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...And
God Said
February
11, 2004
By Norma Sherry
It would appear that the messages Pat Robertson has been
hearing from God are not God at all, but a cruel, conniving
imposter. It's sad, but true. But, he's in very good company.
For instance, my 4-year-old neighbor predicted that if she
kissed a raindrop she'd become a fairy princess. Clearly,
she's no prophet, either.
There have been many self-proclaimed prophets in our history.
In the year 960 A.D., European scholar, Bernard of Thuringia,
confidently announced that the world would only exist for
thirty-two more days. John Toledo, in 1179, predicted the
demise of the world based on the alignment of the planets.
The Flagallents, who would viciously beat themselves in bloody
repentance, announced that the end of the world could be delayed
no longer in 1349; in 1603, Govan Domenico Campanella, prophesized
the Earth would collide with the sun.
Christopher Columbus decided that the world was created in
5343 B.C., that 7,000 years hence would be 1658. Therefore,
he forewarned the end was near. Columbus popularized his calculations
in, "The Book of Prophesies", which he published in 1505.
Pentecostal Reverend John Mason had a vision of Christ in
1694, which prompted his revelation that the Second Coming
of Christ would take place on the Pentecost of that year,
in his rectory in Water Strafford, Buckinghamshire. 1736 brought
a British theologian who predicted a flood likened to Noah's,
and the band played on.
There is no shortage of God-fearing men and women who commune
with God and as such, are privy to His private utterances.
The founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, said a meeting
of the Mormon religious leaders was called because God had
commanded it. At that same meeting, in February 1835, Smith
also proclaimed that Jesus would return within fifty-six years.
The Watchtower Society has been quite prolific in their
predictions for Armageddon: 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925,
1941, 1975, and 1994, were some of their dates. Their current
portent is 6,000 years after the creation of Eve. The question,
however, remains: when was that?
Today's preachers rarely dabble in such folly. No, their
assertions are harangues intended to incite and divide. Their
pulpit is used to bully and harass. The notion of love and
brotherhood are far removed from their public pronunciations.
But before you think I'm categorizing all men and women
of God as such, let me please proclaim that is not so. I am
writing of those few whose congregations are in the millions.
The tele-evangelists who demonstrate miracles on television
with a wave of their hand or a touch on the head - to those
who proclaim to do God's work as they don their six-thousand
dollar Armani suits, board their private jets, and flaunt
their superiority while they sit upon their golden-gilded
chairs in front of the cameras of their church-owned television
stations.
The Pat Robertsons, the Jerry Falwells, The Benny Hinns,
and who can forget past evangelists Jimmy Swaggart, and Jimmy
and Tammy Faye Bakker.
They preach to their minions half-truths, falsities, and
destructive examples that inflate egos and separate people
of differing beliefs and life-styles; and they do so with
a high and mighty commanding declaration that these are the
truths their congregation was heretofore denied.
When Rev. Falwell said, "I really believe that the pagans,
and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and
the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative
lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them
who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in
their face and say 'you helped this happen,'" before a 700-Club
television audience, was he acting pastoral? Was he walking
in the shadow of Christ? Or was he preaching separatism, bigotry,
and filling his congregation with hatred?
In an another preaching, the good reverend told his flock
that the cause of 9/11 was "the throwing God out of the public
square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear
some burden for this because God will not be mocked." In a
prayer before his television congregants, he reinforced his
position by proclaiming that the ills of our country are a
direct result of "taking the Bible away from schools" and
"forbidding little children from praying."
In 1980, to a throng at a Jesus rally, Pat Robertson shouted,
"We have enough votes to run the country. And when the people
say, 'We've had enough,' we are going to take over." In a
fund-raising letter to his constituency, Rev. Robertson wrote,
"We at the Christian Coalition are raising an army who cares.
We are training people to be effective - to be elected to
school boards, to city councils, to state legislatures, and
to key positions in political parties.... By the end of this
decade, if we work and give and organize and train, The Christian
Coalition will be the most powerful political organization
in America." Now, that was prophetic.
Today, as we find ourselves shaking our heads and our hearts
are beating an unfamiliar rhythm over the demise of the separation
of church and state, we should remember, we were warned. As
far back as 1993, Rev. Robertson, said, "There is no such
thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution.
It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore."
Rev. Robertson from his on-high pulpit has preached on every
important topic facing our country and our citizens; his opinions
on the Supreme Court and the court system in general border
on lawlessness and irresponsibility. He has instructed his
followers, "Why should you and I be bound because of the ineptitude,
if you will, or the skill of one or more defense lawyers,
or the plaintiffs in any particular lawsuit?"
