“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the message does not come to pass or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.” – Deut. 18:22

No matter if you like it or not, Joe Biden won the US presidential election. This is very awkward for all the pastors and televangelists who claimed that God had told them that Trump would be reelected. Some of them even claimed that he would do so “by a landslide”.

This video includes false Trump prophecies by Pat Robertson, Paula White-Cain, Kris Vallotton, Mark Taylor, Kat Kerr, Marcus Rogers, Kevin Zadai, Greg Locke, Taribo West, Denise Goulet, Curt Landry, Jeremiah Johnson.

As of this writing, only Vallotton has apologized for his mistake – and even he took his apology down after many of his followers protested.

Of course, this raises the question: if these church leaders were wrong about this, what else are they wrong about? Most of them were not only predicting Trump’s victory, but hoping for it. Some of them described his presidency as “goodness” even as it included a complete disregard for refugees and people affected by climate change.

It’s time to reevaluate what kind of leaders we want to be influenced by.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that these church leaders are all false prophets. Like Bible scholar Craig Keener, I think one can do prophetic mistakes without being influenced by demons.

Still, such mistakes should be taken very seriously. As Beth Moore recently pointed out, Christian Trumpism has turned out to be extremely seductive and dangerous, doing massive harm to the body of Christ.

This was evident at the recent Jericho March in Washington D.C., where evangelicals were told to worship the virgin Mary in order for her to send angels in support of Trump, and where conspiracy theorist Alex Jones shouted that the Trump movement is “the great revival before the Antichrist”.

I believe in prophecy, and I believe in Christians praying for political leaders. But when prophecy is used as a tool to promote partisan goals and demonize people of another opinion, that can only be described as spiritual abuse.