Kim Clement
by Steve Lumbley, Apostasy Watch!
Deuteronomy 18:20-22
"If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message that Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”
Much has been written about Kim Clements most recent failed prophecies regarding the capture of Osama Bin Laden as well as his claims of March 11 2004 being the beginning of some kind of “unusual chain of events” in the Kingdom of God.
If you are unfamiliar with these, Tricia Tillin of Banner Ministries has an excellent summary of Clements faux pas here >
link now dead
Even after these spectacular failures many people still consider Clement to be a legitimate prophet. Steve Schultz, publisher of the Elijah List website even now has this to say about him;
”As many of you know, Kim Clement is not only one of my favorite people, Kim is, in my opinion, one of the highest level prophets known today. But along with that anointing...that gifting...comes the ability to teach and equip the saints to both Hear God's Voice for themselves and prophesy to others.”
Schultz’s Elijah List is promoting an 8 tape teaching series from Clement called, ironically, “Becoming His Voice”
"Becoming the voice of God ultimately makes you the greatest witness on earth. You don't actually hear the voice of God, you perceive it." - Kim Clement
As with all false prophets Clements occasionally mixes a little truth with his lies. When he says that he doesn’t “actually hear the voice of God” I’d have to say that he is 100% correct. As to his supposed prophecies his percentage is much lower.
Kim Clement is a Christianized version of an old time fortune teller or medium. He uses a variation of a technique known as cold reading to make guesses at future events. If you’ve ever seen John Edward supposedly talk to the dead on his TV show Crossing Over, you’ve seen this technique in action.
Cold reading is a technique whereby the ‘medium’ (psychic) picks up clues from their subjects expression and body language while asking seemingly innocent questions. It is somewhat of a shotgun approach in which a number of random possibilities are offered.
For example, the ‘medium’ may say - I’m hearing a J or G sounding name, or I’m perceiving a name like either Ellen or Helen, or Eleanore-it's like an Ellen-sounding name? He may also throw out a list of items such as a watch, or ring or brooch, etc. The willing subjects then interpret these vague questions in light of their own experience. The misses are ignored while the “hits”, elicit a reaction that allows the medium to glean more information from the subject.
The Clement version of this technique uses current events to offer educated guesses about what the future will hold.
For example on Feb 15 of this year Clement said
” In 2005, in the months of August, September and October, those three months, I will bring about such great festivities, because of the breakthrough that shall come and governing powers will be on your side, says the Lord.
Governing powers shall be on your side because of the new elections. The Spirit of God says, they will try again to do what they did to Bush. They will try again to do the same thing, and they will accuse of corruption, and they will accuse of mishandling. But God says, Oh no you don’t! You leave it! For that shall not resurrect again. I will stop it in an instant. And God says, there will be those that will cry out in agony. But God says, the government will be on your side because this shall be a thing that I will grant unto you because I love you and because your heart is pure, says the Lord of Hosts."
Now I don’t know about you but I don’t think it takes a prophet of the Lord to say that President Bush’s enemies will try again at some point to accuse him of corruption. Also if you’ll notice he refers to Aug. Sept. And Oct of 2005 and says, “Governing powers shall be on your side because of the new elections“. If I’m not mistaken, our elections will be held in Nov. 2004. Do you think maybe God is confused about when we hold our elections?
Then on June 28 of this year he said:
” God says, “You pray, for your prayers will shake the Nation, your prayers will shake this Nation. Those who have endeavored, once again, to bring from the ashes; corruption, it shall not happen. But this country will rejoice greatly at the end of this summer. August, September and October are your months of great satisfaction,” says the Lord.”
Well, which is it, Aug, Sept, Oct of this year or next?
During the same supposed prophecy he claimed :
”There shall be an attempt, not to bring punishment to Saddam Hussein, but to bring him back into power.”
Again, it doesn’t take any special mystical power to see that there are elements in Iraq who would like to have Saddam Hussein back in power. The current insurgency in places like Fallujah could be considered a fulfillment of this. Also, there could very well be an even more overt attempt to resurrect Saddam such as an attempted jail break or something like that. This is not prophecy. Clement is simply a keen observer of the current scene and is adept at making guesses. Like the medium using the cold reading technique, the misses are ignored while the hits are interpreted by willing listeners to be the power of God.
Kim Clement has been widely regarded to have prophesied the events of Sept. 11 2001, five years before they occurred.
Steve Schultz - “Just to remind you, Kim Clement is the one who, five full years before 9/11, prophesied this:”
"I am shaking this place. I am shaking your ground. I am shaking the earth. There has been a terrorist act and there will be another.' For the Spirit of the Lord says, 'America will retaliate,' but God says, 'even as they retaliate with natural weapons of war, and they say, 'we will go the place of the east, and we will go, and we will bring them down for what they did to our people as they flew in the air over Long Island."
