FALSE PROPHETS

FALSE PROPHETS

                “And Jesus answered and said to them: “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name saying, ‘I am Christ’ and will deceive many.” Mt. 24:4, 5

                The King James Bible just says: “saying I am Christ.” And so here we have another one of those statements like Jesus’ promise to the thief on the cross when He says, “I say unto you today, you will be with me in paradise.” or I say unto you, Today you will be with me in paradise.” One way has the thief going to paradise that same day, while the other way contains only the promise of an eventual entering into paradise. And people interpret it according to their beliefs on the subject. 

                So is Jesus saying that many will claim to be the Christ, or is He saying something even more ominous? Is He saying that people will indeed say that Jesus is the Christ and yet deceive the people in other ways? Is He saying that many will follow the antichrist thinking that they are serving Christ?

                I believe the Bible answers this question and that it is the latter. Rev. 13:11 says:” And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon.” So this beast looks like a Christian, but he speaks like the devil. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and he is able to deceive the people because he looks like a Christian, even a powerful Christian leader.

                The Protestant reformation was born out of the fact that many reformers began to recognize that the popes seemed to fulfill everything that the Bible says about the antichrist. He was the Vicar of Christ, claiming to stand in the place of Christ. He changed times and laws. He claimed infallible authority over the people. He claimed to be able to forgive sins and to create the actual body of Christ in the Eucharist and in time the reformers began to see these things for the blasphemies that they were.

                On this subject Pope Francis fits the description of an antichrist or a false prophet perfectly today. He is making many anti-biblical statements and he is personally forming the global religion of the beast by his own admission. But we are not here to talk about the Pope per se.

                False prophets are rampant in the world today and yet determining just who is who isn’t all that easy. Jesus was saying that they would deceive many because they are saying that He is Christ and yet they are carrying people in the wrong direction.

                As I look at the world today I see several groups. There is the falling away church that is quickly entering into full-blown apostasy. Paul mentions them in 2 Thess. 2:3, 4. They are falling away, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. (1 Tim. 4:1) Strangely enough Paul here identifies two of their traits as 1. Forbidding marriage. (i.e. the Catholic priesthood). And  2. What appears to be vegetarianism or veganism or some such, and that can apply to many including the New Age movement, but who knows for sure? But Paul has a lot to say about judging people by what they eat or drink or what they wear or what day they keep, saying that the real substance of all of these things is Christ.

                Colossians 2: 16-17 comes to mind along with Romans 14. But while there are varying ideas and doctrines about what we eat and wear and what day we keep, there is no specific mention of these things that help us to identify a false prophet.

                In the broadest of terms I would say that there will be two churches in the end. One will be the very large church of the antichrist who will seek to force everyone to worship him through the Mark of the Beast system and there is the faithful Body of Christ that keeps the commandments of God and bears the testimony of Jesus. In the end every person on this planet will either serve Jesus Christ, living by His Spirit and by His Word, or they will serve the antichrist in His global religion. They will have abandoned the Holy Spirit in favor of the spirit of this world. They will have abandoned the fundamental truths of the Bible and they will wonder after the Beast and His image eventually taking the Mark of the Beast.

                At the very least, we must be very vigilant in determining which church the preachers and prophets are guiding their followers to. And to me it is absolutely shocking how many supposed Christian leaders are beating a path to Rome today with hat in hand to pay homage to the spirit of antichrist. Some of these are preachers and teachers that were champions of the Word and of faith, but they drifted into prosperity preaching. They discovered where the money is and they have continued to follow the almighty dollar to the place where they are willing to sacrifice the most fundamental of biblical truths in order to stay on the money trail and that money trail is leading them right into the coming global religion of the Beast.

                But we need to be both vigilant and careful about who we call a false prophet. For instance, we can’t call someone a false prophet simply because he has a different doctrine or viewpoint than we do. If this was true, then every denomination on the planet could call every other denomination a bunch of false prophets and that simply isn’t true. God’s remnant people are scattered throughout the Christian world and many of them would rather die than to disobey the Lord or grieve the Holy Spirit in any way.

                Today, the internet poses a particularly difficult situation, because I’m sure that it is filled with both true and false prophets, watchmen and teachers. The problem is that there is an agenda out there to discredit good ministries and you can hardly find even one ministry in which someone has not said: “So and so, exposed,“ or, “ So and so is a false prophet.” But beware of this because Satan has an agenda. He has his people out there smearing even the best of ministries… and calling godly men false prophets while others are willing to pin the “False Prophet” tag on anyone that has a different turn of doctrine or prophetic interpretation than they have.

