"Anyone who think this ends tonight is totally mistaken ... you are still the president and we need you to stay on the front lines, sir," prophet Mario Bramnick, one of Trump's faith advisors, said Jan. 7. "We thank God for exposing and foiling all the plans of the enemy set against him. We affirm his lawful election and pray for four more years with Donald Trump as our President!" the 24/7 National Strategic Prayer Call, a 10,000-member Arkansas-based ministry that hosts weekly live prayer calls,told its listeners Monday.
"What's different from the past [of apostolic, charismatic Christianity] is it's just so wound up with the person and presidency of Trump," says Peter Montgomery, who has studied and written about right-wing religious movements for decades. "Many of these prophetic leaders in 2015-2016 said Trump was anointed by God, divinely assigned to save America and protect religious freedom. And now with them believing that Trump is standing in the way of Christianity being criminalized in the United States, this is an existential moment."
Dyrud says he was not at the Capitol when the riot took place, and is doubts the mob was made up of Trump supporters. He has been active in Tea Party events, and said he's very concerned that what he sees as an overzealous government reaction to the coronavirus that "took people's rights to businesses and jobs." He believes in Q-like prophesies that there is a large, hidden cabal of people who want America to be subsumed into a global system of government. To him, persecuting Christians is an obvious part of this plan.
With Trump's future in doubt, prophets and their believers Wednesday were working hard to discern God's will in the events this month - and to look for the next prophesy. A couple have apologized for wrong predictions (though "it doesn't make me a false prophet," said Kris Vellotton, senior associate leader of the massive prophetic church Bethel, in Redding, Calif.) By Monday, Wallnau was urging followers to focus on true prophesies and disregard conspiracy theories making the rounds on prophetic sites - such as one about Trump being about to declare martial law, or another about how major social media sites are about to go black. In December, Wallnau said on a prayer call that God would "overturn" the election because Trump's "assignment" from God has not yet been completed. Later that month, in a video on his Facebook page, he said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) congratulating Biden on his victory was just another example of the deep state that Trump was sent to fight. Now, Wallnau said Monday, the prophetic word he's now hearing is "enlargement." How God is just about to "enlarge his sphere on Earth." As far as the false predictions, he asked: "Why is it our people are so vulnerable to this stuff?"