Christian author and apologist Michael Brown says the abundance of self-described prophets who falsely predicted a second term for former President Donald Trump and then changed their story post-election should serve as a "wake-up call to the charismatic church."
Brown made the comments in the latest episode of the Crossmap Podcast, telling host Chris Carpenter that the "wave of prophetic voices all guaranteeing four more years of Trump" and then "going into denial" was one reason he wrote his new book, The Political Seduction of the Church: How Millions Of American Christians Have Confused Politics with the Gospel. Two chapters in the book examine the false prophecies.
"There's no question that the most prominent prophetic voices speaking out – especially in America, but other nations as well – universally predicted four more years of Donald Trump," Brown said. "Now, some have said, 'We were right. He did win the election, but the election was stolen.' I find that to be a complete bogus cop-out. Because what's the use of that prophecy if he doesn't end up as president? No one was asking, 'Who's gonna win the vote count really, but not be in the White House?'
"The only thing that meant to everyone who heard it and to the prophets was Donald Trump will be in the White House. If you had said to those prophets, 'So you're telling me Donald Trump will have eight consecutive years?' – every one of them would have said, 'Yes.' None of them were talking about 2024. None of them were saying, 'He's going to be elected, but the election will be stolen.'"
Brown says he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and supported the former president's policies. But Brown says many Christians have become an "appendage" to Trump's movement.
Too many prophets in the charismatic movement, he said, "got caught up in partisan politics."
"'Hey, we've got access to the White House, hey, our man is in power' – these are all things that can happen," Brown said. "But the shock was afterwards, people denying it, or [they] just never apologized…. [It's] very, very sobering. And a massive wake-up call to the charismatic church."
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Brandon Bell/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
