The wave of false prophets that has swarmed over the internet for the past decade or so has produced some very prolific practitioners, but probably none more so than Dr. Maurice Sklar.

His prophetic  messages pop up everywhere on Christian forums. It would seem at first glance that the Lord speaks to this man very often, on very many topics.  But on a closer look, we can see that its not always, or even mostly, or possibly even at all the Lord who is speaking to him.

Every once in a while, there comes along the pike a false prophecy that is so astounding in its depth of detail and degree of falsehood that it literally takes my breath away. One such prophecy that has made the rounds for the last few years on many forums and websites is the spectacular “Preparation of the Bride” prophecy issued November 24th, 2005, by none other than Dr. Sklar. 

http://www.mauricesklar.com/Teachings/Preparation_of_the_Bride/preparation_of_the_bride.html

Dr. Sklar is an accomplised musician. To get an idea of Dr. Sklar’s prophetic ministry, it is helpful to read a list of crusades and meetings he has ministered at, either musically or otherwise participating.  Among the names that jump out are:

Kenneth Hagin, Jr., Kenneth Copeland, Che Ahn, Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley,…. you get the idea.  A roll call of some of the most apostate of the current apostasy in the church today.

You might remember Che Ahn as the one who made the truly memorable statement to Todd Bentley back in 2008,  during the height of the Lakeland false revival in Florida that year, “I must decrease that you might increase.” Need we say anymore about someone who would quote John the Baptist’s reference to Christ, in referring to Todd Bentley?

Benny Hinn needs no introduction. His truly heretical antics have made a mockery of the faith for decades. Rod Parsley is the one who last year asked his followers to send in one million dollars in donations to “ward off satanic attacks.” Kenneth Copeland is a false teacher who for decades has been using the “word of faith” and “name it and claim it” false prosperity gospel to grow personally rich.

What are some of the “prophetic words” Dr. Sklar has issued over the years? This whopper of a failed prophetic word that we will focus on, issued in 2005, stands out as one of the most fantastic failures of any prophecy I have ever seen, and it will be revealing to dissect this message to learn from it.

Details of the 2005 “Preparation of the Bride” prophecy

Since it is so long, I will take cut it down into pieces and snippets, and from that a big picture will eventually emerge. Here we go, into a wonderland of prophetic mystery, all incredibly ascribed to be the words of the Lord God Almighty Himself:

“New York City will receive 3 major judgments before the end of 2008. Each one will be more devastating than the last. One will shake the entire financial world and cripple the once invincible financial power of America. Millions will lose everything in a moment. It will make the crash of the stock market in 1929 look like a little thing in comparison. America will no longer be the financial leader of the world. Another judgment will destroy a major stadium during a sports event. Yet another explosion will destroy nearly an entire Borough of New York. But for the sake of the Jewish people in New York, I will supernaturally spare them. After this, I will cause the largest aliyah (return) of My people (the Jewish people) from New York (and other regions throughout the developed world to Israel) in all of history. But only after the entire financial system that they are dependant on collapses will they all return to the land that I have promised them.”

Is it just me, or are other people of the Christian faith just as shocked as I am that someone could put these words in the Lord’s mouth, and be totally unrepentant about it afterward?

Enough people repented, so the Lord changed his mind!

This disclaimer is added on somewhere in the middle of the lengthy prophetic word:

This is but a fraction of what is soon to come IF there is not repentance and turning back to Me.

This is the new “out” for the false prophet that is so popular these days. When what the Lord supposedly tells them fails completely to come to pass, it was because of repentance on the part of the people. Did anyone notice a great wave of repentance that swept over New York City between 2005 and 2008?

What Biblical reference point do we have to get an idea of how much repentance is required for God to withhold His hand of judgment? When we look at the story of Jonah and his prophetic warning to the city of Nineveh, we see that every single person in the city, right down to the cattle in the fields, wore sackcloth and ashes.

When God issues a prophecy with conditions attached, it is clearly stated within the prophecy itself. God doesn’t leave us guessing.  The Nineveh warning was issued by God in a clearly conditional manner, with the condition being stated by God Himself. When you see a prophet tack on  a disclaimer, or allow a disclaimer to be tacked on, to his prophecy that “it may not occur if enough people repent”, this is a red flag we should be aware of.

Lets look further into it. Earlier in this same 2005 prophecy, there is this to say about the year 2007:

 There shall be 5 terrorist attacks that will hit America in ever increasing destruction upon the major cities. Before the end of 2007, a nuclear “dirty bomb” will blow up in a major city in the south of America.

