Modern Day Prophets vs Old Time Prophets

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

This will likely offend someone, but in reality, if people would simply check sources – especially God’s Word – and use critical thinking skills and discernment, this type of thing would not be so welcomed by the many. I’m referring to Mr. Mark Taylor, a firefighter who claims to be a prophet of God because of what he believes were/are revelations given to him by God regarding Donald J. Trump.

I’ve written about Taylor and a few other individuals previously; here and here. Mr. Taylor continues with his prophecies. He has a You Tube channel and he regularly posts on social media pages about what he believes God is doing and how God is revealing things to him. On May 1, 2019, Mr. Taylor tweeted out about some potential message buried in the names of certain horses in this year’s Kentucky Derby. He’s referring to this particular article here and you can see the list of horses at the bottom of the article.

From the article, here are the names with the odds for each horse:

• Omaha Beach – 4-1
• Game Winner – 5-1
• Roadster – 6-1
• Improbable – 6-1
• Maximum Security – 10-1
• Tacitus – 10-1
• Code of Honor – 15-1
• Win Win Win – 15-1
• War of Will – 20-1
• Tax – 20-1
• By My Standards – 20-1
• Vekoma – 20-1
• Plus Que Parfait – 30-1
• Cutting Humor – 30-1
• Haikal – 30-1
• Long Range Toddy – 30-1
• Spinoff – 30-1
• Country House – 30-1
• Gray Magician – 50-1
• Master Fencer – 50-1

According to Mr. Taylor, this is not coincidence or happenstance. He apparently believes this to be the very hand of God, as he states, “Huge prophetic message here folks! Read all the names and see for yourself.” According to Taylor then, God had a hand in possibly picking or at least entering these horses into this year’s Kentucky Derby as a means of prophetic discourse for all who are enlightened with respect to spiritual things.

This is sad in many ways. I remember things like this happening within the Charismatic Movement when I was involved in it as a young man. By way of introduction for something like this, someone would usually say something like, “God has such a sense of humor!” to be followed by big smiles all around and lots of “Praise God!” vocalized.

Does God have a sense of humor? I’m sure He does because the pinnacle of His creation – humanity – has one. But this type of prophetic discourse, in my view, does a huge disservice to God and His Word.

We know pointedly from God’s Word that things in the world will become progressively worse, don’t we? The only way, as I’ve said before, that this is not what Scripture says is when people decide to allegorize His Word. When read and understood in its most plain and ordinary sense, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion that this world is moving rapidly toward judgment with God. That is the inescapable conclusion.

So what do we do with people like Mark Taylor? What you do with him (and others like him) is completely up to you, but if we call ourselves Christians and we believe ourselves to have some semblance of God-given discernment because of the residing Holy Spirit within us, we had better do what the Bereans in Acts 17 did. We need to be studying His Word on a daily basis and we need to be in constant communication with God.

Should we expect God to “speak” to us? Sure, from His Word, as the Spirit impresses things on our hearts. Should we look and expect God to speak to us extra-biblically, through other sources? I have serious doubts about that because it is only a very short step to moving away from God’s Word completely and relying on external feelings that will cause us to think that God is speaking to us through things like the names of horses in the Kentucky Derby.

The thing I recall vividly from my association with the Charismatic Movement was the fact that over time, while you might keep God’s Word in your back pocket so to speak, the truth is that you start looking for God to speak to you through everything that comes your way; people, situations, or horses. These folks tend to memorize a few favorite Bible verses and those become their go-to verses for just about any situation. Moreover, they might use other Scripture verses by ripping them out of context and applying them wrongly to a situation in their own lives because it simply makes sense to them. However, if left in its own specific context, those verse clearly do not represent what they believe them to represent. This happens all the time within the Charismatic, Word of Faith, NAR, and other similar movements.

I’ve said this before but let me restate it. I believe that Donald J. Trump became the 45th president of the United States of America because of God. God raised Trump up. But if we believe Scripture, we also have to believe that this same thing occurred with Barack Obama, whether we like his policies or not.

We see this played out through the variety of kings who ruled over Israel and after the split, Israel, the northern kingdom and Judah, the southern kingdom. Why did God allow all those evil dictating kings like King Ahab, who married Jezebel, the daughter of the King of Tyre (1 Kings 16-22)? Why did God even allow Ahab to gain the throne since he was such an evil man who brought a great deal of judgment on that nation? Did God lose control? Obviously not and a careful reading of that section of 1 Kings helps us understand why.

