VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (ABP) — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said that God told him to look for a quick rebound of the economy in 2009 but warned against threats of long-term runaway inflation and instability in the Middle East.
In what has become an annual tradition for the Christian Broadcasting Network, Robertson shared on “The 700 Club” Jan. 2 his forecasts for the coming year. Robertson says he bases the predictions on messages he discerns from God during an annual prayer retreat.
 Pat Robertson says Barack Obama is “going to get anything he wants” to restructure the economy. |
Robertson hasn’t always been so accurate. In 2005 he predicted “triumph” for President Bush during his second term. In years past, he has also predicted that Russia would invade Israel (1982), projected a worldwide economic collapse (1985) and said U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) would be elected president (1996).
“I say it with humility,” the 78-year-old television preacher and Christian Coalition founder said of his annual predictions. “I hope I’ve heard the Lord. I spend time praying and asking him for wisdom. If there’s a mistake it’s not his fault. It’s mine.”
Defying the view of many experts that the economy will continue to worsen, Robertson said he expects a swift recovery. “I think the stock market is going to turn around almost immediately,” he said.
The downside, he said, is the danger of “hyperinflation” such as Germany experienced in the 1930s, before Hitler came to power.
“I’ve seen it in Zaire, for example,” he said. “I met with the leadership in that country and warned them that if they didn’t stop printing money they were going to have a social collapse, and indeed that’s what happened. Their currency went from four to the dollar to about 40,000 to the dollar and exactly what I said was going to happen. There was rioting in the streets. The people began to loot and pillage, and there was terrible social unrest. And that’s what can happen with hyperinflation.”
Robertson predicted that Americans will “welcome socialism in order to relieve their pain,” and “nothing will stand in the way” of a plan by President-elect Obama to restructure the economy in the same fashion as Franklin Roosevelt did after the Great Depression.
“The Lord said, ‘He’s going to get anything he wants,'” Robertson said of Obama. “And the tendency is going to be to set up another New Deal where you’re federalizing many of the things that you’re doing.”
“It will be the largest transfer of power to Washington since the ’30s, but people are just willing to accept it, because the pain has been so bad,” Robertson said. “He’ll be able to get anything he wants.”
Robertson also warned that, “lacking strong leadership,” dangerous dictatorships will threaten the peace and security of millions of people, and cited Russia as particularly dangerous. “What the Russians are getting ready to do is to put together a coalition in the Middle East to try to gain control of the oil,” he said. “I think the time of the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 is at hand.”
Ezekiel 38 is an apocalyptic chapter prophesying “the Magog invasion” of Israel by a coalition of forces from the north.
Robertson said Israel “is entering a period of extreme crisis” and that dealing forcefully with the Palestinians will bring international condemnation and sanctions against Israel’s government, “but the Lord will uphold his people despite world opinion.”
Robertson also said Islam “is losing its grip” on adherents around the world, leaving nominal Muslims open to accepting Christ. “The violence and bloodshed has turned many against this religion of hate,” Robertson said. “And the Lord said: ‘Expand your outreach to Muslims. They are ready to listen.'”
Robertson said “there has never been nor will there ever be a more propitious time for the gospel.”
“People by the tens of millions will be seeking answers,” he said. “They will gladly receive the forgiveness of sins that was bought by the death of Jesus Christ.”
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.