False Prophets
False prophets are those who speak on current or future matters and conditions, but falsely, in disagreement with God's Word. Usually the word "prophet" is associated to the churchly realm.
The mildest of false prophets simply have ignorance of God's Word, yet are bold enough to speak their ignorance, solely because it gives them a feeling of power to exert their opinions and wishful thinking in front of others. This desire is driven by covetousness, of course, for the exaltation of human approval, to feel like a god.
But their misrepresentations come at God's expense, harming others by marginalizing God in their ears. Of course, if such a junior false prophet had a True heart, he would simply read God's Word to know what Jesus teaches, and would change to speak in line with the Truth, of which he would no longer be ignorant.
There is hope that at least some of these folks won't travel too far on their power-trip, but will grow instead, purposely seeking a knowledge of the Truth with a changed heart, even if due to consequences they suffer from working against God.
Now, the worst of false prophets are much more covetous, and lustful, and blasphemous, driven by lies and hatred. Their goal is the same as their father the devil's, and that is to convince others to sin.
Many sin-sick people do this outside the churchly realm in the world at large of course; but there are also many who do this in the churchly realm, because like their father the devil, they get an added feeling of power by exerting influence over and destroying those still in weakness, but who might have had some inclination toward God. It makes the sin seem exceedingly destructive, even to them, which further feeds their feelings of lust and power, believing, wrongly of course, that some form of victory is gained over God when they destroy something that is potentially His. It's nothing but Satan's original sin of self-exaltation, that is, wanting to be in God's place, jealousy driven by pride. Unless they repent, which is unlikely, such evildoers will be cast in the Lake of Fire at the end, punished severely in proportion to the severity of their evil.
Now it sounds as though such a vile person would be easy to spot, but they are well-practiced in false humility and suggestion, having refined their act with help from their father the devil, often over years.
Believe it or not, these are some of the smoothest-talking, most well-received and influential members of many supposedly-religious groups.
So how does the devil recruit such a person, anyway ?
Simply by doing the same thing as the devil has them do - preying on the weak in the churchly realm. Satan finds one of the many Spiritually immature people who are still in their sins, who are still trying to cling to the false hope of Salvation by merely knowing who God and Jesus are, instead of doing what God and Jesus teach.
The devil then suggests to their human side (the flesh), which still runs them, that “Freedom” actually comes by way of doing whatever one wants, feels like, or physically desires.
From there, taking the bait, they live for awhile in the strange mix of trying to "feel free" in willful sin, while imagining they somehow still care about God and Jesus. They do not understand the prison of sin into which they've been enticed, or that sin now owns them by their then-increasing lust for it. They quickly lose any desire to Love God and Jesus, or others, more than their now-embedding sin addiction.
In fact, in order to suppress the guilt that flares within them from time to time, they find they must act forcefully against it, lest it consume them, by which they'd have to repent. This guilt-suppression requires even more drug from the devil, which they ingest to convince themselves of two soothing lies.
The first lie is that they are still with God and Jesus, and that their knowing some "church people" is proof of that.
The second lie is that if others are committing the same willful sins they commit, then their own sin is somehow diluted among the the crowd.
From this, by evil, they put the two lies together to make a toxic stew, wherein they use their false "form of" godliness to seek company in their sins among the weak who actually either attend church or claim they'd like to.
They mangle whatever Bible verses they can, and use the sordid result mixed with flattery to lead others to the same sins they commit. This in turn feeds their lust and addiction to the power this influence gives them, as does their further wrongful treatment of the newly-conceived addict, and all it requires is for the predator to spout one lie after another as cover. (And their soul of course.)
Their favorite lies are right from the devil's toolbox, rationalizations and subtle suggestions to their “victims” that God really means this not that, or, everyone will be Saved by grace anyway because God knows people are too weak to stop sinning, and all the other well-worn, tired old lies that go directly against what Christ teaches.
But not only does such fraudulence not dilute their sin among the crowd, it multiplies their sin, and compounds their guilt many times over. They are the devil's own - weak, lustful, sin-addicted, in churches, and bold enough to speak blasphemies with a carefully crafted sales pitch that remains unchanged from the time of Adam and Eve.
Even just mere years after Jesus' death on the Cross, their addiction to sin and abuse of God's Word was explicitly described in the letters of the saints, right in our own Bible, so we know this condition has not changed since then, except perhaps to become even more prevalent, not that it wasn't before.
Their sins of choice often begin with lies and adultery, being the easiest to feed their power addiction by means of violation, always with the use of smooth words to deceive the “victims” they actually disrespect and hate.
