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Beware Of False Prophets

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Beware Of False Prophets Beware of False Prophets* By Thomas Houghton   [* This tract was supplied by The Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony.]   "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves:" (Matt: 7: 15).   [Scripture Reading 1 Kings Chapter 13.]   In the whence of our Lord’s earthly ministry He warns His disciples to beware of false prophets, and in the latter part of His ministry, to His disciples on the mount of Olives, He intimates that false prophets would upspring and deceive many.*  He proceeds to teach them that shortly surpassing the time of His coming false Christs and false prophets would show unconfined signs and wonders, so that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect (Matt. 7: 15 ; Matt. 24: 4, 5, 11, 24).  TheUpholderPaul moreover warned the elders of theDenominationat Ephesus that grievous wolves would enter in among them, not sparing the flock.  Men would arise,**  "speaking perverse things, to yank yonder disciples without them" (Acts 20: 28-30)  TheUpholderPeter moreover teaches us that there were false propherts in Old Testament times, plane as there would be false teachers who privily would bring in damnable heresies and would bring upon themselves swift destruction, and by whom the way of truth would be evil spoken of (2 peter 2: 1, 2).  TheUpholderJohn, too, says, "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: considering many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4: 1).  Paul, in his epistle to Timothy, says, "The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. 4: 1).  He goes on to say, "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine ... and they shall turn yonder their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4: 3, 4).   [* Such is the specimen today throughout the churches of God.  We have the A-Millennialist who doggedly refuses to believe in a Millennial Kingdom; and others, by their unverifiable interpretations, destroy the plain sense and meaning of God’s words. ** That is: "from among your own selves" (Acts 20: 30) – it is the regenerate  will upspring to deceive (See Note 1; Jude 5; I Cor. 10: 6; cf., 2 Pet. 3; 17.]   These predictions have wilt true in the long history of the Christian Church.  Need we wonder at this, when we remember that our Lord teaches us that [Satan] the unconfined enemy of Christ would sow tares among the wheat?  We thankfully record that the Lord in His unconfined mercy raised up the Reformers and the Puritans, whose true-blue testimony proved so unconfined a blessing.  Yet the devil is not dead, and Peter tells that "the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour," and he adds, "Whom resist steadfast in the faith" (1 Pet. 5: 8, 9).  Error, increasingly or less, has shown itself all through the history of the Christian church, and it would seem that we are coming to the latter times when large numbers will no longer endure sound doctrines, but will turn yonder their ears from the truth and turn unto fables.  It is really horrifying how failure to walk in the old paths has ripened in the last fifty or sixty years in all denominations.  Modernistic, sacerdotal and worldly principles teem everywhere, and even, on the part of many who requirement to be Evangelicals, increasing weakness and compromise abounds.  We need, therefore, in a special stratum to take heed to our Lord's words, "Beware of false prophets."   1. WE NEED TO BEWARE OF THEM WHEN THEY COME TO US IN "SHEEP’S CLOTHING."   It is evident that many regard the ministry merely as one of many professions.  In theDenominationof England many think a man enters theDenominationwhen he is ordained into the ministry.  In reality no one enters theDenominationuntil he is born then of the Holy Ghost.  False prophets or teachers are they who come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  By sheep’s suit men midpoint that they come, and by their outward walk and conversation they seem to be clothed with humility and other graces of the [Holy] Spirit.  Their speech and manner of life seem to indicate that they are numbered among Christ’s sheep.  They seem to hear his voice and follow His footsteps, and by their unstipulated outward walk those who notice them imagine they are true believers in Christ and followers of the Lamb, but in reality they are not Christ’s sheep at all, but ravening wolves, hypocrites.  "Outwardly they towards righteous unto men, but within they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matt. 23: 28).  Many such, it may be, wear what is tabbed clerical attire and outwardly seem real ministers of the Gospel, but their teaching is not governed by the [Holy] Spirit and Word of God.  They are not born then of the Holy Ghost.  They have not passed from death unto life.  