FALSE PROPHETS AMONG US
- Tony
- Feb 12
- 5 min read
I'm not surprised but I am both grieved and angry. Just a day or two before President Trump’s inauguration, a circulating social media post caught my attention. The post, if you didn’t see it is the same one accompanying this column. In a nutshell, the post referred to both a 7-year-old Guatemalan boy’s “dream” that was interpreted as a divine warning that President Trump would be shot on live TV in a hockey arena and another “prophet”, whose name was not given, had also prophesied “a month ago” that Trump would be attacked there as well.
Before proceeding, I need to make a few observations about this post. For starters, both the “dream” and “prophecy” were predictive in nature. In other words, while prophecy is often equated to either “teaching” or “edification, and exhortation, and comfort…” in the New Testament, there’s no doubt that both pronouncements in the post were intended and accepted as supernatural predictions of a future event (2 Peter 2:1, 1 John 4:1, 1 Corinthians 14:1-3). In other words, the dream of the 7-year-old and the utterance of the unnamed “prophet” were intended as the revelational voices of God warning of a supposed future event awaiting President Trump.
Knowing that many so-called prophets emerge during major political events and elections, I did just what I always do with such declarations. I waited and let time “try the spirits for me” (1 John 4:1). I waited until inauguration day and then with millions of other Americans, watched the reinstatement of Trump as the 47th President anticipating his eventual trip to the arena where tragedy supposedly loomed. Then I watched President Trump arrive, speak, and then leave the indoor arena, all without a single incident.
Before continuing, let me say that I have many friends and relatives involved in Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. In fact, I too, was part of the denomination when I got saved and while I exited for doctrinal reasons, I still know many who love the Lord Jesus and desire more than anything to serve him.
So, why the grief and anger?
For starters, I grieve for those who chase some special “voice” of God in one tongue, miracle, or prophecy after another when He has already given His word in a book we call the Bible. This Word of God is both complete and sufficient for all we need. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us, in fact, that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Note first that all Scripture is “God-breathed,” and given so that believers may be “perfect,” or “complete.” Therein we find all we need for rebuke, for correction, and instruction in righteousness. The Word of God, then, is the all-sufficient means by which believers might march toward the completeness God intended.
Second, the same Scripture tells us that the Prophetic office, like the Apostolic office, was foundational to the Church and therefore temporary. In Ephesians 2, for example, Paul likens the Church to a building and with any building a proper foundation is essential. Said Paul,
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord (Ephesians 2:19-20).
Note just what Paul said here. The “foundation” of the “building,” the Church, was established by the teaching of the “apostles and prophets” with Christ as the “chief corner stone.” That being said, the point here is to show that such offices were foundational and therefore confined to the earliest stages of the Church with the continuing gifts simply building thereon. My concern, as noted above, then, is for those who run to-and-fro chasing one “word from God” after another as if the foundation is still under construction.
Now my anger.
First, I am angered by the silence so evident among Christian leaders who, for one reason or another, refrain from calling a false prophet and prophecy just what they are, false. With so many in the Continuationist camp being quick to announce one prophetic utterance or another the silence regarding the many “prophetic” misses that mark their theological landscape is troubling. While I disagree with my Pentecostal/Charismatic friends on the continuation of the sign gifts beyond the Apostolic era, I have always admired the denomination’s boldness in denouncing sin. Contrary to that historic tendency, however, is the modern hesitancy to “call a spade a spade” by marking false Prophets as the liars they are. In other words, a false prophecy, no matter how you cut it, per Scripture, is a false prophecy and, therefore, a lie.
Addressing the prophetic misses back during COVID-19 in Charisma News, Marti Pieper conceded this silence. Therein he highlighted the fact that, per his knowledge, not a single “prophetic leader” admitted their “mistakes.” Further, he noted, no other Pentecostal or Charismatic leader called them out. “After the huge COVID debacle,” said Pieper, “I have not heard any prophetic leader admit they made a mistake... I also did not hear anyone calling them out and holding them accountable for their mistake.” Then he tells us why he chose not to hold them accountable himself. “I chose to keep my powder dry and did not specifically call people out concerning this,” he continues, and “The reason I refrained from doing so was because I did not want to embarrass my brothers in the Lord. I am well aware that any one of us can make a mistake once in a while (https://charismanews.com/opinion/the-pulse/8-reasons-prophets-sometimes-make-mistakes/).
Notice the language Pieper used. According to him, the prophetic misses were nothing more than mere inconsequential “mistakes.” I am angered, then, by those who minimize that which God maximized. Those more versed in Scripture should know just how serious it was for an acclaimed Prophet to miss the mark. Under Jewish law he was to be stoned as a liar. Claiming to speak for God Himself was a serious matter and the Old Testament highlighted that seriousness in Deuteronomy 18. “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak…,” says Deuteronomy 18:20, “even that prophet shall die” (Deuteronomy 18:20). The text is clear. There was no second chance. There was no reduction of the miss to a mere mistake. There was no excuse wrapped in some fabricated unmet condition. If the acclaimed prophet spoke but missed the mark, just once, he was to die – plain and simple.
Thankfully, however, we are now in the Church age and while no death penalty for such prophetic misses exists in the day of grace, grace does not nullify a sin’s seriousness. In fact, its seriousness is now magnified in the cross of Christ and should never be taken lightly. That is why I am convinced that those who claim to speak prophetically should still be held to the same divine standard – perfection. As such, a prophetic miss is still a prophetic miss and should not be tolerated in any ministry. In fact, those who “prophecy” and miss should be disqualified once and for all. They should be marked as the false prophets they are with any leader failing to do so being counted as a contributor to the lies and confusion they promote. There is something terribly wrong with protecting, excusing, and/or coddling those who claim to speak prophetically for the LORD Himself but do not.
Tony
Check out my book, Tongues Shall Cease, on Amazon.
Well said.