{"id":120,"date":"2010-08-06T10:03:52","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T16:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/2010\/08\/06\/false-prophets-in-the-world-today\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T06:47:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T06:47:50","slug":"false-prophets-in-the-world-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/2010\/08\/06\/false-prophets-in-the-world-today\/","title":{"rendered":"False Prophets In The World Today (with audio)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\"><p><span class=\"verse\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article:<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc_fancy_player_container\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-120-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/audio\/False_Prophets_In_The_World_Today.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/audio\/False_Prophets_In_The_World_Today.mp3\">https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/audio\/False_Prophets_In_The_World_Today.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>\n<p><a title=\"False Prophets In The World Today\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/audio\/False_Prophets_In_The_World_Today.mp3\">\u201cFalse Prophets In The World Today\u201d MP3 File<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 right click and select \u201csave as,\u201d \u201csave link as,\u201d or \u201csave target as\u201d to save it to your computer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"underline\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>I think we may have misunderstood what God meant by false prophets in the Bible. We\u2019ve had the idea that all false prophets were demon-possessed liars, bent on stubbornly rejecting the true prophets and killing them.<\/p>\n<p>The problem with this thinking is that it places them in a realm of unreality, and makes them special creatures which seem to have vanished, along with true prophets. And today I want to see if, perhaps, there are true false prophets today\u00a0\u2013 just as there were in the days of Jeremiah and Elijah.<\/p>\n<p>Up front, I have to say that there are many false prophets in the Bible who WERE working directly for Satan the Devil, and who had his help. Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses <strong><span class=\"make_blue\">(<\/span><span id=\"002nbspTimothy38\" class=\"verse\">2\u00a0Timothy 3:8<\/span><span class=\"make_blue\">)<\/span><\/strong> and who evidently had Satan\u2019s power backing them up to work miracles and make their walking sticks become snakes, <strong><span class=\"make_blue\">(<\/span><span id=\"00Exodus71112\" class=\"verse\">Exodus 7:11-12<\/span><span class=\"make_blue\">)<\/span><\/strong>, etc. But there is another huge class, which makes up the vast majority of false prophets&#8230;<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"00Ezekiel1317\">Ezekiel 13:17<\/span><\/strong> <em>Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them,<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Notice that these false prophets prophesy out of their OWN heart. Not necessarily out of Satan\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"00Jeremiah1414\">Jeremiah 14:14<\/span><\/strong> <em>Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Here too, it is the deceit of THEIR heart that they prophesy. But what could this mean? Remember, these were real people; not that different from you and I, except that they didn\u2019t have indoor plumbing. We, in this enlightened age tend to picture the past as a bunch of naked savages or people with inferior intelligence who worshiped rocks and stuff. But obviously, this wasn\u2019t the case. They were real, intelligent people, just as our great-grandparents were, just without technology.<\/p>\n<p>The point of this is that if one of them were to get on a table and grunt \u201cUgh, God, he give Grog a dream, we be big happy now!&#8221;, no one would believe him then any more than they would now! No, these false prophets were dignified, respected men in the community as a rule.<\/p>\n<p>Before we can go any farther, we have to find out what a false prophet did with his time. What were his goals?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"00Lamentations214\">Lamentations 2:14<\/span><\/strong> <em>Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: <strong>and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity;<\/strong> but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The false prophets\u2019 job is to make people feel good about themselves! Never to find their sins and turn away God\u2019s anger from them, as a true prophet does, but to make up fake reasons for God\u2019s anger that aren\u2019t the people\u2019s fault. Things like \u201cGod is just testing us!\u201d is a FALSE reason for God\u2019s punishment\u00a0\u2013 but a great way to take the blame away from the people and make them comfortable with their righteousness!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"10Jeremiah811\">Jeremiah 8:11<\/span><\/strong> <em>For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>These false prophets healed the hurt of Judah SLIGHTLY by saying \u201cPeace, Peace!