Kim Clement, a Prophet?

One of the most troubling aspects of the apostolic-prophetic movement is its “prophets.”

Yesterday, the Elijah List (which sends out the movement’s prophecies, daily, to over 133,000 subscribers) sent out this prophecy from “prophet” Kim Clement. Read the prophecy here.

Every time the Elijah List sends out another prophecy from Clement (which is fairly often), I think “Gimmee a break!” How many more prophecies does this guy have to get wrong before he is considered a false prophet? And how many prophecies that directly contradict the Bible does he have to give? Many of his other prophecies are so vaguely worded that their “fulfillments” could apply to almost anything (like much of the one I linked to above). Read it, and see what I mean. Yet, Clement — like so many “prophets” in this movement — always finds some way to “explain away” his failed prophecies or to force “fulfillments” to fit them.

Let’s take a look at one of Clement’s failed prophecies. In Utica, New York, on Jan. 10, 2004 — and then two days later televised on TBN, Jan. 12, 2004 — Clement prophesied that Osama Bin Laden would be captured within 35 days and that, as a result, Easter 2004 would be one of the greatest Easters for America. He also prophesied that March 11, 2004, would mark the beginning of the end of terrorist activities. Read his prophecies here, from the Elijah List.

When 35 days passed and Bin Laden wasn’t captured, Steve Shultz, the publisher of the Elijah List, contacted Clement for a response. Shultz was pleased with Clement’s response, calling it a “very mature response” that should “both encourage and train” the Elijah List readers on how to discern prophecy. (It’s disturbing that Shultz was satisfied with Clement’s response. It shows that Shultz can’t properly discern prophecies.) Read Shultz’s comments and Clement’s response here. In short, Clement responded that he never said the 35-day time period would begin on Jan. 10 or Jan. 12 (although he, conveniently, waited until after the prophecy failed to come to pass to make this clarification). Then he suggested that Bin Laden’s capture would occur, instead, by March 11, 2004, or Easter 2004.

Well, March 11 came and went — and still no Bin Laden. But something significant did happen on March 11 — the Madrid bombing of four commuter trains in Spain, that killed 191 people and injured over 1,700. This attack was a major victory for terrorists — quite the opposite of Clement’s prophecy.

Then Easter passed and Bin Laden, of course, hadn’t been captured. Yet, Clement still defended his prophecy in another e-mail released by the Elijah list, saying that people, including himself, mistakenly interpreted God’s statement “bring out your greatest enemy,” to mean “capture.” Instead, he said, the prophecy should have been interpreted as saying that, during Easter, God would begin to expose something that would reveal Bin Laden’s hiding place. He said:

For a time, I too felt that over Easter we would see the capture of bin Laden, however, when I read the prophetic word that I had given, I understood that it meant “revealing his whereabouts,” and this would bring him out. This could be the beginning of the 35-day period.

“Prophet” Bob Jones also came to Clement’s defense, saying that the March 11 date had some kind of prophetic significance in “Heaven’s timetable” (whatever that means!) Read Jones’ and Clement’s defense of the failed prophecy here.

So, to review, Clement prophesied that Bin Laden would be captured in 35 days, and then changed the date of the capture to Easter, then — after Easter passed — he said Bin Laden’s whereabouts had started to be exposed and that he may be found in the 35 days following Easter. Yet, over two years later, Bin Laden remains in hiding.

This is just one example of a failed Clement prophecy. He also prophesied that a cure for AIDS would be found by 2002. I could go on and on. Do an Internet search to learn more of them.

Clement has also prophesied things that directly contradict Scripture. For example, when I heard him speak at Regency Christian Center International in Whittier, Calif., on Sept. 3, 2005, he prophesied that aborted babies were going to start to be reborn to other women. (The reincarnation of aborted babies, of course, goes against the Bible’s teaching.) Read the prophecy here.

And, in yesterday’s prophecy (which I linked to above), Clement quoted God telling Clement and his followers, “I want you to command Me” [in essence, command God to bless them]. This is a scary teaching. What in the world is Clement doing, telling Christians that they are supposed to boss God around? This teaching, of course, is not supported by Scripture.

Furthermore, Clement’s prophecies and teachings don’t point attention to Jesus or His gospel. Read through some of them yourself to see. At his meeting I attended in Whittier last September, Clement rarely mentioned Jesus’ name. But a major focus of his meeting was to urge the attendees to give finances and support to the modern prophets (which, of course, included himself) in order to receive rewards from God. Clement equated Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, with modern prophets, like himself (though, he didn’t advocate stoning modern “prophets” whose prophecies fail, as the Old Testament prophets would have been). He also kept shouting “the prophets are coming,” receiving cheers from the attendees.

The fact that the Elijah List keeps releasing prophecies from Clement — and other equally troubling “prophets” like Bob Jones (whom I will discuss more later) — shows that it disregards the biblical criteria for detecting false prophets. Yet, for some reason, the number of subscribers to the Elijah List keeps growing. (The Elijah List also recently started a magazine, called The Voice of the Prophetic.) I plan to follow the Elijah List’s prophecies in future posts.

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