For centuries, false prophets have used the same techniques as mentalists and psychics to make educated guesses about their targets. Knowledge of a person’s physical appearance, family or friends can provide an abundance of clues for discussion. Where the facts end, the imagination takes over.
Before the creation of social media, false prophets routinely obtained information from prayer request cards and telephone prayer lines. With the advent of the internet, false prophets employed new tools in their deceptions.
Three of the techniques of prophecy merchants were revealed in YouTube Bible teacher Mike Winger’s recent exposé of false prophet ShawnBolz: The creation of false prophecies through data harvesting, the targeting of high-net-worth individuals for financial support, and the building of a church community through lies.
False prophecy in the church has been normalized, with many preachers delivering weekly “words of knowledge” coming from their vain imagination, not God (Jeremiah 23:21).
The following pages feature four examples of false prophets who used data harvesting to deceive believers.