The Bronze Age Israelites had a crude but effective method for dealing with people who claimed to speak for God and turned out to be wrong:
But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you need not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)
Note that the criterion has nothing to do with interior disposition. The question for the Bronze Age minds was not “Did the false prophet truly believe they were speaking from God and just make a boo boo?” It’s 100% results-oriented. Did the prophecy come true: yes or no? If no, kill him.
This is what one Pentagon spokesman, speaking of Saddam Hussein’s method for dealing with traitors, described as a “very dynamic zero defect policy”. Ancient Israelites were serious as a heart attack about not taking the Name of the Lord their God in vain.
For of course, that is what the second commandment primarily has in view, not cussing (though profanity is bad too since it teaches people to take the Name of God lightly).
These days, of course, civilization has developed under the influence of the Spirit and the example of Jesus Christ (not to mention the hard-won experience of a Christian Church that emerged from its members own brutality to one another) to make certain moral distinctions that did not occur to Bronze Age people in their simplicity. So we don’t stone false prophets to death any more.
Our ancestors deeply believed that “Error has no rights”. So, by the way, do you, if you agree that MAGA cultists do not have the right to impose on Normals the idea that the earth is flat, or that gays should be killed, or that COVID is fake, or that Trump won the election. Such prophetic declarations are, ‘ow you say, wrong and the opinion of the fools and liars who say these things is not just as good as that of those who know the earth is round, gays should not be killed, COVID is real, and Biden won.
The reason you don’t (I presume) call for the deaths of these fools and liars in turn is because you have internalized one of the central developments of modern civilization. It is this: Though error has no rights, persons in error do have rights.
It took thousands of years for the Holy Spirit to get the human species to the point of realizing that development. And it remains a fragile achievement constantly in danger of loss. In some places, it still remains to be achieved. As the history of the 20th century shows, people with a Very Definite System for How Things Should Be are quite ready to kill those who don’t fit the system.
That system can be economic, political, scientific, racial, cultural–or religious. Often it’s a mixture.
And the danger is that such systems nearly always produce false prophets: people ready to speak with Ultimate Authority about The Way History is Going to Go.
And so we find ourselves full circle again because it turns out false prophets can, in fact, be precisely the deadly danger Deuteronomy fears.
Now, I agree with Holy Church that killing false prophets should no longer be the Done Thing. But I also agree with the Tradition that false prophets must be ignored and opposed with truth, particularly when they have such a very long track record of being so wrong about so much so many times for so long that only a fool would heed them.
That is what the MAGA Cult is proving in this hour as they falsely declare, in the Name of Almighty God no less, that Trump won, that everybody but them is lying, and that Satan himself is working in and through all the Normals and decent people who are speaking the simple fact that Biden won.
Here are a bunch of them, in no particular order:
And finally, just to demonstrate conclusively that false prophets are not all just Fundamentalist wackos or lay Catholic grifters like Taylor Marshall, there is clerical Catholic grifter Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who got himself anointed a prophet while covering his ass for failing to do anything about McCarrick, all by attacking the one man who did discipline McCarrick: Pope Francis.
Since then, he has been hiding from all accountability or question while sending out increasingly nutty letters about the COVID “conspiracy” and issuing apocalyptic bulletins about the “Great Reset” in which the Children of Darkness take over and do Awful Things with the approval of the Pope, whom he hates.
Naturally, this loony is a Trump zealot and, naturally, he has Thoughts on the election, such as these golden words:
Covid and Biden are two holograms, two artificial creations, ready to be adapted time and time again to contingent needs or respectively replaced when necessary with Covid-21 and Kamala Harris.
Worthy of a mimeographed word salad from Mel Gibson’s character in Conspiracy Theory.
This unanimity of consensus recalls the enthusiastic support of the Masonic Lodges on the occasion of the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, which was also not free from the shadow of fraud within the Conclave and was equally desired by the deep state
This is red meat for the same nuts who also think the pope was falsely elected. He appears to mean that precisely because all Normals agree that Francis and Biden were, in fact, elected, that is proof of the existence of a vast Masonic Conspiracy. This is kooks on Youtube talk, not Archbishops.
