Whatever happens next Tuesday, let’s keep our wits and faith about us.

Sometimes I wish I were a prophet, and often I’m glad I’m not. I think I’d like to divine the future, because I’m terrible at predicting it on my own, but then I think I’m probably happier not knowing.

Pat Robertson, 90, host of “The 700 Club” on television and a one-time Republican presidential candidate, said recently the Lord has shown him exactly what’s about to happen in our upcoming presidential election and its aftermath. (Full disclosure: my late dad once appeared as a guest on “The 700 Club.”)

President Trump will absolutely win re-election, Robertson predicted. This will set off a chain of aftershocks.

China and North Korea will challenge Trump with unprecedented—and unspecified—provocations. Massive civil unrest will break out across America, crippling the nation. There will be at least two attempts on Trump’s life.

The United States will be so preoccupied that a coalition of predominately Muslim countries, including Iran, will view this as an opportunity to attack Israel while its American ally is weak, Robertson said.

To everyone’s astonishment, God himself will intercede on Israel’s behalf and defeat its enemies. That victory will be followed by five years of world peace. A Christian revival will sweep the planet.

Then, a giant asteroid will hit the Earth. The asteroid will produce an environmental cataclysm beyond anything the planet has ever experienced, one that threatens to snuff out all human life—except that God again intercedes and saves his followers.

As prophecies go, this is nothing if not thorough, not to mention apocalyptic.

I don’t dismiss such prognostications out of hand. Roll your eyebrows here if you wish.

But I’m a Pentecostal, and we believe God gives certain people glimpses into the other side, into the spirit realm. I’ve heard various men and women speak prophecies on matters great and small that came true with hair-raising accuracy. It happens, trust me.

On the one hand, a quick internet search turns up a long list of Robertson’s past predictions that have turned out to be embarrassingly wrong.

On the other hand, I remember hearing him say in the 1980s, while the Cold War remained in full bloom, that the Soviet Union was nowhere near as robust as it pretended or as experts on the U.S.S.R. claimed. It was wobbling, nearly bankrupt, Robertson insisted, and would implode before everyone’s eyes without the U.S. firing a shot.

The reason I remember this is because at the time it sounded so cockeyed. “Pat Robertson has lost his ever-loving mind,” I thought.

When, not long afterward, the Soviet Union collapsed, Robertson was the first person I thought of. “How did he know that?” I wondered. Did he have a source within the intelligence community? Or had the Lord shown him something nobody else could see?

Is Robertson right about his most recent proclamation? The critical-thinking side of my brain, of course, says certainly not.

But then, you never know. He’s probably not right—unless he is. That’s how it works with self-proclaimed prophets. They’re mainly mistaken. Until one of them isn’t.

As I said, I am not a prophet. I’d do well to predict what date Christmas will fall on, with a calendar in my hand.

Still, I can hazard a guess about our imminent presidential election, one not so different from Robertson’s prognostication, minus a foreign war or an asteroid or two.

We’re still in the throes of a pandemic. We’re sick, tired, nervous and exhausted. Our economy is rocky. Millions are jobless. We’re brittle, very brittle.

The outcome of the election won’t be settled quickly or easily. No matter who comes out on top, livid protesters will take to the streets. Things may get ugly and could, God forbid, get bloody.

It’s like a perfect storm brewing toward a civic meltdown. That much you can see without being a seer. The next few months are likely to be scary.

That’s where our faith really comes in, whether or not we’re prophets.

We have to keep our wits about us. We have to remind ourselves that, ultimately, God’s still in control of every situation, and that every situation, no matter how unsettling, is only temporary. We don’t know God’s plan, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one.

We have to remember that what really matters—what we’ll be held accountable for in the end—is that we demonstrate love and forgiveness toward those on the other side of this country’s divide. We’re commanded to be peacemakers always. Especially now.

Good luck, God bless and God willing I’ll see you on the other side of this mess. Unless an asteroid hits us first.

Paul Prather is pastor of Bethesda Church near Mount Sterling. You can email him at pratpd@yahoo.com.

This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Whatever happens next Tuesday, let’s keep our wits and faith about us.."