To avoid getting censored, I will be speaking cryptically. I believe widespread injustice occurred during a certain event in 2020. I believe this injustice will be rectified soon, and that a certain person will be reinstated to an office that’s at the tippy top.

2016 Trump Dream

In 2015-2016 I was finishing up my time at a Presbyterian seminary and I was the only one at the seminary who supported Donald Trump. This was when everyone was still pretending to be scandalized by Trump’s boorish behavior and foul language and so on. I supported him almost immediately. We were electing a civil magistrate, not a bishop. I thought he would be a good president, and I was right. I saw that he would be a good president when nobody else in that realm did.

My cessationist pastor at the time made predictions that Trump would shoot up like a bottle rocket and sputter out just the same. He didn’t think he would win the election. His prediction was wrong. And that’s okay. I don’t believe he’s a false prophet because his future prediction didn’t come to pass. I don’t think using reason is now invalid because his prediction failed. And to his credit, and unlike many other Christian leaders, he publicly admitted his initial judgments were wrong about Trump, and he wound up supporting him in 2020.

I supported Trump for a myriad of reasons that would be too extensive to get into here, but it was largely, almost exclusively through my rational faculties that I decided to support him. There was no supernatural visions or dreams or anything like that. I saw that he had courage. He wasn’t afraid. And that is what we need in our leaders. Trump has it in spades.

Then in October of 2016, I had a dream where I saw a stage. And on the stage was a table. Around the table were about a dozen U.S. and world leaders. The ones I remember were George W. Bush and Tim Kaine. Tim Kaine was Hilary Clinton’s VP pick in 2016. Tim Kaine stood up from his seat and started walking around the table. I thought he was going to attack George Bush, but he was actually defending Bush from somebody who jumped on stage from the audience. Kaine grabbed this audience member who was rushing the stage and started pushing him away. Then security came out. Then more audience members started rushing the stage. Then more. And more. The audience overwhelmed them. It was chaos. Almost violent. End of the dream. I interpreted this to be a picture of populist takeover, a disruption of the establishment. I interpreted it to mean that Trump would win the election. Then he did. Cessationists were wrong in their predictions. Continuationists were right.

I emailed the dream and the interpretation to two friends. I also told my family. So, it has a timestamp and witnesses of having a correct prediction prior to the election.

2020 Trump Dreams

Fast forward to 2020. I had no Trump dreams leading up to the election. Trump was packing out stadiums. People enthusiastically liked him. More people were supporting him in 2020 than in 2016. Biden couldn’t get people to come to his rallies. Nobody was enthusiastic about him. Nobody loved Biden the way they loved Trump. We could go on and on about all these things. The election happens. And Trump starts out winning, then in the middle of the night, Biden miraculously “wins.” Biden, who we all know is far more popular than Barack Obama, got more votes than Obama did in 2008. He got more votes than any president in history. So, even just using my powers of natural observation and rational faculties, I was convinced something was wrong.

November goes by. No dream. December goes by. I don’t have any dreams, but my father has a dream. In the dream, Trump is hitting baseballs with a bat. And Trump is singing, “I got the power,” by SNAP!. Now, my father does not listen to pop music. He barely listens to any music. He listens to Christian worship music. So, it’s not like he’s a guy plugged into pop culture, listening to early 90’s pop-rap, and this is just manifesting in his unconscious. I took this dream to mean that Trump had the power. And that the results of the election would be overturned.

Then we’re into 2021 and most of January goes by with nothing supernatural. But then the night before Biden’s inauguration, I have a dream. Vivid. Clear. Powerful.

I’m at a very fancy soirée or cocktail party. It’s crowded. The upper echelon of society is there. The rich and famous. Trump is there. George Washington is there. Trump is looking at me. And he grins, as if to say, “watch this.” He is completely cool and calm and confident. He starts moving through the crowd at the party. And makes his way to Washington. Then Trump does something that shocks everyone. The chatter stops. There’s something like a collective gasp. And everyone is looking at Trump who is inaugurating George Washington as President. Then they both disappear in front of everyone like Frodo disappearing when he puts on the ring. End of dream.