….and was equally desired by the deep state, as we know clearly from the emails of John Podesta and the ties of Theodore McCarrick and his colleagues with the Democrats and with Biden himself. A very nice little group of cronies, no doubt about it.
Translation: Pizzagate is real and blood-drinking Jews and libs walk among us, Masters of the Deep State and the Deep Church.
(If the blood-drinking Jews thing sounds familiar, its because Popes have been telling wahoo Catholics it’s crap for a millennium and wahoo Catholics, right down to QANON morons at war with Francis, have been certain they are way smarter than the Magisterium about this. That an Archbishop spreads this crap is a scandal.)
With these words of the USCCB the pactum sceleris [plot to commit a crime] between the deep state and the deep church is confirmed and sealed, the enslavement of the highest levels of the Catholic hierarchy to the New World Order.
It seems the American bishops addressed reality and accepted the results of the election.
Taking note of this is the first, imperative step in order to understand the complexity of the present events and consider them in a supernatural, eschatological perspective.
Translation: I, and I alone have the True Gnosis, making me Master of the Hidden History of Our Time! I am definitely not nuts and am infinitely superior to Church, unlike all other kooks and heretics who have ever said exactly the same lunatic nonsense.
So here’s the thing. They’re wrong. All of them. Trump lost. Biden won. That’s it. That’s all. It’s over. And by biblical lights, that makes every last one of of these people false prophets whom no person need ever listen to again when they claim to speak some special revelation from God.
Of course, it is a foregone conclusion that the Cult will find some way to square the circle and declare that, somehow or other, they weren’t really wrong. How that will be achieved, I am not certain. Perhaps, like Jehovah’s Witnesses did when Jesus failed to return in 1914, they will declare that Trump was spiritually re-elected and remains the Once and Future President. Perhaps they will multiply conspiracy theories. That’s fine with me. Everybody needs a hobby.
The only thing that concerns me as a citizen is if some of these people decide they need to force God’s hand by vigilante terrorism. If that happens, let me be the first to urge that Caesar Biden fulfil their eagerly-sought fantasies of Persecution by the Beast by arresting them and jailing them, not for being Good Christian Martyrs, but for being wicked criminals who hurt people in pursuit of their evil dreams of power.
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. (Romans 13:3-5)
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19 Responses
I’m meta-analyzing this, please bear with me. Word(s) of the day: “pactum sceleris”
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
As a teenager, I was constantly impressed by the usage of Latin in ecclesial, legal or medicinal contexts. It did seem profound, as if on a completely different level of understanding, something beyond mere mortals to access.
Ignorance is dangerous. The languages I knew never carried any depth. And after learning Latin, it became just another language with some utility (positive: it’s a dead language, so it has unchanging meaning to words and can be used to enshrine absolutes, negative: it sounds obscure, mysterious and intellectual). And while most people use Latin for the right reasons (maybe sprinkled with a little vanity), still a considerable number use gratuitous Latin expressions to validate their kooky theories by sounding deep, therefore as if using Latin automatically made them right.
And any sentence that uses gratuitous Latin is false until proven otherwise.
Most Latin means “I know Latin and you do not”.
ex ore usque ad aures Dei
So many things I could write about, and yet, I have so many other things to do.
First, this word “prophet”. Trumpdemort was “prophesied” to win two terms.That’s not what the word means in the Old Testament, because the prophets then weren’t fortunetellers. The actual word in the old testament refers to more of an advocate.
Prophets for profits? Profits for “Prophets”? By their fruits shall you know them.
Second, Qhurch Militant. This is how twisted this cult has become. We were told repeatedly by the far right Qhristiansthat homosexuals are the worst people on the planet, immoral, faithless, dangerous, etc. etc. etc. etc. Who runs church militant? A man who describes himself as homosexual, albeit, and ex-homosexual. I know! let’s listen to him! It makes perfect sense. Qhurch Militant—one of the worst cases of homo-bating homos I’ve ever seen. There is so much toxicity swirling around Qhurch Militant. I remember the conversation I had some months ago with a big supporter of church militant. I pointed out what Vorhis said to say about homosexuals, and yet, they hung on every word of his when he was telling them not to trust homosexuals. Cognitive dissonance much? Not at all.
