Voice of a Prophet
A WARNING to our present end times generation of believers in Christ Jesus.
Test the the spirit of these so-called prophets, pastors and teachers who are ever so filled with the pride of their traditions and man-ordained titles and jobs.
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Voice of a Prophet
THE BLIGHT OF TODAY’S CHURCH
1 JOHN 4:1
The warning against false prophets started back in the days of the New Testament church. All of the apostles warned the church concerning these coming false prophets that would prey upon the church, especially upon new Christians.
What makes the New Testament so relevant today is that the church today is facing the same problems the early church faced in the days of its infancy. I can think of no problem we face but what was addressed by one of the New Testament apostles.
This present generation, however, believes that they have new problems. My contention, however, is simply that every problem has a spiritual origin and can be traced back to the New Testament warnings.
Granted, there never has been a climate more hospitable to the uprising of the false prophets. And with the increase of media outlets like those we have today, these problems are brought into the home.
Along these lines, my concern is that the proliferation of false prophets has compromised the true meaning of God to our generation. We are allowing preachers to preach without any accountability whatsoever. Even when a preacher is proven to be a scoundrel, he continues to influence without any kind of hindrance whatsoever.
The ones who are affected by these false prophets are those who are not rooted and grounded in scriptural teaching.
As the apostle John warned, “Believe not every spirit” (1 John 4:1). Has there ever been a generation as gullible as those today who will believe anything they read or hear in the newspaper, radio or television?
The church used to deal with these false prophets by a mighty move of God, which some refer to as revival. What we desperately need today is another revival, but I do not see one on the horizon. I pray for it constantly. I hope for it now more than ever. And God knows, we desperately need it today.
In reading the history of revivals, it seems to me that the present generation is primed for a revival. I think that would clear the deck for the next generation.
Signs of a False Prophet
False prophets, since the days of the early church, have made insidious inroads into the church. By the time a false prophet is recognized as a false prophet, he or she has caused considerable harm to the church. I need not outline that sort of thing from church history; every cult in the world today began with a false prophet in the church.
Several things about a false prophet need to be understood and watched for in the church today.
i) Promotes Self
Perhaps the worst thing that I could say about these false prophets is that they malign God’s character in order to promote themselves. This is the first warning we need to take care of.
When God’s character is at stake, we need to be very careful. Our God is a holy God and will not stand for His character to be maligned by malicious false prophets trying to gain a personal advantage.
An old preacher once said that if you want to become famous and rich, get into the church. Of course, he was referring to false prophets who have gorged themselves with the tithes and offerings of God’s weak sheep.
Many a preacher has gone into the ministry and sacrificed everything for the work of God. These servants need to be honored and revered throughout their lifetime. But many who enter into the ministry do it for gain. They have a personal agenda they want to pursue, and they find that the best way to do that is through some religious content.
To malign God’s character begins with not really understanding the God of the Bible. Everybody is religious and everybody has a religious opinion about everything in the Bible. Everybody thinks they know who God is, and some have referred to Him as the “One up there that likes me.” I hate that phrase because it has nothing to do with the God of the Bible.
To take the character of God and twist it in such a way as to make God out to be someone He is not must be condemned for what it is. To redefine God in terms that help someone’s personal agenda can only be called blasphemous.
The fact that God allows this has always been a mystery to me and has been an incentive to focus on who is the God of the Bible. I have a passion to know God; and when someone makes a caricature out of God, it drives me to my knees. I often pray, “I cannot answer that man, but I know Thee.”
I want to know God, and I want to know God in such a way that I can introduce Him to those who also long to know God. I do not want anybody messing with the biblical description of God. I do not want anybody twisting the character of God into a caricature.
Self-promotion should be reprimanded by all concerned. Unfortunately, most of these false prophets are not accountable to anybody who is able to curtail their activities. Hence, we have an ongoing flow of thoughts and ideas about God that is at complete odds with the biblical description of God. The sons of the prophets are enabling these false prophets.
ii) Cherry-picks and Distorts the Message
We also find that these false prophets pick and choose what they want to believe about God. They want to believe in the love of God, but they do not want to believe in the wrath of God. They pick out all of the biblical descriptions about the love of God, and create an untrue picture of God, because you cannot have a picture of God that is incomplete. Their ideas of God are so far out of balance that they lead people away from the true God.
Based upon that, the next level of a false prophet is that he distorts God’s message.
This is a critical issue. I want to know what God is saying, and I want to have it deeply rooted in biblical evidence. I do not want somebody’s commentary on what the Bible says. I want to know what the Bible says “other than by hearsay,” as Thomas Carlyle stated it.
If you get two people to describe a picture, they will come up with two different descriptions. One may leave one detail out and the other will leave out something else.
To really understand that picture, you have to see the picture yourself. I think that when we come to the Word of God, we need to know what the Word of God says.
We need to be more like the Berean Christians, as Paul put it: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).
Paul warned the Christians not to take even his word, but to search the Scriptures to make sure that what he was saying was true. We need more of this today.
