False prophet

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How could we possible know who is and is not a false prophet or real prophet? Did Jesus talk about any other prophets coming?
 
A prophet is someone who speaks God’s Word. It’s hard to tell a false prophet from a real prophet but essentially one can tell a false prophet if they contradict God in some form. This is of course very hard to tell in some cases.

There is no need for prophets after Christ since He is the Word made flesh. God is among us, He gives us all we need.
 
To me, if you keep yourself in a state of grace as much as possible, that’s all you can really do. God can do the rest.
 
Jesus did talk about false prophets and so did St. Peter and St. John. We will know them by their fruits/works.

Mt 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them.

Mk 13:21-22 If anyone says to you then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah! Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect.

2 Pet 2:1-2 There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.
Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.

Rev 16:13 I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet.
 
How could we possible know who is and is not a false prophet or real prophet? Did Jesus talk about any other prophets coming?
There are many warnings of false prophets in the bible. Here is Jesus speaking… Mat24:11 “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” You can also see a real prophet (the two witnesses) mentioned in the book of Revelation. Not a prophet like Jesus, though.

General revelation is closed. Jesus came, the apostles have died, that’s it. There is no new revelation of that sort. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is now priest, prophet, and king.

Do you mean prophets like the gift of prophecy from the Holy Spirit? Do you mean stuff like Fatima?

There is a biblical example given:

Deut18 said:
21 "You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’ 22 "When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

or
1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
 
In the book of Deut. God says that we will know false prophets because what they say does not happen.

I think of those verses regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim to speak for God, yet nothing they’ve claimed WILL happen - has.

(Hey Pug, you beat me to it… that’s what I was looking for Deut 18 - 🙂 )
 
in my navarre bible on the apoc, it references JPII’s interp of rev. 13 to see the modern “false prophet” as materialism.
 
How could we possible know who is and is not a false prophet or real prophet? Did Jesus talk about any other prophets coming?
To whom are you referring?
Is there someone specific who you think might be a false prophet?

Ron
 
How could we possible know who is and is not a false prophet or real prophet? Did Jesus talk about any other prophets coming?
yes Jesus did talk about false prophets coming who will deceive many. After Jesus, no other prophet : read the parable of the wicked tenant.

False prophets give different gospels and teach different Truth, and anti-Christs are the one who deny Jesus is the Son of God .So a prophet who gives different teachings and denies Jesus’ truth is a false prophet and anti-Christ.
 
I’m very close to some Mormons, so I’ve done quite a bit of study about Mormonism. One of their beliefs is that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and so were Brigham Young and many others. I believe that their President, currently Gordon B. Hinkley, is considered to be a prophet. Their contention that prophets walk the modern world runs counter to the RC and general orthodox teachings that no prophets followed Jesus.

Anyways, in my conversations with Mormons, I usually try to point out that a true prophet delivers prophesies which actually come true. If any prophesy turns out wrong, then I don’t see how that man could claim to be a true prophet of God. Joseph Smith himself issued many prophesies that never came to pass as he said they would. Therefore, he must be a false prophet. In addition, Mormons sometimes change their beliefs, such as when, in 1894 or thereabouts they dropped the earthly practice of plural marriage, which had been a revelation given by Joseph Smith himself. So, another test would be whether the prophesy contradicts anything previously revealed. Joseph Smith “revealed” many theological ideas which run very contrary to orthodox Christianity, such as plurality of Gods, doctrine of Original Sin, and many others. Therefore, he would be a false prophet also from that point of view, that his prophesies contradict what has come before. I don’t mean to pick on the Mormons, except that this is the cult I’m most familiar with, since I’ve had so many Mormon friends.
 
Remember, false prophets are those who give false promises of liberation, will teach fashionable doctrines that are not in accord with the Church, and will lead many souls along w/ them. Just because an idea is popular doesn’t mean it’s right. Just because everyone believes error, that doesn’t make error right.
 
I’m very close to some Mormons, so I’ve done quite a bit of study about Mormonism. One of their beliefs is that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and so were Brigham Young and many others. I believe that their President, currently Gordon B. Hinkley, is considered to be a prophet. Their contention that prophets walk the modern world runs counter to the RC and general orthodox teachings that no prophets followed Jesus.

Anyways, in my conversations with Mormons, I usually try to point out that a true prophet delivers prophesies which actually come true. If any prophesy turns out wrong, then I don’t see how that man could claim to be a true prophet of God. Joseph Smith himself issued many prophesies that never came to pass as he said they would. Therefore, he must be a false prophet. In addition, Mormons sometimes change their beliefs, such as when, in 1894 or thereabouts they dropped the earthly practice of plural marriage, which had been a revelation given by Joseph Smith himself. So, another test would be whether the prophesy contradicts anything previously revealed. Joseph Smith “revealed” many theological ideas which run very contrary to orthodox Christianity, such as plurality of Gods, doctrine of Original Sin, and many others. Therefore, he would be a false prophet also from that point of view, that his prophesies contradict what has come before. I don’t mean to pick on the Mormons, except that this is the cult I’m most familiar with, since I’ve had so many Mormon friends.
Martin Luther went up to the pulpit once and said that he could kill a hundred people in a day, and that it wouldn’t affect his relationship with God. Bogus reasoning I know. Heresies come and they go. The heresies that are rampant now, are the same ones that were around in the early days of the Church.
 
Jesus did talk about false prophets and so did St. Peter and St. John. We will know them by their fruits/works.

Mt 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them.

Mk 13:21-22 If anyone says to you then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah! Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect.

2 Pet 2:1-2 There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.
Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.

Rev 16:13 I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet.
1 John 2:19
“They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us.”