Itks what Jabba the Trump thrives on, telling people what they want to hear. Believe me! A lot of people are saying it! You asked how they are going to square this circle. that’s easy. These white queens like CM can easily believe six impossible things before breakfast.
Good example: Last December, Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church in California (a.k.a. “Christian Hogwarts“) declared that God was so angry about Donald Trump‘s impeachment that He would ensure Trump receives a second term. It was guaranteed, Vallotton said, because “the Lord wants it.”
Now, THIS is what he is saying: “ I really want to apologize, sincerely apologize for missing the prophecy about Donald Trump. I [prophesied] that Donald Trump would be president 4 days after he took the nomination the first time. 4 days after he declared himself a candidate the first time I should say…and that was obviously right. And then, later on, I [prophesied] that he would not be impeached, and the fact that he would win another term. And I was completely wrong. I take full responsibility for being wrong.
There is no excuse for it. I think it doesn’t make me a false prophet but it does actually create a credibility gap. A lot of people trust me, trust my ministry, and I want to say I’m very sorry for everyone who put their trust in me, and there was this major, major mistake.”
Isn’t that just adorable? He didn’t pull it out of his capacious a$$, he just had a credibility gap. It doesn’t make him a false prophet who, according to his own book, ought to receive a gift of a lot of heavy rocks in his general direction. But hey! His non apology for it now says that there is still a chance that he might be right! Mysterious ways, and all that.
It’s not the DEEP state. It’s the DERP state.
A while back, I asked a couple of visiting Jehova’s Witnesses, “wasn’t this all supposed to have gone down before the generation born in 1914 passed away?”. To which they replied, “well, actually that’s not what it means…”.
They didn’t get to elaborate on their newest interpretation of the end times, but I could tell that they have already moved the goalposts on this prediction. Again.
3vilstriker, I had a similar moment with Catholicism when Pope Paul VI predicted in 1968 “Because Protestants have accepted contraception, they will logically become more and more pro-abortion” when what actually happened in real life was that the fundamentalist wing became more and more anti-abortion (without in any way becoming opposed to non-abortifacient contraception) to the point that they will vote for a thug like Trump, a man who has undoubtedly paid for numerous of his own offspring to be killed in the womb (what, you thought he was a “pro-lifer”? This bridge, going quick, just two thousand dollars but cash only!), just because he throws them the bone of saying “I do not believe you people want handmaids to be literally held down and forcibly impregnated”. The difference with the JWs and 1975 is that the JWs had no Malcolm Muggeridge in their corner to spin it.
@3vil
I am truly looking forward to how the Trumppanzees will spin their chosen Messiah not being chosen as thoroughly as they predicted. Will it be “mysterious ways?” “God has a plan? 2024? God is omnipotent but free will? God is omnipotent but the devil is potenter? The debbil did it? A brand new sorting hat?
What we will definitely not hear: I guess I mistook God’s will for my own, and vice versa.
@ 3vil
The spins has already started. Pastor Andrew Womack just announced that God did not choose Biden to win, that it was all the satanic or liberal or a Democrat plot or something. This despite the fact that this “Bible believing and every word of it is true and literal“ Christian doesn’t really believe it when the Bible says that God institutes the civil authorities.
He’s a white queen in every sense of the words.
jj
If I watch the you-tube videos I’ll be provoked to uncharitable thoughts. Why does Frank Pavone perpetually have that “I just stepped in dog poop” expression? Poor guy has something wrong with him.
Ugh! Fundies! Like the strip mall of Christianity. Chuck E. Cheese themed worship. Twinkie calories. Bombardment of the senses. Ugly crying. Grape juice in a dixie cup. Jesus-themed 7-11 burrito with an all-you-can-eat salad bar. Donny-and-Marie-floor-show-extravaganza. Joel Ostein’s face on a coffee cup for sending in my gift of $50. A Walmart shopping spree for the “name that scripture” game show winner.