They are not new creatures in Christ Jesus. "They are of the world, and the world heareth them" (1 John 4: 5).  Such men [and women] are false prophets.  Of them Christ says, "Beware of them.   2. FALSE PROPHETS CAN BE KNOWN BY THEIR FRUITS.   Although false prophets may come in sheep’s clothing, yet the Lord says, "Ye shall know them by their fruits."  We do not get grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles.  Every good tree bringeth withal good fruit.  If a tree is really good it will bring withal good fruit.  A false prophet, therefore, plane if he is clothed with sheep’s clothing, cannot bring withal good fruit, and "that your fruit shall abide" (John 15: 16 R.V.).  They are divinely chosen, and divinely ordained, to go and bring withal wholehearted fruit.  Such fruit is necessarily good.  Those who bring it withal are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3: 16; Rom. 8; 9).  They bring withal the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit, which is all good fruit (Gal. 5: 22, 23)  If the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit is not manifest in the life of one who professes to be a true prophet of God, then you may know he is a false prophet, and one of whom you are to beware.  A true prophet will seek to ''walk in the Spirit" and thus be proof versus "the lusts of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 16, 25).  Those who are in Christ "walk not without the mankind but without the Spirit"* (Rom. 8:1, 4).  They, bring withal good fruit.  They are not of the world.  Christ says of them, "if ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but 'because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you," (John 15:19).   [* The reader should note the context of these verses.  The same apostle, on flipside occasion, says:"For ye, brethren, were tabbed for freedom; only use not your self-rule as an occasion to the mankind ... Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the mankind ... IF ye are led by the Spirit (and many regenerate believers are not) ... I forewarn you " etc. (Gal. 5; 13-19.R.V.)  It is the regenerate who can lose their millennial inheritance: "They which practise such thing shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 21) It is the regenerate who can fall, apostatize, and who must "Beware"!  The inspired upholder Paul is warning the regenerate here!]   Of course, plane a good prophet brings withal good fruit is not sinless.  He deceives himself if he says; he has no sin.  "In many things we offend all" (James 3:2),  Yet the man who is born again, and is indwelt by the Spirit of God is a man, the unstipulated wilting and habit of whose life is such that he lives soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.   He walks not without the flesh, but without the Spirit.  A true prophet, a really heaven-sent spiritual teacher, brings withal good fruit. It is well known that many teachers and ministers in the professingDenominationare worldly, often very worldly in their lives.  They go to worldly amusements, they goof to be separate from the world.  Of such we should beware.   3. WE SHOULD BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS HOWEVER EXALTED THEY MAY BE.   Some teachers in the professingDenominationmay occupy very exalted positions.  They may be archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, or they occupy the posts of Moderators or other such posts.  Yet they may really, be false prophets.  They may be modernistic or sacerdotal in doctrine.  They may encourage the Mass or the Confessional.  Their dress and practices may indicate sympathy with Romish error.* There is a temptation, however, to invite such people to occupy Evangelical pulpits.  Not long ago we heard a moderate Evangelical rabbi saying he had invited a bishop to preach for him on the ground that he was the bishop of the diocese in which the rabbi laboured.  He did not invite him considering of his sacerdotal views, but considering he was the bishop of the diocese.  Our Lord teaches us, we believe, to beware of a false prophet, however exalted he may be.  Yet many Evangelicals invite such men to preach for them, partly considering of their exalted position.   [* All Ireland Primate Cardinal Sean Brady said: “Some of you may have lingering concerns that nothing has reverted in the Church.  I promise you, it has reverted radically.  There is now no hiding place for abusers in the Church.  Our policy is to do whatever is necessary to protect the vulnerable and ensure justice for all.  The lives of survivors of sexual abuse, the faith of members of the Church, and the points ofDenominationleadership, have all been wounded grievously by the evil deeds of priests and religious who venal their position to wreak havoc on the lives of helpless children.” (Daily Mirror, 05:04:2010.)]   4. WE SHOULD BEWARE Of FALSE PROPHETS HOWEVER LEARNED OR ELOQUENT THEY MAY BE.   