The Signs of a False Prophet...

Chapter Sixty-nine:

The Gospel message is no longer enough. What we are fed, instead, is enough Bible to sound Scriptural, added in with a whole lot of personality, on top of a dose of inspirational/motivational  psychobabble. There has never been a time when the climate in the church has been so open, so embracing of false prophets. These false prophets have truly compromised, watered down and often changed the true meaning of the Gospel. We are being spoon fed those things that are not offensive, that do not challenge us to live as God would have us live, seeking after holiness and dying to self while serving Him. 

Our backbones have become soft while our hearts have become hardened. We are being coddled so that we easily dismiss our shortcomings and we have been lulled into a false sense of "God knows we're not perfect but still loves us" mentality.  Matthew warns us in Chapter 7, verse 15: "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." Matthew knew that since the beginning of the Church, false prophets, guided by and carefully placed in the Church by Satan, would infiltrate the Church to try to render it ineffective, if not useless.

True prophets have always been used by God to guide the church through difficult times and to warn her against adopting unbiblical, heretical and deceitful practices, never to divert her from the truth of the Scriptures or to make us feel better about ourselves. Unfortunately, by the time someone is recognized as being a false prophet, he/she can have done considerable damage, not only to the church but also to the believers who have bought into their lies. I believe, therefore, it is mandatory that we learn what characteristics to look for that typically go along with one who is a false prophet.

First, they usually promote themselves first and God second. This can be tricky to spot as he/she may seem to talk about God frequently, but you will notice a strong pattern of self-promotion rather than a humble, making God more important than they are, attitude. It has been said that if you want to make money and have charisma, get a job in the church.  It is pretty obvious to the huckster that we often do not hold our leaders to a high enough standard and we are easily satisfied with flamboyant personalities who say what we like to hear.

Second, the false prophet will take the true character of God and change it, distort it so it is nowhere near what God is truly like. God becomes more understanding, more lenient, more condoning and open to accepting anyone who simply lives a good moral life. For those who do not have a strong grasp on the true nature of God, and what He really expects from His followers, this can be very confusing and often leads them to easily accept false teachings and deception.

Third, the false prophet often positions themselves so that they are either accountable to no one or they surround themselves with those who are easily duped or not as strong in the Scriptures as they should be so they do not recognize error. Or they may feel intimidated by the false prophet's personality and strong following so they are reluctant to share their concerns.

Fourth, the false prophet often chooses particular Scriptures to focus on to the exclusion of the rest of the Bible. They pick and choose what they want to believe about God, and those beliefs are transferred to those whom they influence. Often the love of God is the main focus and His other attributes are downplayed or dismissed as they do not fulfill the need of what the false prophet is attempting to do...get believers' idea of God so far off track that they forget or never learn the true nature of God.

  

Fifth, the false prophet will also distort the actual Scriptures themselves. In a time when many of us are eager to just sit back and be spoon fed without putting any effort into studying the Scriptures for ourselves, we are prime targets for being taught things that are Scripturally untrue, and even worse, can be deceptive doctrine. We are not challenged towards holiness and the necessity of doing a serious internal self examination on how we live. Rather they coddle us, make us feel good about ourselves and any ideas they have on improvement is on a superficial level. We are never asked what sins still entangle us, what fleshly appetites still hold us back from becoming the person God wants us to become as we are supposed to be maturing in our walk with Him.

Lastly,  the false prophet will tell you that if you are a Christian you will live a wonderful life, full of blessings and that God will shield you from any bad times. Sadly, when you do encounter rough times (notice I said when, and not if), you will be told it is a result of your lack of faith, or not giving to the church enough, whether it be by your service or your money, or that you have some secret hidden sin that you need to confess. It will never be possible that what you have been taught is erroneous, it is simply something that is wrong with you. And there will be no room for argument against this. 

The false prophet's focus is not on protecting and warning as it should be, it is on growing the church and looking for new, innovative ways to "market" their version of God, as if they were a business, in order to make Him more acceptable to the masses. Then there is often the endorsement of their latest book or DVD teaching which is usually promoted with a much stronger fervor than the Holy Scriptures themselves. Many are the poisonous, sedating and reassuring words coming out of the mouths of the many false prophets who seem to grow by the number on an almost daily basis.

First John 4:1 warns us to "test the Spirits" because the Apostle John knew there were and would be many false prophets who would try to take advantage of the people of God, and prey upon them so as to dishonor God, and confuse God's sheep.

This is why it is so important that we be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11 tells us, "Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."), and not be so poor in our studying of the Scriptures so as to make us weak in our walk with God that we are easy picking for those who would seek to mislead us.  

We need to pray that God will reveal to us those who are false prophets.  We need to repent and ask God's forgiveness for following these false prophets who have taken us down the easy road, the wide path that leads to separation from God and to our own destruction.  We need to get back to the true message of the Gospel, the message that as A. W. Tozer said, "does not clean up and shine the outside of a person; rather, it bores into the very heart and core of a person and radically changes that person from the inside."

Scripture tells us that "the" False Prophet will come on the scene around the time of the Antichrist, just prior to Jesus' second coming.  This false prophet is not who I am referring to here in this chapter.  I am talking about those false prophets, being used by Satan, to make way for the coming of "the" False Prophet prophesied in Scriptures.  

These current-day false prophets' agenda is to weaken us, to confuse us, to deceive us and to make us willing to accept anything that goes against the Bible.  Their job is to distort the Gospel, make us question the authority of the Scriptures, and to make us apathetic to what is happening around us as long as we feel good about ourselves. We are being conditioned, and while this may sound like paranoia, I believe it to be true.  When the real False Prophet shows up, the enemy's goal is that we are prepared and ready to blindly follow.  And, sadly many will do just that.