False Prophets
Sunday, January 17
When asked what would characterize the days leading up to His return, Jesus warned of an epidemic of deception through false Christs, prophets, and teachers:
Matthew 24:1,5,11,24,25 NKJV 4“Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.”
Last time, we saw that there is a genuine gift of prophecy that is legitimate—it is one of the 9 spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Cor. 12 and 14.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “Do not quench the Spirit, do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good,” (1 Thes. 5:19-21 NASB).
“Don’t stifle those who have a word (an inspired message) from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil” (1 Thes. 5:19-21 Message).
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We also saw that there are 2 kinds of NT prophecy:
F0RTH-TELLING, which is to bring an inspired message or exhortation.
FORETELLING, which is to forecast a future event with specificity and detail.
This is what the prophets of old routinely did.
For instance, the OT Bible prophets predicted the birthplace of Jesus, His miraculous ministry of healing, His death on the Cross, that the soldiers would cast lots for His clothes, that He would be buried in a rich man’s borrowed tomb, that He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and so on.
In the book of Acts we find a man named Agabus who foretold a coming famine:
Acts 11:27-28 ESV “Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius).” And it happened!
There is NO WAY you can predict future events like this unless God, Who dwells in eternity and knows all things past, present, and future, shows it to you!
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Now, anytime there is something genuine from God, Satan will try to counterfeit it for his own evil purposes.
For instance, God sent His Christ into the world—Satan will send his antichrist.
God sends angels to minister and deliver—Satan sends his fallen angels to deceive and destroy.
God gave us His Holy Bible—Satan has sent false books galore—book of Mormon, Jehovah’s Witnesses translation, New Age spirituality books, and many more.
God gave us the true, one and only pathway to salvation; Satan has presented many false pathways to heaven.
BOTTOM LINE: If there’s a real, there’s a counterfeit!
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Jesus also predicted that a key target of false prophets would be the church—“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves”—Matt. 7:15 NLT
The only reason you put on a sheep disguise is if you want to sheep to think you’re one of them!—Jesus calls us His sheep!
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So today I want to answer two questions: How do you spot a false prophet? And what should be your response?
First, how do you spot a false prophet?
One of the key ways you know a false prophet is they will:
I. Twist God’s word
Listen to Peter: “In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong—ideas that will cause people to be lost. And they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong…
False prophets are so smooth in their false teaching that it’s hard to see they’re wrong!
They’ll say five right things, and then slip in one subtle, wrong thing that you don’t catch.
But that one false idea, concept, or twisting of God’s word is a hook that, once you bite it, can lead you:
*To expect something from God He never promised,
*To believe something about Jesus that’s not true,
*Or to misinterpret something in the Word that opens you up to further deception.
You say, “C’mon Jeff, a little bit of false teaching isn’t that big a deal, as long as most of what they say is right!”
ILLUS: If a pilot is off even one degree in his calculations, he will wind up a thousand miles from his destination!
One false concept or twisted Scripture can drop you a thousand miles from where you want to be!
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One big red flag for me has been the infiltration of New Age spirituality into Christian circles by way of false teachers and false prophets.
The New Age Movement is a collection of different Eastern-influenced philosophies and practices, springing from Hinduism and Buddhism, and that center around the occult.
And the New Age Movement (NAM) has successfully infiltrated many churches with practices like:
*Praying to angels.
*Communicating with angels.
*The belief that certain rocks or crystals have healing power.
*The belief in ‘portals,’ which are doorways, gates, or windows where someone finds, or prays in, a portal that is supposedly like a pipeline releasing continual power and communication from heaven.
*Grave soaking—where a person lays on top of the grave of someone that was used greatly by God in order to “soak in” their anointing—an entirely occult, New Age practice.
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And I’m not just talking here about Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or some other well known cult.
I’m talking about false prophets and teachers that rise up, as Paul warned, “from among yourselves.”
They are on Christian TV, radio, social media, in Christian book stores, and other Christian forums.
Jesus and the Apostles warned that they will successfully infiltrate the church—They will be found “among you.”
They are “angels of light,” wolves wearing a sheep costume.
They sound and look great, but on closer inspection they are teaching things salted and peppered with New Age dribble and other false, unbiblical concepts.
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Another way to spot false prophets and teachers is:
II. Self promotion
False prophets and teachers heavily promote themselves.
They routinely trumpet that they are prophets, or apostles, or some other high title.
They repeatedly point out their giftedness,
why you should follow their ministry,
how anointed they are,
how accurate some of their prediction have been,
how amazingly God has used them, and so on.
Nothing like Paul the Apostle who downplayed himself: “I am the least of the apostles, and not even deserving to be called an apostle” (1 Cor 15:9 NIV).
False prophets and teachers rarely say things like this.
Why? Because they want you to follow them, to come under their influence regularly, and to give money to them.
Paul warned they “…will lead some of the Lord’s followers away from the truth to follow them” (Acts 20:30 ERV).
This is why I harp all the time about how important it is for you to know your Bible!
Be like the Bereans in the Book of Acts who, when listening to Paul’s message about Christ, “welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11 HCSB).
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A final way to spot a false prophet is:
III. They have a track record of predicting future events that don’t come to pass.
Moses gave the gold standard litmus test for prophecy in Deuteronomy:
“If you wonder, ‘How shall we know whether the prophecy is from the Lord or not?’ This is the way to know: If the thing he prophesies doesn’t happen, it is not the Lord who has given him the message; he has made it up himself” (18:21-22).
This couldn’t be more clear!
Failed prophecies came from their own imagination.
If we’re going to be honest today, we’d have to admit that this happens routinely with certain high-profile prophets in America.
For instance, we heard all kinds of ‘thus says the Lord’ prophecies about Covid from many self-proclaimed prophets.
That Covid:
*would not come to America,
*that it would disappear by the end of March,
*that it would not become a pandemic.
One high profile Los Angeles pastor/prophet prophesied last Feb. 28 that COVID-19 would “die down quickly.”
The sad thing about this is that tens of thousands of Christians place their faith and hope in what these people predict, only to wind up disillusioned, with some of the younger Christians even drifting from the faith.
Remember what Paul wrote: “…examine everything…don’t be gullible. Check out everything…”
So when listening to a prophet prophesying in the name of the Lord, do some digging for your own soul’s sake!
Find out what they teach!
Is it sound?
Did Jesus and the Apostles teach the same thing?
Can you find it in the NT?
If not, don’t be GULLIBLE!
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The answer to the 2nd question—how do I respond to false prophets and teachers—is simple.
Walk away! “If a person comes to you with some other kind of teaching (than the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ), do not take him into your home. Do not even greet him” (2 John 1:10 NLV).
LET’S PRAY