Pat Robertson Speaks...Again

Yes, once again Pat Robertson speaks. ("Preacher: God told him about storms, tsunami", MSNBC News) Every time I see the headlines claiming that he heard from God, I cringe. It is just further embarrassment for evangelicals. While many are trying to intelligibly refute the claims of the "Da Vinci Code", Robertson makes claims that defy any notion that Christians can have anything intelligent to say or to use sound judgement.

Pat claims that “God told him storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year.” Now meteorologists have been saying that this is going to be another active year for hurricanes, so any “prophecy” of bad storms would not be anything that we would not already suspect. The chances that a bad storm would hit the coastal area are quite high. Scientists are also saying that these bad seasons tend to run in cycles spanning several years and that we are apparently in one of those cycles. According to Pat, there is a “possibility” of a tsunami hitting the coastline. The key word there is "possibility". There is always a possibility of something like that happening. There is also the possibility of the earth being hit by a meteor as well. (Oh great, that statement could probably be used as fodder now by some wannabe prophet!)

Of course, Pat’s pronouncement is contingent on whether or not he heard God correctly!

Compare this pronouncement (as well as others Robertson has made) with the real prophets in Scripture. Could you imagine any of the prophets proclaiming, “Now, if I understand the Lord correctly”. There are also no vague generalizations made by the true prophets. They made a pronouncement with assurance that it did come from God, without a doubt. Just like all the other true prophetic utterances, everything was assured that it did indeed come from God and it all came to pass without fail. This was the only sign of a true prophet (Deuteronomy 18:20-22) In fact, in the Old Testament, if anyone made a claim that did not come to pass, they were considered a false prophet and were to be put to death. (Deuteronomy 18:20)

Pat would do well to open his Bible and engage in some sound biblical exegesis for a change.