False Prophets

While reading and watching the news this past week, I found myself repeatedly thinking of God. How very heartbroken he must be at how we treat one another. So much of the torment in the world today is because of religion. People don't agree and they fight over their beliefs, who should be ruling and what land countries should possess etc. I also recalled what the Bible says about false prophets, and what I learned in a recent Bible study on world religions.

False prophets are very real, and often disguised as religions, even Christian religions. In 1 John 4:2-3 we are told how to test the spirits. “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”

We shouldn’t believe everything we hear just because someone says it is a message inspired by God. There are many ways to test teachers and even entire religions to see if their message is truly from the Lord:

• check to see if their words match what God says in the Bible
• their commitment to other Christians, which we call the body of believers
• their life-style
• the fruit of their ministry
• But the most important test of all, says John, is what they believe about Christ. Do they teach that Jesus is fully God and fully man?

False teachers are popular with the world because, like the false prophets of the Old Testament, they tell people what they want to hear. John 3 tells us that Christians who faithfully teach God’s Word will not win any popularity contests in the world. People don’t want to hear their sins condemned. Nor do they want to listen to demands that they change their behavior. A false teacher will be well received by non-Christians.

Some people believe everything they read or hear. Sadly, many ideas printed and taught are simply not true. We must verify every message we hear, even if the person who brings it says it’s from God. If the message is truly from God, it will be consistent with Christ’s teachings. This is one reason why reading and studying the Bible is so important. No matter how much we learn, we must never forget or ignore the basic truths about Christ. Jesus will always be God's Son, and his sacrifice for our sins is permanent. No truth will ever contradict these teachings in the Bible. No matter how much we learn, we must never abandon the basic truths about Christ. Jesus will always be God’s Son, and his sacrifice for our sins is permanent. No truth will ever contradict these teachings in the Bible.

In warning against antichrists John has this to say: Dear Children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist – he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 1 John 2: 18, 22-23

John is talking about the time between Christ’s first and second comings. During this time, antichrists (false teachers who pretend to be Christians and who lure weak members away from Christ) will appear. Then, just before the world ends, one great antichrist will arise.

However, we don’t need to fear these evil people. The Holy Spirit shows us their errors, so we will not be deceived. We must share and teach God’s Word clearly and carefully to those in the margins, weak members among us so that they won’t fall victim to people who “come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

Our culture is high on politically correctness right now. Psychologists call this movement social engineering. We are constantly told to embrace all religions and that they all have value and are good. Unfortunately, this is simply not true. The reason we must be aware of the false prophets is so we don’t follow any of their ideas. We must approach one another with love and kindness, but we are not to be gullible either. We do not have to agree with others in order to treat them with kindness and respect.

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Wikipedia has this to say about social engineering: “Social Engineering is a discipline in social science that refers to efforts to influence popular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments, media or private groups. Social Engineering can also be understood philosophically as a deterministic phenomenon. A social engineer is one who tries to influence popular attitudes, social behaviors, and resource management on a large scale. Social engineering is the application of the scientific method for social concern.”