She says false prophecies hurt the reputation of God Himself, and make non-Christians look down on Christianity. And she’s right.
Hello Readers, hope all’s well. Time for another End Times post.
In my previous post, I wrote about the prophecies of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. I only mentioned their prophecies about the inauguration of the new U.S. president, Joe Biden, on January 20, 2021. I pointed out the obvious—that their prophecy about the inauguration being an elaborate trap for arresting Joe Biden and others and installing Trump as the true president of the United States—did not come to pass.
And I made a very simple point about their unfulfilled prophecy, which was:
One false prophecy = One false prophet.
And that rule comes to us from Deuteronomy 18:21-22, which I quoted last week. Check out End Times Part 78 for more.
Anyway, shortly after writing that post I came across a YouTube video which got my attention. It was by a YouTuber named Melissa Dougherty, entitled: “Touching God’s “Anointed”: False Prophecies and the 2020 Election.” It’s on this same topic of false prophecy, but focused on a different angle (2020 U.S. election prophecies).
It’s a good video, which says some of what I said in Part 78 but also brings up other points I didn’t think to write about. So I’m going to embed the video below, and we’ll hear what Melissa Dougherty has to say about false prophets.
Video: “Touching God’s “Anointed”: False Prophecies and the 2020 Election” by Melissa Dougherty
First off, here is “Touching God’s “Anointed”: False Prophecies and the 2020 Election.” by Melissa Dougherty. Please watch the video, because it’s better to hear what she says straight from her rather than from my summary.
Video Summary
2020 U.S. Election Prophecies Prove False
Dougherty starts her video explaining why she made it, which is also in the description. She says she’s speaking out against the many false prophets who prophesied Trump would win the U.S. presidential election, because the prophets prophesied in the name of Jesus. She says it’s worth it to speak up and speak out to defend the name of Jesus, and I agree.
Sometimes we (sadly) poke the bear to be mean. Sometimes we poke it to provoke. Other times the bear did a no-no and needs to be held accountable.
Melissa Dougherty, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqU6ocdh25M
So in this video, I’m daring to address the madness of all the false predictions about the 2020 election. I try to pick and choose my battles, and when I choose to ‘battle’, it needs to be in with the right intention. Paul reflects this in scripture that we need to be at peace with people as much as we can, except when it comes to the gospel and identity of Jesus. That’s worth fighting for. I’m not here to do what’s popular, I want to do what’s right. All this was done in the name of Jesus, and that’s really the heart of me speaking about this. This shames Jesus’ name. That’s worth speaking up about. That being said, I think this definitely needs to be firmly addressed.
She’s addressing the prophecies made by Word of Faith and “N.A.R.” preachers and teachers. I’m not familiar with the N.A.R. movement, Reader, but maybe you know them.
One False Prophecy = One False Prophet
Anyway, these false prophets said in Jesus’ name that Trump would be reelected, but were proven wrong when he lost. Dougherty jumps on that fact to point out the simple rule: One false prophecy = one false prophet.
In this case, she says, “if it [the prophecy] doesn’t happen, you didn’t hear it from God to begin with.” Amen. If anyone believes they heard a prophecy from God, but that thing doesn’t happen, they heard it from a demon, not God. They heard it from Ba’al or other demonic spirits of deception.
Divisive Demonic Deceptions
It appears deceiving the people isn’t all the demons have in mind. Dougherty mentions how so many people claim to hear from God these days (when they really don’t, because what they prophesy doesn’t happen). She says claiming to hear from God causes pride, and this pride causes division among God’s people.
It causes division because the prophets’ followers believe the prophets are God’s chosen anointed who really do hear from Him. The followers all get their hopes up about the prophecy coming true (because they want it to). Then, anyone who speaks against that prophecy or the prophet is seen as an enemy. The prophets are seen as anointed by God, they’re seen as chosen ones. Their words can’t be questioned in their churches. It creates an “us” (believers in the prophet) vs. “them” (critics of the prophet) dynamic that harms the body of Christ.