At the time, I thought this meant that Biden was not going to be inaugurated. Something will happen that will stop it. The dream was so vivid and clear and made a huge impression on me. And of course I love Trump. I’m a big Trump supporter. So, you might think I was just manifesting my own desires. But if my dreams were just manifesting my desires why was Trump inaugurating someone else? Wouldn’t it be something like Trump comes in with a swat team and arrests Biden, Hilary, and then Trump gets inaugurated? That’s not what it was. The dream was so strange and so strong and not like something I would have imagined or thought up. Especially the disappearing at the end. What did that mean? I didn’t know. But I was convinced Biden would not be inaugurated. Somebody even bet me $300 that Biden would get inaugurated. I took the bet, and of course loss the $300. And what makes it worse is I lost it to the Shooter McGavin of cessationist theology.

The Nature of Revelation

Now, I was confident that Biden wouldn’t be inaugurated, but I always said that I could be wrong. And I never said, “Thus sayeth the Lord,” or this is a word from God. Even though I believed God was speaking to me through these dreams.

I made a prediction based on all the available data to me, and I was wrong with respect to timing. Now, I may be wrong altogether, but we’ll find out. If that’s the case, then I’ll chalk it up as a failed prediction, which people make all the time. People predict the Bulls are going to lose to the Celtics. Or that we’ll arrive in Denver at noon. Or that the Republicans will take back the House in the midterms. People predict things all the time, and sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong. It would be irrational for me not to consider all of the available data, including dreams, and not come to some kind of conclusion. Dreams are in Scripture. And dreams are how God often reveals things. And this gets into the larger issue of the nature of revelation.

Revelation comes to us in various ways. God reveals through His prophets and Apostles, as recorded in Scripture. He spoke through His Son, as recorded in The Gospels. This we call supernatural revelation. God also reveals through creation. This we call natural revelation. Both natural revelation and supernatural revelation are equally infallible. 2+2=4 is just as infallible as “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:24). It’s all truth revealed by God. Now, the same holds true for dreams and visions and intuitions. Though, it’s slightly different. These things can be ways of God speaking, of God revealing, as we see all over the place in Scripture, and throughout Church history. I say can because I hold to the possibility that dreams can be manifestations of our own desires and wishes perhaps. They can also be influenced evil spirits, rather than the Holy Spirit. These are possibilities. One has to use discernment.

Now, just because God’s revelation is infallible doesn’t mean that the interpretation of that revelation is infallible. Not every pastor who preaches on Matthew 24 correctly interprets what it means. Similarly, not every scientist who publishes work on the natural world, correctly interprets the data of his observations. And yet, these misinterpretations by pastors and scientists do not automatically make the pastor or the scientist a false prophet. If the weatherman predicts it will rain on Monday by studying God’s revelation in the created order, and it turns out to be sunny on Monday, do cessationists say we should stone the weatherman for his false prophecy? He made a prediction based on revelation from God, and was wrong. Should we stone him? If a pastor predicts that Donald Trump would definitely not be elected President in 2016, based on his use of his rational faculties and observations of the political landscape, do cessationists say this pastor is a false prophet and should be stoned? No, they don’t. Nor should they. He made a prediction based on all the available revelation to him, and he was wrong. Doesn’t make him a false teacher, or false prophet. This same holds true for a Christian, or we could even say a Christian prophet, who gets a prediction wrong.

False Prophets

So, what does make someone a false prophet? Cessationists will often go to Deuteronomy 13 & 18. Both of which deal with false prophets.

In Deuteronomy 13, the false prophet performs signs and wonders. He actually has some kind of supernatural ability to demonstrate his prophetic abilities. He can make predictions that come true. But this prophet then attempts to entice the covenant people to go and worship other gods. The false prophet in Deuteronomy 13 is one who tries to persuade people away from worshiping Yahweh. Charismatics and Pentecostals are not doing this. They all worship Yahweh, and are not trying to pull people away from worshiping Yahweh.

Then if we move to Deuteronomy 18, we have a prophecy concerning the coming of Christ. We are told twice that a prophet like Moses will come. And that when he comes, he must be listened to, or the Lord will require it of him. How do we know who this new Prophet is? If he predicts something to come to pass and it doesn’t happen, you don’t have to be afraid of him. You don’t have to listen to him as if God were speaking through him.

The prophet in Deuteronomy 18 will be like Moses. Moses was the mediator of the Mosaic covenant. Through Moses God established the law and the tabernacle and the Levites and so on. Deuteronomy 18 has in mind a prophet like Moses in that he, too, will establish a covenant, a new covenant. This prophet like Moses will be the mediator of a new covenant.

