TEST FOR DETERMINING TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS
There were false prophets among the
churches; that are quite evident. Unfortunately, the church does not apply YAH’S
rules by which they can be identify. We find this passage in Jeremiah 14:14
“Then
YAHVEH said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not,
neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you
a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their
heart.”
It was easy enough for a false prophet to
speak of the coming Kingdom centuries in the future. The prophet Jeremiah spoke
of the future. Today we can confirm this because a great deal of Jeremiah’s
prophecy has been fulfilled, but how could people know of its autiscency at the
time it was spoken? Well, YAHVEH put down a very accurate test. Listen to Him:
Deut. 18: 20 “But
the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not
commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other YAHVEHs, even
that prophet shall die. 21 And if thou say in thine heart,
How shall we know the word which YAHVEH hath not spoken? 22 When a
prophet speaketh in the name of YAHVEH, if the thing follow not, nor come to
pass, that is the thing which YAHVEH hath not spoken, but the prophet hath
spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”
Let us take some time to look at
this for a moment. Isaiah is a prophet of YAHVEH, a true prophet of YAHVEH, as
we all know. How do we know? Because he prophesied that a virgin would conceive
and bring forth a son. He clearly marked out the coming of YAHVEH Jesus, His
birth, His life, and His death.
Suppose someone had asked Isaiah
when all this would take place. He would have answered that he was not quite
sure but that it could be hundreds of years. Well, that crowd would laugh and
say they would never be around to know whether he was telling the truth or not.
The test of the prophets was that they had to give a prediction about a local
situation that would come to pass right away, and they had to be completely
accurate. They couldn’t miss in any point of their predictions. Any inaccuracy
at all would immediately disqualify them as a true prophet of YAHVEH.
Now let us look at Isaiah again. He
prophesied the virgin birth, and we today can look back 2000 years to the
fulfillment of that and know that he was accurate. But how could the people in
his day know that? They could know because Isaiah went to the king, Hezekiah,
with a prophecy concerning a local current event. There was a great Assyrian
army of trigger-happy soldiers surrounding the city, but Isaiah said that not
one arrow would enter the city. Those Assyrians had conquered other nations and
they were there to conquer Jerusalem Assyria . He shall not
come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields,
nor cast a bank against it. 34 By the way that he
came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, said
YAHVEH”
All of
those soldiers in the Assyrian army had bows and arrows. One would think that
just one of them might let an arrow fly over the wall just to see if he could
hit someone. Now if one arrow were shot into the city, Isaiah would lose his
job as a true prophet of YAHVEH. He would be out of business. That was one of
the tests, which Isaiah passed. There were others where Isaiah spoke to a local
situation, and it came to pass just as he had said. The true prophet had to be
correct 100 percent of the time.
Now what about today? This test
would disqualify everyone on the contemporary scene who claims to be a prophet
by predicting the future. I grant you that some of them sometimes hit the nail
right on the head, but more often they miss the nail altogether. You don’t hear
of their misses; you only hear of their accurate guesses. I could give many
instances of false prophecies. We have folk predicting the end of the world on
a certain date, the Rapture of the church on a certain date, calamities that
will come to a particular section of the country on a specific date, and a host
of other things. If we applied YAH’S test to these self-acclaimed prophets,
they would be out of business in short order. A true prophet must be accurate
in every detail every time.
But do you know that there are no
warnings about false prophets for the church today? Why? Because there is no
more prophecy to be revealed. Everything has been revealed in YAHVEH Jesus
Christ and in His Word. Our warning today is not against false prophets; our
warning is against false teachers. (2 Pet. 2:1 “But
there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you …”
The warning to us is to listen very
carefully today, because there are many sweet, soothing voices that sound very
pious, but are not teaching the Word of YAHVEH. Oh, how important it is for us
to beware of false teachers!
Yisrael had no problem in detecting
the false prophets because they had a biblical, YAHVEH-given test that surely
would ferret them out. However, the chapter before us deals with the action
that was to be taken against anyone who attempted to lead YAH’S people away
from Him by introducing false religions.
Deut. 13:1 If
there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign
or a wonder, 2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass,
whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other YAHVEHs, which thou
hast not known, and let us serve them; 3 Thou shalt not hearken
unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for YAHVEH your YAHVEH
proveth you, to know whether ye love YAHVEH your YAHVEH with all your heart and
with all your soul.