\u201d They made them feel better about themselves! But they never healed the ROOT of the problem by making the people aware of their sins, as Jeremiah did!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"00Luke626\">Luke 6:26<\/span><\/strong>  <em>Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And why wouldn\u2019t the people prefer false prophets! They say good things about them, and make them feel good\u00a0\u2013 a true prophet is always nit-picking and nagging about toeing the line and following the rules\u00a0\u2013 who WOULDN\u2019T prefer a false prophet, all things being equal?!<\/p>\n<p>But surely, you say, these attitudes no longer exist today. We are not like the fathers in the old time, who hate false prophets. We just love truth!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"00Matthew2330\">Matthew 23:30<\/span><\/strong> <em>And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I don\u2019t know a person in the church today who doesn\u2019t believe that THEY wouldn\u2019t have killed the prophets, and THEY wouldn\u2019t have killed Christ. Oh, a lot of people have been browbeaten by the ministry into SAYING that they would have, but they have just adopted a false humility and deep down, they don\u2019t believe they would have.<\/p>\n<p>And now it\u2019s time to fast-forward to the twenty-first century and see if there are any false prophets in the world today. Have you ever heard the phrase \u201cGod laid it on my heart!\u201c or \u201dGod told me&#8230;&#8221;? Mind you, I\u2019m not saying that God doesn\u2019t talk to people today\u00a0\u2013 I\u2019m just saying that He isn\u2019t talking to most of the people who make those statements. I know that for a fact because I\u2019ve talked to quite a few of them and without fail they say things that are contrary to the law and the word of God.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"00Isaiah820\">Isaiah 8:20<\/span><\/strong>  <em>To the law and to the testimony: <u><strong>if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them<\/strong>.<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So by that simple test, God isn\u2019t speaking to most people who make statements like that. So where do those feelings come from? Why do they believe that \u201cthe Lord put it in their heart\u201d to say these things? I\u2019m sure that in some of the more extreme cases there is direct demonic influence, but I think that is the exception rather than the rule. The Bible says that they are dreaming these things up out of the imagination of their own heart.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"20Jeremiah2316\">Jeremiah 23:16<\/span><\/strong> <em>Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: <strong>they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Let me give you a few examples. I know a certain young man and I was talking to him once and somehow the subject of casinos came up. And he was telling me that God didn\u2019t want him to go to casinos. Now while I tend to agree with the principle, his way of saying it aroused my curiosity so I asked him how he knew this. He informed me levelly that God told him so. I responded something to the effect of \u201cOh, did He now? Does He have a deep voice like in the movies?&#8221; At that I think he got a bit defensive, although I can\u2019t imagine why, and said well, no, God didn\u2019t actually speak to him. I then asked him again how he knew that God didn\u2019t want him to go to a casino. He said that he and his family had gone to a casino and he had taken 40 dollars to gamble, and lost it all. He said that as he was walking away he spotted 40 dollars in the bushes. He said that God was showing him that he would give him the money he needed, he didn\u2019t need to gamble.<\/p>\n<p>Hm. Whether or not God was really doing this or not, this is a far cry from what actually happened to the original \u201cGod told me not to.\u201d What really happened was that his own heart was looking for a way to rationalize losing the money; and somewhere he had probably heard that gambling is wrong, so his conscience was troubling him a bit as well. Then when he saw the money laying there he thought \u201cGod might not want me to do this.\u201d Then his heart expanded on that idea and, because of his religious background, he interpreted that as God laying something on his heart (when in reality he doesn\u2019t know WHO laid WHAT on his heart, or if he made it up himself). This then is interpreted yet a step more as \u201cGod speaking to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is a rather obscure example of a false prophet; someone who says God said something that God didn\u2019t say, and makes up dreams, visions, and advice out of their own heart. Not necessarily a demon-inspired maniac. But I have another good example too:<\/p>\n<p>I know a woman\u00a0\u2013 a rather pushy, rebellious woman, who is on intimate terms with \u201cthe Lord\u201d to hear her tell it. God apparently talks to her all the time. And she, her husband and young son were outside doing yard work and her husband was driving the tractor with a bushhog behind it, mowing some heavy brush. He shouted to her from the tractor to take their son inside. She pretty much never listens to her husband by