Prophesying Politics

Prophesying that a person or party will win an election is a pointless activity. People will respond in two different ways.

• The supporters of the person or party prophesied about will hear what they want to hear. Prophesying what people want to hear is dangerous. If the prophet thinks that God wants a person or party to win, they would be better to urge people to pray, than to declare a winner.

• The person or party’s opponents will not believe the prophecy until it happens. Even if it does happen, they will assume that the prophet got lucky. They will lose confidence in the role of prophecy.

No one really benefits from such a prophecy, except perhaps the person prophesying. They get an ego boost if they manage to pick the winner, but that might not be good for them either.

Geoff Holsclaw has a good article on this theme called Calling the Election a Fraud Because Your Favorite Prophets Do Is Dangerous.