If there’s one thing we’ve learned about claims of charismatic prophecy since they were first made at Azusa Street in 1906, it’s that there are few things less accurate that someone foretelling the future at the supposed behest of God. Even meteorologists are more accurate than Prophet Voodoo peering into the Pentecostal crystal ball about what’s going to happen next week.
At Pulpit & Pen, I chronicled those prophecies in real-time for more than a decade. Every year, the 700 Club’s Pat Robertson trekked alone to a cabin to commune with God, and then made New Years predictions that were seldom if ever realized. It turns out, a tsunami did not hit the East Coast in 2006, a massive terrorist attack did not occur in 2007 that was “as bad as a nuclear weapon.” But his prophecies didn’t get better as he aged. He claimed three weeks prior to the 2020 election that God told him Trump would win reelection, and the fact-checkers would like to have a word with him.
In the early days of Covid-19, I burned out trying to catalogue all of the false prophecies of America’s charismatics. The world’s largest gathering of “prophetic faith healers” was canceled at the last second because of the coronavirus, which means they’re pretty bad at both prophecy and healing. The Bethel Supernatural School of Ministry canceled their faith-healing classes and became a “covid-outbreak hotspot,” apparently not seeing that coming. Shawn Bolz, then associated with Bethel, prophesied that the “tide was turning” on the KungFlu, but in fact it was just beginning. Others prophesied it would never come to America at all.
But beyond their ability to predict the future, or the lack thereof, the charismatic prophets have seemed altogether caught off guard by the closeted sin of their biggest leaders, from Todd Bentley to Michael Brown to Mike Bickel to…well, you name it. In fact, the track record for how bad their prophecies typically are, actually exceed the laws of probability. If anything, it appears that God consistently does the opposite of whatever it is the prophets prophesy, if for no other reason, to teach them a lesson.
When their prophecies are fulfilled, they’re vague (like when Robertson predicted in 2001 that “evil people are going to do evil things this year”) and therefore, worthless.
However, the Christian discernment community typically has no such ailment and predicts the future fairly well - as least as good at the Farmer's Almanac - which is an interesting thing considering we’re almost all cessationists. It urns out that real discernment is more accurate than false prophecy seven days a week.
IT’S NOT PROPHECY, IT’S DISCERNMENT
Several years ago, I went to Jim Bakker’s studio in Branson, and sat in the studio audience while he recorded his television show. The geriatric audience who had given him fortunes to live in his End Times retirement community gathered for what amounted to an infomercial for his long-term food storage and dined on survival pancakes dipped onto a griddle from a 5-gallon bucket while applauding his prophetic claims.
When he started to get prophetic in that episode, I reminded him of a number of his false prophecies related to the Shemitah, at which point his grandson leapt off the stage and escorted me out of the building. Not long after, the Missouri Attorney General took him to task for taking advantage of unsavvy consumers. But how did I know he was a crook in advance? It’s simple; he had already been convicted and imprisoned of tax crimes related to ripping off elderly people in a real estate scheme (the rape controversy you probably better remember was only ancillary to the tax and real estate fraud).
And yet, I received scores of emails and letters from around the country by those asking how I got the ‘word of knowledge’ that he was a scam artist. Discernment really isn’t that difficult, and it’s not always supernatural.
DISCERNMENT, NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL
Discernment is listed among the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, labeled there as “discerning of spirits.” Some would limit this to ascertaining who is demon possessed, or perhaps more generally who works for the devil, and who works for God. Contrary to the over abundance of caution exercised by the Hyper-Cessationists, this gift of the Holy Ghost is not an Apostolic Sign, which have ceased with the Apostles and the coming of the New Testament canon. The reason for this is plain; the list is not all-inclusive of Apostolic gifting, and includes gifts such as wisdom.
I reject the notion of Hyper-Cessationists that every supernatural spiritual gift is an Apostolic one. In fact, if the gift is not supernatural, it’s not a spiritual gift at all. Indeed, I believe that certain people are gifted by the Holy Ghost in unique ways (which is exactly what 1 Corinthians 12:8 says), to ascertain Satan’s henchmen. If you know someone like this, trust their judgment. And if that’s you, trust your gut.
But curiously, also like wisdom, discernment can be acquired and honed over time as a discipline. We know this because of Hebrews 5:12, which tell us to “train the powers of your discernment with constant practice, that you might be discern good from evil.”
The meaning of this is also clear. While Christians may not be supernaturally gifted in an area like wisdom, discernment, helps, or giving, they are neither absolved from having to practice them, nor incapable of becoming better at them. For example, giving is listed as a supernatural gift in Romans 12:8, and people with this gift enjoy financial sacrifice. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have to give our money, or that we can’t strive to do better. Discernment works similarly; it can be attuned, practiced, and improved.
POLEMICS SANTA
On the social media platform, X, I regularly chime in on conversations about a nefarious evangelical leader who people have only recently have figured out ‘works for the other team,’ and as my alter-ego “Polemics Santa,” begin dropping “memories from my bottomless bag,” which means I start tweeting a thread of screenshots from articles I’ve written over the years about whoever that nefarious leaders happens to be. In most cases, I’ve written about them five to ten years before.