The false prophecies continue:

There will follow two more judgments one in a major city of Europe and one in the Arab nations in the middle east before the end of this year.  (2005)

Followed by:

Tokyo, Japan. Hong Kong, China. Johannesburg, South Africa. Calcutta, India. Sidney, Australia. Chicago, Illinois. Los Angeles, California. Paris, France and many other cities will experience major catastrophies in the next five years. (Editor’s note: meaning: by 2010). Millions upon millions will perish.

It takes one’s breath away to ponder how anyone with any fear of the Lord at all, even at the most basic level, could still be issuing prophetic words today, after such a colossal failure. Its seems as if he doesn’t even break stride, failure after failure, not even considering the consequences of dishonoring the word of the Lord in this manner. We have been clearly warned in scripture against doing this.

The prophetic words keep coming, all of this indicated to occur within the 2005 to 2009 time frame:

I will shake California in a warning, and then there shall finally come the earthquake that I have mercifully withheld for so many years. Millions shall perish in the ensuing floods and the west coast of America shall be removed and fall into the ocean.

Note: Dr. Sklar continues to this day to base his ministry in Victorville, California, the same West Coast area God supposedly told him would fall into the ocean.

And this:

Boston shall experience a major attack upon a great school that once preached My gospel in ages past but has left the faith of their fathers never to return again. It will never be rebuilt again.

And still more rings out:

The aids epidemic will devastate the population in Africa to half of its’ present size in the next 4 years.

Wait a minute here. African population cut in half by 2009?

And this:

North Korea will launch a sudden nuclear attack and then be completely destroyed. Only the prayers of South Korea can stop it.

Note: The North Korea nuclear attack didn’t occur. So in order to support this prophecy the theory that South Korea repented sufficiently needs to be quickly called onto the playing field to plug this leak in the prophecy.

The “Taking Billy Graham home”  Story Line

But for me, the real sucker punch in this whole prophecy was the assertion that God was revealing to the seer that He was going “to take Billy Graham and Oral Roberts home.”  Well, lets see, Oral Roberts did die four years after the prophecy, at the age of 91. Can we call this a prophecy that someone 87 would die within 4 years?

And about Billy Graham. Lets have a closer look at what Dr. Sklar has been passing on to us, supposedly from God, about Rev. Graham’s fate, in the time since this 2005 word. This is where the tale takes a definite turn for the worse, if that is even possible. In my research, I began to see that Dr. Sklar has been prophetically declaring the imminent passing of Reverand Graham for many, many years.

In recent times, Dr. Sklar has claimed God told him he is “taking Billy Graham home” on the following occasions, with the title and date of the prophetic word in bold:

November 24, 2005 “Preparation of the Bride” as noted above.

June 4, 2009 The Coming Threats To the United States of America http://www.mauricesklar.com/Teachings/The_Coming_Threats/the_coming_threats.html

July 13, 2010  The Restrainer http://www.mauricesklar.com/Teachings/The_Retrainer/the_retrainer.html

December 1, 2011 “The Lord Says”

http://www.mauricesklar.com/Teachings/Prophecy/prophecy.html

“The Lord Says” prophecy was released a day after Billy Graham was admitted to hospital in serious condition with pneumonia. Here the Lord is clearly quoted as telling Dr. Sklar that Rev. Graham’s passing will occur SOON.

August 16, 2012  The Red Horse of War http://www.injesus.com/messages/content/414964

The Red Horse of War prophecy was released 3 days after Billy Graham was admitted to hospital with bronchitis.

So you see, basically every year, Dr. Sklar issues a prophetic word saying God told him Billy Graham will pass away, or at least to “watch” for his passing. In the case of two of these prophetic utterances, Reverend Graham had been admitted to hospital just before the issuance of the prophecy.

But when I looked a little further into this prophecy, I found this “death of Oral Roberts and Billy Graham” prophecy was not new. It actually originated from the mouth of none other than Benny Hinn. In an old broadcast recently reshown on TBN, Hinn stated:

“The Lord said to me in ’89…sorry, yeah, ’89. He said when Oral Roberts and Billy Graham go home will be the key—it will be the sign—of the beginning of the greatest revival on earth. Oral is home. Billy is about to go home. And when he does, I am telling the whole church, get ready.”

