Our handbook for life, the Bible, gives us the tools we need to distinguish between the real prophet and the false or evil prophet. This is a skill that will remain valuable all the way to the end of the age.
When a prophet predicts something is going to occur, claiming his prediction is from God, and it does not come to pass, you should not fear that prophet. He is a false prophet.
“When a prophet speaks in the name of the Eternal, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that [is] the thing which the Lord has not spoken, [but] the prophet has spoken it presumptuously: you shall not fear him” Deuteronomy 18:22).
So, if the prophet tells you something is going to happen and it doesn’t happen, then you know he is a false prophet. And if the prophet tells you something is not going to happen and it happens, you know he is a false prophet.
On the other hand, if a prophet tells you something is going to happen and it does happen, is this necessarily the mark of a true prophet? Let’s see.
“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass whereof he spoke unto you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them; You shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet…” (Deuteronomy 13:1-3).
That is a typical situation in this modern world. A prophet makes a prediction. By chance the prediction happens to come true and he suddenly has a band of followers who he re-routs to the gods he has chosen.
Another way in which to identify an evil prophet is to see if he obeys God or not. An evil prophet will not want to obey God. He may want to pick and choose which commandments he obeys. Or he might teach that the Ten Commandments of God have been abolished. That is very popular among liberal religionists. He will, in essence, turn the grace of God into license or lasciviousness. These false prophets were pre-ordained to this condemned position.
“For there are certain men, crept in unawares, who were before, of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Eternal God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4).
In today world there is an army of anti-law religious leaders who teach disobedience to God.
“He that says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). A person who refuses to hear the law of God, even that person’s prayer is an abomination. “He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination” (Proverbs 28:9).
Wily Elder, CBA, CMI
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