Video: Pastor Dana Coverstone's Three Dreams. My Advice: Ignore Him.
But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.” You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” 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, so do not be alarmed (Deuteronomy 18:20-23).
Pentecostal Christians have an institutional affliction. They ordain people without any training. Then, every so often, one of them goes off the rails. He says he has had a revelation from God.
They are aware of the Mosaic law governing false prophecy. So, they dance around it. They do not claim to be prophets. They claim only that God has spoken to them. This creates a problem when what they predict does not come true. Either they are on the hot seat or God is.
Ordained Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Dutch Calvinists never get verbal revelations from God. Well, almost never. When they do, they keep it to themselves. They want to keep their jobs.
Revelations to Pentecostals generally are specific to individual ministries. God supposedly tells the pastor to announce something new in His name -- a judicial act. God never tells them that the key to their ministries is to go back and do what the movement's big-name leaders did 80 years ago. God never says: "I am calling you to begin a tent meeting ministry. Resign your position as pastor of a congregation of 2,500. Move out of your 4,500 square foot home for which you pay no rent and which is non-taxable income because you are ordained. You are going on the road."
If some Pentecostal minister said that God told him this, and then he did what God said, I might consider the possibility that God really did speak to him. If he started drawing huge crowds, I would send a donation to his newly formed Church of the Sawdust Trail, Inc. I would want to be a part of this new thing. But it has not happened yet.
Nobody pays much attention to these Pentecostal revelations, even within the camp of the faithful. This is a good thing. The revelations are not specific enough to devise a program to deal with them.
But, every so often, one of these leaders goes public with a supposed revelation that is highly specific. It predicts Something Really Big. It gets attention within the movement.
Then the thing foretold does not happen. The revelator fades back into the obscurity from which he emerged.
If you decide to watch the video, ask yourself these questions.
Why did God pick someone with no influence to announce something both big and imminent?
Why didn't God trust this information to dozens of national and international leaders?
Why is God ignoring 1.2 billion self-proclaimed Christians who will not hear about this?
Why is God going to put the rest of us through the meat-grinder?
What has this pastor accomplished so far in his calling?
Who are his followers?
What are they doing right now as a result of their leader's revelation?
Does his church have a website?
Are there survival recommendations on this site?
Why does his video not end with practical action steps?
Can every Christian do what he advises?
If not, why has God decided to save a handful from the meat-grinder?
As soon as I saw the first five seconds of the video, which was posted on a forum on my site, I thought: "Doesn't this guy own a white shirt, a tie, and a dark jacket?" When you are a pastor, and you are telling Americans that the nation is going to go to endless funerals before December, you ought to own a suit. Pastors wear suits at funerals where they preach. They do not dress in sweatshirts. They do not dress as vagrants. This man looks like a vagrant.
I tried to find something about him. Who is he? Where is his church?
The Pentecostal magazine Charisma ran an article on his video.
Pastor Dana Coverstone says he has had dreams that predict America burning, hyperinflation ravaging the U.S. economy and even foreign soldiers on the ground. Coverstone, who pastors Living Word Ministries Assemblies of God in Burksville, Kentucky, says he is not a prophet but felt compelled to share his dreams because a dream he had last fall—about disease and protests hitting the U.S.—came to pass."I'm not claiming to be a prophet," Coverstone says in the video. "... Let's see what happens through November and see if I'm right about this. But I know when I hear God's voice. I know what God's voice sounds like to me. I know when He speaks, and I know when I have a dream that I know is Him. I don't say this to scare people, but I say this to warn people that there are some pretty sinister things coming down the pike—not just for the lost but for God's people as well."
He may know when he hears God's voice. The rest of us don't. We don't hear God's voice.
He says he does not intend to scare people. Of course he didn't. Why should people be scared of the following?
Coverstone says his first dream began with a calendar and a white figure that tapped September on the calendar three times and then underlined "November" three times. Then, he says, "I saw Washington, D.C., burning." He describes seeing armed protesters brawling, businesses shuttered and money flying into the skies and out of the roofs of bank buildings. He saw Russian and Chinese soldiers on the ground in the U.S. collaborating with each other, and he says he also saw U.N. peacekeeping forces. He says he saw no sign of President Trump or leadership in D.C. He says churches and homes were being burned and people were hiding in their homes.In a second dream, Coverstone says he dreamed that hyperinflation would ravage the US economy and that trouble would overtake the U.S. Mint, followed by the warning, "Brace yourself."
Who is he? He posted this:
WHY HIM?
Why did God decide to reveal this to a pastor whose church is so tiny that it cannot pay him a living wage?
Why not reveal this to thousands of pastors to warn the sheep? What kind of God conceals this from thousands of faithful shepherds?
Why is God uninterested in warning hundreds of millions of Christians? The only ones who are supposed to hear this are viewers of this YouTube video?
Is it any wonder that non-Christians think fundamentalist Christians are gullible to the point of cultural irrelevance?
MY PREDICTION
In December, Rev. Coverstone will remove this video. Maybe earlier.
You should use a free YouTube download program to save this file. Here is a review of several of these programs.
I downloaded it. If it disappears from YouTube, I will make it reappear elsewhere . . . and return here.
He is already preparing for the worst -- the worst being this: nothing apocalyptic happens. He says: "If by the time we get to November nothing's happened, on Dec. 1, you'll be able to call me [out] and say 'Dana Coverstone, you are an absolute idiot and a fool for saying those things.' Go right ahead." He should not tempt us like this. Jesus said: "But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew 5:22b). I shall therefore limit my assessment to "pathetic soul." Or maybe "poor schnook."
You are now prepared to assess this.
This video has had over a million hits.
There are lots of gullible Christians out there.
CONCLUSION
When none of what he has said will happen happens, who will he say really spoke to him?
That is the plight of Pentecostals who go public with revelations they say are from God. He will face this issue before the year is out.
But I know when I hear God's voice. I know what God's voice sounds like to me. I know when He speaks, and I know when I have a dream that I know is Him.
In short, "God talks to me. He confides in me -- not the leaders of Christendom. Me. And me alone."
I'll get back to this in late December.