Thursday, January 21, 2021

Listening to False Prophets

This week was sad and disappointing for many of my friends.  At 11:48 on Wednesday, many thought Biden would not become our next president, but he did.

I posted this on December 3, 2020.

I am feeling like a lone voice in the wilderness. I sometimes wonder if I am related to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was left behind in a desolate city by the Babylonian captors which brings us to ask some pointed questions. How did it happen that a city once full of people, visited by kings and queens of other nations, now lay desolate and empty? There was no echo of people calling in its streets. Anything of value now rested in different homes, in other temples. How could it happen? Indeed, why do great men and women —like great cities —fail to maintain their greatness and fall short of their destiny? Jeremiah had the answers to these questions. What he needed was someone to listen to the truth.  

King Zedekiah sent Pashur to inquire of the Lord through Jeremiah concerning Jerusalem. Jeremiah's response had three parts: 

(1) The answer to the king's hope that the Lord would intervene to save Jerusalem from the Chaldeans (see Jeremiah 21:4–7) was clear: there was no hope.

 (2) Counsel on how the people and the royal family could preserve their lives by surrendering to the Chaldeans rather than fighting them (see vv. 8–10). 

(3) A prophecy concerning the house of David (see 21:11–14; 22:1–9), to which Jeremiah gave an alternative: If the king and his people turned back to righteousness, the throne of David would be preserved (see Jeremiah 22:4), but if not, it would "become a desolation" (v. 5).

I see some parallels with what is happening in American.

Many of my friends and fellow Christians believed President Trump would remain our president. They believed what several Bible prophecy experts stated that President Trump would stay in office regardless of the MSM and election fraud. Trump waited to concede defeat, and Christians up and down the country were clinging to the hope that could turn the election results in his favor. After a month of failed lawsuits and unsubstantiated cries of electoral fraud, Biden looks to have his victory certified on December 14 by the Electoral College.  It happened, and Joe Biden became the President-elect.

Many were telling me to have faith that the LORD is in control. I agree that the LORD is in control, and I do not have the greater picture of his plans concerning this election. If, as I believe Biden will become president, then the plans of the LORD are not being revealed to those who claim President Trump will remain president.  

I have had a problem with many of the modern-day prophets who deal in fear.  I have enough fear knowing what the LORD has told us would happen in the last days.  I do not need some prophet telling me what they believe the LORD will do.  I question the integrity of any "expert" who makes a profit off his predictions. 

We are living the same way the people were living in Samuel's day.  Samuel was a judge and a prophet. He ruled justly, but when rulers were not the people of righteousness who upheld God's Word, the people become restless. These are the times in which we live. We have great unrest. We want to be like everyone else. The Lord said, "for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them," echoes into our time. 

Give us prophets and apostles to rule over the Church. We want the "new thing." Because the Church has been rocked with every wind of doctrine, we have come to this same place the LORD found Israel. We already have the apostles and prophets teachings. It is and has been our foundation for hundreds of years. Why are we looking to others for more revelation? The Church has existed and expanded over the 2,000 years with the revelation of God's living Word. No scriptures are showing Trump would continue to be president.  Paul warned about those coming from among them with another gospel, false prophecies and false apostles.  

Isa. 9:15-16 "The elder and honorable, he is the head; the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed." We have the same problem that Israel had. As Israel began to be influenced more and more by the false prophets

They became illiterate in the written Word of God. Isa. 29:10-13 "For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of a deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; and He has covered your heads, namely, the seers. The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, "Read this, please." And he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed." Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, "Read this, please." And he says, "I am not literate Therefore the LORD said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and the commandment of men teaches their fear toward Me." When we see new prophets operate outside the written Word or give new unknown meanings to the Word, it should be obvious they have become illiterate to expounding truth.

Jer. 8:8-11 "How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us'? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood. The wise men are ashamed. They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the Word of the LORD; so what wisdom do they have? Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will inherit them; Because from the least even to the greatest, everyone is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace."

The scribe began to write what was not from God--from the false prophets; then the priests were affected and spread like leaven to everyone. God said he would bring them into captivity. There would be no peace as they were prophesying.

Hannaiah, the prophet, prophesied freedom to Israel and told them God's favor would be with them, but God was instead planning punishment. Today, it is a good lesson for those who tell us about only blessings around the corner, more authority, and power.

Jer 28:10-17 Hannaiah spoke to Jeremiah in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, "Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: 'I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.' Within two full years, I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD'S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.' And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon,' says the LORD, 'for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.'" Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who stood in the house of the LORD, and the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen! The LORD do so; the LORD perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the LORD'S house and all who were carried away captive, from Babylon to this place." 

Nevertheless, hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people:" The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms-- of war and disaster and pestilence." As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the Word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the LORD has truly sent." Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and broke it. And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, "Thus says the LORD: 'Even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years.'"

Even Jeremiah thought this was a true prophecy at; first, it sounded right, and they were all hoping for Israel's freedom until… "And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Then the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "Go and tell Hananiah, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made in their place yokes of iron." 'For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him. I have given him the beasts of the field also." "Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, "Hear now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. "Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die because you have taught rebellion against the LORD.'" So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

The prophets were often told to record what God spoke, and this has become our Scripture. Exod.24:4 "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord." Exod. 34:27-29 "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Jer. 30:2 "Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel, saying: 'Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you." Jesus tells John the apostle in Rev 1:11, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches." The coming of Jesus Christ, "Which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures" (Romans 1:1-4)

The prophecy that we need to know is the prophecy that tells us we will be blessed if we read and understand.  Rev. 1:3 "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." Rev. 22:7 "Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." (Rev . 22:10, 18-19).

Jude admonishes his readers to avoid false doctrines by listening to new living prophets or apostles but by recalling what the apostles already taught them in vs.17 (which would be written down). The Church today does not need new prophets but to understand what the old ones said. 

Jer. 23:20-22 "The anger of the LORD will not turn back against these false prophets until he has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart. In the latter days, you will understand it perfectly."

We are in these days, do we understand it?

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