The False Prophet

The label of false prophet is tossed out from the far liberal OSASers and cessationists who want to deny the Lord calls prophets today, they want to destroy those who are called by accusing them, and their witchhunts attempt to destroy them. The idea that God is conistent in His Word, the fact that God still has a five fold ministry is beyond the scope and acceptance of cessationists because they have twisted God's Word in an attempt to make their sins palatable and okay. The prophet of today is no different than the prophet during Jeremiah's time. He is persecuted and shut up in prisons for calling people to repentance. Who wants to preach grace in a guised attempt to legalize their evil hearts and sinful natures more than the OSASers? Then the obsessed witchhunters go on their attack modes and speak slanderous and evil on their false prophets as if they themselves are God, and if corrected they poison the one pointing at what they are doing.

I am also doing a study on false teachers and the power behind adultery and idolatry, that is spiritual adultery, the casting aside of God in an attempt to grab the world and all that is in it in exchange for God. I will post this a little later, but for this moment, let's get into this issue of false prophets a little more.

With the advent of the internet and since there is no shortage of opinions on any subject, it is not uncommon to hear about false prophets. False prophets are everywhere. There are more false prophets than there are genuine prophets. The false prophet has always received the limelight. To those who are concerned about the purity of the Word, the false prophet is an afront to everything that is God. False prophets lead astray many people, and sometimes even the elect. False prophets receive much discussion, and as in any topic on the internet, there is much wrong teaching about them. Who or what is a false prophet? How do you know if someone is a false prophet? What do we do with false prophets? I hope to address these issues.

Quite naturally, the Scriptures must be our source of information to determine how and what we should believe and it does state many things about the false prophet. Ezekiel 13:8-10 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD. And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD. ś Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter: The Lord has spoken through His servant, the prophet Ezekiel to say many things about false prophets. It is important that we pay attention to some keys in what he says. The false prophet's message will lead to worthless conduct and cause godly people to go astray.

07723 awv shav' shawv or wv shav shav

from the same as 07722 in the sense of desolating; TWOT-2338a; n m

AV-vain 22, vanity 22, false 5, lying 2, falsely 1, lies 1; 53

1) emptiness, vanity, falsehood

worthlessness (of conduct)

02937 hej ta`ah taw-aw'

a primitive root; TWOT-814; v

AV-seduce 1; 1

1) to wander, stray, wander astray, err

to cause to go astray

Another servant of God, the prophet Jeremiah has a great deal to say about false prophets! Jeremiah 23:9-10 ś Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. Jeremiah feels the Lord's broken heart and is shaking because of the grief, he even appears drunk! As a side note, one of the first complaints when the Lord started moving in Brownsville Assembly of God was the shaking that some experienced. The devil and many deceived people made a mockery of it, but the truth was simply the horror and grief that came on so many who repented it overwhelmed them and they did seem to be drunk, but it was the Holy Spirit conviction, and the sincerity of a repentive heart! Notice again some keys! God's servants will receive only a message of holiness. God's Words that He places in the mouth of His servants bring correction, rebuke, and exhortation, the false prophets along with the priests led Israel and Judah to depravity and depths of bondage.

05003 Pan na'aph naw-af'

a primitive root; TWOT-1273; v

AV-adultery 17, adulterer 8, adulteress 4, adulterous 1, women that break wedlock 1; 31

1) to commit adultery

1a1a1) always with wife of another

idolatrous worship

By now it should seem to us that the keys are pretty consistent which means that Ezekiel confirms Jeremiah and vice versa. A false prophet has the spirit of the antichrist according to 1John 2:18, 19, and there are many for the sole purpose as Jeremiah and Ezekiel agree on, to seduce and lead astray God's people into the vanity of idolatry, and the emptiness of false worship. The LORD loves His people and He is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. A false prophet is led by another familiar spirit that wanders into left field with the intent and directive to leave the relationship with God, and to become yoked with Satan himself.

