whose overall effect would be to turn more people away from God than towards God. It would contribute to the increasing enmity in the world to Christianity of which Bush is already seen as a poor and rather spoiled, hypocritical representative. (There is mounting evidence he rather cynically used the evangelical vote to get himself into power).

WHAT PROPHETS COULD IMAGINE GOD CHOSE GEORGE BUSH?

The case against God using George Bush in the way now forecast is surely overwhelming. God didn’t even use his “favourite” King David to build his temple because he was a man of war and George Bush is all of a man of war. Bush will not therefore be chosen to be a spokesperson to change American and world attitudes for preservation of the life of the unborn - but then the Bible has never had such a prophetic voice anyway. Without suggesting abortion is a good thing or denying that America has taken too many liberties with it so that some reform seems called for, the fact is that no absolute case can be made from either the Bible or church history for zero tolerance in the matter. Not even the Catholic church has consistently had the same degree of absolute notions regarding the onset of life. Some churches, like Hillary Clinton’s Methodist one, believe abortion can sometimes be right.

However, here I touch on beliefs some of which I have discussed at
http://rollanscensoredissuesblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/sense-and-nonsense-over-right-to-life.html
and for present purposes the point is minor against the simple fact that George Bush can be seen as someone completely against biblical/prophetic principles in his determined will to divide Israel and be remembered for it. Posters and protests in Israel from Jews and Christians alike have been set up to remind him of his singularly unbiblical, almost anti God position on this, one theoretically more likely to invoke divine displeasure than the divine blessing the (false) prophets see. It is with a treaty for a divided Israel Bush wishes to end his time in office making nonsense of so many deluded prophets’ ideas of his destiny and influence.

In connection with Bush’s Israel policy, and though I’m not quite sure how to rate and assess the following data that’s floating around the Net, there isn’t much doubt it provides an interesting list of disaster linked coincidences. I’m inquiring and sceptical enough, and also insufficiently versed in the history of recent US/ Israeli relations, to want to know if there were other occasions when the subject of division was taken up by both parties and the same disaster patterns weren’t so evident. Anyway, here is the list (compacted for this article) and scepticism in the face of it may be a bit reduced in light of what I have to add in the section that follows it.

