Professing Prophets in Portland

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from www.generals.org for January 4, 2006, with the headline: “Professing Prophets.” The following are excerpts from archived prophesies: “Prophesy for Portland, Oregon and surrounding regions given by Cindy Jacobs at the summer revival conference at Bible Temple on Tuesday, July 22, 1997: ‘And the Lord would say to this city, “I’m going to raise up the watch that will come from the city, and the anointing from this watch will be the anointing to break New Age. I will tear down the idolatry to humanism, and the Word will go out in the spirit that no longer will this be a haven for New Age,” says God, “because I’m going to turn it around. I’m getting ready to manifest myself as the God of glory in this city. I’m going to release a river of miracles. I’m going to release signs and wonders. I’m going to cause limbs to grow where there are no limbs, eyes to be grown where there are no eyes.” And God says, “I will even astound the medical profession.” And the Lord says, “There will even be a day, even to this church, that you will see doctors line the platform, and you will see them come and you will see the crutches pile up, and you will see the wheelchairs and the stretchers, for I am doing a new thing,” says God. “I will cause this city to be raised up as a standard. I will be on CNN News. I am going to not only heal bodies, but I’m going to heal this city,” says the Lord. “I am going to heal the economy. I’m going to make out of this city a model that many people from governments from around the United States will be flying in, because I am causing a new anointing to come on this city.” And the Lord says, “They will marvel because I’m going to be glorified in city government. I’m going to be glorified in the health and human services. I’m going to be glorified in the social services. I’m going to heal the educational system. I’m going to heal the legal system. I’m going to transform this city,” says God, “and I’m going to use it as a model for America and the nations.” Over Portland we prophesy the miracles. We say the trumpet of the Lord is going forth in Jesus’ name.’”

Tom: Dave, you know, prophecy—as many people will listen to our program, Search the Scriptures Daily—prophecy is very important. Your book Judgment Day is pretty much based on what God has said, yet there are prophecies out there that are just disgraceful. People who speak in God’s name…you know, here we are beginning the year 2006. It seems that the prophets like to come out at the beginning of the year, tell us what’s going to happen throughout the year. 

Now, this prophecy that I selected, this is on www.generals.org, which is Cindy Jacobs. She’s one of the leaders in the whole spiritual warfare movement, and it’s amazing to me that she would have in their archives, or this website would have in their archives, a prophecy that is so wrong, so far removed from reality. You know, this is 1997 [when] she made this prophecy, and…

Dave: Nine years ago.

Tom: Nine years ago. We live in Bend, Oregon. We’re pretty aware of what’s going on in Portland and throughout the state of Oregon. I love living here, but it’s a bizarre state, Dave, incredibly liberal. I kidded some people by saying, “Dr. Kevorkian is the patron saint of the state,” because everything that seems to be coming down the pike, as bizarre as it might be, begins either with New Hampshire or Oregon, or something like that. 

But my point here is these prophecies are so far removed from truth and reality, yet it doesn’t seem to bother anybody. It hasn’t seemed to dissuade the people from her ministry, and she seems to have no problem with keeping it in the archives. How is that?

Dave: Tom, I don’t know. It is a mystery to me. I just happened to flip on TBN last night, just very briefly, because I can’t take too much of it. Benny Hinn was interviewing Oral Roberts, and Oral Roberts was defending his seed faith. “Well, you give to get. You give to God so that He’ll give you back more than you give,” you know. “What’s wrong with that? You don’t work for nothing. Why shouldn’t God pay you for…” you know, and so forth. 

Now, here were two major false prophets sitting right there with one another, two of the most popular men on television today. Oral Roberts (I was thinking of this), you remember, he had a seven-hour vision: a 900-foot Jesus talked to him and told him to build this hospital in Tulsa, that anybody knew wasn’t needed. The planning department tried to prevent it, but the “man of God,” so-called, prevailed. Seven hundred seventy-seven beds I think the most they ever had filled was 120-some beds. This Jesus, 900-foot Jesus that talked to Oral Roberts for seven hours, promised him miracles, cure for cancer, etc. etc.—the thing went bankrupt, all right? The year it went bankrupt, and he had to abandon it and try to sell it, he was voted by the Christian Businessmen’s—not CBMC, but some Christian group—as the leading Christian businessman in the world, you know, and it’s going bankrupt! And then there’s Benny Hinn sitting with him…

Tom: Well, Dave, just back to—didn’t he then come out and say, “God is going to take my life if I don’t get this certain amount of money to cover the bills?”

Dave: Oh yeah. Tom, it’s getting even worse. Not just to cover the bills, he said, “If I don’t have $8 million dollars, God is going to kill me.” Well, the $8 million dollars came; he promised that it would be used for scholarships for training medical doctors to be missionaries around the world. Not a dime of that ever went for scholarships for anybody; it went to this monster that was swallowing up everything, trying to save it. 

But then here’s Benny Hinn—you remember, December 31, 1989, he made this prophecy. He claimed to be right in the throne room of God. God is speaking through him, and God said, “I will destroy the homosexual community in America by fire no later than 1994 or ’95.” It didn’t happen; it’s a false prophecy. So like this one, Tom, these people have a penchant for issuing false prophecies, and then they seem to forget what they said. They forget how wrong they were the last time, because…

Tom: And they keep archiving it, so people can go to it and say, “Wait a minute, that didn’t happen, that didn’t happen, this didn’t happen…” That’s crazy, Dave!

Dave: In the article, Tom, it’s not just like it’s in the future, but God supposedly speaking through Cindy says, “I am doing, I am doing, I am doing.” Well, it didn’t happen, and I would have to say that Portland is much worse today than before she made these prophecies.

Tom: Dave, why do people go for these kinds of things? And why, as you alluded to earlier in our first segment, [do] people buy into this? They’re not willing to face truth.

Dave: Right. That’s exactly what Paul said, inspired of God: “In the last days they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears,” makes the teachers ears itch for the “well done” of the people, and the people want to hear something positive, something ecumenical, and, as you said earlier, tolerant of everything. “Give us some good news. Don’t be a Jeremiah, or an Isaiah, you know.” So these are the kind of prophecies they want today, and they’re getting what they want. Tragically, they are leading up to that great delusion—I think there’s a delusion already, but it’s going to get worse when the Antichrist is here, because they refuse to receive the love of the truth. They don’t want to hear the truth. “Don’t give me what the Bible says…” 

Jesus said, “Thy word is truth.” 

“But let me have some new prophecies.”

Tom: Yes, a new thing, God is doing a new thing. How often have we heard that? No, His Word is true and it remains.