So will Donald J. Trump as president accomplish some good things for America? Yes, he has done that and will continue to do that. For me personally, I cannot understand his support for Red Flag laws where guns are concerned because these laws set aside due process for people who are supposed to be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Red Flag laws treat them as guilty based on the testimony of one or two individuals who may make all sorts of claims against the person. Guns would be removed and the person would be in the position of having to prove their innocence. It makes no sense at all and essentially violates the 4th Amendment as well as others.

That aside, Trump appears to love the USA. He wants to drain the swamp. He then wants to install safeguards so that nothing like this can happen again. Will he be successful? Probably in part, but after Trump is done being president, another will be elected. Could things start all over again? It’s possible.

This world must get to a point of being so at odds with God that He has no recourse except to judge this world. People like Mark Taylor don’t necessarily believe that. They believe this is a turnaround time for the USA. No, it’s really simply a “pause” that can ultimately restart once Trump is gone from office.

It is one thing to be adamantly wrong and continue to believe you are right. Mr. Taylor seems to be going down an unwise path with his latest belief that God is working through the names of horses in the Kentucky Derby. I can imagine how he “felt” when he set his eyes on those names and it seemed to him that God was quickening this information within him so that it “felt” like prophetic discourse. This is what happens when people willingly go beyond God’s Word.

Let’s look at a real prophet for a moment. The text of 1 Chronicles 17:1-2 explains. King David was saddened by the fact that he lived in a beautiful palace of cedar, while the Ark of the Covenant from God stood under a tent. David bemoaned this fact as it did not appear to be fair to him.

An actual prophet Nathan stood by and heard David. Nathan’s response, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you” (v 2 ESV). Seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Nathan the prophet was encouraging the king to go ahead and do something about it; he should create a beautiful building for the Ark, one that befits God. Nathan didn’t see a problem with this encouragement. Unfortunately, Nathan was not speaking the actual words of God, but what he thought was the right answer.

That night, God comes to Nathan and explains that a house for the Ark will be built but not by David because he has way too much blood on his hands from all the wars that he entered into with surrounding nations. It would be David’s son Solomon, who would be the one to actually build a house for the Lord. God tells Nathan to arise and tell David, “It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in” (v 4).

Nathan made an honest mistake and he owned up to it. He wanted to encourage David the king to build whatever he had in mind because it was clear to him (Nathan) that God was with David. However, he misspoke and God corrected Nathan.

Out of obedience, Nathan went to David and “In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David” (v 15). Had Nathan not done this, God likely would’ve punished Nathan and possibly quite severely.

The problem here is that at first, Nathan spoke based on what he felt because it seemed right to him. But what may seem right does not mean it is right.

God corrected Nathan who was wise enough and humble enough to understand that he had been wrong. He would go back to David with the correct information he received directly from God as God spoke to Him (God’s Word).

Today, we have too many individuals who believe themselves to be actual apostles or prophets and whatever they think, they say believing that God is continually speaking through them.

The tragedy is that not only are they deceived but many people who avidly hang on every word they say are also deceived. I don’t hear any of these prophets talking about God’s upcoming judgment. Granted I haven’t paid attention to all of them but the ones I have heard aren’t speaking about judgment. They speaking about God winning through Donald J. Trump or someone else.

God will absolutely win. That is a certainty. But in order to get to that point, God’s judgment must pour out onto this earth and it won’t be pretty. It will be horrific.

Immerse yourself in God’s written Word. If you’re looking for God to “speak” to your Spirit apart from His Word, I would encourage you to stop doing that. Do you have the entirety of His written Word memorized? Do you understand every aspect of it? I doubt it (and neither do I), so shouldn’t we be spending more time reading, seeking to understand and immersing ourselves in His written Word rather than those who claim to be speaking for God?

By the way, the Kentucky Derby came and went with some controversy. Maximum Security was the original winner with Country House (a 65-1 long shot), coming in second.

After officials watched videos and interviewed jockeys, Maximum Security was disqualified and Country House moved into first place.

Not sure what Mr. Taylor will day on behalf of God regarding this, but maybe Mr. Taylor should stop talking.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective