7 Traits of False Teachers

"There were also false prophets among the people,
just as there will be false teachers among you." (2 Peter 2:1)

There are no "ifs, ands, or buts" in Peter's words. It's a clear and definite statement. There were false prophets among the people (of Israel in the Old Testament). That's a matter of history.

False prophets were a constant problem in the Old Testament, and those who falsely claimed to be prophets of God were to be stoned. The people rarely had the will to deal with them, so they multiplied, causing disaster to the spiritual life of God's people.

In the same way Peter says, "There will be false teachers among you." Notice the words "among you." Peter is writing to the church and says, "There will be false prophets among you." So he is not talking about New Age people on television. He is talking about people in the local church, members of a local congregation.

There is no such thing as a pure church this side of heaven. You will never find it. The wheat and the tares grow together. Warren Wiersbe writes:

Satan is the counterfeiter. . . . He has a false gospel (Galatians 1:6-9), preached by false ministers (2 Corinthians 11:13-12), producing false Christians (2 Corinthians 11:26). . . . Satan plants his counterfeits wherever God plants true believers (Matthew 13:38).

Authentic or Counterfeit?

How would you recognize counterfeit Christianity?

In 2 Peter 1 we read about genuine believers. And in 2 Peter 2 we read about counterfeit believers. If you put these chapters side by side you will see the difference between authentic and counterfeit believers.

1. Different Source—Where does the message come from?

Peter says, "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1:16). And then he says the false teachers exploit you "with stories they have made up" (2:3). So the true teacher sources what he says from the Bible. The false teacher relies on his own creativity. He makes up his own message.    Continue at Colin Smith

False Prophets and Lying Wonders

Have you noticed that no matter how many times charismatic televangelists make outlandish false prophecies, they never lack for followers, and they don’t stop claiming the Lord has spoken directly to them?

Benny Hinn, for example, made a series of celebrated prophetic utterances in December of 1989, none of which came true. He confidently told his congregation at the Orlando Christian Center that God had revealed to him Fidel Castro would die sometime in the 1990s; the homosexual community in America would be destroyed by fire before 1995; and a major earthquake would cause havoc on the east coast before the year 2000. He was wrong on all counts, of course.

That did not deter Hinn, who simply kept making bold new false prophecies. At the beginning of the new millennium, he announced to his television audience that a prophetess had informed him Jesus would soon appear physically in some of Hinn’s healing meetings. Hinn said he was convinced the prophecy was authentic, and on his April 2, 2000, broadcast, he amplified it with a prophecy of his own: “Now hear this, I am prophesying this! Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is about to appear physically in some churches, and some meetings, and to many of His people, for one reason: to tell you He is about to show up! To wake up! Jesus is coming saints!”

Hinn’s failed prophesies are more outlandish but nearly as memorable as the notorious claims Oral Roberts began making about three decades ago. In 1977 Roberts said he saw a vision of a 900-foottall Jesus, who instructed him to build the City of Faith, a 60-story hospital in south Tulsa. Roberts said God told him He would use the center to unite medical technology with faith healing, which would revolutionize health care and enable doctors to find a cure for cancer.    Continue at Christian Research

A Lesson From the Lakeland Revival - Todd Bentley

A couple of weeks ago I invested an hour and a half in watching Lakeland: The Movie, a documentary about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland “Revival.” You may remember that in April of 2008, a preacher and revivalist named Todd Bentley was invited to Ignited Church in Lakeland, Florida. The plan was to have Bentley there for five days of revival services. In the end he stayed for four months. What was meant to be a small, local event soon saw hundreds of thousands of people from 65 countries travel to Florida. Millions more participated through the Internet. Night after night Bentley would hold wild services full of singing, preaching, speaking in tongues, prayer for healing and miracles and, of course, the inevitable collection of money. 

The revival was marked by what were said to be great manifestations of the work of the Holy Spirit—speaking in tongues, ecstatic prophecies, miraculous healings and even the claim that somewhere around thirty people had been raised from the dead. Just about every major media outlet covered it at one time or another. Most of them went looking for evidence that miracles had actually happened; not surprisingly, not a single miracle was ever verified.

By August the revival was beginning to slow down a little bit and Bentley decided to leave Lakeland and to take the revival on the road. Teaching that the Holy Spirit could be passed from him to others by the laying on of hands, he would tour the country and take this outpouring of the Spirit with him. But no sooner did he leave Lakeland than the media exploded with reports that Bentley and his wife would be separating. Apparently he had been carrying on an inappropriate relationship with one of the women connected to his ministry. He and his wife soon divorced and shortly afterward he had married this other woman. The revivals and his ministry came to a screeching halt, at least for a time.   Continue at Tim Challies

What God Says About False Prophets and False Teachers

When discussing false prophets and false teachers, let’s bear in mind that God doesn’t mince words, and neither should we. Here is what God has to say:

False prophets and false teachers,

– foretell false prophecies (Jeremiah 5:31; Jeremiah 14:14)

– strengthen the hands of evildoers (Jeremiah 23:14)

– prophesy peace when there is none (Jeremiah 23:17)

– teach lies to their followers (Jeremiah 28:15)

– there is no light in them (Isaiah 8:20)

– foretell false and foolish visions (Lamentations 2:14)

– produce rotten fruit (Matthew 7:15-20)

– unknown to Jesus and destined for hell (Matthew 7:22-23)

– evil and adulterous, and seek after a sign and wonder (Matthew 16:4)

– pretend to be miracle workers (Matthew 24:22-23)

– claim to be Christ and see Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:23-26)

– teach corruption (2 Peter 2:10-22)

Eight Former Mormons Encounter Jesus Christ

False Prophets, False Teachers, and Real Trouble: The Case of Harold Camping

Andy Warhol was wrong. Fame doesn’t last just fifteen minutes. After all, Harold Camping is still in the news, more than a week after his prophecy that the world would end on May 21 at 6:00 p.m. turned out — as expected — to be false.

Camping’s end-of-the-world prophecy and the related publicity circus gained international attention. It was virtually inevitable that his claims would become a matter of global interest, followed by international derision. After all, Camping had claimed to have discovered a secret code within the Bible that allowed him to predict the precise day that Christ would appear and judgment would begin. As he told the press, he was certain that the end of the world was “absolutely going to happen without any question at all.”

In anticipation of May 21, Camping and his followers purchased thousands of billboard advertisements and sent the message across America painted on recreational vehicles. Some of his followers emptied their bank accounts and gave away their possessions, expecting no longer to need them. Keep Reading...

Inner Circle Member of Family Radio says Camping owes Apology to Public

The backlash is complete, almost, for failed doomsday soothsayer Harold Camping. Even as the world is waiting to hear from the false prophet, a member of his inner circle has fired the first salvo, saying Camping owes an apology to the public.

It's been confirmed that Camping did not rapture to heaven as he had predicted. Nor did around 200 million people from across the world -- the selected believers whose time had come to be reunited with Jesus Christ.

Harold Camping is at his Oakland home, and his wife has said the preacher is healthy and safe. A board member of Camping's Family Radio International cited Camping as saying that the preacher would issue a statement on the mother of all goof-ups.

Camping's wife said her husband was "somewhat bewildered" and "mystified" after his prediction proved a dud, said Tom Evans, who belongs to the inner circle of Camping followers. Keep Reading...

HT: Pyromaniac

Image

HAROLD CAMPING'S PREDICTION & The UNTOLD STORY - PART II

In the first column, we considered the sad history of Harold Camping that led to his departure from the church.  When the elders of the Alameda CRC censured Camping for his wild end time predictions, he refused to submit to their discipline. This facilitated a split in the Alameda CRC in which over forty percent of the congregation followed Camping and departed from the church. As we considered, pride and bitterness had so overcome Camping that he was able to declare that upon the year of his censure and departure from the church, God was done with the entire church, and from that time forward, God would only work in the “true believers” who were willing to take the stand with Camping and come out of the church.

In this column, we evaluate the fruits of Camping’s teaching.  We also address why predictions of the end world dangerous, and how Christians are to live in preparation for Christ’s return. Keep Reading>>>

HAROLD CAMPING, JUDGMENT DAY, & THE REST OF THE STORY - PART I

When Camping’s first prediction failed, claiming miscalculation, he then began to reinvent his scheme with the idea that God ended the church age. “Sometime earlier” wrote Camping, “God was finished using the churches to represent the kingdom of God.”[3] In his book “We Are Almost There!” we find that Camping chose the date of May 21, 1988 for the end of the church age.[4] Read the rest  HERE

Is Joseph Smith the Gateway to Heaven?

 

Absolutely amazing blasphemies from the Mormon church:

“[There is] “no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith. If Joseph Smith was verily a prophet, and if he told the truth…no man can reject that testimony without incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter the kingdom of God” -Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.190

“If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass by Joseph Smith; if we enter our glory, it will be through the authority he has received. We cannot get around him.” -1988 Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, p. 142, Apostle George Q. Cannon

“He that confesseth not that Jesus has come in the flesh and sent Joseph Smith with the fullness of the Gospel to this generation, is not of God, but is anti-christ.” -Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, p.312

“No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith…every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are… [Joseph Smith] reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capacity, and calling, as God does in heaven. Many will exclaim—”Oh, that is very disagreeable! It is preposterous! We cannot bear the thought!” But it is true.” -Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p.289-91

HT: Bob Hanks

Harold Camping May Never Learn But Will We?

Harold Camping has shown himself to be a false prophet. He promised that our Lord would return in 1994. Jesus didn’t return. Camping erred but he remains impenitent and unashamed. Indeed, he’s now promising that Jesus will return in 2011 (HT: Austin Britton), and this despite Jesus’ clear, unequivocal teaching that no one, not even Harold Camping, knows when Jesus will return:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matt 25:36–37) Continue Reading>>>

Old Mormon vs New Mormon (The Missouri Prophecies)

 

Read all about Mormonism at: Defending and Contending

WATCH OUT FOR THE WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING

We are not talking here about minor disagreements, but fundamental big picture issues. The "God" of these false prophets is not the same as that of the Bible; "salvation" means something entirely different and the means to be saved often makes some reference to Christ (which is why it is so deceptive), but it is never Christ alone who saves, but Christ plus the contribution we are all supposed to make to the cause.

In contrast, biblical salvation is by grace alone, received through faith in Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone, and works (the things we do) play no part, except that they are the fruit of a life transformed by Christ. The Scripture in Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." The things we do (works) are the fruit, not the root of our salvation. Read the rest HERE

A Culture of Death

Dangerous Times for the Church

See Also - Seducing Spirits/Doctrines of Demons
See Also - False Prophets

Yea Hath God Said?