So when one checks further back to what he actually said in 1989, it was the following, in a string of New Years Eve prophecies Benny Hinn recorded at his Florida church, Orlando Christian Center:

“The Lord also says that, Two of his great giants will die in the mid-90’s. They’ve held the torch of revival for the last forty years, these two. One of them has been to this church, and the other has not. One will die suddenly while asleep. And the other will die of sickness. And as both giants die, which will be in the mid-90’s, I will shake this world with a last revival. Their death will be the closing pages of this move.

I think a few things are clear here:

(1) God knows exactly when Billy Graham will pass from his mortal body.

(2) While God works in mysterious ways, He doesn’t work in confusing or incongruous ways. For God to reveal to Dr. Sklar, or Benny Hinn, anything about the mortal passing of Rev. Graham would be surprising enough, but to be confusing about the timing seems even more out of character for the Almighty God we know about through His Word.

(3) Neither Dr. Sklar, nor Benny Hinn years before him, were actually receiving heavenly bulletins about the medical condition of Rev.Graham. Billy Graham continues to live. God is the only one who knows the timing of his, or anyone else’s, passing.

How can any thinking, scripturally knowledgeable, and God fearing Christian come to any other conclusion than that this is an abomination to claim to fellow Christians that God speaks to them in this manner?

Other Prophetic Visions From Dr. Sklar

You might think, well, the prophet was just having a bad day when he issued this message. I don’t think the Lord was having a hard time getting through to him, or was unclear. So perhaps his prophetic radar in some way wasn’t functioning that day. Thus to be fair, lets take a look at some of the other teachings this person has issued over the years. Some examples are the following:

The Vision of Heaven (Aug. 4th, 2010)

http://www.mauricesklar.com/Teachings/A_Vision_of_Heaven/a_vision_of_heaven.html

On Wednesday, August 4th, 2010, at about 10:30 AM, an angel came into my bedroom, I had just awakened. He said to me, “I am sent from the Lord to bring you to heaven. You must now come with me. Take my hand.” So I did. Suddenly, I was in the spirit realm. We ascended out through the ceiling of my home and shot up into the air like a rocket.

What follows is a vividly detailed description of heaven itself.

Soon I saw a large white tent “city” of sorts………It had twelve tent pavilions; each with a white cone that went up at
least ten stories high. On top of each “cone” was a flag that the
angel said was a flag for each of the twelve tribes of Israel……….As we entered into the tent of Benjamin, I saw many tables that were at least a hundred feet long. Each was lavishly set with gold cutlery, crystal goblets and plates that looked like they were made out of mother-of-pearl.

He then goes on to describe entering a heavenly concert hall:

The angel quietly spoke in my ear. This is a concert in your honor.
The composer, Gustav Mahler is here in heaven. He has composed a symphony for you. Then the Lord came out on stage and conducted! ……Then, when the music started, I went into a realm of ecstasy that I cannot describe in words…… But the music was like a living movie or a vision…… I listened and I saw many good things that I had done to love people on earth.

There is some biblical precedent for people getting glimpses of heaven. Elijah and Enoch were both taken up to heaven directly without tasting death. But they never returned to tell anyone what it was like. Lazarus never spoke much later on about what he had seen in the four days before he was resurrected.

The detail of Dr. Sklar’s visit to heaven is stunning in comparison with the scarce information we get from Scripture of what heaven is like. John the Apostle was the only one in the Bible who provided anything close to the kind of detail about heaven provided by Dr. Sklar, and that detail comes through visions related in the book of Revelation.  It seems that Dr. Sklar has the advantage over John, in that his imagery comes from an actual visitation, not a dream or vision.

(…….at about 10:30 AM, an angel came into my bedroom, I had just awakened.)

Fishing With William Branham 

http://www.mauricesklar.com/Teachings/Recent_Vision/recent_vision.html

A remarkable vision Dr. Sklar says he was given to release to us is this tale of a fishing trip where he encountered the deceased William Branham. Branham appeared beside him in a small fishing boat. He asked Maurice to release 25 of his “lost sermons” that contained an important message for the present times. This vision really has to be read to do it justice.

William Branham was a man who lived about half a century ago, who was kind of a forerunner for numerous false doctrines that took firm grip on the church in later years. His teaching was a bizarre combination of Word Faith, Manifest Sons of God, and Serpent Seed, all rolled into one. He denied basic Christian doctrine such as the Trinity.

Branham explained, “…not one place in the Bible is trinity ever mentioned…It’s Catholic error and you Protestants bow to it” (Conduct, Order, Doctrine, Q and A, p. 182).