Let's go back and see what the meekest man on the earth gave for instructions concerning the evils of a false prophet! Of course I am speaking about Moses, a prophet himself! Deuteronomy 13:1-10 ś If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. ś If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

Moses went face to face with the Lord Most High, he received from the Lord on the mountain of God what the Lord had to say in the covenant and the practices he records in Deuteronomy or Second Law!! Moses also confirms what Jeremiah and Ezekiel have said. Notice that the false prophet or dreamer of dreams has a purpose! Moses says, If there arise among you a prophet...saying, Let us go after other gods... Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. The key again to a false prophet is leading people to serve other gods according to Moses, this is confirmed by Ezekiel, and again in Jeremiah.

False prophets come in a variety of packages, they all look different, and they all have something different to say, BUT they have one detail in common with their variety, they seduce because the spirit behind them is one of seduction to go astray after vanity and emptiness into bondage leaving the Lord far behind. The false prophet has an agenda which includes setting up his own kingdom like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians of the 1st century did. The false prophet wants the worship or leads into demonic worship. The best example of a false prophet must be The False Prophet who in the last days and specifically during the tribulation of 3 1/2 years who will require worship of the beast from the sea or antichrist, and to promote idol worship and sin (Revelation 13:11-18).

Now let's move on to the issue as to why so many call a person, a false prophet, and that issue is they don't like what that person is saying. The person states that something is going to happen, others hear it and reject it. Thus they go to their position and understanding which is again, the person must be a false prophet. Consider a couple of things here. Isaiah is probably one of the greatest prophets of all time if you use the volume of recorded words. In the Holy Scriptures, there are 66 Books from the mouth of Isaiah which we have verified through confirmations such as the Holy Spirit, other passages of Scripture, and with archaeology that he did indeed live the life in Israel of a prophet and wrote what the Word of God was to him for Israel. Was Isaiah an old man? He prophesied through many kings giving us the clear details of his age, and yes he did live to be old, and at an old age was sawn in half because of his holy stand for God and the Word that came to him from God. Given that time, were all his words he spoke from God? Absolutely not otherwise we would have volumes written just by him alone!

Consider another great prophet like Hosea! We have 14 Books of his writings to Israel from God! He married a whore! Remember Gomer?? She was a whore! He would be excommunicated and never allowed in a pulpit today in almost every mainline denomination, yet he was called by God and he obeyed having his words recorded to Israel. We know that just because someone marries a whore that it doesn't defile the message of God! Were all of the words of Hosea written down that he spoke during his life? Absolutely not! If someone read a sentence or two that wasn't recorded as Scripture, and it contradicted or was different than what was Scripture, would that make him a false prophet? Again the answer is no. How about John the Baptist who was a loner and spent his time in the wilderness or dunking people who repented of their sins? Consider Micah and Amos! How about someone who is a racist? Would a racist be a false prophet? Did you realize that Jonah was a racist? Just read the fourth Chapter of his writings! Indeed, Jonah was a racist!

So many today are convinced that if something said doesn't come true, then that person is a false prophet. Yet, when you go back to every location of Scripture that one quotes to support this argument, it always refers to the sign given that supposedly confirms the leading astray to serve other gods! Go back to Jonah for a minute. If we used his message, "You have 40 days before destruction!" you would know that repentance changed the hand of God from destruction to support and exhortation of the Assyrians in Nineveh! What Jonah prophesied DID NOT HAPPEN. Today's concerned people would call and label him a false prophet. Much of what Isaiah wrote has not come to pass. He wrote about the 1000 year reign of Messiah, but that has yet to happen! Is he also a false prophet? Hardly!