"But the Spirit of the Lord says, 'Another will take place, but I will prevent many deaths, because I will cause a security thing to happen so they will not die. I will look after you, America'. 'But,' God says, 'the retaliation will not be right. It will not be of my Spirit. It will be a wrong decision, but,' God says, 'the saints of the Lord, of the most high God, will begin to pray. And your God says, I will strike down the god of the east. I will bring something to pass very soon. I have told you about it. The very god of the east, the very king of the east, the very prince of the east. The one that waged a war against America. They spoke about the mother of wars.' For God says, 'This is going to be the mother of wars as you have never seen. For the Spirit of God will rise up against the prince of the east, and He will bring him down.'" -- Kim Clement, July 25, 1996
From this reference to “
our people as they flew in the air over Long Island” , has grown the myth of Clements prophetic ability. But is that actually what he was saying at the time?
Please notice carefully the date of the prophecy, July 25, 1996.
That date is important because it was only 8 days after TWA flight 800 exploded in the air OFF THE COAST OF LONG ISLAND killing all 230 people on board.
One of the first theories was that the downing was terror related. The official government explanation later was mechanical failure but many even today believe that this was a terrorist act that was covered up by the Clinton administration so as not to alarm the flying public. In fact, an Islamic terrorist organization did take credit for the bombing the day after the event. Eight days after the event it was a reasonable assumption to infer that this was a terrorist act.
Regardless of what actually happened it seems clear that Clement had that event in mind when he “prophesied”. He was claiming that this was a terrorist act and that the U.S would retaliate for it against “the god of the east”. Did we retaliate for that event?
Now, after the fact some have re-interpreted this false prophecy in an attempt to make it fit Sept 11. But even there is falls short.
In the alleged prophecy Clement claimed that “there has been a terrorist act and there will be another”. Did it really take a prophet of God in 1996 to claim that there would be another act of terrorism?
By July 1996 the U.S. had already experienced:
- the first World Trade Center bombing (Feb 26, 1993),
- the Oklahoma City bombing (April 19, 1995),
- the bombing of the U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Nov 13, 1995),
- the bombing of the U.S. military barracks at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (June 1996).
- In 1996, Kim Clement wasn’t the only one who could have predicted that there would be another act of terrorism targeting America. But he also added this:
"But the Spirit of the Lord says, 'Another will take place, but I will prevent many deaths, because I will cause a security thing to happen so they will not die.”
Has this part of the prophecy been born out? Since that time we have experienced;
- August 7, 1998: Twin bombings at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, kill 224 people and wound thousands of others.
- October 12, 2000: A suicide bomber attack on the USS Cole in Yemen's Aden harbor kills 17 American sailors and wounds 39 others.
- Sept 11, 2001 Approx 3,000 dead in attack on World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and rural Pennsylvania.
In any act of terror or even in a natural disaster it is always possible to say, it could have been worse. It is always possibly to say that God prevented many deaths. This is not prophecy. It is a statement of the obvious.
The most glaring weakness in this alleged prophecy though is this part;
'But,' God says, 'the retaliation will not be right. It will not be of my Spirit. It will be a wrong decision, but,' God says, 'the saints of the Lord, of the most high God, will begin to pray. And your God says, I will strike down the god of the east
Isn’t this just a bit contradictory? First he says that the retaliation will not be of the Spirit of God, then God supposedly says “I will strike down the god of the east” Which is it? Is he saying that because God’s people begin to pray that God will change His mind and the retaliation will become His will?
Do you see how appealing this is to the flesh? We can change God’s will by our prayers. We don’t have to line up with His will, We can cause His will to line up with ours. This allows our flesh to glory in what God is doing.
Now before you write me about Jeremiah 18:7-8, let me say I know what it says and it doesn’t apply here. These passages of scripture do not say that God will change his mind just because His people begin to pray. It says that when God pronounces judgment against a nation, that judgment is conditional upon the people’s repentance and return to God.
Clements claim is that God did not want us to retaliate against Saddam but because we Christians began to pray he changed his mind and decided to go ahead and bring down the “god of the east”.
Do you see the subtle deception here? A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Kim Clement is no prophet. He is an observer of current events and a good guesser with the ability to tell people what they want to hear. The more specific he gets, the less accurate he becomes.
In his “March 11” prophecy he claims that this date will be the beginning of a ten year period of peace and prosperity for America.
To that I say
Ezek 13:8-11
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD.
And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:
Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
Let God be true and every man a liar!
Steve Lumbley 2004 www.apostasywatch.com
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