She then goes on to talk about how this dynamic is one that we also see in cults. That includes “Christian” cults, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons. The problem is people following their deceitful church leaders, because they claim to hear from God, instead of following God.
Hurts the Reputation of God Himself
Now she makes a point that I didn’t even think of in my previous post.
She says false prophecies hurt the reputation of God Himself, and make non-Christians look down on Christianity. And she’s right.
When the non-Christian world sees us following Spiritual leaders who prophesy things that don’t come true, they look at Christianity as nonsense. All the non-Christians see are the inconsistencies, the false teachings of false prophets like the ones shown in this video. False prophets like this give all Christianity a bad name.
Prophets who Don’t Know how to Prophesy
Moving on, she explains how these false prophets don’t have a Biblical understanding of how prophecy works. And if they do, they don’t have the discernment to know if it’s God’s Voice their hearing, or their own, or some other spirit (a deceiving spirit).
They approach prophecy “like throwing darts at a dart board, hoping something will stick.” But that’s not how God gives prophecy to His people.
A true prophet of God never makes a false prediction, because they hear from the LORD. So a true prophet would never make dozens of predictions, hoping for one to come true.
But people still flock to these false prophets. False prophets are dangerous, Dougherty says, because they have so many people believing that they really heard from God when they actually didn’t. If they did hear from God, they would not make even one false prophecy.
Now It’s a Choice
She talks about the Biblical instruction to test every spirit. We don’t need to accuse or ignore everyone who claims to have a prophecy from God. But we do need to test every spirit (1 John 4:1), and examine the prophecy against Scripture.
(20) Don’t brush off Spirit-inspired messages, (21) but examine everything carefully and hang on to what is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 (CEB)
Anyway, she says God seems to have a way of exposing false teachers. But if a false prophet gets exposed, and people still continue to follow them, now they’re making a choice. Now they’re choosing deception. Why could that be?
No Accountability
She says when these false prophets get something right, all the credit goes to them instead of God. But when they get something wrong, they take no responsibility. They find a way to weasel out of it, saying “I misunderstood” or “I misheard” and so on. No one holds these false prophets accountable for their false statements. And that allows them to continue their deceptions.
“What would people in the N.A.R. or Word of Faith movements call a false prophet? Where is the bar for them?” she asks. Good question.
Prosperity Prophecy
All these prophets said the same thing: Donald Trump would win reelection in 2020. Why didn’t even one of them receive a Word from God about what would actually happen?
She suggests it’s because these movements follow prosperity “Gospel,” the false idea that God’s Promise to us is that He will make us prosperous here on earth. Prosperity “Gospel” is a whole topic of its own, one I won’t get into now. But she thinks that these prosperity preachers are only allowed to prophesy positive things.
They can’t prophesy a negative outcome to their followers, because that harms the (false and flawed) premise of their (false and flawed) prosperity movement.
Is that what’s going on here? It’s an interesting idea, and may have great truth to it.
Biblical Prophets Weren’t Positive ….
When it comes to negative prophecy though, she makes a great point. The prophets in the Bible, both Testaments, “Most of the time they were not prophesying good things.” Most of the time they were prophesying doom and disaster, or telling people to REPENT! or else suffer the disastrous consequences.
She’s right about that, for sure. When prophets appeared in the Bible, they often served as God’s warning to the people. If a prophet showed up in your town, it’s because something was wrong. So what the prophets had to say wasn’t nice, and it wasn’t positive. But that’s why they were able to save whatever lives they did—because they spoke God’s truth without sugarcoating or biasing it.
And once again, most importantly ….
Prophets in the Bible were never wrong. So remember the simple rule: One false prophecy = One false prophet!!
“Where is their fear of God?” she asks, referring to these false prophets of today. That’s a good question. If they read the Bible, how can they go around making a mockery of prophecy like they do, and not feel wrong about it? Now I’m wondering too.
Some Good News!
