This blog might bother you, and it should. This should serve two ends. First, it should expose the Word on the subject matter. Second, I will share, openly, my conviction on this simple issue – through my weakness, I made it unnecessarily complex.
I need to lay down a precursor first. Something foundational to this understanding, since we’re going to concentrate on the tail end of the Sermon on the Mount. Here’s something presuppositional that requires contextual understanding:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB)
What the heck is the narrow gate? The way to “life,” which is a metaphor for Jesus, is a concise and skinny path, rather than an open space with plenty of wiggle room. Following scripture and bearing the weight of worldly pressures is the discipline associated with entering through a narrow gate.
I have heard many speak things as though they were from God, but they’re NOT found in God’s Word. What we hear is often bathed in Scripture and not only sounds plausible but appears congruent with many sermons or lessons we routinely hear. Sure, there are the easy ones to spot. The folks who claim to know the date and time of the end or something significant in Revelation or prophecy. My personal favorite might be Whisenant’s “88 Reasons why the Rapture will be in 1988” among many. Boy did he prove to look dumb… Those folks, maybe well-intentioned, are false prophets. Why? Because the canons are closed. No new books of the Bible are being written. God chose 40ish authors to write 66 books and they’ve concluded. I’m sorry for those who think otherwise, but to them, I say this, “The Scripture should be enough for you. You don’t need to invent.”
The next group of folks you see offering heretical gibberish are those who have grand claims about the path of a solar eclipse that crosses certain cities in certain places in America with certain names, etc. What a load of manure. Those are easy to dismiss and considering America was never offered a footnote in scripture, it is not only heretical but arrogant to make claims the United States of America somehow offers the key to the second coming of Christ.
A 3rd category is your “name it and claim it” group. I often refer to them as “pinos” among friends – “Pastor In Name Only” so to speak… The pinos would include folks like Joel Osteen. If you pray hard enough, you’ll be able to afford the new pick-up you’ve been wanting, right? WRONG. You may say to yourself the pinos do some good in the world, and you’re right. They do. But they’re leading people astray, and quite often they reveal their real feelings towards God’s children. Do they not? Joel Osteen had the opportunity to open his entire mega-church to the public when there was flooding. The need was great and the building should serve as a refuge for those in need. And did Joel open his church to saints and sinners? He did not. Unless inherent danger was present, I submit to you he was obligated, at a minimum, to offer shelter in a natural disaster. Think about that.
The first three categories are easily identifiable and simple to rebuke. The 4th category managed to trip me up. Or more appropriately, I ignored the truth and tripped myself up. This group is hard to spot and tougher yet to adequately handle. However, they always speak and that will make things easier. Francis of Assisi was quoted as saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary use words.” Meaning? Behave in Christlike ways. Be visible. Salt and light, right? You don’t need to use your mouth when you’re visible in your behavior. The false prophets always use their mouths, thus you “hear” them when they speak.
I’ll let you in on a secret. If you’re unsure about what you’re hearing, there is a telltale sign that you’re listening to a false prophet. They will use one of these 3 phrases or some variation routinely: “God told me,” or “God spoke to me,” or “God said.” Said, spoke, and told are all audible speech examples and they conveyed as being from the Almighty. That’s heretical nonsense. If you felt compelled by the Lord, you’re welcome to offer that asterisk. I think we’re duty-bound to provide that relational bit of information to explain what we’re offering to others. If you believe you’re being urged by the Lord, or maybe something askew was made clear by the Spirit, then say so. That’s Kool & the Gang, right? The Creator isn’t holding a two-way dialogue with these people. When you hear those phrases being uttered, the person speaking is completely out of line theologically and has departed from the Biblical truth.
Here’s the truth. I knew it was a problem instantly when I heard it. But I was too weak to act on what I was hearing. Phrases like “God told me (fill in the blank),” were being tossed around freely and often. And I could feel a cringe in my spine each time they were being bantered about. Rather than dealing with what I was truly concerned about, I told myself that loving my brother superseded the necessary correction. It turns out I got it half right, which is a problem because I got it half wrong.
I should have immediately offered my brother the supporting scripture for false prophets, the warnings, and the humility our speech requires from us toward God. I didn’t offer it. I tried to gently talk to my brother about this and I made my peace with it eventually. I knowingly and willingly subjected myself to heresy without rebuttal or rebuke. This mistake was not only bad for me, but my inaction neither honored God nor my brother. I wasn’t honest with him and I could have been. I was weak.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Matthew 7:15-20 (NASB)
We’re warned, specifically, to BEWARE false prophets. I’ve been loose with my speech before, and I pray to not be in the future. Others should not go uncorrected either. Sounds judgemental, right? As Voddie Baucham would say, “Welcome to the narrow gate.”
Is the warning against the false prophets serious or just a casual offering? What New Testament scripture supports the warning from Christ in the Sermon on the Mount we find in Matthew 7?
Woe to you when all the people speak well of you; for their fathers used to treat the false prophets the same way.
Luke 6:26
But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2 Peter 2:1
What about Old Testament Scripture on the matter of false prophets?
Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own minds.
Jeremiah 14:14
I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied.
Jeremiah 23:21
But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name, a word which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’
Deuteronomy 18:20
So, what am I to do with the brother who qualifies as a false prophet? For he routinely in most conversations will mention to me and others that “God said to me,” and such. I believe I’m required to first pray on the subject, then reread the scripture and supporting scripture for the problem, and then approach him with my concerns… More or less, this is a Matthew 18 discipline moment. I must love him enough to show him his fault in private and pray he listens to me. Hopefully, I shall gain my brother. If I don’t, I cannot love him less. But I also cannot continue to avoid rebuking his false speech. The narrow gate binds us all, as it should.
I pray I can be both salt and light for him and others. That I may be salt and light as God intended and that my thoughts, speech, and actions glorify Him.