her own admission and so she was going to ignore him. Then \u201cthe Lord told her\u201d to listen to him this time. So she grabbed their son to take him inside and then a few minutes later a rock was thrown \u201cright where he was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How does she know that \u201cthe Lord told her\u201d this? She said she just suddenly thought that he was her husband and maybe she should listen to him. Isn\u2019t this what is commanded in the Bible? If she knew anything about the Bible at all, her OWN conscience should have been pricking her to do this anyway! The fact that it did, and she listened to it, doesn\u2019t at all mean that God miraculously \u201ctold her\u201d something. Again, I\u2019m not saying that God CAN\u2019T and DOESN\u2019T routinely help people\u00a0\u2013 but every errant thought that you have isn\u2019t God \u201claying something on your heart\u201d and shouldn\u2019t be used as proof that God is happy with your obedience and is working with you!<\/p>\n<p>When you try to \u201clisten\u201d for the Lord to say something to you, and when your religion and your self-esteem depends desperately on hearing from him constantly, then you are going to be likely to ascribe every random thought that you agree with to something \u201cthe Lord said!\u201d And when you say that \u201cGod said\u201d something that God DIDN\u2019T say, you are bearing false witness against God! If you say that God healed you (if He didn\u2019t!) then you are bearing false witness against God! Saying that God did something that God didn\u2019t do! Which is the 9<sup>th<\/sup> commandment, and disobedience to that command will prevent God from talking to you again, even if He WAS talking with you to begin with!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"30Jeremiah2326\">Jeremiah 23:26<\/span><\/strong> <em>How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? <strong>yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A false prophet is nothing more than someone affirming that GOD said something that THEY imagined\u00a0\u2013 however well intentioned they might be! It is someone who says that God feels a certain way because THEY feel a certain way!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"10Ezekiel2228\">Ezekiel 22:28<\/span><\/strong> <em>And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, <strong>saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course most prophets are far more sinister than the two relatively innocent examples I quoted; but only in that they are talking about subjects that are more foundational and more important to God! The attitude and the way by which they arrive at their conclusions remains the same!<\/p>\n<p>They may not even say that \u201cGod told me to tell you this,\u201d but just something like \u201cThe Bible plainly teaches that you go to heaven when you die!\u201d That\u2019s something that the Bible, the written word of God, does not say! So saying that it DOES say that makes that person a false prophet! But it doesn\u2019t necessarily make them a demon-possessed liar\u00a0\u2013 although there are a fair share of those out there too.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is that false prophets don\u2019t always teach a vision out of Satan\u2019s heart\u00a0\u2013 they often merely teach a vision out of their own heart. But since their heart is carnal and desperately wicked, just like the Devil\u2019s, their views will always be on the same side of the fence\u00a0\u2013 and the opposite side from God\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>And their teachings\u00a0\u2013 that even though you have sinned, \u201cyou shall not surely die\u201d for that sin <strong><span class=\"make_blue\">(<\/span><span id=\"00Genesis34\" class=\"verse\">Genesis 3:4<\/span><span class=\"make_blue\">)<\/span><\/strong> will always be the same whether directly inspired by the devil or not\u00a0\u2013 because that is what the carnal heart desperately desires, and out of the abundance of that heart the mouth speaks. <strong><span class=\"make_blue\">(<\/span><span id=\"10Matthew1234\" class=\"verse\">Matthew 12:34<\/span><span class=\"make_blue\">)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"40Jeremiah2317\">Jeremiah 23:17<\/span><\/strong> <em>They say still unto them that despise me, <strong>The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace;<\/strong> and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, <strong>No evil shall come upon you<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But that\u2019s not what God said. That\u2019s what the false prophets in the world today say.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 I think we may have misunderstood what God meant by false prophets in the Bible. We\u2019ve had the idea that all false prophets were demon-possessed liars, bent on stubbornly rejecting the true&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[22,19,18,41],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-good-to-know","category-with-audio","tag-carnal-heart","tag-deception","tag-righteousness","tag-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2906,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/2906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}