Beware of False Prophets

Jesus said unto His disciples, Beware if false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

One of the things to which we in the TAC adhere is that the Truth revealed in the books of Holy Scripture is whole and complete. If all Christians had remained steadfast in that belief we would not now face the catastrophic divisions which are the reality of modern Christianity. I seem to remember Bishop Mercer talking of 47,000 denominations, and if my memory is correct, or if that number is even close, logic alone tells me that many, perhaps almost all of them have to be in serious error.

Indeed many of these so-called churches were started and are led by men and women who saw some form of gain in convincing others that they had discovered some new “truth”.

There are at least two tragic consequences to such misguided, or sometimes downright wicked, activities. The first is that those sheep who flock to such false teachers are being led astray, sometimes wildly so. They never get to understand that the first step on the road to sanctification is understanding the reality of sin and the need to repent. Such messages do not make people sign cheques, but unfortunately, the failure to preach them does not kindle in people the desire for salvation.

The second consequence is that many who observe these places from the outside are so disgusted by what they see that they shut their ears to the real Truth. I have a sister who lives in a suburb of Sydney, Australia who falls into that category. I don’t know all the details, but apparently one day a man appeared in the neighbourhood, announced he had some kind of special message or revelation and opened a church. Pretty soon the gullible were flocking to the place and being parted from their money. The church grew and grew and my sister said the visible results were so bad she was having a hard time setting foot in any church.

False prophets, as Jesus says in different words, can be very subtle and their messages very plausible. But any way you look at them they are very dangerous, which is why Jesus uses such strong language, inwardly they are ravening wolves. Our Lord is warning against such people in very graphic terms.

This warning is almost always understood to refer to those we now call clergy, ordained men of God. His audience of the day understood as much from the word “prophets”, men sent by God in His service. The Old Testament contains stories of many false prophets and they were a menace.

There is a moving story in 2 Kings 13 of a man of God sent to King Jeroboam, who completes the job God sent him to do, but then makes a terrible mistake. And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. The man of God did as he was told, he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord. When his mission was completed, the king royally upset, the man of God set off home, by a different route as commanded by God.

Now there was an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The old prophet had his ass saddled and rode after the man of God. Finding him, he said unto him, Come home with me and eat bread. The man of God demurred, repeating God’s instructions, For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there.

The old prophet from Bethel then clapped on his head his best false prophet hat and, as verse 18 says, He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied.

That reminds me of those we have probably all seen on television, proclaiming that the “Holy Spirit moved me!”

The man of God ate and drank with the old prophet of Bethel and later, on his way home, for his disobedience, God sent a lion to slay him. False prophets arise in every generation and in every generation there are those who die because of them.

The story I just related involved a lie, but false doctrine, like deliberate lies, is very dangerous. Why, then, are there thousands who seem ready to believe anything they hear from an ordained, or apparently ordained, clergyman? How is it so easy to forget that even if such a man is not deliberately misleading them, no man is infallible and even the most devout of ministers can err.

From this we are led to an inevitable conclusion. Each and every Christian has a responsibility to weigh the teaching of their clergy in the balance of Holy Scripture. Then, if their doctrine begins to disagree with the Bible, they are no longer to be believed and followed.

Just like the man of God, who chose to forget the commandments of God and believe a lie from the mouth of a convincing mortal, our own mistakes will not be excused by those our ministers make. Jesus says, If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Mt.15:14. He calls the Pharisees, Blind guides! and when teaching about the end times, He says, For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Mt.24:24.

We need to be constantly alert – all of us – for false doctrine. Let me emphasise the all of us. The bishops and clergy of the Anglican Church, for example, have led that church into a terrible, stinking swamp and continue to do so. But the rank and file members of the same church who allow such things to happen must bear the burden of guilt as well.

Jesus says of false prophets, Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thistles, or figs of thorns. Nothing good can come from apostate doctrine, and when the fruits are perfectly obvious, in the confused pain of the faithful; in the disintegration of the institution; and especially in the willful denial of the Truth of Holy Scripture, there is no excuse for turning a blind eye to those fruits. That is no different from ignoring the direct command of God and listening to the comforting lie of a mortal.

Nor can we turn a deaf ear to our Lord’s warning, Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.

To quote John Stott, There is such a thing as an objective standard of truth from which the falsehood of the false prophets is to be distinguished. The very notion of false prophets is meaningless otherwise.

The Truth of Holy Scripture is absolute and in the knowledge of that Truth lies our shield and our sword against false prophets. There is no room in the true Christian for any notion that one can entertain contradictory opinions as being complementary insights into the same truth.

Jesus Christ never taught anything other than that truth and falsehood are mutually incompatible. The Truth of Holy Scripture cannot be ignored, modified or twisted in any way to suit some social or personal agenda. That is the way of the false prophet and it is utterly abhorrent to Almighty God, the ultimate judge of all.

Sound teaching, anchored deeply in the Truth, produces faith, love and godliness. Unsound teaching, based on distorting or selective use of those parts of Holy Scripture which suit the agenda generates bitterness, division and ungodliness.

Beware of false prophets.

Ye shall know them by their fruits.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.

Peter Jardine+

Trinity 8, 2007