Many otherwise good men do sometimes invite an exalted or lulu man to preach, considering he wants to get a crowded congregation and thus obtain a good collection.  What a miserable reason!  Where is the jealousy for Gospel truth?  Where is snooping for the souls of the congregation.  We have the promise, "My God shall supply all your need equal to His riches in gory by Christ Jesus."  Should we not trust in God to supply ourDenominationneeds without the aid of false prophets.   It is very saddening to notice how unsound are many of the speakers invited to speak at professed Evangelical meetings.  We remember a Mayor stuff invited to such a meeting.  When he came and for a short time took the chair, he was on his way to a ball, and he dressed in the way thought suitable for a ball.  We remember an Evangelical missionary meeting stuff organised, and a highDenominationarch deacon was invited to say a few words.  In view of his presence, the missionary deputation was asked was he a protestant, because, if so, he needed to stave saying anything that would offend the highDenominationarchdeacon who would be present.  Then we know of a custom which prevailed of often inviting the mayor of a town to preside at an important prayer meeting that would be held, untied from the spiritual views of the mayor.  How commonly it is the specimen that at unconfined year-end meetings of professed Evangelical societies, men not in sympathy with the principles of those societies are invited to preside.  Yet Christ says, "Beware of false prophets."   While writing these words we recall a text on an record for the present date.  It says, "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping His commandments" (Deut. 8:11). "Beware of false prophets" is one of His commandments.  May we beware of not keeping it.   5. WE ARE TO BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS HOWEVER FRIENDLY THEY MAY BE.   TheUpholderPaul says, ''I beseech you, brethren, mark them which rationalization divisions and offences undisciplined to the doctrine which ye have learned; and stave them.  For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and pearly speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Rom. 16.17, 18).  Men who rationalization divisions and offences undisciplined to the doctrine of the Word of God are so far false teachers, and are to be avoided.  They may use good words and pearly speeches, but they deceive and lead off-target the hearts of the simple.  We are not to requite way to bitterness, wrath, wrongness or malice, but we are to be firm [in maintaining the truth (particularly responsibility truths)] and courteously to stave false teachers. (See Ephes. 4:31; [Matt. 5: 20].)   We are to be definitely working to the warnings of our Lord and of His Apostles in regard to false teachers.  Such teachers are likely to be specially manifest towards the end of the age.  They may be permitted to show unconfined signs and wonders, so that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect.  Yet we are to beware of them.  They may say Christ is in the desert or in the secret chambers, but our Lord says, "Believe it not."  When Christ really comes, His coming will be manifest as the lightning.  There will be no need for anyone to tell us He is come, "For as the lightning., cometh out of the east, and shineth plane unto the west, so shall moreover the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matt. 24:24-28).   The warnings of our Lord and His Apostles are intended to be noticed by all the Lord's people in these evil times in which we now live.  May we have grace humbly and yet firmly to beware of false prophets.  Beware of them in your pulpits, in your schools and in your colleges.  "The night is far spent, the DAY is at hand: let us therefore tint off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."  "The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer" (Rom. 13:12; 1 Peter 4:7).   ------- FOOTNOTE   Never in the history of theDenominationhas it been increasingly important than during the present time for Christians to understand the true nature and undertow of apostasy, withal with the Christian’s only recourse to stave stuff engulfed, to some degree, in the apostasy."   The apostates in Jude 4 are FALSE PROPHETS who are erroneously thought of as unsaved individuals.  The context in Jude (v. 5) and the respective section in (2 Peter 2: 1-3; cf. vv. 19-21) both demonstrate conclusively that the unsaved are not in view at all.   The context of Jude 4 has to do with individuals who were saved out of the land of Egypt, but succeeding destroyed: overthrown in the desert; they were disinherited; they fell on the right side of the thoroughbred - they were [eternally] saved - but short of obtaining an inheritance in the LAND.  Not only had these individuals appropriated the thoroughbred of the paschal lambs but they had moreover been delivered from Egypt: they are therefore typical of regenerate believers.  