False Prophets and False Teachers

A follower of the infamous Harold Camping

Many students of biblical prophecy believe that the prophetic warnings concerning the appearance of false prophets and false teachers in the end times has little to do with Christianity and a lot to do with false religions and the New Age Movement.

They're dead wrong. When Jesus Christ and the apostles Paul, Peter and Jude warned about the rise of these folks in the last days, they spoke about the con artists who would invade the church and deceive God's people.

Here's what Jude wrote: "For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord." (Jude 1:4)

And here's what Peter wrote: "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping." (2 Peter 2:1-3)

Certainly, a false prophet is someone who claims to have knowledge of future events based either upon direct revelations from God or the ability to discern mystical secrets contained in scripture. 

A good example is the late Harold Camping. Who was Camping? He was a popular self-styled prophet and evangelist who was notorious for making outrageous predictions that always failed to occur. For example, he wrote a book (1994?) that predicted the end of the world in 1994. 

Camping also predicted that the Rapture was going to occur on May 21, 2011. How did he come to that conclusion? He claimed that he discovered some hidden biblical calendar dating back to the prophet Daniel's time (600 B.C.) that allegedly revealed the date. When the Rapture failed to occur on the date Camping selected, he was appropriately dismissed as a false prophet and a fool. 

However, there are many other Harold Campings out there teaching outrageous things and uttering false prophecies. And tragically--like Camping--they've attracted a cult following of lemmings who believe everything they teach and predict.

There's Paul (call me David) Yonggi Cho, a South Korean pastor who's attracted tens of thousands of followers from all over the world. Cho teaches a combination of Hindu-New Age concepts combined with the false prosperity gospel. His book, The Fourth Dimension is an occult primer that's sold in many Christian book stores and utilized by many pastors.

There are too many of these characters to name them all. There's a man who I won't name who identifies himself as a "messianic Jewish rabbi" who claims that al Qaeda's 9/11/2001 attack against the United States was foretold over 2,700 years ago in Isaiah 9:10. 

And this man claims that on the recent Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah) the world entered a Shmita (Sabbath) year that will feature all sorts of calamities. This man even traces past calamities to previous Shmita years.

Two things: Isaiah 9:10 has nothing to do with the United States. It's part of a prophetic warning from God to ancient Israel for her chronic rebellion against Him. (Isaiah 9:8-12) To claim that Isaiah 9:10 applies to America is extremely disingenuous. 

However, when you take a scripture out of context, you can often make it appear to say something it was never meant to convey. You could just as easily apply Isaiah 9:10 to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Secondly, the Jewish new year doesn't begin on Rosh Hashanah. It begins on Nisan 1 which coincided this year with March 21 on our Julian calendar. 

Rosh Hashanah is a rabbinical holiday that traces back to the 3rd century A.D. The biblical holiday is called the Feast of Trumpets that has nothing to do with a new year's celebration. 

Thirdly, the Shmita was an ordinance given by God strictly to the nation of Israel. It was never given to the nations of the world. The ordinance commanded the Israelites to leave their fields fallow every seven years and to cancel financial debts. 

To imply that calamities occur during Shmita years is incredible. They occur every single year. To imply that God uses the Shmita to send a message to the world is extremely dishonest.

Beware of false prophets and false teachers. The way to defeat them is to know the scriptures. The way they deceive you is to ignore the Bible and listen to them.