See http://letusreason.org/Latrain4.htm for a complete discussion of the errors of William Branham.

Dr. Sklar’s Defense of the failed “Preparation of the Bride” Prophecy

 Years later, Dr. Sklar issued the following statement concerning the complete and abject failure of the 2005 prophecy:

http://www.mauricesklar.com/Teachings/Coming_Shakings_/coming_shakings_.html

Well, much to my surprise, it went all around the world. Many thousands of intercessors began to pray, and I am now convinced that God held these calamities back in His mercy so that we would have more time to get the Gospel out to the nations (especially here in America!).

Here he invokes the “repentance clause” we came across above. These internet prophets convince us it wasn’t their failure, it was God changing His mind. According to this logic, there are no failed prophecies, just a whole lot of cases where God withholds the judgment spoken of. And even more amazingly, Christians who should be exercising more discernment just accept it.  

Then he pauses, to add that he “could have just missed it”, only to quickly revert back to :

I am now more and more convinced that I really DID have a genuine visitation from the Holy Spirit and God’s mercy did indeed intervene and held these calamities back, praise His Holy Name

Is he talking about a message from God here or is this a debate he is having in his own mind about whether it was God speaking? If you are not crystal clear on whether it is God speaking or not, you are not getting revelation from God. The word of God is never ambiguous. The Lord will never experience problems making things clear to us. Obviously, prophecy was never intended to be a “hit or miss”proposition. 

This is so typical of the modern day internet prophets. They think its OK if they “win a few, lose a few.” Even if they “win” none, and “lose” them all, its all good to them. It shows you how they bring a “game” mentality to something as deadly serious as revelation from the Lord Almighty. It all sells, it all attracts popularity and attention to their ministries, which is what its all about for them.

Evaluation of the 2005 “Preparation of the Bride” prophecy.

In the final analysis, for the 2005 “Preparation of the Bride” prophecy of Maurice Sklar to be considered seriously as a genuine word from the Lord, so much of our Biblical understanding of the Lord and His ways would have to be suspended or done away with altogether. It is impossible to draw any other conclusion  than that the words are from a human mind, and represented as words from God.

Maurice Sklar sees nothing wrong in piggybacking on a prophecy by Benny Hinn which has failed for 23 consecutive years, and hardwiring it into a mishmash of failed utterances in 2005, only to see it fail for another 7 straight years. He pridefully puts the name of God on all this, and without even a moment’s hesitation, continues to issue prophetic utterances today.

This is actually a very sad story of a man, who in every other way appears to be a very decent, likable, and well-meaning individual. He has for some unknown reason decided to elevate himself to an office of spokesman for God without God’s calling to do so. He is forsaking all of the numerous biblical warnings against doing this, as if  he believes he has received some special permission to bypass God’s written instructions. What is the result? The false glorification and uplifting of his own ego in terms of his person, his ministry, and his career, through counterfeiting the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Could the Bible be any clearer about how seriously this grieves the Lord?

And what harm does this do when people falsely speak for God? The New Testament, as well as the Old Testament, speak clearly about the danger of false prophecy. When people in the church become focused on what a false prophet is claiming God said, they are diverted from the real truth contained in the Bible.

I recall last year when many of the false prophets of the internet spun tales about how comet Elenin was going to be a spectacular, monumental event with great significance for all Christians. Many thousands of believers were totally enraptured for months, caught up in discussions, forum posts, tweets, and blogs with daily updates of the progress of this comet. How much could have been done to further the commission of spreading the Gospel if the same number of man-hours of effort had instead gone into evangelization and bringing Christ to the lost, or simply soaking in the glory of God’s word?

All these internet seers, watchmen, prophets, or whatever they insist on being called, are charming, and tell an interesting tale. They are personable, and know how to keep their audiences interested. But whatever takes our focus off of Christ and puts it onto the things of the world and the things of men, is of the darkness. Remember that scripture tells us that the spirit of darkness comes dressed as an angel of light. It is our job as ambassadors of Christ to have the discernment to know when Satan is using someone to deceive us and take us away from the light of the world that is Jesus Christ.

The word of God Almighty is the most precious thing imaginable. It is worth more than all our gold and every material thing. We in the body of Christ should not allow it to be trampled on and belittled. We wouldn’t allow anyone to edit or change our Bible. Why should this kind of brazen misrepresentation of God’s revelation to us be excused?

All blessings in Christ,

JD Ellis