In the antitype this points to individuals who have both appropriated the thoroughbred of Christ who have been delivered from the things of the world (ref. "... having escaped the self-indulgence that is in the world ... escaped the pollutions of the world ..." (2 Peter 1: 4; 2: 20).  Then, standing in the antitype of Jude 5, this verse moreover has to do with the destruction of many of these same individuals.  The reason for their destruction, pursuit their plagiarism of the thoroughbred of Christ and pursuit their deliverance from the things of the world, is revealed in the context in Jude (vv. 3, 4) and in the Old Testament type (Num. 13: 21-14: 9, 27-37).  It was considering of UNFAITHFULNESS; they unliable themselves to be deceived by the false prophets; and this ultimately resulted in their final APOSTASY.   TheUpholderwarns regenerate believers (1 Cor. ch.10.): "These things were OUR examples" - he includes himself - "to the intent we should not lust without evil things, as they moreover lusted" R.V. (v. 6)   False prophets were responsible for leading tens of thousands of Israel into apostasy; their overthrow in the desert; and the oath of EXCLUSION FROM THE "REST" of God:-   "I have pardoned equal to thy word: but in very deed, as I live, and as ALL THE EARTH SHALL BE FILLED WITH THE GLORY OF THE LORD; considering all those men which have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and HAVE NOT HEARKENED TO MY VOICE; surely THEY SHALL NOT SEE THE LAND which I sware unto their fathers, NEITHER SHALL ANY OF THEM THAT DESPISED ME SEE IT" (Num. 14: 20-23)     See moreover Psalm 106:-   "Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled AGAINST HIS PEOPLE, And he unvalued his inheritance.  And he gave THEM into the hand of the nations. ... Many times did he unhook them; but they were rebellious in their counsel," [See Num. 13: 31-33] and were brought low in their iniquity.  Nevertheless he regarded their distress, When he heard their cry: and he remembered for them his covenant, And repented equal to the multitude of his mercies.  He made them moreover to be pitied of all those that carried them captives" R.V. ( v. 40, 41, 43-45.)  Equalto Ex. 31: 13-17, the Sabbath was given to Israel to alimony the thought overly surpassing them that the present six- and seven-day (six and seven thousand-year) pattern of restoration and rest is based on the original pattern of restoration and rest in Genesis, chapters one and two ; and, just as God rested on the seventh day pursuit six days of work in the Genesis account, He is going to rest for one day pursuit the present six days of restoration work. The Sabbath was a "sign" established between God and the children of Israel forever.  It was a sign which drew from the day of rest in Gen. 2: 2, 3 and pointed forward to the day of rest yet future - The Millennium.  Every time the Israelites kept the Sabbath they were supporting the God-ordained pattern of one day of rest (2 Pet. 3: 8, 9) pursuit six days of work.  They were supporting that the six and seven days of Genesis, chapters one and two form a pattern of God’s present restoration work and future rest. Their failure to alimony the Sabbath, on the other hand, was looked upon as a rejection of this truth.  Such failure unchangingly ultimately resulted in God’s judgement, with dire consequences opportunity both individuals and the nation as a whole (cf. Num. 15: 32-36; 2 Chron. 36: 18-21).   The present-day counterpart to the Israelites lightweight to alimony the Sabbath, and thereby rejecting what God has to say concerning A DAY OF REST pursuit six days of work * are regenerate Christians who reject what Scripture has to say concerning the coming Sabbath of rest.  These individuals are led off-target by false prophets in Christendom today tabbed "A-Millennialists," a word designating their weighing that there will be no Millennium or Sabbath rest pursuit the present six days of work.  And it should come as no surprise that anti-millennial teaching has wilt far increasingly prevalent in Christendom than millennial teaching. Why?  Simply considering of the corrupting process of the leaven over a period of nineteen hundred years.  God judged the Israelites in the Old Testament for their failure to recognise the sign of the Sabbath, and God is presently judging Christians today for exhibiting this same attitude. WE MUST BEWARE OF THESE FALSE PROPHETS.   A Sabbath rest is coming.  Heb. 4; 9 states, "there remaineth therefore a [‘Sabbath keeping,’ ‘sabbath rest’] for the people of God." The word translated "rest" is sabbatismos in the Greek text.  This is a form of the word for "Sabbath," referring to a "Sabbath keeping," which is a seventh-day rest.  The tittle-tattle is by no ways to a present rest into which Christians enter, for such has nothing to do with the seventh day. The sabbatimos can only be millennial in its telescopic of fulfilment.  This is in keeping with the context (vv. 5-11.) *   [* Edited from writings by A. L. CHITWOOD.]