1 Tim 4:1

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons”

2 Tim 3:1-5

“1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. 2 For me will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people.”

Acts 20:29-31

“29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking peverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.”

Jude 18
“They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’”
 
“When the dog vomits, it is clearly throwing up food it cannot take; but when it returns to its vomit it once again burdens itself with a burden it had shed. So too, those who weep over the sins they have committed are undoubtedly casting away the iniquity with which they wrongly stuffed themselves and which oppressed thier soul; an iniquity which they ingest once again when, after confession, they repeat it. A sow, for example, when she rolls in the mire to clean herself, comes out filthier than ever. So too, a pserons who weeps for his sin and yet does not give it up becomes guilty of a greater fault; because he scorns the forgiveness which he could obtain by weeping, and then wallows in the mire. When, despite his tears, he prevents his life being cleansed, then in the sight of God he causes those very tears to be stained” (Pope Gregory I, Regulae Pastoralis Liber, 3, 30).

St. Augustine says, “He calls them dry springs that is, springs insofar as they have been given knowledge of the Lord Christ; dry on the other hand, because they do not live in keeping with that knowledge” (De fide et operibus, 1, 25).

“Here he shows that he actually taught them and did not proclaim the teaching once only, just to ease his conscience” (St. John Chrysostom, Hom on Acts, 44).

“Those who rule the community must perform worthily the tasks of government. …] There is a danger that some who concern themselves with others and guide them towards eternal life may ruin themselves without realizing it. Those who are in charge must work harder than others, must be humbler than those under them, must in their own lives give an example of service, and must regard their subjects as a deposit which God has given them in trust” (St. Gregory of Nyssa, De instituto christiano).
 
Peter Popoff calls himself a Prophet and seems to offer a radical form of easy salvation. Why do people even fall for this stuff? :tsktsk:
 
just my personal speculation, but this last Sunday, in the Psalm verses, it said that God is our “HORN of salvation.” Well, in the apoc, Jesus has seven horns, and the false prophet has “two, like a Lamb”. I 've heard that horns can be a symbol of power in the Bible, and certainly, the power of Christ’s salvation is the Seven Sacraments that He instituted. It’s interesting to note that when one falls into heresy and attacks the Eucharist, he loses five sacraments, retaining only two, Baptism and Marriage. I’ve also heard JPII said the devil likes to plaigarize the Sacraments, like he plagairizes the Eucharist and Marriage with, respectively, gluttony/drunkenness and fornication. Well, it seems that the false prophet of the apoc, which ultimately symbolizes the lies of sin from the beginning in the Fall, would mean the devil takes what little is left after heresy (Baptism and Marriage) and diabolically twists them and plagiarizes them, making it the ultimate heresy:
Now, the false prophet could not literally have two sacraments, for in its symbolism of apostate ideologies that deceive man, he is completely devoid of any spiritual goodness, but JPII, who, on one occasion, spoke of the FP as, on one level, materialism, speaks of the devil as plagairizing the sacraments, such as how the devil plagairizes Marriage and the Eucharist with fornication and gluttony/drunkenness. So I suggest something similar: for just as Christ’s full Redemptive power through sanctifying grace finds its greatest expression in the “seven” sacraments, so, the false prophet, as the ultimate heresy “2 horns”], speaks of a deceptive “salvation” and fulfillment in a total mockery and diabolical twisting of the “2” sacraments of heresy, Baptism and Marriage.

Now, note, Baptism and Marriage most aptly express the two great relationships that we have to God as Christians: we are the children of the Father, and we are [collectively] the spouse of Christ. Note also that Baptism establishes this spiritual “childhood” in the sense of total dependence upon a loving God who must help us, teach us, guide us, etc. Also, in Baptism, we receive already of the fruits of the Spirits and an initial infusion of the virtues and fruits of holiness, all of which are intended to nourish us to do what the meaning of our existence is: to offer ourselves totally to others and God in love and self-giving and sacrificing. This most adequately also expresses the meaning and purpose of marriage, which ultimately points toward unity with God, a deep and unfathomable immersion in ultimate, infinite self-giving love and truth.

Hence, the FP, as apostate worldliness, sin, and materialism, twists these realities diabolically into their evil counterparts. Hence, just as Baptism inaugurates one on the journey of salvation and makes one a child of God, being totally dependent on his Love, Help and Truth, so the counterfeit of Baptism makes one a child of the devil, bearing the imprint of the opposite of love and dependence: selfish ambition and immoral passions and the ultimate INdepedence, that is, like the devil, the total negation of one’s dependence upon God, believing oneself to be “one’s own god,” in ultimate pride, “knowing good and evil”, independent not only of Christ, His Church, His Scripture, but even of ANY religion, and believing that, just as Baptism points us to the only thing that can ultimately fulfill us [God], that the material creation alone will suffice, that it will sustain us and satisfy us.

Also, for whereas Christian Marriage ultimately speaks of self-less sacrificial, totally-self-giving love, calling one to be in union not merely in some physical sense, but, ultimately, spiritually with the other, so the FP’s counterfeit of marriage is cheap, lustful, superfiicial fornication with the world, believing that one can ultimately be fulfilled by the selfish and vain aspirations of prideful worldly and superficial pursuits, seeking to “get” and “take” pleasures and recognitions for oneself, instead of giving and offering oneself in love.

we might also then draw the contrast between the “woman” and the “whore”, that is, between Christ’s Spouse, the woman of Revelation 12, the Chuch, and the “Whore of Babylon”, the unfaithful fornicater who joins herself to the “world”, that is, the enemy of Christ.
just my two cents! 😃
 
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