Tendai Ruben Mbofana
In the wake of the horrific helicopter crash that claimed the life of controversial tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo three days ago, a familiar frenzy erupted across social media and religious discourse.
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Chivayo met a sudden end while traveling from his rural homestead alongside his wife Lulu, an aide, and two pilots.
He was notorious for his flashy lifestyle, uninhibited flaunting of unexplained wealth, and habit of showering influential public figures with luxury cars and cash.
Chief among these recipients were various self-styled ‘prophets’.
Almost immediately, the public asked the inevitable question.
Did any of the so-called “prophets” who routinely enjoyed his patronage foresee the demise of their benefactor?
As the scrutiny intensified, several prominent figures scrambled to explain why such a tragic accident was apparently not revealed to them.
Others went a step further, claiming retroactively that they had in fact seen the tragedy coming.
Yet, whatever their excuses, these supposed ‘men of God’—and the gullible followers who fund their empires—fail to realize a foundational truth.
Genuine prophecy is not about foretelling the future.
Modern religious charlatans have built massive followings by reducing spiritual life to a divine guessing game.
They make a name for themselves predicting soccer match results, forecasting the deaths of political figures, or calling out natural disasters before they strike.
But this reliance on predictive foresight confuses a psychic mechanism with divine revelation, cheapening how God truly operates among humanity.
To understand why this is a perversion of faith, one must examine the distinction between foretelling and true prophesying.
Foretelling is fundamentally about information.
It centers on the “what,” the “when,” and the “who.”
Its primary mechanism satisfies human curiosity, feeds anxiety, and offers a false sense of control over the unknown.
It operates like a cosmic news ticker or a spiritualized fortune-telling service.
True biblical prophecy, by contrast, is not about foretelling; it is about forthtelling.
Its focus is not information, but revelation, alignment, and divine proclamation.
When a true prophet speaks, the primary aim is not to reveal what will happen tomorrow, but to declare God’s heart, standards, and redemptive purpose into today.
When Nathan confronted King David over his adultery and murder, or when Amos spoke out against the exploitation of the poor in Israel, they were not predicting future events.
They were delivering God’s moral judgment on the present.
Prophecy confronts moral rot, exposes injustice, and calls individuals and nations back into covenant relationship with their Creator.
Furthermore, the biblical purpose of future-oriented warnings was almost never deterministic prediction.
True prophetic warnings were conditional by design—meant to provoke repentance so that the foreseen disaster would not happen.
When Jonah announced the destruction of Nineveh, the goal was not to demonstrate psychic accuracy, but to prompt a change of heart that would render the judgment unnecessary.
Predictors want their predictions to come true to prove their authority; true prophets pray their warnings are rendered obsolete by human repentance.
Even when dream interpretations or prophetic insights involve future events, the primary purpose was not to satisfy curiosity or showcase supernatural foresight.
An example is Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams of seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine.
Its purpose was practical stewardship and divine preservation.
To provide actionable wisdom that saved entire nations from starvation, preserved the line of Israel, and positioned God’s servant to execute divine mercy in a time of national crisis.
By reducing prophecy to predictive foresight, these modern figures trivialize the Almighty.
They turn God into a utility for personal ambition and transform believers into passive consumers searching for spiritual headlines rather than moral transformation.
Predicting an event leaves the listener as a mere spectator to fate, whereas true prophecy demands immediate spiritual accountability, personal holiness, and active justice.
When we confuse psychic prediction with divine revelation, we allow opportunists to turn sacred faith into a circus of trivialities.
God’s work in the world is not to satisfy our appetite for future gossip or vanity.
It is to transform human character and align our hearts with eternal truth.
True prophecy reveals the moral heart of God, not the news of tomorrow.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to contact him on +263715667700 or mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com