Deuteronomy 18 isn’t about prophets in general, but about a prophet like Moses. It’s about Jesus. Charismatic and pentecostal prophets are not setting up a new covenant. They are not claiming to be the prophet like Moses who was to come.

Jesus, as the prophet like Moses, predicted that Jerusalem would be destroyed within one generation. And it was. Jesus predicted that he would be crucified and rise again three days later. He was and He did. We could go on. Jesus’ fulfilled prophetic predictions were one facet that vindicated him as the prophet like Moses who would come.

So, how can we apply Deuteronomy 13 and 18 now? Is someone performing miracles and drawing people away from Yahweh? They’re a false prophet. Is someone setting themselves up as a prophet like Moses, establishing a new covenant, mediating a new covenant? That was Jesus. We aren’t expecting another prophet like Moses to come, unless it’s Jesus coming back in final judgment. Men like Muhammed and Joseph Smith are false prophets like the ones discussed in Deuteronomy 18. Men like Muhammed and Joseph Smith ought to be excommunicated from the Christian churches.

Moses Compared to Ordinary Prophets

It’s worth noting that God makes a distinction between Moses and ordinary prophets.

Number 12:6-8:

“Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision;
I speak to him in a dream.
Not so with My servant Moses;
He is faithful in all My house.
I speak with him face to face,
Even plainly, and not in dark sayings;
And he sees the form of the Lord.”

There is a distinction between the ordinary prophet and Moses the prophet. God speaks to the ordinary prophet in dreams, and visions, and dark sayings. But with Moses God spoke face to face and plainly. Dreams, visions, and dark sayings, are sometimes hard to decipher. It was consider noteworthy when a prophet, like Samuel, prophesied in a way where none of his words fell to the ground. “So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.” (1 Samuel 3:19) This seems to suggest that not everything prophets say is infallible.

We have an example of a fallible word from a prophet in Scripture, of a prophet’s words falling to the ground, of a prophet speaking in the name of the Lord who gets a prediction wrong and he isn’t stoned to death.

In 2 Samuel 7, David consults with the prophet Nathan about building a house for the Lord. And Nathan says, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.” (2 Samuel 7:3) He speaks in the name of the Lord. He says, “Yahweh is with you.” He is giving his approval to David. Giving his judgment that the Lord is with him, and predicting that the Lord will be with him in the future building of this house. But then later that night the Lord corrects Nathan. The Lord rebukes Nathan, and in summary says, “No. David will not build a house for me. I will build a house for David. And David’s seed will build a house for Me.” This has dual reference to Solomon and to Christ. But the point is that Nathan was wrong, and he wasn’t stoned to death. Cessationists would have Nathan the prophet stoned on their reading of Deuteronomy 18.

The Nature of Prophecy

What cessationists are doing is equivocating canonized Scripture with prophecy. Canonized Scripture certainly contains prophecy, but not all prophecy is canonized Scripture. All of Canonized Scripture is infallible, but not all prophecy is infallible.

If we ask the question, “what is prophecy?” it can be hard to define. But if we look at what prophets are generally doing, they are calling God’s wayward people back to covenantal faithfulness. They often bring the message of repentance. Return to the Word of God.

This aspect of prophecy is something that all preachers engage in. In fact, Heinrich Bullinger in the first chapter of The Second Helvetic Confession wrote, “The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God, Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very word of God is preached, and received by the faithful.” The Puritan William Perkins wrote a book on preaching called The Art of Prophesying. And no one would say that preaching is infallible. It is edifying, as Paul says prophecy should be. “He who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.” (1 Corinthians 14:3) But we would all admit that preachers can sometimes get things wrong.

We even see that Jonah made predictive statements that didn’t come to pass. “And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4) Did Nineveh get overthrown in 40 days? No. Why? Because sometimes predictive prophecy is conditional. The implication of Jonah’s prophetic utterance was “unless you repent.” But this isn’t stated by him. The conditional nature was implicitly understood. Cessationists would have stoned Jonah to death on their reading of Deuteronomy 18.

We have a similar prophecy by Elijah in 1 Kings 21. God tells Elijah to prophesy to Ahab that he would die in the same place Naboth died. But then Ahab repents. And the Lord relents from bringing calamity on Ahab. Instead, he brings calamity on Ahab’s sons. Ahab doesn’t die in the same place as Naboth, and after he does eventually die, Ahabs sons are demolished by Jehu.