The Populist Social Revival, which has radically changed evangelical engagement in social media, has made my piping-in considerably more popular than it used to be and I’ve enjoyed many new followers. Some have referred to my predictions as “eerie,” “spectral,” or “spooky,” and likened me to Nostradamas or worse yet, Alex Jones. But outside of a few instances (like my assertion Karen Swallow Prior practices witchcraft), there has been nothing supernatural about it. This is the power of observation, connecting dots, getting the big picture, piecing together narratives, and tracing the origins of things.
And so, it strikes me that many Christians are ill-equipped to engage in discernment - which is mandatory for the believer - because they’ve never been taught. Perhaps relegating futurism to the failed charismatic prophets and burned-out discernment ministers, they’ve never applied themselves to training their discernment as the Scripture tells them to.
But most likely, the reason for the dearth of discernment in evangelicalism is because until very recently, discernment has been a verboten taboo. Christians raising their spiritual eyebrows at fishy claims and suspicious actors have been too often reprimanded by their pastors or shamed by their peers. Thankfully, that’s largely changed because of the Populist Social Revival, and so Christians have a lot of catching up to to.
TEN TIPS TO PRACTICE DISCERNMENT
According to legend, John Knox once said that he had “to be about smoking out the devil’s foxes.” The expression from Knox might be apocryphal, but it referenced his ministerial ambition to separate true ministers from those dabbling in Papistry.
So here are ten tips for you to learn how to, without a supernatural gifting for discernment, still learn to practice it in natural ways to benefit you and the Christians around you.
Don’t listen to what they say they believe, but listen to who they promote.
The smartest charlatans will not come out openly with their beliefs, because it will stifle their influence. The ruse depends upon Bible-believing Christians trusting them. Instead, they will promote those who are more directly teaching their divergent heterodoxies. The Gospel Coalition are experts at this, and so is Albert Mohler. Mohler, for example, rails eloquently against Critical Theory, but promotes faculty that teach it very explicitly. Meanwhile, he remains the trusted source for conservative evangelicalism.
Rest assured that men don’t promote those with whom they theologically disagree. When you see a gaggle of heretics or race hustlers come from a place like Southern Seminary, with the full backing of the organization, you can be confident that’s not an oversight from someone as savvy as Mohler; that’s the gameplan.
Double-mindedness is an immediate give-away.
JD Greear is a good example of this. Several years ago, clips were released of Greear espousing textbook Critical Theory. In response, Greear immediately denounced Critical Theory. He wasn’t simply inarticulate. He was being two-faced.
Often times, the best scoundrels will produce books that are very on-point, but consistently undermine those points in social media. When called on it, they will point out what they said in a book, and argue that opinions expressed in books outweigh opinions made on X or Facebook. But the point is, they are being double-minded based upon the audience they have.
The Bible says that “a double-minded man is unstable in every way.” And then it tells us to “have nothing to do with him.” They will attempt to argue that the heretical or liberal thing they asserted over here, is outweighed by their repudiation of it over there. That’s illogical, and is a tell-tale sign of their compromise.
Connect the dots.
Ask yourself some basic questions. Are the worst and most obvious false teachers all coming out of the same seminary? Are they all part of the same organization? Do they all have membership in the same club?
Over the years, we’ve been able to smoke out some pretty sinister foxes merely by asking these questions. Who got David Platt appointed? Where did the Revoice guys attend seminary? Where did all the race-hustlers graduate from? Who mentored these heretics, or endorsed those ones?
Further, who’s funding them? From where do they get their money? Why are they giving that money? What do they give in return? For example, using this truth-seeking technique we’ve been able to triangulate some nefarious scalawags, such as when I uncovered that the common denominator in the Social Justice hotspots were tied to funding from James Riady, or that those on the wrong side of the illegal immigration issue were all taking funds from George Soros.
Trace the origins.
Jesus said that a bad tree doesn’t bear good fruit, and that a good tree doesn’t bear bad fruit. So when the SBC declared that Critical Theory was a “helpful analytical tool,” it was helpful to trace the origins of Critical Theory through Social Justice, back to Liberation and Black Liberation Theory, back to Rauschenbuschism, or to the Frankfurt School, and ultimately back to Karl Marx.
This is especially helpful when, for example, evaluating worship practices. Does this go back to Eastern Mysticism or the Bible? Does this go back to pagan tribal religion or historic Christianity? Good things come from God, and by doing a little historic work, you can ascertain fairly clearly whether or not something is from God or from Satan.
Trace the trajectory.
This is where a discernment blog or a Polemics Santa comes in helpful. Those who chronicle, catalogue, or curate positions held by public figures over a period of years or decades can help you piece together a teacher’s trajectory. Here’s a tip; good teachers teaching good doctrine rarely budge on their positions. However, a subversive ideologue or rogue agent starts out a conservative Christian but is clearly on a path, headed somewhere. They have a goal, and that goal isn’t steadfastness. Those with a trajectory at all, meaning that they’re clearly - over time - headed somewhere, are almost always someone trying to lead others astray.
