Modern Day False Prophets

 ARE YOU A FOLLOWER OF FALSE PROPHETS

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Of late, I had noticed on my Facebook wall many postings about Christian prophets and their prophecies.

The bible has this to say: 

Heb 1:1  “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Heb 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” 

To me, the verse seems to say God does not need to use prophets to speak to Christians any more.  So, why are there so many prophets all over the Christian communities?  Maybe I would prefer to think that the verse is merely saying that God does not need to use prophets to speak to us anymore on matters concerning His plan of salvation, which has already been done and completed in Jesus.  God may still use a person or other to speak to any individual or group concerning certain specific matters that affect them. 

And charlatans are quick to jump on this golden opportunity to make money selling predictions, books, cds, collecting seminar fees,  and taking love-gift collections from of naïve Christians.  And just as there are many false prophets there are even more naive Christians.

Malaysia has its own fair share of self-proclaimed prophets who love prophesying over other people, and they cannot care two-hoots that most of what they prophesy never come to pass.

Christians Who Are Drawn to Prophets

Selling books, cds, taking offerings

Many Christians simply love to follow prophets, much as they claim that they actually follow Jesus Christ only.  Well, they deceive themselves.  One can simply see they hang on to every word of prophecy of the prophet of their choosing.  They fail miserably to understand the bible’s high standards for a prophet.  The bible is clear …….. one missed prophecy and he is a false prophet. So, he can get 50 prophecies right and one wrong.  That makes him a false prophet.  The bible says that, and you better believe it:

Deu 18:22  When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

The first mark of a false prophet is saying prophecies do not need to be 100% accurate.   And in saying that, the false prophet is also saying God lies in Deu 18:22 and God does not mean what He says. No, The bible says it mus be 100% accurate.

So, why in the world would any Christian want to follow after a false prophet?  It is probably leftover pagan desire to know the future.  If you ask, you might get this response “But he is more often than not accurate in his predictions!” or “But he can do so many miracles!”  Often is not good enough.  To me, a false prophet is a false prophet.  Once proven false, I would not want to hear one word from him.  As for miracles, remember that Jesus warned us that even satan and his servants can do great miracles.  Read Rev 13 and you will find that the false prophet can call publicly down fire from heaven and even give life to a statue and make it speak.   So, I am not going blindly to chase after miracle workers either.  Always watch for the fruits of the so-called servant of God.

 

The Real Prophets Never Miss

Just read the book of Isaiah.  Every chapter is filled with prophecies made from 10’s to 100’s of years in advance, and many have come to pass in the history of the Middle East and Egypt.  Among the examples are : a temple was indeed built to the Lord as predicted, in Egypt by migrating Jews, King Cyrus of Persia was born a 150 years after he was named in the bible, and he did exactly what he was predicted to do,  an insignificant Babylon was predicted to rise up and destroy Jerusalem tens of years before it actually happened.  The book of Isaiah was so accurate that unbelieving academics had to invent the silly reason that these predictions were inserted into the book of Isaiah after the events happened.  Dumb academics – the whole book of Isaiah are filled with fulfilled prophecies, so the whole book of Isaiah must have been written after new testament times?  Deliberately dumb.  The only prophecies yet to be fulfilled in the book of Isaiah are those pertaining to the 2^nd coming of Jesus and the eternal kingdom.  You would find similar accurately fulfilled prophecies in the book of Ezekiel ( see the destruction of Tyre ), book of Jeremiah, book of Daniel; in fact, every book.

The prophet of God never fails, not even once simply because he speaks the word of God; and every word of God is true.

Why Does God Allow False Prophet to Operate?

This I know.  God says he sends false prophets to test His followers.

Deu 13:1  If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

Deu 13:2  and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ˜Let us go after other gods"--which you have not known--˜and let us serve them," Deu 13:3  you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deu 13:4  You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.

I would not follow any false prophet, not even for a moment in the hope of gaining something good out of him.  The devil can also give you things that seem good, but there is always a snare somewhere.

I also know that God does allow even non-believers to use His name to cast out demons.  See Luke 9:49-50 or Mar 9:38-39.  As long as His name is glorified, He allows it.  But having said so, I also that God does not reward these people in heaven, for they have received their rewards already in cash and handclaps.  Neither will God grant them salvation, for when they say to the Lord :

Mat 7:22  Many will say to Me in that day, ˜Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?"

the Lord replies them,

Mat 7:23 ˜I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"

So, it is very clear.  Even if they are Christian leaders who call on the Jesus Lord, and perform miracles, if they had misused their anointing to serve their worldly lusts, they are not going into the kingdom of God

Tricks of False Prophets

Now, fortune-tellers and diviners can also make predictions and get some right. I have seen foolish people ( non-Christians ) going to diviners and palm readers to get their fortunes foretold.  I must admit that I was one of them in the days before I came to know Jesus.  Everyone knows that not every prediction made by these charlatans will come true; in fact most would not come true.  But they will still visit them just hoping to hear something they want to hear, either to convince themselves of some pre-held notion or comfort.  This is the extent of our deceitful heart.  We even allow our own deceitful heart to deceive ourselves.  We allow it.

A common trick is that false prophets often make predictions that are so vague that it is up to you to decide if it has been fulfilled or not.  And the charlatan can claim an accurate hit whether that thing occurs or not.   A good example in the bible is the case of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah’s visit to the king of Israel in 1King 22.  When the 2 kings consulted the false prophets for their divination on their proposed act of war against the king of Syria, the false prophets replied: “Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.”  Well, they did not say to which king would the Lord deliver it to.  The king could well be the king of Judah, the king of Israel and also the opposing king of Syria.  And that exactly is how most modern day Christian prophets work.

Another common trick is to keep in touch with the political and financial news, make some quick judgment of the probabilities and “prophesize” to the church.    One such visiting prophet ( too bad I forgot his name ) in Malaysia some years back that the next Prime Minister of Malaysia after Mahathir would come out of the south.  That was because it was already hot news that Najib Razak from Johor would likely succeed Mahathir.  Well, Mahathir pulled a surprise decision by rejecting Najib and appointed Abdullah Badawi some few months later.  The prophet of course, collected his love gift collection from the church and went back to Australia where he came from.  So much for prophets.   False prophets also make predictions on disasters concerning areas already known for disaster risks.  So predictions for a great  earthquake in a  place like Florida at at a distant future or tsunami around Asia would be a safe bet.

A third trick is to make predictions that are so far away that by time the predictions are supposed to be fulfilled both you and the prophet are dead.   But he died with many of his books and cds sold.

Some of the more prominent fakes today

Proven false are people like Benny Hinn who predicted God will destroy New Orleans with fire, which did not happen and instead Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans with a flood.  He also predicted the death of Fidel Castro before the year 2000, and Fidel Castro lived right through it.  Chuck Pierce is a known Kabbalist ( which puts him into the occultist category ) and has even admitted to his mistakes in prophecies.  Names associated with false prophecies are Rick Joyner, Juanita Baum, Kim Clement, Peter C Wagner and members  of Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, members of the Kansas City Prophets.  Come to think of it, they are mostly from the USA!

Conclusion

True prophets never miss.  The bible warns against false prophets and false teachers.  They are nothing more than diviners who use  the name of the Lord for monetary gain at the expense of naïve Christians.  A Christian of 30 years can often be a naïve Christian.

The false prophets speak presumptuously when the Lord has not spoken.  Just as the false prophets spoke falsely to King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat.  They make a good living by speaking falsely to soothe itching ears.

Do you have itching ears too?

Jesus says in John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."