So, the conditional nature of some prophecies are evident in Scripture. We see that some predictive prophecies can be amended or delayed or averted altogether.

As mentioned above, not all prophecy is canon. There are many prophets in the old and new testament, whose prophecies didn’t make it into the canon. During Moses’ time, Medad and Eldad, the two elders who remained in the camp prophesied (Numbers 11). Their prophesies aren’t in the canon. In 1 Kings 18:4 we read that Jezebel massacres the prophets of the Lord, and that Obadiah hides one hundred of them in caves. None of their prophecies are in the canon. Philip the Evangelist has four unmarried daughters who were prophetesses. (Acts 21:9) None of their prophecies are in the canon. There were prophets in the congregation of Corinth. (1 Corinthians 14:29) None of their prophecies are in the canon. Furthermore, Paul tells the Corinthian congregation to judge what the prophets are saying. “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.” (1 Corinthians 14:29) This kind of statement is non-sensical on a cessationist understanding of the nature of prophecy. There are many other points of consideration that I haven’t touched on, but this is sufficient for our purposes.

Joshua, like cessationists today, tried to get Moses to stop Medad and Eldad from prophesying. Moses responds. “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29) This has happened in the new covenant. God has placed his Spirit on all the Lord’s people, and given them the ability to prophesy. In the New Covenant there is a democratization of the Spirit. And we ought to encourage this kind of thing, instead of trying to shut it down.

Paul says that we prophesy in part. (1 Corinthians 13:9) It is not a complete understanding of things. And so we shouldn’t be surprised when prophets sometimes misinterpret the dark sayings they hear, or the strange visions they see, or the wild dreams they have. This does not mean we should be flippant and cavalier about prophecy. But Paul says to eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, and not to quench the Spirit. Paul says to walk in the way of Love, since love is preeminent over all, but this doesn’t mean neglecting the lesser gifts of prophecy, speaking in tongues, healings, and so on.

If anyone is interested in more on this topic, I have a written interview in the description, specifically talking about the intersection of reformed catholicity and continuationism.

But given all of these factors, I believe it is sufficient in showing that the cessationist criticism of charismatics and pentecostals ought to be reconsidered. That misinterpreting dreams or revelations or visions or things like this is not grounds for automatic excommunication, since this is not what Deuteronomy 18 is anticipating. But if there is a repetitive pattern of false predictions accompanied with bad theology, eschatology, etc. then wisdom may require some kind of discipline, intervention, or rebuke.

Charismatic Trump Prophecy and Politics

Now, I have always been a fan of Trump. But I am not a worshiper of Trump or politics. If politics were compared to the human body, I view it as the digestion tract. If we have to think about it, it means we’re probably sick. I do not look to politics or politicians for salvation. Christ is king. He is reigning now. He is our salvation. Andrew Breitbart only got it partly right when he said politics is downstream from culture. This is true, but there’s more to the story. Culture is downstream from worship. The worship of the Church is far more important than culture and politics. And I don’t mean merely liturgical forms or singing songs, though those are important. I mean things that are far more important and fundamental to worship like covenant breaking and covenant keeping. The worship of the Church is far more deeply and directly connected to politics than whatever idiotic thing is being debated on Fox News. The world is organized and run in terms of God’s covenant with His church. This is much more fundamental to reality than politics. We don’t have time to plumb the depths of this truth, but I bring it up to say that I’m not looking to Trump or politics for a solution. The solution lies in repentance and proper worship under the word of God.

I believe that we are receiving the just covenantal curses due to the Church permitting divorce and remarriage, which Jesus says is adultery. So, most churches have incorporated adultery as part of their worship. On a temporal, covenantal, perspective, we only deserve curses upon curses. And we have received them.

However, God is gracious. He is merciful. And He does use men like King Cyrus to deliver His people. Or Queen Esther to save His people. Or Emperor Constantine to put an end to the persecution of His people. Or President Trump to advocate for His people and their just causes, like overturning Roe v. Wade. God is not aloof from politics and earthly means of blessing his people. And He does bless households, cities, and nations due to the faithful remnant. Think Abraham rescuing Lot and the people of Sodom from Chedorlaomer. Or God willing to spare Sodom for the sake of ten righteous men. Or Jacob prospering Laban. Or Joseph saving Egypt. There is a small remnant of faithful Christians in America. I believe Trump represents God’s mercy in the midst of judgment, due ultimately to God’s grace, and due in a temporal sense to the remnant. So, I don’t view Trump as God, but as God’s mercy and even instruction in how Christians ought to be strong and courageous.