Listen to the silence.
Listening to what people don’t say is often as good a learning experience as listening to what people do say. Are they silent when it comes to major issues? For example, whenever Trump advanced religious liberty or aided the unborn, Russell Moore was guilty of a deafening silence. Always quick to ‘attaboy’ President Obama at every opportunity, Moore couldn’t be bothered to ‘amen’ a good action taken by Donald Trump even when it should obviously have been favored by someone whose job it was to promote religious liberty and protect the unborn.
When the Dallas Statement came out, there was a deafening silence from Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan, and Mark Dever. Except, that is, the hissy fit thrown by Mohler at ShepCon, when Phil Johnson asked him to share his thoughts on Social Justice. Mohler was incensed that he was put on the spot, and asked to share his opinion on the subject.
Fakers and frauds are better at promoting lies than applauding truth. Why are they silent when they should be thankful? Or why are they not speaking up, when someone who supposedly holds their positions ordinarily would?
Detect the chameleon’s camouflage.
One of the worst theological chameleons in evangelicalism in the last 30 years has been Rick Warren. When speaking to Muslims, he promotes Chrislam. When speaking to Catholics, he referred to ‘our Pope.’ When speaking to the Southern Baptist Convention a few years ago, he asserted his orthodox position on women in ministry. When that turned out to be a lie, his chameleon colors changed, and he levied a heavy attack against the SBC, demonstrating that he had clearly been camouflaged.
When Paul said that he “had become all things to all people” he wasn’t referring to lying about his beliefs based upon what donor class he was preaching to. By the way, the most successful chameleons, like Russell Moore, will rarely if ever make remarks on-the-record at his events, preferring to keep off the cameras. Warren was probably a lesson for him, because Warren was camera-friendly enough that plenty of video existed of him changing his beliefs based off of audience; Moore has been far smarter than that.
But Moore is a fox that could be smoked out another way; for Moore, it was by comparing his strong stances on biblical issues (ranging from egalitarianism to gay marriage) prior to his installment at the ERLC, to afterward. While he was ladder-climbing in the SBC, he broadcast his supposedly sincere conservative views. But after he made it to the top of the SBC, those opinions all stopped being expressed. In his role at the ERLC he couldn’t risk saying he was suddenly for gay marriage, but it was enough for him to simply stop condemning it.
Weigh what they say off-the-cuff, equally to what they have planned to say.
Consider the conversation I’m having this very moment with Anthony Bradley on X. Condemning my thread about Ron Burns (also known as Thabiti Anyabwile) in which I posted a mountain of evidence that he’s a Black Nationalist that I’ve curated from a multitude of sources in his own words, Anthony is arguing that his published books are rather sound.
But published materials are put through numerous filters (editors, publishers, focus groups, boards of directors, etc). Rarely will they provide a more candid view into a person’s beliefs than what they provide on X or, if you have access, in the locker room.
This really helped us key in on Beth Moore over the years. Her published material was filtered by Lifeway. It went through theological review, so it was relatively sound. But her preaching had no such theological review, and was off-the-charts liberal and bat-crazy. One can find out what a politician really believes, for example, in a long form interview like those conducted by Joe Rogan, than in prepared remarks given in a speech or in 3 minutes of propaganda between commercial breaks in mainstream media.
Birds of a feather flock together.
It’s a beautiful thing for Christians to dwell in unity. I have many friends with whom I’m not theologically aligned, and some of whom I’m pretty sure are going to hell. But for the most part, you’ll find me fellowshipping with those who are like minded, because it’s easier to enjoy someone’s company when you don’t despise their belief system.
This is one of the oldest and best ways to determine whether or not someone is one of the devil’s foxes. If they are consistently seen (whether in person or in social media threads, at conferences, special events, etc) with those on the other side of the aisle, they are probably on the other side of the aisle themselves.
What do they use their credentials for?
The most successful subversive teachers will rack up for themselves “orthodox capital” by expressing sound theological views. But the question then must become, what are they using that capital to purchase? How are they using this authority received by the reputation of being a sound Bible teacher?
Michael Brown developed a reputation, thanks to James White and others, of being a serious Bible scholar and sincere and committed Christian thinker. But we could not overlook Brown using every spare ounce of that hard-earned capital to provide defense for the worst and most egregious false prophets in evangelicalism. Although his views might have been sound on most things, using his clout or credentials to support wild-eyed religious lunatics was our first sign that he worked for Satan.
Neil Shenvi is another prominent example of this. He can go into great detail regarding what’s wrong with regard to woke ideology or Critical Theory, but then uses his conservative credentials to counter-signal every good book that comes out about evangelical leftists. He uses his credentials for one solitary purpose; to undermine conservative reformers and defend woke teachers.
Those ten tips are just for starters. But please understand, there are many more. Over time, at Insight to Incite, I’ll share more. For now, work daily to exercise the power of your discernment with constant practice. You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll experience what it’s like to exercise the gift (or skill) for the glory of God.
Now go smoke out a fox.
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