                So if the Methodists are calling the Baptists false prophets and the Baptists are calling the Pentecostals false Prophets and so on, then the body of Christ is divided and a kingdom divided cannot stand.

                Paul Begley has been called a false prophet on numerous occasions by various detractors, who make it their “ministry” identifying false prophets and exposing them. But is Paul Begley a false prophet? He is a simple Baptist preacher whom God called to compare daily events in the world with Bible prophecy. He teaches from the Word and even though he is a bit flamboyant, he is not compromising the truth. He has a humorous personality and that is actually good, because he is dealing with some very heavy subject matter. His program wins anywhere from 15 to 5o souls every day, day in and day out. Paul always recommends that these people get baptized and join a local church.

                Bonnie and I attended a prophecy conference where Paul was one of the speakers. We got into a conversation with Him and his wife Heidi and so they invited us to have breakfast with them. We had a great conversation with them about various prophetic events and so we have become personal friends. They have a passion for the Lord and for His Truth and for souls and they are doing exactly what God told them to do 8 or 9 years ago. They send out Bibles free all around the world at great expense and it has only been in the last couple of years that they have finely been able to move out of their tiny little apartment and into a live in studio. Their hallways and bedrooms were packed with cases of bibles and healing blankets for the sick (which they also send out for free) they support two orphanages overseas and they spend a good amount of time in hotel rooms as they attend various prophetic conferences.

                Jesus said that by their fruit we will know them and I am not talking about numbers here, for indeed many of the false churches forming in our nation right now actually have the biggest crowds. What I am talking about in terms of fruit is those who hold the Bible as their infallible rule of faith and practice. They preach the Gospel without compromise and they are making thousands of people aware of the Bible prophecies that are being fulfilled on a daily basis.

                There are Christian groups on all sides of the rapture issue, so we really can’t call people false prophets if they see a different timing than we do. There are wonderful and godly believers on all sides of that issue. We have, however, learned from experience not to follow those who set dates for the return of Christ.

                In this matter of not being deceived it boils down to something very deep and personal.

1.       Am I walking in and living by God’s Word?

2.       Am I living in obedience to all that the Lord teaches me through His Word?

3.       Am I filled with and baptized with the Holy Spirit?

4.       Do we make a practice of searching the Scriptures to see if the ones who teach us are being faithful to the Word?

                Those religious groups that are now falling away are abandoning the fundamental truths of the Bible. They are moving away from the Word, from repentance, from the blood of Jesus, from new birth through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. They despise the gifts of the Spirit and often deny them altogether. They turn a deaf ear to Bible prophecy and so have no idea where we are in time. They teach a false grace, claiming God’s tolerance of sin, in place of forgiveness and cleansing and turning to live holy lives. They completely deny the biblical concept that as Christians we are called to be conformed to the image of Christ or to overcome by His power. They are knowingly or unknowingly abandoning fundamental Christianity in order to embrace the aspirations of the coming global religion of the Beast.

                These are broad general strokes and believe me we don’t have to look very far to see these false mega movements and their preachers and teachers on TV and on the internet. We need to be very concerned and aware of these deceptions, but we must also be very careful who we condemn with our words. In Psalms 105:15 the Lord said: “Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.”

                1 Chronicles 16:22, 23 says: “Do not touch My anointed ones and do My prophets no harm. Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day…”

                In Romans 14:4, 5 Paul said: “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man regards one day above another and another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.”

                So it is not up to us to judge God’s servants with our words, but that doesn’t mean we have to follow them if we see them making a wrong turn.

                As a watchman I am keenly aware of the fine line that we walk. We must by all means warn the people. We must warn our brothers and sisters of the many deceptions that are coming upon the world like never before. But we need to teach to principle rather than name calling. I have on occasion named certain people who are leading the Evangelical world into the gates of hell, but it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But we must never hold back when it comes to warning the people about the deceptions themselves and false grace is one of the big ones, for it is leading much of the church away from the fundamental teachings of the church and saying that it doesn’t matter to God. This is a lie from the pit of hell and we must speak out against it.

                Well, I hope that something said here will help us in our walk with Christ and in our dealing with the deceptions that are rampant in our day. Many blessings to all of you in the mighty name of Jesus.