Some of these false
ministers may even come performing miracles, to prove that they are correct,
and therefore, the scripture says that YAHVEH your YAHVEH is testing you to
know whether you love YAHVEH your YAHVEH with all your heart and soul. There is
so much wisdom packed into these verses which many believers need to take hold
of in today’s culture. Signs and wonders
are no criterion of true ministry. Success often deceives the individual into
imagining that it is synonymous with truth. A false prophet is one who teaches against
the Torah.
There is a scripture that says if
you love me, keep my commandment. How important this scripture is, in
identifying a false ministry. If they teach or encourage others to break, even
the least of the commandments and precepts of YAHVEH, they are false prophets,
teachers, and pastors.
The Torah is quite firm about the
rejection of a ministry who, even though he may perform miracles, leads us away
from the Torah. All too often believers think that they can make decisions
about people based on whatever so called spiritual discernment they have. The
Torah guards the redeemed community from such abusive ministry. All
disciplinary measure within the redeemed community must be subject to the same
kind of investigative justice that YAHVEH Himself performs. Mark 16:15 And he
said unto them, Go ye into the entire world, and preach the gospel to
creatures. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but
he that believeth not shall be damned. 17 And these signs shall
follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall
speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the
sick, and they shall recover. Deut. 13:4 Ye shall walk after
YAHVEH your YAHVEH, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his
voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
This is a pertinent passage for
today churches. People ask me how I explain the fact that some of the false
prophets today are accurate part of the time. Or they ask me to explain how
some people seem to be healed in certain meetings. Well, I don’t explain it. To
begin with, I think there would probably be a natural explanation in many
instances, but even if there is something supernatural, YAHVEH has warned that
this can be accomplished through false prophets. It is well for us to mark
that. YAHVEH says that when a false prophet comes along and performs signs
which come to pass, we are not to believe him if he denies any of the great
truths of the believers faith, which is, do you keep the Sabbath and the Holy
Festivals? If the answer in no, then I know for certain that this is a false
minister. That is the great principle which is put down here, and that is very
important.
Deut. 13: 5 And that prophet, or that
dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you
away from YAHVEH your YAHVEH, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and
redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which
YAHVEH thy YAHVEH commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away
from the midst of thee? Notice that any
false ministry who attempted to take the people into some false cult or false
religion was to be stoned to death. Does that sound extreme? Does that sound
severe? Such a false ministry is like a cancer, and a cancer must be cut out as
soon as possible. I know that from personal experience. YAHVEH here is the
Great Physician and He says the cancer must be cut out from among His people.
This reveals the mind of YAHVEH
concerning false ministry who lead the people to a false interpretation of YAH’S
Word and false religion. I can remember when I was a boy that the reading of
the Bible in the schoolroom was a normal procedure. I don’t think it was
particularly meaningful to me at that time, yet I understood it was the Word of
YAHVEH, and that impressed me. Today we have let the unbeliever come in, the
cults, and those who oppose Redemption and the Bible, and they have taken over
so that Bible reading and prayer are no longer permitted in public schools.
YAHVEH
laid down these rules to prevent this from happening in Yisrael. If one
appeared in Yisrael who was attempting to take YAH’S people away from the
worship of YAHVEH, that person was to be put to death. Some softhearted and
softheaded folk will say this is too extreme. YAHVEH understood how terrible it
would be if false prophets were permitted to multiply and to lead Yisrael into
idolatry. History reveals that Yisrael did not obey YAHVEH and they did permit
this to happen. If you want to know how bad it was for YAH’S people in that
day, read the story of Ahab and Jezebel who plunged YAH’S people into idolatry.
This brought the judgment of YAHVEH upon them so that eventually the northern
kingdom was carried into captivity. That is how serious it is.
Deut. 13:6 If thy brother, the son of
thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy
friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and
serve other YAHVEHs, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7 Namely,
of the YAHVEHs of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far
off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the
earth; 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither
shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal
him: 9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first
upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
This is extreme. This is radical.