Vigano is like a shrill cat lady who needs his chardonnay chilled, a nightly bubble bath with opera and a floral scented sleep mask. It must have stung when Pope Francis instructed priests: “No seas marica!”
I guess I didn’t need to watch the videos. 🙁
@ Taco
Tee-heee. I love it. Sounds like you have been reading Tom Robbins or Hunter S. Thompson.
Lol, it was word therapy. My husband was doing repairs in the kitchen and I was sitting at the table at my laptop. He looked at me and said “WHAT are you writing??” I read Mark’s blog to him and THEN succumbed to the videos. He was stunned that what’s-her-name has ever been elected to office.
Who ARE these people?
It is perhaps symbolic that Paula White is married to the former Journey keyboardist who wrote “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
Which, memorably, was playing when Tony Soprano met his end.
Well! No place else to put it, so I might as well put it here. This is Abby Johnson, tweeting like a corby. “ It’s time for every church in America to defy lockdown, quarantine and any other orders related to this virus. People need to be in Church. They need to fellowship with other believers. They NEED hope. They need Jesus. Stop cowering to the government. Stand up and fight.”
So much for obeying the civil authorities, instituted by god. That’s for pussies, not pro-life trumpanzees.
People need to be in Church? So much for god being everywhere.
They need to fellowship? Not a noun, girlfriend. And it’s what zoom is for. And uh, no, they donkt. “Be not like the hypocrites, who love to pray in public. Who said that? no one important.
They need hope! What a hope we have in Jesus, but only there, not here. Besides, why would they need hope when they have jesus and the whole thing is a hoax and the Eeeeeeeeevil DemocratSocialistAntifaBLMFauciArheists stole the election.
They need Jesus. Or a fix. also, apparently not everywhere.
Stop cowering TO the government. Sounds like they need an edumacation, or to understand that “Bridge Out” signs are for your protection.
Stand up and fight- keep pretending that covid is a hoax, and that science is medical knowledge aren’t important, and standing will be the least if your worries— or your abilities.
Pro-life! killing People Proudly Since 1973!
@ ben
“Wherever two or more of you are gathered in my name, There I am.” Book of Covid, 20:20.
Ben, if it’s any consolation, a lot of the “a little COVID never hurt ya none” nuts are quite happy to be ecumenical and to borrow NARAL/ PP rhetoric, with a similar lack of reflection on how far the logic of the catchy slogan holds up:
“‘My body, my choice’: QAnon-supporting Georgia congresswoman-elect told meeting of fellow representatives that ‘masks are oppressive'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8949477/QAnon-supporting-congresswoman-elect-decries-mask-wearing-orientation-COVID-cases-surge.html
But yeah, I see Ben’s point. It’s probably something like how I view the Israel/ Palestine: in an ethics seminar, one could make a theoretical case in favour of BDS or a two-state solution, but in practice the Actually Existing political movements that oppose Israeli government policy are so dominated by political uglies (Berlin Wall nostalgics and Islamicist theocrats) that I don’t want to stand downwind from them. The merits of the message are debatable; the character of the messenger is settled.
Anybody with eyes and a brain and with a modicum of goodwill can see that the pandemic is a hoax. The death rates are no more than the common flu, as is an open secret. The PCR test is a fraud, as is also an open secret. Anyone can see that it’s about destroying the remnants of economic, political, spiritual, and and cultural opposition in order to install a full blown globalist communism which will make the Soviet union look like Disney World. Only someone as demonic as Mark Shea would try to make this obvious reality sound like pathological evil and insanity. There’s really no words to describe the depths of Shea’s depravity. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of hell than this walking and talking ass. Repent.
I thought about deleting this but a) it’s just too funny and b) I decided to let it stand as a warning for others of how tin-foil behatted weirdos write and how they should not if they want to write in my comboxes. Thank you for your sacrifice in serving as a warning to others.
You are now blocked.
Thank you for not deleting it, Mark. I needed the cheering-up it gave me on this hot, slow, Friday afternoon – made my day!