Question: Pastor John Hinkle said over TBN that he heard God say, “On Thursday, June 9, I will rip ...

Question: Pastor John Hinkle said over TBN that he heard God say, “On Thursday, June 9, I will rip the evil out of this world.” June 9 fell on a Thursday this year. The prophecy was promoted by Paul Crouch and Pat Robertson, yet when it failed to materialize neither said a word about it. What is going on?

Response: What is going on is false prophecy without any accountability. Paul Crouch backed this prophecy to the hilt in at least three newsletters as well as over several TV programs. YWAM “prophets” allegedly verified it. Crouch even said that if this prophecy wasn’t fulfilled, it would prove that Hinkle was a false prophet! In Old Testament Israel they stoned false prophets. Today their followers just look the other way, forget the false prophecies, and eagerly anticipate the next one.

There was no excuse for Crouch or Robertson or anyone else paying any attention to what any Sunday-school child would have immediately recognized as nonsense. Evil is not some thing that can be “ripped out of the earth.” Evil is in the human heart and for it to be removed all humans would have to be removed. Jesus said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, etc.” (Mt 15:19). Paul said, “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse…” (2 Tm 3:13), not be ripped out of the earth.

Antichrist, the very embodiment of evil (2 Thes:2:4-10 [4] Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. [5] Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? [6] And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. [7] For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. [8] And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: [9] Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, [10] And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
See All...), is yet to come, and his reign by the power of Satan (Rv 13:2,4) will be the most evil time in history. And someone said evil would be “ripped from the earth” on Thursday, June 9?

Of course, June 9 will fall on a Thursday again in seven more years. Don’t wait. That’s still far too soon. Even during the Millennium there will be evil on the earth in men’s hearts, manifesting itself at the end of Christ’s 1,000-year reign in the attack by the nations against Christ in Jerusalem (Rv 20:7-9).

This prophecy was so obviously contrary to Scripture that those who gave it credence either don’t know the Bible or pay no attention to it if they do know it. (For our newer readers, we have previously addressed Hinkle’s “prophecy” in the December ’93 “Q&A”.)