{"id":462,"date":"2014-04-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/?p=462"},"modified":"2014-04-26T16:39:04","modified_gmt":"2014-04-26T21:39:04","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-identifying-false-prophets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/2014\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-identifying-false-prophets\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about identifying false prophets?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep\u2019s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. (Matthew 7:15–20—NKJV)<\/cite> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Sermon on the Mount is usually remembered for its beautiful words, its focus on service, uplifting of the downtrodden, and its prescription for the godly qualities of the people who will populate the Millennial Kingdom. Take note that sprinkled between \u201cuplifting\u201d passages such as the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule, the \u201cLord\u2019s Prayer,\u201d \u201cAsk, Seek, and Knock\u201d praying, and the Parable of \u201cThe Wise and Foolish Home Builders\u201d there are the \u201cadmonishing\u201d passages concerning \u201cThe Straight and Narrow Way,\u201d the meaning of adultery and the Jewish law concerning divorce, Christ\u2019s insights on the letter and spirit of the Old Testament laws, treasure storing, and a hefty section on judgment which includes a discussion concerning false prophets. <\/p>\n

God is not fooled by a false prophet and He does not want His people to be fooled by them either. The section of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 7:15–20 deals with this very critical need for all believers. What our Lord unfolds for us is the right way to judge hidden things! A false prophet does not wear a sign that declares his status. Instead, he masquerades as one of God\u2019s faithful while sounding forth a message that he claims comes from God. What is a believer to do? How can a believer preserve himself from the snares set by any false prophet? How can you judge the hidden things? <\/p>\n

First, accept The Challenge<\/strong> found in verse 15. Beware (literally—\u201chold your mind away from\u201d) false prophets. Christ\u2019s command is to be discerning, or judging, if you will. The reason sheep need a shepherd, and a church needs a pastor, is that false prophets are described by our Lord as wolves in sheep\u2019s clothing. The word picture is of a long garment made of wool (talith<\/em>—worn to symbolize the appearance of a righteous man as in Mark 12:38 or Hebrews 11:37). He is a wolf clad in sheep hide, or skin. The inner nature of a wolf is described as ravenous, greedy, violent, covetous, deceptive, exploitive, and dangerous to the helpless and unsuspecting sheep. The sheep\u2019s best defensive strategies are to be vigilant and to run—the greater the head start the better! If a voracious wolf is able to sneak in among the sheep, cloaked in humble simplicity and gentleness, what chance does a sheep have to escape injury? The challenge for the \u201csheep\u201d is to detect every hidden wolfish intention and nature disguised as God-fearing morality and demure harmlessness. <\/p>\n

Second, take a lesson from Common Sense<\/strong> found in verse 16. Even natural man can distinguish between fruits. You do not go to gather grapes from a thorn bush or figs from a prickly thistle. Fortunately, there is an inseparable correlation between the nature of the plant and the fruit produced. Every man goes through life producing fruit, just as a living plant does. The nature of the man determines the type and quality of each fruit. Do not be afraid to be a spiritual fruit inspector just as you must be in a farmer\u2019s market. A believer ought to practice spiritual discernment by exercising discriminating choice between bad, good, better, and best. A false prophet is one who claims to speak for God but, in his word or deed, diminishes the incomparable majesty of God or downplays the superlative sacrifice of Christ, thus showing his true nature. In playing to the vanities, the applause, or the sensibilities of his audience, he is producing rotten fruit that is the result of his unregenerate nature. <\/p>\n

Third and fourth, observe what Every Man Can Only Do<\/strong> found in verse 17 and what Every Man Cannot Do<\/strong> in verse 18. Men can only produce fruit that is generated by their inner nature and they cannot produce fruit that is not descended from their nature. The good (intrinsically good—agathon<\/em>) tree will produce good (beautiful—kalous<\/em>) fruit, the bad tree will produce rotten fruit. No matter how \u201cbeautiful\u201d the appearance of the claims of the false prophet may be, his claims are absolutely no guarantee of the soundness of the inner nature. Fruit will come as the visible outgrowth of the inner nature and that fruit must be the judgment point. <\/p>\n

Fifth, remember that this discerning act is really God\u2019s Judgment Call<\/strong>, not yours (verse 19). Those who do not faithfully preach and teach only Christ will be cut off, discarded, and cast into the fire. This is God\u2019s verdict. <\/p>\n

Sixth, the Practical Conclusion<\/strong> for every believer is to humbly and obediently remain vigilant by careful examination of a man\u2019s spiritual fruit to determine whether that man is a false prophet or an authentic servant of the Most High (verse 20). \u201cBy their fruits you will [fully] know them.\u201d Do not be afraid to rightly judge hidden things (John 7:24). Trust and obey. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep\u2019s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. (Matthew 7:15–20—NKJV) The Sermon on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}