“Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, the ‘Lord declares,’ thought I have not spoken?» (Ezekiel 13:7).
The people mocked the warnings. They rebelled against the prophets. They acted as though God had disappeared and they did not think they fi would ever again receive prophetic visions. Again and again God reproved them; He wanted to reason with them, but it was in vain. Their behavior was reckless and irreverent… Today we can make the same mistake as they did.
We, too, can come to misunderstand certain messages and interpret them as though they came from God, when they didn’t really.
Two ways that we have to analyze prophets are to see if their message aligns with the Law and the Testimony (Isaiah 8:2o) and to see what their fruits are (Matthew 7:20). A good tree will give good fruit. If a prophet is true they will speak in harmony with the Bible.
Among the Israelites, just as today, there were many false prophets, and God warned us to be wary of them (Matthew 7:15).
There are two stories that perhaps are not very well knows, but that exemplify the dangerous influence these false prophets can have. One is found in Jeremiah 28, when Hananiah said that God would break the yoke that Babylon had over them, and the people believed and trusted in his lie. the other story is found in 1 Kings 13, when a man of God had the express order not to tum back on the road, but he did so because another man lied to him and assured him that God had said for him to return. I invite you to read these stories carefully and see what characteristics the false prophet’s words had in each case.
Why is it so easy to be misled?
In Christ in His Sanctuary, we read: “The Saviour foretold that in the latter days false prophets would appear, and draw away disciples after them; and also that those who in this time of peril should stand faithful to the truth that is specified in the book of Revelation, would have to meet doctrinal errors so specious that, if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived”(p24).
Texts from the Bible will be used, twisted in their interpretation and presentation, in order to deceive. How well do you know the Bible? How well do you know the God of the Bible?
Let us take care, let us be alert, but let us also trust in God and in His true prophets.
