False Prophets and False Prophecy
"A prophet or someone who explains
dreams might come to you and tell you that they will show you a sign or a
miracle. And the sign or miracle they told you about MIGHT
COME TRUE. Then they might ask you to FOLLOW OTHER GODS (gods you don't know)
and say to you, 'Let's serve these gods!' Don't listen to them, because the
LORD your God is testing you. He wants to know if you love him with all your
heart and all your soul.” (Deu 13:1-3 BBE,
emphasis mine)
With all of the panic,
hysteria, and chaos presently going on in the world, it appears we have the resurrection
of those who call themselves prophets, mouthing empty words of
prophecy. Yes, we have always had
these people among us. However, our
current state of emergency seems to be the green light for even more of them to
crawl out of the woodwork. I am, quite
literally, shaking my head.
We need to FIRST recognize the qualifications of the prophet, both the person and the office, and our opening verse is pretty much in black and white. The number one rule that is NEVER to be set aside is that a true prophet of Elohim will always adhere to, endorse, and confirm the Torah, the divine instructions of righteous and moral living (Deu 13:1-5). Always, NO EXCEPTIONS. Do I believe that an anointed and appointed prophet of the living Elohim will keep the Saturday Shabbat? Yes, I do. I also believe he/she will keep all the feasts of our Creator as laid out for us in Lev 23, will follow the dietary laws as laid out for us in Lev 11, and will wear the tzitzit (fringes) while doing so (see Num 15:38). Again, no exceptions.
A true prophet of Elohim will always reiterate and emphasize what Elohim has already laid out for us in the pages of the Torah. How can I say that? Because of the examples we have for us in the Tanakh (Old Testament), all of the major and minor prophets, and the messages they spoke. All of their messages basically enlarged and repeated the warnings we are given by our Creator, especially those found in Deu 28: if you are obedient to Torah, I will bless you; if you are disobedient and rebellious, I will punish you. The heart of the message will be genuine teshuva – a turning away from all of our wrongdoing, and turning back to the precepts laid out for us in Torah, and turning back to the One who gave us the Torah. And again, no exceptions.
So, what do we do with all these ‘words and prophecies’ that are exploding all over the internet? Many of them may be true, and many of them may come to pass. However, most of them are directed and aimed at our emotions: we are already somewhat unsettled do to the current world events, and these so-called prophecies feed that feeling. However, we, as the body of Messiah, are called not only to judge the message, but also the messenger. If the messenger is not walking Torah in obedience to the instructions written, and is not urging his/her listeners to return to Torah, then according to the Torah, that messenger is a false prophet. BOOM. Let me reemphasize this: If said messenger is not living a life of Torah observance, if the message is not one of teshuvah, of returning to Elohim and His Torah, then the message – whether it comes to pass or not – is NOT from Adonai Elohim. Be also aware of the penalty for continuing in the practice of false prophecies:
“And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams is PUT TO DEATH, because he has spoken apostasy against יהוה your Elohim – who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim and redeemed you from the house of bondage – to make you stray from the way in which יהוה your Elohim commanded you to walk. Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst.” (Deu 13:5 ISR, emphasis mine)
In the not too distant past, here in the United States we had a man rise to prominence as a prophet of God, with a large following. Many of his ‘prophecies’ came to pass – I understand he even prophesied of Donald Trump becoming president years before the event happened. However, if we judge this man by the instructions of Torah, he was a false prophet. He did not observe Shabbat, did not celebrate the feast days of Elohim, and from what I personally saw, he never wore tzitzit. From the few messages that I watched/read, the word ‘Torah’ was certainly not part of his vocabulary, and the need for teshuva was not something that was repeatedly emphasized. The final confirmation came when this man suddenly died, while still a relatively young man.
The argument against what I have written could be that these people are serving the same ‘God’ we are. Really? Are we saying that we agree with a ‘God’ who teaches that Torah has been done away with, we no longer need to live according to what Elohim gave us as an instruction manual? We no longer need to honor the 7th day Shabbat? We no longer need to keep the dietary laws because they have been done away with? That all we need to do is bow down and worship a cross – which was nothing but an instrument of torture, by the way, never a symbol of life – elevating said symbol above the One who created and formed us? I would present to you that all of these questions point to the “other gods” mentioned in our opening verses, gods that we have no business acknowledging.
Be careful, brethren, who you listen to. Be especially careful to watch for those who would try to pull you away from serving the Elohim Chayim, the living Elohim, the One who created this world and all that it is in it. (Deu 5:26; Mat 16:16).
“For I am Adonai. I
do not change …” (Mal 3:6 TLV)
©2022
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