As she finishes up, she says something I’ve never thought about before, but it’s true. In this social media and technology era we live in, it’s easier than ever to check a prophet’s past prophecy record. We can go back and listen to their sermons, their preaching. We can see what they’ve prophesied in the past, and we’ll know if it ever came true or not.
It’s easier than ever for Christians to smoke out false prophets now, simply by checking into a prophet’s past prophecies on social media (etc.). This is a positive advantage we should be grateful for.
As an example of something to look for, she mentions COVID-19. “None of these “prophets” saw COVID-19 coming until after it was already here,” she says. Then they started prophesying about it. And they prophesied it would miraculously go away, but we know now that things didn’t happen that way.
It’s a great idea to check into a prophet’s past prophecy record. Social media lets us do that easily. That’s one thing to be grateful for, I guess.
We Must Choose Truth
She ends by once again saying that when a false prophet has been exposed, continuing to follow or defend them is now an informed choice. And so is supporting that prophet or giving them money, which enables them and keeps the problem going.
If the Spirit has been tested, and has failed, we need to reject it. When a false prophet gets exposed, we need to choose truth and walk away from them. We need to stop following them even if we don’t like it, or even if we put a lot of hope in their prophecies. We have to choose the truth of God and walk away from demonic deceptions.
People must choose to walk away from false prophets, not to follow them further into the devil’s lies. People need to realize that false prophets damage the name of Christ with their lies. We can’t support people like that, we must walk away from them instead.
Walk away from Deception
Until I can test the Spirit, I have no idea who hears and doesn’t hear from God. God’s ways are above ours (Isaiah 55:8-9), and we don’t know all He does, or why. So God could speak to all kinds of people I never would have imagined.
God is Sovereign and All-Powerful. He could speak to anyone in this world He wants to. He could even speak to atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims … you name it, He could speak to them if He wanted!!
Of course some people wouldn’t recognize God’s Voice if He spoke to them (like atheists, maybe), He can still speak to anyone He wants. It’s not for me to say who He speaks to. It could very well happen that God speaks to someone I have major disagreements with. If their prophecy came to pass and could hold up to the scrutiny of Scripture, I would have no choice but to say that person really did hear from God.
But that’s the whole thing: I wouldn’t know that until testing the Spirit (1 John 4:1). We have to examine prophecies carefully (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and hold them up to Scripture. These End Times are dangerous, with demonic deceptions spreading like wildfire everywhere. We can’t believe every prophecy we hear. We can’t believe everyone who claims to be a prophet speaking the LORD’s Word. It’s too dangerous, because of all the deception around.
There’s no need to fear prophecy (1 Thessalonians 5:20). But there is a clear need, written in Scripture, to test every Spirit. And if a prophet has been tested, and failed, then we need to make the right choice and walk away from them, no matter how hard that is for us. Once they’ve been exposed, following them is an informed choice. It’s choosing a demonic deception over the truth of God’s Word.
I hope you enjoyed the YouTube video. Please check out Melissa Dougherty’s channel on YouTube and consider subscribing.
Well that’s all for this week. If you enjoyed today’s post, be sure to Subscribe using the link below. And please consider Supporting My Blog using the Tip Jar. Any amount is much appreciated!
Until next time, be strong and do good!
Your new best friend in Christ,
99:9
<<<EXALT THE LORD OUR GOD AND WORSHIP AT HIS HOLY HILL; FOR THE LORD OUR GOD IS HOLY>>>
Follow My Blog
Subscribe to my FREE Substack newsletter so you never miss any of my posts!
https://999f64.substack.com/
Support My Blog
The Tip Jar
If you enjoyed this article, or any of the content on my site, please consider tossing a dollar in ‘the tip jar’ by donating here. All donations of any amount are greatly appreciated! If all you have to give are thoughts and prayers, I will gladly accept those too! I receive those, don’t worry 🙂
$1.00
99:9 Exalt El Shaddai 
5 comments on “Do Not Fear the End Times Part 79: Video Recap: “Touching God’s ‘Anointed’: False Prophecies and the 2020 Election” by Melissa Dougherty”