Back in 2020, I had little to no idea that Trump prophecies and dreams were so prolific among God’s people, especially the charismatic and pentecostal tribes. I generally don’t interact much with charismatics and pentecostals. Most of my reading and interaction is with Presbyterians, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Christians who have gone into glory. But in 2020-21 I began to discover there were tons of Christians who were having dreams about Trump. And tons of prophecies about Trump. This wasn’t just in America either. There were Christians all over the world prophesying and having dreams about Trump. This, to me, is significant. Especially because of how clear it is that so many of these Christians have humility and love for God. And it’s clear they know God, unlike some cessationists who only read about God, but never experience His power. Some cessationists seem content to play word games talking about God. Some cessationists talk about experience and emotion like they are evil things. These cessationists basically advocate for a gnostic, disembodied Christianity. A Christianity which studies God as if He were a frog on a lab table to be dissected. Continuationists are not like this. They are normal Christians who actually have a real relationship with the Lord, and so their testimonies mean more to me than the scoffing and unbelief of arrogant and condescending cessationists. It factors into my judgment that something significant happened in 2020, and I’m still waiting for things to be set right. I still believe all of those dreams and visions and words were significant, and I don’t think they have fallen to the ground.

WWG1WGA

I am not at all prone to believing conspiracy theories. I believe we landed on the moon. I don’t believe that 9/11 was an inside job. I don’t think the Illuminati is a thing or that the earth is flat. I also had dismissed another theory that must not be named. So I will just call it 17. Let the reader understand (think of a numbered alphabet). So, I had dismissed 17. But in 2021, I was talking with someone who I respect, a Marine, and a classical Christian educator. He was persuaded that 17 could be a legit military operation. I began doing what research I could, and it’s a giant mess of speculation, and endless rabbit holes. But in the madness, there is sanity. And there’s enough to persuade me to think there’s a possibility that 17 could be a valid military operation against the Deep State criminal syndicate. I’ve even thought that my dream about Trump inaugurating Washington might be about 17 – that Trump has anticipated and organized a military operation with the aim of “draining the swamp.” The disappearing at the end of my dream perhaps indicating that Trump’s plan is covert. That Trump has put invisible ghosts into the machine, like we see in the Army’s Special Forces recruitment video, which eerily uses the same phrases and language 17 likes to use, such as “All the world’s a stage.” Instead of fomenting a coup in some foreign country, perhaps there are covert forces protecting our country from a coup that took place two years ago. Letting the criminal insurrectionists hang themselves with the rope of their own law breaking. And the white hats are pretending to be weak, so that our enemies grow arrogant.

I’ve even found it interesting that some of the symbolism in the Snap! music video is weirdly relevant. A man speaks in Russian about The Americans producing personal satellite computers. The rapper is at a podium wearing a suit in some of the shots – signifying power. And some of the dancers are wearing red shoes – which in the 17 realm signifies pedophile rings in Hollywood and Government circles. Russia, powerful men, and red shoes sounds like Tony Podesta and his art collection.

Trump has explicitly been asked about 17 and he said he didn’t know what it was. He said he only knew they were against pedophiles, which he thought was good. Besides being a hilarious response, he didn’t denounce it. Recently he’s been playing a song used by the 17 community at his rallies. He’s also been reposting 17 memes with captions like “Believe!” It would be odd and uncharacteristic, in my opinion, that Trump would do these things if he wasn’t able to deliver what the 17 crowd is hoping for, as Trump has delivered more than any other president in my lifetime.

Furthermore, if 17 is just a ridiculous, nonsense, conspiracy, why is the media so intensely against anyone talking about it and always demanding it’s denunciation. Why do I have to talk in code to avoid getting censored? Whenever I see the media or social media platforms reacting like this to something, it’s an indicator to me that there might be something to it.

But there might not be anything to it. God may produce a black swan event that nobody anticipated, at least in the details. Or perhaps this is our reality, and we are receiving the just punishment for our unrestrained divorce and remarriage adultery. In any case, for the past two years, I have been persuaded, we will see the 2020 injustice overturned, and Trump reinstated as President. I believe we will see this by the end of the year, if not sooner. That’s what I’ve been praying for. It’s what I will continue to pray for. It’s what I’m hoping for.