THE ALLEGED ISRAEL/AMERICA DISASTER PATTERN
Over the past 16 years since 1991 when the Israeli-Arab peace train began at the Madrid Peace Conference to work on the idea of Israel trading Hebrew Land for Arab Peace, there has been a connection between whenever America pressures Israel at these meetings to give away its Land and natural disasters that follow immediately in the United States. This is the evidence since 1991 that pressuring Israel to give up Land results in immediate Judgement.
1. October 30, 1991 : The Madrid Conference opens with President Bush pushing Israel to consider " land for peace " ideas. As this conference begins, the perfect storm develops in the North Atlantic. This storm travels from east to west, creating the largest waves ever recorded in that region and crashes into the New England coast, causing much destruction.
2. August 23, 1992 : The Israeli-Arab Peace Talks move to Washington DC where Israel again is pressured to give up its Land to the Arabs. In Florida Hurricane Andrew forms, and hits South Florida in what becomes the worst natural disaster to ever hit America. Causing $30 billion in damage and leaving 180,000 people homeless.
3. January 16, 1994 : President Clinton meets with Syria's President Assad to discuss giving away the Israeli Golan Heights area. Within 72 hours, a powerful 6.9 earthquake hits Southern Californi, the 2nd most destructive disaster to hit America besides Hurricane Andrew
4. September 28, 1998 : America again in meetings with Israel produces plan for Israel to give up some West Bank Land. President Clinton meets with Yasser Arafat to complete this deal and discuss declaring a Palestinian Arab State on Israeli Land. At the same moment, Hurricane George slams into the US Gulf Coast with 110 mile winds, causing widespread destruction and damage
5. October 15-22, 1998 : As the Israeli PM and Arafat are meeting at the Maryland Wye River Plantation for ME talks on Israel giving away more of its Land Texas was hit with severe rain storms causing much destruction through-out the entire State
6. May 3, 1999 ; Yasser Arafat with President Clinton scheduled on this day in Washington DC to declare a Palestinian State on Israeli Land with Jerusalem as Capital. A Powerful Super Tornado system with winds at 316 mph sweeps across the American Mid-West hours before the Declaration was to be announced. This natural disaster postponed the announcement till later on in the year
7. October 11, 1999 : Jewish residents in 15 West Bank Israeli towns are evicted from their homes under an American/Israeli agreement. Next day a 7.1 earthquake hits the American Southwest in the fifth most powerful earthquake in the 20th Century
8. September 11, 2001 : At 11 am the American UN Ambassador was to present a final proposed agreement to the United Nations assembly for the establishment of a Palestinian State on Jewish Land. At 9 am on 9/11/01 terrorists attacked the Twin Towers in NYC, closing down the City and UN. The proposed agreement was never voted on
9. August 2005 : An American/Israeli Disengagement plan was put into effect-ripping 9,000 Israeli citizens away from their Jewish homes in the Gaza Strip. These Israelis were made both homeless and jobless because of this action. As these Israeli residents were being forced from their homes, Hurricane Katrina formed in the Atlantic ocean and hit the Gulf Coast of New Orleans. Killing 2,000 residents ,leaving great destruction and many homeless and jobless
10. May 1-4, 2007 : Sec. of State Rice is in the ME working on a planned November USA sponsored Peace Conference between Israel and the Arabs over Israel giving away the West Bank and Jerusalem to the Arabs. A huge destructive Tornado system hits the American Mid-Wes, causing billions in damage. Greensburg Kansas was 95% destroyed by one of the tornadoes described as a E-5 -the most power tornado possible
11. October 18, 2007 : in Israel, an American sponsored summit between Israeli and Arab Presidents working on plans to give away Jewish Land to the Arabs is underway. At the same time - in California very destructive wildfires start, destroying 518,000 acres of Land and burning down 3,000 homes and other buildings
12. November 27, 2007 : As a Land for Peace Conference sponsored by President Bush is held in Annapolis Maryland-attended by delegations from over 40 Countries, - the largest Flood in Washington State history hits causing massive storm damage. Also a huge Ice Storm hits Oklahoma ,causing the largest power outage in the State's history. FEMA declared disaster areas in four states- Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma and Kansas
13. January 3, 2008 : White House staff arrive in Israel to prepare for the planned Presidential visit to Israel on January 9-12, 2008 At the same time, a massive winter storm system hits the State of California, causing much destruction and damage. One million households lose power in the powerful winter storm. With Bush in Israel 9th/10th “rare” tornadoes for the time of year have struck the Mid West. Let me add the odd fact that Bush had arranged for lights to be put out over Old Jerusalem so he could see the sun rise over it from the King David Hotel. His desire for a good view was thwarted by a (rather prophetic?) view of fog!

THE LESS THAN CHRISTIAN BUSH FIRE
While I’m not keen to rush in to endorse the above with all the problems it presents regarding what constitutes “judgement” and how it might work, I am hardly able to deny something of the kind could indeed be involved because of points unavoidably made by me in previous articles on Israel, on Bush and on Hillary Clinton etc at
http://rollanscensoredissuesblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/accidental-revelations-israel-annapolis.html
http://rollanscensoredissuesblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/george-bush-hillary-clinton-and-2008.html
where I turned up the most extraordinary set of soul searching coincidences around the astrology of Bush. These included bizarre factors like asteroids Spirit, Christ and Lucifer conjuncting the President’s career relevant Saturn and in aspect to asteroid Lie, suggesting that he is somehow involved in wrong claims and policies yet can pass himself and his ideas off as godly when they are nothing of the sort. In short, Christian fans of Bush and prophets declaring him chosen seem distinctly lacking in “discernment” about who he is and what he represents. They are so for several reasons and those Christian prophets who have directly or indirectly encouraged Bush to enter Iraq were monumentally wrong, in short, false prophets. They just don’t want to realize and admit it.

