In January 2004 Pat Robertson of the “700 Club” predicted that George Bush would win re-election by a landslide. Predictions come and predictions go, but this one was notable because Robertson said God told him so! If you search Google for

“Pat Robertson” blowout landslide

You will get a few news stories like these:

Robertson, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president in 1988 against former President George H. W. Bush, told viewers of the nationally-syndicated “700 Club” that there are “things that I believe the Lord was showing me as I spent several days in prayer at the end of 2003.”

The long-time televangelist told his Christian Broadcasting Network audience that God said Bush will win in a landslide in 2004.

“I think George Bush is going to win in a walk,” Robertson said, explaining that the Lord has been speaking to him a lot recently about the upcoming presidential election.

He added, “I really believe I’m hearing from the Lord it’s going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It’s shaping up that way.”

Robertson was clearly not offering his personal judgment here; he is obviously claiming to speak for the Lord. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in February, Robertson confirmed his prediction. Although Howard Dean was mentioned in the original story, Robertson did not qualify his prediction that way: “Robertson offered no prediction on who will get the Democratic nomination. ‘I don’t have a clue,’ he said with a laugh.” 

Robertson was wrong. Bush indeed defeated Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election, but it was no landslide, and no commentator is calling it a blowout:

  • Bush: 59,459,765 popular votes (51%) and 286 electoral votes.
  • Kerry: 55,949,407 popular votes (48%) and 252 electoral votes.

So – Pat Robertson issued a prophecy in God’s name, and it turned out to be wrong. What does the Bible say about this situation?

“But the prophet who presumes to say in my name a thing I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. You may say in your heart, ‘How are we to know what word was not spoken by Yahweh?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh and the thing does not happen and the word is not fulfilled, then it has not been spoken by Yahweh. The prophet has spoken with presumption. You have nothing to fear from him.”

Deuteronomy 18:20-22

Pat Robertson is a false prophet. There is no other reasonable conclusion.

In the context of Deuteronomy, the phrase “that prophet shall die” implies “…and you shall carry out the execution by stoning him to death.” False prophecy is very serious! False prophets discourage people from believing in God, and those people may end up going to hell. God doesn’t like that. See Matthew 18:14: “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”; and Luke 17:2: “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

Let me state clearly here that I am not advocating the Old Testament’s death penalty for Pat Robertson. The New Testament provides another way to deal with the situation:

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)– 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 

2 Peter 2

My understanding of that passage is that we should have nothing more to do with the false prophets. God will deal with them in His own way and in His own time.

“But be doers of the Word, and not only hearers” – James 1:22