Thu 4 Jan 2007
Pat Robertson: Using God's name in vain
Posted by Darren under Apologetics , Christians , Epistemology , Faith , God , News , Spiritual RealmI was going to write up a commentary on Pat Robertson's most recent vague, eyeroll-worthy 'prediction', but fortunately Stand to Reason's Melinda Penner has already written up a brief commentary that expresses my own concerns about Mr. Robinson quite succinctly:
Robertson has given us no reason to believe that he is [a prophet] – especially given the poor track record of his past prophetic utterances. … When we use God's name, we should evaluate whether it will bring God honor or ridicule, whether we have the proper authority to use it.
http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2007/01/speaking_for_go.html
This is really, IMHO, an example of using God's name in vain (Exodus 20:7), as Melinda also notes in her article. I don't doubt that prophecy is still possible, but that doesn't mean it is in any way frequent. Sometimes when we read the Bible (which by nature records uncommon, atypical events) we get the impression that miracles were, and should still be, happening on a continuous, almost daily basis. But that is not the case; the incidents of prophecy and miracles were recorded precisely because they were the exception to the norm.
(BTW, yeah that's me in the pic above; edited from an old picture taken about 3 years ago.)
Related reading:
- Miracles of Myths? – Greg Koukl takes a look at whether miracles are possible … the resurrection, in particular.
- Petition asking Pat Robertson to apologize – I signed it. (Started by centuri0n.)
- The A-Team Blog's response to Pat Robertson – Sounds like they agree with me too.
5 Responses to “Pat Robertson: Using God's name in vain”
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January 8th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Robertson is an embarrassment to Christianity! And to think he ran for U.S. President back in the 80's! }}shudder{{
(BTW, not to nitpick, but you got his name wrong: its Robertson, not Robinson).
January 10th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Oops!! Thanks Jared, that's not nitpicking, that's just carelessness on my part. Fixed!
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