VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (ABP) — In the latest of a long-but-unsuccessful line of predictions and prophecies, Pat Robertson said Jan. 2 the United States will face a massive terrorist attack in late 2007.
The 76-year-old religious broadcaster uttered his prediction during the Jan. 2 broadcast of The 700 Club, his news-and-commentary show on the Christian Broadcasting Network. Robertson said that, during a recent time of prayer, God revealed to him an attack on the United States would result in “mass killing,” according to news reports.
“I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear,” Robertson said. “The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”
An Associated Press story quoted Robertson as saying major cities will be affected by the attack, which he said will happen after September.
Several Baptist theologians and ethicists condemned the televangelist's latest remarks.
Robertson's prediction of doom plays on an already-established fear among Americans: In a Dec. 31 poll reported by the Associated Press, six in 10 people think the U.S. will fall victim to a terrorist attack this year.
This is not the first prediction of national calamity Robertson has made. In May 2006, he claimed American coastlines would be “lashed by storms” and the Pacific Northwest hit by “something as bad as a tsunami.” No such disasters occurred that year.
It's also not the first time his comments on a wide range of subjects have made headlines. In August 2005, Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. He said Chávez was an “out-of-control dictator” who allowed “communist infiltration and Muslim extremism” in South America.
Robertson was widely criticized in January 2006 for saying Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was God's retribution for Sharon's ceding more land to the Palestinians.
Later that year, Robertson lost a bid for re-election to a seat he had held for 30 years on the board of the National Religious Broadcasters.
Robertson's claims continue to make news because of his prominent place among American evangelicals. He founded several influential evangelical institutions, including the Christian Broadcasting Network and Regent University, both based in Virginia Beach, Va.; the Washington advocacy group American Center for Law and Justice; and the political group the Christian Coalition.
David Gushee, a moral philosophy professor at Baptist-affiliated Union University in Jackson, Tenn., said evangelicals should not worry about Robertson's claims — and others should not take his comments to represent all evangelicals.
“No one knows the future except God,” Gushee said in an e-mailed interview response. “No one's predictions about 2007 carry any authority whatsoever, except insofar as they are grounded in publicly available evidence.”
Don Wilkey, pastor at First Baptist Church in Onalaska, Texas, has followed Robertson's activities for years. He has written book reviews and essays about the evangelist, one of which called Robertson's book New World Order a “catch-all for conspiracy theories.”
He too brushed aside Robertson's prediction, although he acknowledged that many people continue to put much faith in the televangelist.
“If you're looking for crazy stuff that [Robertson] said, it's not hard to come by,” Wilkey said. “He and [Jerry] Falwell have made these crazy statements for years.”
Beth Newman, a theology professor at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, took a more specified view of Robertson's claims. While most Christians certainly believe in prophets, she said, prophesy and prediction are markedly different. In her opinion, prediction is more like fortune-telling.
“In Scripture, the prophets deliver a word from the Lord that always carries with it a self-judgmental call to repent, to turn to God, to be God's people,” Newman said. “Robertson's predictions lack that wider theological context.”
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Read more:
After 30-year tenure, Robertson loses NRB board membership (3/7)
'Pray to Darwin,' Robertson tells city that rejected intelligent design (11/10/2005)
Following international rebukes, Pat Robertson apologizes (8/30/2005)
Christian leaders rebuke Robertson for assassination recommendation (8/24/2005)