But being involved with them leads to all sins.
If they remain in that state, such a person's destruction is assured, as the Bible tells us that they are ones "for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." Sadly though, even one self-centered person can destroy many, derailing the weak for years, and often even life.
Thankfully, if we read God's Word and know what Jesus teaches, we'll be armed with the Truth and won't be fooled by such wolves. After all, it's willful sin that will always be the defining mark of evil, just as not willfully sinning will always be the defining mark of those who Love God. See 2 Peter 2 and the Book of Jude for more.
So, as we see, false prophets exist across a broad spectrum, from the somewhat ignorant to the devil's worst in lust-and-power-addicted, premeditated evil.
In the middle of that spectrum exists an even greater number of false prophets, often in the form of “priests”, ministers, and bolder members of churches that don't teach or discuss in completeness what Jesus does. There are various motives, some of which are discussed further in the document on this website called “God's Simple Solution”. But all are in the general category of trying to seem godly without actually doing what God asks. Does a cloak of pseudo-religion fool God or mask sin ?
Now what God asks is not too difficult to comprehend. In fact, according to Jesus, we are meant to become like little children in order to accept the Gospel in simplicity and completeness of Faith. But the motives of people are many, and many would still rather continue in sin than listen to God or read His Word for themselves. This opens the door for many false prophets to enter, by whom the people get to “feel religious” while they fulfill the false prophet's sinful motives as well. It's lose-lose.
So in this tragic dance that continues as we head toward the Last Day, we end up with “the beast” church of prophecy who wants people to worship its hierarchy instead of God (per the devil's own wish!), all the while giving 60% Truth and pointing to God and Jesus just enough so that few call them out on the 40% evil they push, including attempts at modifying four of God's Ten Commandments (#2, #4, #9, and #10 for those who are interested in tracking down one of their catechism manuals and comparing it to a real Bible's Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5). This deception seems to suit the non-seeking, unquestioning, idol-worshipper just fine, keeping them sedated enough for the devil to perform whatever surgery he chooses on their souls between now and the time of the End.
“Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.” - Jonah 2:8 (NKJV)
Then, we have hundreds of other churches that are no better, just different. These keep some of the beast's traditions as well, and over time have additionally found it easier to stay in business by calling God and Jesus liars, by throwing out practically every Biblical thing, from the Creation, to the Garden of Eden, to Noah and the Flood, to Jonah's trial, to the Virgin Birth, to Satan's existence, to many of Jesus' teachings, to Jesus' Return, and even to God's Commandments !
Attempts at modifying the Commandments are bad enough, and ticket those responsible for Hell Fire. But how bad is it when the daughters of the mother harlot out-do the mother herself ?!
Well, any faithless preacher who keeps the coin box full by spewing a populist message of “Peace, Peace” to a sinful world, instead of addressing sin by its proper name, tickets themselves for the same trip.
Beyond all these, many more "Christian" churches adulterate Gods' Word by their own motives, too.
Jesus sums up all this religious fraudulence by quoting the prophet Isaiah in Mark 7:6-7 (NKJV):
“This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
Paul also points it out this way, in 2 Timothy 3:5 (NKJV):
“...having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”
Sadly, as seen above, this includes the vast majority of churches today, so the number of these false prophets is quite high. All of these avoid the entire Truth, and therefore sin prevails as Love disappears.
“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” - Jesus in Matthew 24:12 (NKJV)
There you have it right from the mouth of Jesus - where Truth is lacking, much sin exists, causing Love to fade from peoples' hearts.
So today, we have a large stockpile of churches that actually end up doing the exact opposite of what God and Jesus want, all because they'd rather feed the devil's substitute pablum to their flock instead of the Bread of Life.
By not delivering proper Nutrition, they starve their own !
And when the outside world sees what amounts to the church's cruelty, they associate the hypocrisy with God because it says “church” on it, and end up hating God for it !
Spiritual death-mills that do not share PURE Living Water are less than worthless !
They are even worse than the sinful culture that surrounds them, and will suffer all the greater.
“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?”
- Jesus in Matthew 23:33 (NKJV)
The only solution, as the Bible implores us repeatedly, is to run away from all harlot churches ! But how ? Simply run to Jesus, starting with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in God's Word. There we will find relief as we learn that our Creator and Savior are all the Good we'd expect and more. There, we can get used to the idea that religion does NOT have to be a devil-owned death sentence ! Amen ? Amen.
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