I gather too there have always been a few prophets who have declared he shouldn’t go into Iraq (a policy he made to appear like a moral crusade when there were strong economic interests involved) and the greater threat was Iran, something which has subsequently proved true. The situation of the majority of Iraqi Christians (never too bad under Saddam) has been much worsened under the present government and no amount of representations to Bush has caused the plight of Christians in modern Iraq to receive attention. Just this week nine churches and monasteries in Iraq have been bombed and if they haven’t fled the country many Christians are living like displaced persons in their homeland How much of the Christian’s God was in all this?

How did the prophets ever get their “Burning Bush” ideas? It is perhaps pride that keeps them at it now in preference to admitting how mistaken they’ve been. And currently there are prophets barracking for Republican Mike Huckabee who is supposed to be like God’s new anointed to take over the Bush fire – by sending still more troops into Iraq which is what Huckabee has proposed thus emptying the national treasury still further while parts of America are becoming fit for the third world. But the good Christians of America must anachronistically go on supporting the party of the rich.

THE LESS THAN CHRISTIAN CHARISMATIC PROPHETS
As in the Old Testament the new charismatic groups in America appear to be pullulating with feel-good false prophets of the conference circuit as obsessed with prosperity as the biblical prophets weren’t and who tend to favour hawkish right wing policies. Some of them – and I don’t believe they’ll all willfully deceptive or ungifted – are nonetheless sitting ducks to be deceived, and misinterpreters of whatever they might receive or sense for the following reasons.

They seem to refuse to see that biblical prophecy is almost primarily about Israel which is a sort of world navel, the touchstone, the bellweather for anything prophets might declare more widely. Prophets have been overcome by an as-good-as heretical “replacement theology” which teaches that all prophecies about Israel are either now cancelled out or directly transferable to the church, a notion which gave the world infinite trouble in its catholic medieval form and now today gives rise to the more protestant, Religious Right Dominionist worldview radiating from America. The prophets also seem deaf and blind to the serious possible implications of the centuries old St Malachy’s Prophecy of the Popes if it proved true in our times and perhaps not too long ahead. I don’t say the prophecy has to prove true – though my last article gave some reasons to suppose it could do – but surely a true prophet would be inquiring into the matter or pronouncing on it?

Patricia King whom I have had occasion to criticize on various grounds before (see June archive on The Confused and Confusing Michael Glatze Story) to judge from her interview with Faisal Malik on The Political Spirit, in which she refers to believers “taking dominion”, is somewhat influenced by the Dominionist vision. This is an idea against plain scriptural sense and in its way, ironically for the fundamentalists promoting it, almost more liberal than conservative Christian in feeling. It holds that Christ returns less to an evil world than one handed over to him in a largely Christianized state with laws reflective of Christian and Biblical principles.

Given this theory the global Pentecost that otherwise many charismatics expect to precede any Second Advent and more fully fulfill the Joel prophecy cited at the first Pentecost, is thus diffused into and confused with some total movement to influence the world at all levels in part legally and politically. Prophetic figures like Lou Engel (who seem to imagine themselves “overcome” by God on certain legal issues as soon as a Bible falls open!) seek to banish abortion from America, or the world, as though like the oldest profession, it won’t continue to the end of the age and regardless of the fact that making it totally illegal could cause as much and more deaths and fuel every corruption. Not to say injustice. It is disgusting to hear of Christians in Latin America protesting against abortion for such as a traumatized raped 13 year old. Such people then dare to sell the idea their zero toleration policies are something to do with freedom under God. This is prophets behaving badly and seeking to control minds, persons and society.

PROPHETS AND THE REFUSED MAGIAN DIMENSION: AN “ABUNDANCE” FORECAST
Another set of blinkers I periodically protest and get criticized or ignored for is that charismatic prophecy and vision has no measure, no objective test for its oracles to be set against. This measure today could and should be not just the Bible with its fixed frame of references but the ever renewed heavens via the astrology that features in Jesus’ own story and which his contemporaries like the Essenes employed, unimpeded by modern fundamentalist notions that astrology is the “divination” the (itself supposedly transcended) Torah rejects. The Magi went by the stars but also by dreams. Vision and astrology ideally work together. I don’t say astrology has all the answers but it does have some and it can help supply some indications whether a prophet’s forecast is at all likely and at which times it would be most likely to manifest.

