How Do You Spot a False Prophet?

 September 18, 2024

Wednesday

There are plenty of warnings in the scripture against false teachers. The problem is that we haven't taught people the truth. Thus, they don't know when they are listening to and supporting false teachers.

I worked in a bank without ever catching a counterfeit bill. That doesn't mean that the bank never got one. It just means that I never saw one. I literally handled hundreds of thousands of dollars each week. I knew what real US money felt like. Many times I could even pick up a banded group of bills and tell if it was short or over. Familiarity with the true money would make counterfeit money strange.

However, that's not what happens when we speak of Christianity. Christian magazines often report that certain celebrities are Christians with strong faith when their lifestyles don't live up to that faith. These magazines don't realize that saving faith makes a difference or it isn't saving faith. It changes the person. Simply agreeing that Jesus is the Son of God without a lifestyle that lives up to that agreement is not saving faith. Yes, people backslide but even the backsliders will show you that they are changed.

If we believe that unchanged people are Christians, we will also believe that anyone who says the name of Jesus and reads out of the Bible is a true teacher of the gospel. Instead of pointing out which teachers are false we should be teaching the truth. The truth should be known so that the false will be immediately seen as false.

Yet, teaching doctrine seems to be out of style in our churches. That wasn't always true. There was a time that members of Baptist churches met on Sunday nights for something they called training union. It involved people reading parts of the literature out loud. It seemed mundane but many of us got our theology out of reading those parts. It was boring. It was not well attended. Somehow we need something that does exactly that.

Having meetings that teach theology are as well attended as prayer meetings. Everyone knows that we need both of these but very few people will know that they need to be there to learn or pray. Coming to worship services alone will not teach us the theology we need to recognize false prophets. 

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the church and the individual Christians to learn biblical doctrine that will reveal false teaching. 

 

Matthew 7:15–20 (NASB 2020) ¹⁵ “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? ¹⁷ So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So then, you will know them by their fruits.