By Roger Marshall*
“Barbados if you do not turn from your wicked ways I the Lord am Now about to pour out my wrath upon your nation like you have never seen before…Barbados, if you do not REPENT, The Lord says He will Shake, Shake your land, He will in the month of SEPTEMBER send WIND upon your nation, I will BLOW upon BARBADOS in SEPTEMBER saith the LORD. If you still refuse to REPENT, then the Lord says He will then cause an eruption, that will cause the SEA to overtake the land of Barbados. This shall happen one day in the Early, Early Morning hour. The Lord says a 7 month count down for the arrival of this Major Tsunami, has already started and will finish before the end of this year. This Gigantic Towering Wave will come from the South, Carlisle Bay area will be the central point of the wave. It will reach as far as FOUR miles in land, moving in as far as Belle Gully area. This wave will also move inland all along both the South and West Coasts…MANY, MANY SHALL DIE IN MY JUDGEMENT, REPENTANCE ONLY SHALL STAY MY HAND SAITH THE LORD…AMOS 3 VS. 7 ‘Surely the Lord God Will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets.’”
So went, in part, a paid advertisement by Eugene Young that appeared in the Friday, July 28th, 2006, edition of The Heat newspaper published by the Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc.
An article entitled Bajans urged to take stock, which appeared in the August 27th edition of the Sunday Sun, reported that Mr. Young said God was speaking to the people of Barbados to prepare themselves for a 9 p.m. disaster during September. In his own words “God says he will send a wind in September, at 9 p.m., without any warnings, watches or alerts. It will just appear. He said preparation must be made now against this disaster.”
Needless to say the month of September, 2006, came and went without any 9 p.m. “WIND” generated disaster befalling Barbados and from all indications things in this nation are pretty much the same, no national repentance has occurred to merit God withholding His wrath from being poured out on this nation as Mr. Young prophesied He would.
This failed prophecy, which was apparently corroborated by the predictions of several other “prophets” and “dreamers of dreams” from among several churches in Barbados, immediately raises two fundamental questions: 1) Did Mr. Young and his fellow self-professed prophets really hear from God? 2) Are they prophets today?
In answer to these questions we need to consult the Bible which should be the Christian’s sole authority in all matters of faith and practice. The Bible says: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Heb. 1: 1-2, NIV). Translated: prophets (through whom God’s actual, authoritative words came to give guidance to the nation of Israel) served their purpose under the Old Testament economy; today under the New Testament economy with the advent of Jesus and his recorded teachings there is no longer a need for prophets like those in the Old Testament. In fact the Bible further says to the Christian that the church is already built on the foundation of the first century apostles and prophets [or apostle-prophets as the Greek linguistic construction seems to suggest] Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone (Eph. 2: 20) It is the writings of those first century apostles-prophets (as well as the lessons learned from the writings of Moses and the other the Old Testament prophets) which testify of Jesus and the ultimate destiny of planet earth from the dawn of time to the end of the age, to which we must take heed, in fact we must not add any “new revelation” to what God has already revealed to them (Gal. 1: 8-9; cf. Deut. 4: 2; Rev. 22: 18-19). The Protestant Reformers summed up this command of total reliance upon Scripture in the maxim Sola Scriptura – “Scripture Alone.”
In short we don’t need modern-day “prophets” or “dreamers of dreams” to reveal to us God’s “secret” (i.e. plan) for the nations of the earth or for our lives individually, what we need is to correctly understand and obey what God has already revealed and preserved in his Word the Bible!
These self-professed prophets and their adherents in our midst would do well to take heed to the wise counsel of Solomon when he wrote: “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar” (Pro. 30: 5-6,NIV).
Under the Old Testament economy false prophets were to be put to death for presuming to speak a word in the name of the Lord, which God did not command them to speak, as evidenced from the failings of their prophecies (Deut. 18: 20 – 22). Under the New Testament economy the death penalty for false prophecy no longer obtains but in keeping with the continued warnings against false prophets by the New Testament writers all such persons should never again be considered by any one to be prophets of God, as Moses wrote: “If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him” (Deut. 18: 22, NIV). In other words Eugene Young’s failed prophecy of a devastating “WIND” blowing on Barbados in September disqualifies him from being considered as a prophet of God, if also annuls any consideration of the second half of his prophecy which predicts a “Major Tsunami” to strike Barbados as a direct result of God’s wrath.
*Roger Marshall is executive director of Project PROBE Ministries a Barbadian Christian apologetics organisation.
2006