iSpeak How to Identify False Prophets ? Jere¬miah by Michael Angelo at Sis¬tine Chapel Then and now, the iden¬ti¬fy¬ing marks of a false prophet remain the same. The Bible tells us that they are deluded, inac¬cu¬rate and oppor¬tunis¬tic plagiarists. 1. False prophets are DELUDED. While some prophets have delib¬er¬ately lied to the peo¬ple, I believe there are those who remain sin¬cere but with such wild imag¬i¬na¬tions they really think they are God’s prophets. But no mat¬ter how sin¬cere they are, they still lie to us. “Son of man, proph¬esy against the prophets of Israel who are now proph¬esy¬ing. Say to those who proph¬esy OUT OF THEIR OWN IMAGINATIONS: ‘Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sov¬er¬eign LORD says: Woe to the fool¬ish prophets who fol¬low their own spirit and have seen noth¬ing! Your prophets, O Israel, are like jack¬als among ruins. Ezk. 13:2–4 But I said, “Ah, Sov¬er¬eign LORD, the prophets keep telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suf¬fer famine. Indeed, I will give you last¬ing peace in this place.’ “Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are proph¬esy¬ing lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spo¬ken to them. They are proph¬esy¬ing to you false visions, div¬ina¬tions, idol¬a¬tries and the DELUSIONS OF THEIR OWN MINDS. Jer. 14:13–14 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Do not lis¬ten to what the prophets are proph¬esy¬ing to you; they fill you with false hopes. They SPEAK VISIONS FROM THEIR OWN MINDS not from the mouth of the LORD... How long will this con¬tinue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who proph¬esy the DELUSION OF THEIR OWN MINDS? Jer. 23:16, 26 2. False prophets give false hopes. False hope is a dan¬ger¬ous lie. When Judah fell to Baby¬lon and many of the chil¬dren of Israel were already exiled, Hanana¬iah proph¬e¬sied falsely imply¬ing if they fight back they will win against mighty Neb¬uchad¬nez¬zar (Jer. 28). They tried but reaped the fury of Neb-uchad¬nez¬zar instead who then besieged their city in years, destroyed their beloved Tem¬ple, and exiled the remain¬ing res¬i¬dents. They were given false security. In Jer. 36:9, King Jehoiakim defied Jeremiah’s warn¬ings and even declared a national fast, he was later killed by Neb¬uchad¬nez¬zar for fight¬ing back (2Ki 24:1). Recall the failed Jubilee of Jubilees and New Dis¬pen¬sa¬tion prophe¬cies that were fol¬lowed by calami¬ties that struck the Philippines. There¬fore, this is what the LORD says about the prophets who are proph¬esy¬ing in my name: I DID NOT SEND THEM, yet they are say¬ing, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will per-ish by sword and famine. And the peo¬ple they are proph¬esy¬ing to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daugh¬ters. I WILL POUR OUT ON THEM THE CALAMITY THEY DESERVE. Jer. 14:15–16 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Do not lis¬ten to what the prophets are proph¬esy¬ing to you; they fill you with FALSE HOPES. They speak visions from their own minds not from the mouth of the LORD. Jer. 23:16 3. False prophets are pla¬gia¬rists. Pla¬gia¬rism is the unau¬tho¬rized use of another person’s thoughts or ideas, usu¬ally in lit¬er¬a¬ture. When you don’t cite or give credit to the author where you bor¬row the ideas from and the words you use resem¬ble his thoughts, you are pla¬gia¬riz¬ing his work. False prophets are pla¬gia¬riz¬ing too. You will hear them today quot¬ing Bible verses as if they’re fresh rev¬e¬la¬tion intended directly to you, to your church, or to your nation. They bor¬row words from ancient prophets. Sure they cite Scrip¬ture ref¬er¬ences but they get the credit of being a prophet for repack¬ag¬ing them. “There¬fore,” declares the LORD , “I am against the PROPHETS WHO STEAL FROM ONE ANOTHER WORDS sup¬pos¬edly from me. Yes,” declares the LORD , “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The LORD declares.’ Indeed, I am against those who proph¬esy false dreams,” declares the LORD. “They tell them and LEAD MY PEOPLE ASTRAY with their reck¬less lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not ben¬e¬fit these peo¬ple in the least,” declares the LORD. Jer. 23:30–32 Eagle Chris¬t¬ian online (last accessed March 21, 2012) says, “Prophets Sadhu Sun¬dar Sel¬varaj, Vin¬cent Selk¬vaku¬mar, Neville John¬son and Robert Misst released sim¬i¬lar and com¬ple¬men¬tary prophetic words.” They must have been exchang¬ing notes. 4. False prophets are oppor¬tunists. They take advan¬tage of the people’s vul¬ner¬a¬bil¬i¬ties and take from them mate¬ri¬ally. I don’t really know how much free¬bies they get but in con¬fer¬ences they always ask you to fast (they called the peo¬ple to fast like Nin¬eveh and then asked them to fast for Yom Kip¬pur, now they are ask¬ing peo¬ple to fast like Daniel) but when you look at them they look like fat¬tened calves. Micah 3:5 says false prophets in Israel flat¬ter those whom they can ben¬e¬fit from. It’s like a host-parasite sym¬bio¬sis: the peo¬ple sim¬ply can’t wait to hear from them again. They are being led astray, yet they love it. Recall Pen¬te¬costal Penance, an exam¬ple of error that directly under¬mines the Gospel. This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead my peo¬ple astray, IF ONE FEEDS THEM, THEY PROCLAIM ‘PEACE’; if he does not, they pre¬pare to wage war against him. Mic. 3:5 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doc¬trine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great num¬ber of teach¬ers to say WHAT THEIR ITCHING EARS WANT TO HEAR. 2Tim. 4:3 The prophets proph¬esy lies, the priests rule by their own author¬ity, and MY PEOPLE LOVE IT THIS WAY. But what will you do in the end? Jer. 5:31 5. False prophets are inac¬cu¬rate. I believe true prophets have 100% accu¬racy in their pre¬dic¬tions. Phonies on the other hand, will get it once or twice to get you hooked. They know you will be giv¬ing them them the ben¬e¬fit the doubt when they fail in their suc¬ceed¬ing pre¬dic¬tions. MacArthur in “Charis¬matic Chaos” shared some of their ratio¬nal¬iza¬tion, “I fig¬ure, if I hit two-thirds of it, I’m doing pretty good.” They seem to be happy with their guess work. It bears resem¬blance to div¬ina¬tion or Manghuhula, many of them thrive in Quiapo. But a prophet who pre¬sumes to speak in my name any¬thing I have not com¬manded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death. You may say to your¬selves, “HOW CAN WE KNOW WHEN A MESSAGE HAS NOT BEEN SPOKEN BY THE LORD?” If what a prophet pro¬claims in the name of the LORD does NOT TAKE PLACE OR COME TRUE, that is a mes¬sage the LORD has not spo¬ken. That prophet has spo¬ken pre¬sump¬tu¬ously. Do not be afraid of him. Deut. 18:20–22 I don’t think it can be any clearer than that. If what he pro¬claims does not take place or come true, that is a mes¬sage the Lord has not spo¬ken. Recall the failed New Dis¬pen¬sa¬tion prophe¬cies yet despite its fail-ures, the peo¬ple behind Eagle Chris¬t¬ian online (last accessed March 21, 2012) con¬tinue to believe they are now liv¬ing in it. The Lord com¬manded the chil¬dren Israel “Do not lis¬ten to them” (Jer. 23:16). The mood here is imper¬a-tive there¬fore lis¬ten¬ing to false prophets is a sin.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 21:24:06 +0000
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