This sounds like a foreign language to the soft and affluent society in which
we live. It is a serious matter for a man to be the first one to throw a stone
in the execution that would stone his own brother to death. That seems very
severe, but ultimately it would save many lives. When the northern kingdom went
into idolatry, what happened? Literally thousands of them were slain, and most
of the survivors were taken as slaves to the brutal nation of Assyria .
Wouldn’t it have been better if they had stoned the false prophets who led them
into idolatry instead of a whole multitude being slain?
We see the same kind of thing in
our nation today. We have so many softhearted and softheaded judges who have no
Redeemed background whatsoever. They do not think of our laws in the Redeemed
context in which they were originally formulated—that is, obedience to law and
a penalty exacted for disobedience. Our judges turn criminals loose to again
prey on society. Right here in my town, a known criminal attacked seven women
in one night. Several were killed, one was raped, and others were hospitalized
with severe injuries. Now wouldn’t it be wiser for the criminal to be given the
utmost penalty than for many innocent people to be murdered? YAH’S way is the
way that will save lives and protect a host of people. I am afraid that we have
become so shortsighted that capital punishment sounds extreme to us today.
Deut. 13:10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he
die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from YAHVEH thy YAHVEH, which
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage
YAHVEH exacts the death penalty.
Today we feel that the death penalty is uncivilized. I guess the crowd who
feels that way would call YAHVEH uncivilized. I would like to ask that crowd
where they got the little civilization and the little culture, which they do
have. All of it came from the Word of YAHVEH, friends. Now we are moving away
from the Word of YAHVEH and folk think that is being more civilized. It is more
dangerous to walk on the streets of any major cities of the world than it is to
walk on the jungle trails of Africa . Why?
Because we think the death penalty is uncivilized and so we have abolished it.
Some time ago as I was walking by night on a jungle trail in the mountain
regions of Venezuela , I felt
safer than I do in Los Angeles
Deut. 13:11 And all Yisrael shall
hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. They were not to
depart from the living and true YAHVEH. As long as they would obey Him, there
would be blessing. However, they failed to obey Him, and the judgments did come
upon them—that is their story.
Deut. 13:12
If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which YAHVEH thy YAHVEH hath given
thee to dwell there, saying, 13 Certain men, the children of Belial,
are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city,
saying, Let us go and serve
other YAHVEHs, which ye have not known;
We have allowed people like Constantine
the Emperor of the Roman Empire and Pagan high
priest, to determine which day is the Sabbath day, and we accept the lie that
it was changes to celebrate the resurrection of the Messiyah. A noble idea, but
it is against the Word of YAHVEH. They use a miss translation of the scripture,
which says that, the Apostle met on the first day to break bread, as an
indicator that they change Saturday to Sunday. In fact the scripture says that
the Day starts at 6 pm, when the Sabbath day was over at 5:59:60 pm on
Saturday.
Sunday starts. The Apostles would gather together to have
an end of Sabbath meal, this has been a customary practice in the Jewish
culture every since the Law was instituted. Non-Jewish have taken this to mean
that they gathered on Sunday morning. The word dawn in the scripture does not
means the rising of the sun, but the beginning of the day, which is 6 pm, the
evening and the morning of day the first day.
Deut. 13:11 Then shalt thou inquire, and make
search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain,
that such abomination is wrought among you. They were not to
do anything rashly. A thorough investigation must be made and truth arrived at
before any action was to be taken.
Deut. 13: 15 Thou
shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,
destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with
the edge of the sword. 16 And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it
into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and
all the spoil thereof every whit, for YAHVEH thy YAHVEH: and it shall be an
heap forever; it shall not be built again.
Again, this is severe. A city, an entire city, would be
destroyed. Suppose there was someone in that city that hadn’t gone into
idolatry. Had they protested? Had they just sat by and done nothing? If they
had done nothing about it, they were to be judged along with the rest.
There are too many believers today who think that it is YAHVEHly
or holy to be silent. There are so many who do not take a stand on important
issues even when truth is at stake. You hear the old cliché, “Silence is
golden.” Friends, sometimes it is yellow—not golden—to remain silent and not to
take a stand. The minority is to protest that which is wrong. Everything in
such a city was to be completely destroyed.
And there shall cleave naught of the cursed things to thine
hand: that YAHVEH may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee
mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto
thy fathers.
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