These false prophets distort God’s message by making the messenger more important than the message. Here again, we are turning the messenger into a celebrity.
It’s common to say, “Let us go hear so-and-so,” as though that preacher is better than any other preacher around. It is not the messenger; it is the message that needs to be proclaimed.
If you study the Old and New Testaments, you will soon discover that no prophet can ever become a celebrity. The most significant thing about the prophet is the message he conveys, and that message had better be rooted in the heart of God.
I love what Charles H. Spurgeon’s grandfather, who was also a preacher, said of his grandson: “Charles can preach the gospel better than me, but he cannot preach a better gospel.” We are called to preach the gospel. The vehicle that brings the gospel is only a vehicle and must be worthy of the gospel he is bringing.
False prophets have a way of twisting the message just enough to fool the shallow Christian. If 99 percent of what a false prophet says is true, it is a given that he is a true prophet. However, the 1 percent disqualifies that man from being a true prophet of God. Either it is all the way or it is no way.
It is amazing to me how clever false prophets are in twisting the message in such a way as to fool the majority of Christians. Just enough twist to make it sound right. If a person is a Bible student and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and open to the work of the Holy Spirit, these false prophets will not fool him.
“Try the spirits,” said the apostle John, because he knew that there were many false prophets who would hover over the flock of God to take advantage of them and prey upon them in such a manner as to dishonor the glory of God.
The end result of these false prophets is that they confuse God’s sheep. This is the burden of my heart, particularly for the new Christian as well as the shallow Christian. I wish that all Christians had a heart for God that would push them beyond the agendas of some of these false prophets and into the very heart of God Himself.
What these false prophets do is rob Christians of God’s best. I need to remind God’s people that God has our best interests in mind for the longest period of time. God allows certain things to happen in our lives because there is a bigger picture in mind and God is taking us through those experiences.
The false prophet would tell you that if you are a Christian you should not experience any bad times. Everything should go wonderfully for you. You should prosper and be successful in everything you touch your hand to. That sounds fine, but it has no root in the Word of God. What it does do is take the focus off what God has for us.
Robbing God’s people of God’s best is one of the fundamental problems in this generation. These false prophets are exchanging God’s best for what they consider their best. Are we followers of God, or are we following man? False prophets would have us follow them. Always remember that when you follow a man, he will always lead you away from God.
iii) Leads in the Wrong Direction
This brings me to the point that false prophets lead people the wrong way. Maybe these false prophets have been deceived themselves. Maybe they believe what they are saying. Maybe they are being used by the enemy of man’s soul and do not even know it. I do not know if I could tell the difference; all I know is that they are leading people away from God.
It is my passion to lead people to God. That is where they belong. That is what they were created for. St. Augustine had it right when he pronounced, “Thou, O God, hast created us for Thyself, and we are restless until we rest in Thee.” To do less is to rob people of what God created them for in the very beginning.
In order for these false prophets to keep the people following them, they must feed them with spiritually toxic food. This toxic food is a little bit of psychology, a little bit of inspiration, a dash of theology, a touch of Bible and a whole lot of personality.
Each of these false prophets has his own recipe for this toxic food. I am not sure, but perhaps Solomon had this in mind when he wrote, “And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Eccles. 12:12).
I wonder if Solomon saw the stream of these toxic books flooding this generation. The church is being flooded with books that are adversely affecting a whole generation of Christians.
Every false prophet has a book that rises just a wee bit higher than the Bible, and he is very careful in marketing this book so the average shallow Christian will not notice this.
iv) Majors in Minors
One other aspect of the false prophet is that he overwhelms God’s people with trivia.
Never has there been more trivia flowing into the church than today. Much of this trivia is coming from the world and into the church without anyone stopping it anywhere.
I want to know, where are the gatekeepers? Where are the watchmen concerned about what is coming into the church? As watchmen, we have lost ground in this regard.
God warned the Old Testament saints, “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word in my mouth and warn them from me” (Ezek. 33:7).
Where are these watchmen? Where are these prophets warning God’s people of the false prophets invading God’s territory?
It has come to the point that if any preacher criticizes any movement, he is quickly ostracized and made fun of. However, it is our responsibility—our job—to point out these false prophets, whether other people listen to us or not.
God’s instruction to the prophet was, “Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezek. 33:9).
The responsibility of the prophet is not to come up with his own message but to faithfully deliver the message, the warning that is coming from God. If the people hear and turn from their wicked ways, then God will bless them. If they do not listen, do not turn from their wicked ways, it is not the responsibility of the prophet. He has done his job, and the rest is up to God.
We must give warning concerning the false prophets that are gaining such ground among the people of God. We must warn the people about those who are turning them away from the true God. If they hear us, we can praise God. If they do not hear us, we can mourn for them but know that we have done our job.
Our heavenly Father,
how grateful we are that You have given a message, and then given a voice to that message, to the prophets You have chosen.
May those prophets be sent, and may Thy people turn from their wicked ways to serve Thee today.
Amen.
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