A good and timely example of how astrology’s absence from the charismatic worldview clouds it is how the “prophets” are currently trying to come to terms with the now alleged failure/delay of a widely touted forecast of the last few months about “abundance”, especially of major transfer of wealth to groups and individuals to help a variety of missions. People having “believed and not received”, the prophets like Cindy Jacobs and co now have to declare the devil is delaying or God testing etc etc. The celestial facts are these. The prophecy might actually be true. It’s anyway feasible. Why? Because the Pentecost chart for Christianity which works for the religion’s history to this day shows any abundance factor via former asteroid, now planet, Ceres, at 18 Libra. An eclipse of February makes fortunate trine to within less than one degree to this point. If there’s “abundance” coming to believers and church groups it should be during this year from next month onwards but perhaps not even beginning before, say, Ceres itself conjuncts the Pentecost sun during April. Forget the excuses and the rationalizations, if the prophecy is true at all, the answer is that the transfers weren’t even intended or possible before into 08.

No charismatic prophets shock me by now; it is only myself who stand to shock them. I can’t resist adding one stranger than strange incident of (apparent) prophetic/astrological agreement that makes my point almost too well. A couple of years ago I chanced to read some prophet’s alleged vision of the Rapture (anticipated for our times). It was said its centre of occurrence will be over Arabia. At the time this sounded quite ridiculous to me and it still sounds strange –one imagines any such event would need to occur anywhere and everywhere. Yet is it fluke or sensational oracular confirmation that not only does asteroid Arabia directly aspect both the endings cusp and the ruler of the endings for my working Pentecost chart for Christianity but this same ruler of the endings sector, Venus (itself the marriage symbol and the Rapture is the marriage) and ruling an air sign (finishing up in the air?!) runs across precisely Arabia? Oh St Paul, Oh charismatic prophets! “Behold I show you a mystery…….”

Whatever…. outside of these rather specialized areas of concerns I have vividly demonstrated how the heavens can and do “utter knowledge” (as the Psalm say they should) not least in the matter of Bush, religion and Israel.
http://rollanscensoredissuesblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/accidental-revelations-israel-annapolis.html
It is thus clear to me that the Dominionist illusion of some prophets is going to confuse and distract their followers from other events and issues on the horizon that should be more taking the attention of believers at this time.

But it’s almost useless to protest. A real difficulty with fundamentalists (if you aren’t one and have to deal with them) is that their treatment of scripture is quite as selective as any of the liberals they oppose so that you can hardly keep them to even their own literalism for purposes of logical argument. I have described Patricia King and some of her dubious views in one or two past articles, like The Confused and Confusing Michael Glatze Story
http://rollanscensoredissuesblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/confused-and-publicly-confusing-michael.html
and noted how despite her take on homosexuality and despite the line she therefore ought therefore to have from St Paul on how women should dress she presents herself most of the time in a style fit for a lesbian.

PERENNIAL FUNDAMENTALIST MIND BLOCKS
Some of the value of the widespread charismatic revolution is, or ought to be, that through it the Spirit can speak to the churches now, rather than through only the culture laden lens of that sola scriptura which Calvin believed could substitute for all miracles and visions of earlier times (surely an attitude redolent of that “despising prophecy” that the Bible itself condemns). It’s not a case of charismatics wanting or needing to overthrow scripture but being able to take its sense rather than necessarily its every letter. Yet – when it suits them - it’s the letter which is getting used by prophets to promote almost regressive or oppressive programmes rather than preparing people for the perhaps rather difficult immediate future. And they talk to much. The prophetic chatter into prophetic sites seems endless and almost overwhelming. If God has truly spoken it is nearly always more memorably direct.

What we have is the prophets behaving badly and if the American ones (they are mostly American!) persist in following Bush, then they are behaving almost madly as well.