Nothing has changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament concerning the prophet except one thing, the prophet of today has a responsibility of preaching, teaching, and proclaiming what the Lord speaks to him, but there will be no more Scripture, nothing to add to what we call our Bible today! The prophet of today will be given insight, as Joel prophesied "dreams and visions" from the Lord Most High! Today's prophet is to say forth the Word the Lord gives them. Today's prophets look like everyone else. They dress like people do around them, they eat and drink and have basic human needs as people do, but they have a burning in their soul to say forth what is placed on their heart from the Lord to whom he is sent. Not everything that comes out of a prophet's mouth is from God. This does not make them a false prophet. What makes a false prophet is the hidden agenda to serve the devil, to be led into bondage and away from Jesus Christ!

A vision or dream from the Lord will need an interpretation. If the prophet would just describe the dream or vision and give the glory to the Lord, there would be less accusations of false prophets being around us, yet a prophet will do what he feels compelled to do, interpret the dream or vision. Herein is where so many of us fail. The dream or vision does have an interpretation, yet many times we will run off and give an interpretation and application without ever praying for the interpretation. Today's prophets are human although many of us have been called otherwise, and we don't always give a correct application of a vision or dream. That's why we have the Word of God to test the words from a prophet! That's why we have other prophets who are to judge whether something is of God or not! A prophet can see a vision that is from God, and he is able to wrongly interpret it. Why? Sometimes a wrong interpretation comes because of pride. The prophet may assume they are the one to interpret the dream when they are to give the dream forth and someone else has the interpretation. Many timers a wrong interpretation comes from a lack of submission or a desire to submit to authority. Many prophets are asked to leave mainline churches because the denomination doesn't believe they exist. That prophet will then be left without a covering of authority and become their own authority. This allows for a wrong interpretation. Perhaps the most common reason for a wrong interpretation is so simple, yet we don't allow it to have any truth because we want to think prophets are perfect beings sent by God! Prophets are human beings! Just as you are unable to accept truth, so also is the prophet. I am constantly reminded of a response that Elisha gave Gehazi his servant, "God didn't reveal that too me!"

Personally I can think of times the Lord told me something that I misapplied. I can remember times that I had a vision and the wrong interpretation. I can remember times that I have heard tongues come forth in a service, and I didn't have or know the interpretation. Should a prophet be held to a higher standard? Yes they should. One should know their lives, look at the walk of God. Is the life one of honesty and integrity? Does the person love the Lord Jesus with all their heart? Do they attempt to lead you astray? Do they want to bring you into bondage by their interpretation? Did you ever say something wrong and were hung out to dry, persecuted, laughed at, and mocked? I do think that prophets are to be more careful for the words from their mouths. People should listen to God's servants, the prophets and take the cautions and heeds they have on their hearts. Can a prophet have forgiveness and grace like a normal person who demands it?

A prophet is held accountable for what the Lord holds all of us accountable, and oh so much more! A prophet must be a person of much prayer and much study. A prophet must be one who knows the Lord intimately. A prophet is one of God's anointed and must not be judged by common man. Too many people have difficulties in their lives because they persecuted and condoned the persecution and slander of prophets. The Great Whore is guilty of seducing people and causing the persecution and death of God's servants, the prophets. Consider what has gone on in this world in the name of God. Many people have been gossiped and slandered in the name of God. This ought not to be done especially to one of God's anointed.

So if you know someone is a prophet and is in error, what do you do? The first thing to be down is to privately talk with the person. I must caution the attitude that one takes when talking to the anointed of God. A prophet has the confidence from God, and because of such will not tolerate or take a jealous or sinful attitude from the one who is talking to him. The attitude must always be one of respect and humility desiring the error to be seen and corrected, but realizing that only the Holy Spirit can actually do the convincing. This is true of all of us, but especially for prophets. Use God's Word and ask in the manner described about the vision or interpretation. The prophet will be serious and take it to prayer. I guarantee the real prophet is just as concerned about saying something incorrect if not more than even you realize! A servant of God is held by God to a higher standard, and thus the correction must be from the Lord, not man. Be in prayer for the prophet, and ask the Lord what you can do if anything. Trust the Lord that He knows better than you do!