And, of course, the Lord spoke to the good Reverend Robertson
telling him, "George Bush will win in a walk", referring to
our upcoming presidential election. What a man he must be
for God Almighty to speak unto him - and to him alone.
Regarding our Constitution, Rev. Robertson said to his television
ministry, "[it] is a marvelous document for self-government
by the Christian people. But the minute you turn the document
into the hands of non-Christian people and atheistic people
they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society.
And that's what's been happening."
This man of God, this preacher of the Word, has told his
followers, "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians
and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and
the other thing. Nonsense." In 1986, he told New York Magazine,
"The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it
ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation."
In another fund-raising letter dated 1992, the reverend
wrote, "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for
women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement
that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their
children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become
lesbians."
He told his viewing audience that Planned Parenthood, "...is
teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery,
every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism - everything
that the Bible condemns."
In his Christian love he instructed that we need to stop
giving money to welfare mothers. He said, "if they'll stop
paying them, they'll stop having babies. It's that simple.
It's not heartless, it's not cruel, it's an intelligent use
of money." In that same tone of compassion, he made this comparison:
"Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists,
many of them were homosexuals - the two things seem to go
together."
His exclusive right of non-cult distinction leaves out any
non-Christian: "A cult is any group that has a form of godliness,
but does not recognize Jesus Christ as the unique son of God....
One test of a cult is that it often does not strictly teach
that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God who Himself is
God manifested in the flesh...."
The Reverend Jerry Falwell fares no better. On a myriad
of topics his intolerance and bigotry are glaring:
"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure
as a human being."
"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days
of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches
will have taken them over again and Christians will be running
them. What a happy day that will be!"
"AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is
God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."
"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented
by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country."
"There is no separation of church and state. Modern U.S.
Supreme Courts have raped the Constitution and raped the Christian
faith and raped the churches by misinterpreting what the Founders
had in mind in the First Amendment to the Constitution."
"The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief. They
are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah
and Savior."
My favorite, if one can justly refer to anything Jerry Falwell
says, as a favorite, was a remark he made on Crossfire in
1997, "Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes
unless they are married to them."
And, probably one of his most despicable remarks was, "AIDS
is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose
it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save
one of Pharaoh's charioteers."
The undeniable king of prophesy; however, is Benny Hinn.
He's the preacher and healer that's on television in the wee
hours of the night. If you're a troubled sleeper, you've seen
him. On April 2, 2000, on a TBN Praise-a-thon, he said, "Now
hear this - I'm prophesying this: Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, is about to appear physically in some churches and some
meetings and to many of His people, for one reason - to tell
you He's about to show up."
On January 1st, 1990, the self-proclaimed oracle, shared
not one, but two divinations:
"The Lord also tells me to tell you in the mid-90's, about
'94, '95, no later than that; God will destroy the homosexual
community of America. [Round of applause] But He will not
destroy it with what many minds have thought Him to be. He
will destroy it with fire. And many will turn and be saved,
and many will rebel and be destroyed."
His second foretelling was, "The Spirit tells me Fidel Castro
will die in the '90s." He elucidates that it will be a very
horrible death!
Benny Hinn's proclamations are so extravagant, so unbelievable,
yet hordes of followers assemble to hear him in churches,
stadiums, and fields in lands all over the world. According
to Hinn, he has been in the presence of the Archangel Michael
and he has seen the dead raised; sickness, he says, comes
from individuals attacking preachers; and he's been covered
in gold dust as a result of his prayers.
Lastly, Hinn claims he "is a 'little messiah' walking on
earth."
These are not my words. I haven't edited one single syllable.
The proclamations should speak for themselves. If these are
true, God-fearing men, leaders of men, women, and children,
and their word is taken as gospel, then our fears are not
fearful enough. For in these words of these supposedly good
men, righteous men, freedom-loving men, are the words of hate,
and slander, and disgust - vile, depraved, and immoral rantings
reminiscent of words spoken as truth not so very long ago
in lands not so far away.
With six-million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, a million
Jerry Falwell television crusaders in over 168 markets, Trinity
Network nearing a million viewers, Adventist Communication
Network (ACN), the fastest growing network with eight-million
church members, and TBN, CBN - in contributions alone, The
Worldwide Church of God rakes in $75 million in contributions,
Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, $60 million, Pat Robertson's
700 Club on CBN, $58 million, Jerry Falwell's Old Time Gospel
Hour, $48 million - and calculate a growth of no less than
25% a year, there's no denying there is big money in TV evangelism.
Pray tell, is it prophesy, as in portending the future,
or is it profit, as in lining one's pocket?
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