Pat Robertson Predicts Terrorist Attack in 2007

From the Associated Press, Jan. 3, 2007: Pat Robertson, on a 700 Club broadcast, predicted a "mass killing" terrorist attack "sometime after September." Robertson claimed God had "told him" this attack would happen. However, he admitted that he sometimes misses on his annual predictions. (See http://www.beliefnet.com/story/208/story_20853_1.html for full details.)

Now, I have no problem with Rev. Robertson or anyone speculating on what may happen in the future. In college and afterwards, my friends and I enjoyed an annual parlor game of predicting the new year's events. One of us would record and save the list of everyone's predictions, which would be read at the next New Year's Eve party.

This tradition began, to the best of my recollection, when one of us (I forget who but it wasn't me) became fascinated by tabloid prognostications. Our college chaplain, Fr. Anton J. Borer, SMB, challenged our gullibility about these so-called psychics by having us make our own forecasts. We predicted things that would happen worldwide or to the nation or more locally. We also forecast things in our own and our family's or friends' lives. He carefully recorded all our predictions. His theory was we would be just as accurate as then-famous forecasters such as Jeanne Dixon.

That is exactly what happened that first year. We found we were right about fifty percent of the time, which meant we were wrong fifty percent. That batting average continued to hold more or less true every year. After that first year, none of us took any such predictions seriously and joked about our "fearless forecasts" made as a way to pass the time before midnight on New Year's Eve.

In later years, I continued this tradition with my Mom and now do it by myself. Each year, a few predictions are right on the money. Others are partially true; others are completely wrong. In no way to I consider even the accurate ones some kind of psychic ability. I believe that anyone will get lucky on a few if they make enough predictions.

Pat Robertson crosses the bar, though, when he states that "God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack..." (emphasis added). The words "God told" makes Robertson's prediction a prophecy. That means it must happen. If it does not, then there are only two conclusions. Either God is a liar or Robertson is a false prophet. Robertson digs himself a deeper hole when he cautions, "Sometimes I miss" on these predictions given to him by God. Jeremiah 23: 31-32 (New International Version) warns:

"Yes," declares the LORD, "I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, 'The LORD declares.' Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," declares the LORD. "They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least," declares the LORD.

According to John 8:44, Satan, not God, is the father of lies. Prophecies from God will occur precisely as predicted down to the minutest detail. Anyone, including Pat Robertson, who claims an event will happen because God said it would must be 100 percent accurate. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (NIV) provides the way to discern prophecy:

You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?" If what a prophet proclaims in the ame of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

God does not "miss." If the event does not happen, then believers can know that the forecast was authored by Satan, and the forecaster is a false prophet. It is a good thing that Robertson did not live during Old Testament times. The penalty for "misses" in prophecy was death.