The Modern False Prophets

Glenn Beck

Like a modern day John the Baptist, Glenn Beck has been traveling around the United States for the past several months, speaking to tens of thousands of people in order to prepare them for the coming of the messiah.

However, in this case the messiah is Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican presidential candidate that Beck hopes will deliver Americans from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the same way that Moses--with the hand of God--delivered the Hebrews from Pharaoh, the wicked ruler of ancient Egypt.

Beck truly believes that unless America elects Cruz to the White House in November, the United States is doomed to fall under God's judgment. Beck has become quite a preacher lately, combining Mormonism with charismatic Pentecostal-evangelicalism to warn America that her hour of reckoning is near. Either elect Cruz, or else.

Beck is seconded by the Rev. Rafael Cruz, Ted's charismatic, born-again father who claims that God ordered Ted to run for the presidency. Here's what Pastor Cruz said recently:

My son Ted and his family spent six months in prayer seeking God's will for this decision. But the day the final green light came on, the whole family was together. It was a Sunday. We were all at his church, First Baptist Church in Houston, including his senior staff. After the church service, we all gathered at the pastor's office. We were on our knees for two hours seeking God's will. At the end of that time, a word came through his wife, Heidi. And the word came, just saying, "Seek God's face, not God's hand." And I'll tell you, it was as if there was a cloud of the holy spirit filling that place. Some of us were weeping, and Ted just looked up and said, "Lord, here am I, use me. I surrender to you, whatever you want." And he felt that was a green light to move forward.

Is that a true story? Let's hope that Pastor Rafael isn't making that up because Christianity already has a lousy image in the world, courtesy of all those pedophile scandals and prosperity scams. Prosperity scams? Think of them as modern indulgences, or the promise of blessings and answered prayers for money.

Beck certainly isn't making it up because he admits that he's spent about $500,000 backing his messiah wannabe. What's intriguing about that admission is Beck's further admission that he recently laid off 40 employees from his Blaze media company, although the political commentator claims that the layoffs had nothing to do with his spending spree on Cruz.

Rather, he claims the layoffs were done to satisfy a bank that loaned him a large sum of money to help him keep the financially struggling Blaze going. Certainly, that's business, but it looks and smells extremely bad when innocent folks lose their jobs while their boss is blowing a ton of cash on what looks to be a loser presidential candidate.

But maybe God did speak to the Cruz family. Maybe we'll witness a miracle in Cleveland at the Republican convention in July. Maybe front-runner Donald Trump will announce that God has told him to step aside and make way for Ted Cruz. Anything's possible, isn't it? But that's highly unlikely.

There are two valuable lessons to be learned from this: (1) True Christians don't try to do God's will via the ballot box and (2) the bible warns us that many false prophets will appear in the last days and deceive multitudes.

Concerning the first lesson, the apostle Paul wrote this: "No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules." (2 Timothy 2:4-5)

Paul reasoned that the gospel is advanced by the power of God rather than by secular means such as elections. In other words, godly civilizations don't come about by elections; they come about when the church successfully contends for the faith by making and keeping it relevant to the world. A godly civilization produces godly politicians rather than the corrupt and lying wretches that have become commonplace in America and in other places in recent decades.

Secondly, many people invoke the name of God to lend credibility to their endeavors. While some folks fabricate prophecies, others do hear things. Unfortunately, they hear the words of demons rather than the word of God.

Paul warned: "The (Holy) Spirit clearly says that in later times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Timothy 4:1) And Jesus Christ Himself issued this prophecy: "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people." (Matthew 24:10-11)

I seriously doubt that God spoke to the Cruz family. Certainly, God does allow nations to choose their political leaders. And as a wise man once said: Wicked people choose wicked leaders after their own hearts. Reality tells us that unless Ted Cruz is wicked, then he's not the leader for modern America. 

The Demonic and Evil II

Consider this prophecy Jesus Christ revealed concerning the end times: "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:10-13)

Christ tied the rise of evil in the last days with the fall of Christianity and the appearance of false prophets. We certainly see the correlation between the decline of true faith in God and the rise in evil. But what does the appearance of false prophets have to do with the rise in wickedness?

False prophets not only lead people astray by promoting aberrant doctrines that deny the true God of the Bible and His transcendent moral laws, but they also lead people into wickedness through spiritual deception. And when Christ warned of false prophets, he wasn't speaking about people such as Nostradamus or St. Malachi. 

Rather, he was speaking about people such as William Branham, Paul Cain, Paul Yonggi Cho, Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, Bob Jones, Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller, William Seymour and John Wimber. All these men have played a significant part in luring multitudes of Christians away from the true church to follow a counterfeit Christ and a false gospel.

How did they accomplish that? Let the apostle Paul explain it: "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

These are just some of the false prophets that Christ warned us about. They deceive people by pretending to be Christian prophets and teachers, and then they introduce destructive heresies that point people toward hell. Here's what the apostle 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)

For example, Peale and Schuller denied the need for repentance and promoted a gospel of self-esteem. Cho promotes a new age gospel that claims everyone has the ability to create their own reality while Seymour and Wimber promoted a gospel that based salvation not on faith in Christ, but rather on one's ability to manifest miracles such as speaking in tongues.

But the decline and decay of the end time Christian church is just one manifestation of the rise of evil in the last days. Certainly, while crime has increased significantly since the mid-20th century, so has moral depravity in the form of sexual immorality, alcoholism, drug abuse and gambling.

There's a significant, although often overlooked factor in the rise of evil in the end times. And that factor is the increased contact that the world has made with the demonic. But how? Through hallucinogenic drugs, occult practices and eastern mysticism. How is the increase in evil related to these factors? Because they are conduits to Satan and his demons who spread their lies through people who make contact with them.

Certainly, Satan and his fallen angels hide their identities to those who encounter them. They will masquerade as Christ, Mary, Moses, Muhammad, Buddha, apostles such as Paul or Peter or Hindu avatars. And they will persuade people to reject God's revelatory word in the Bible for an amoral message that promotes hedonism and debauchery, and denies sin, judgment after death and the existence of hell.

Concerning those who willingly pursue falsehood, Paul wrote: "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)

Tragically, many people have embraced powerful delusions that come from the demonic. We see this in professing Christians who embrace new age and occult techniques disguised as Christian practices. We see this in those who consult with fortune-tellers and psychics, despite the fact that God's word condemns those who seek counsel from such people. And we see that in the growing interest in pagan and occult practices such as Kabbalah, Transcendental Meditation, Sufism, Wicca, necromancy and the Ouija Board.

The growing spiritual darkness throughout the world is indeed prophetic. And it's tragic as well. Paul gave us this warning: "Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith." (1 Timothy 6:20-21)

Con Men, Clowns and Deceivers

William Branham

No, the accompanying picture hasn't been photoshopped. That halo of fire above William Branham's head actually appeared while the celebrity evangelist delivered a sermon in the Houston Coliseum during the 1950s. While many people interpreted Branham's ring of fire to be a sign from above--indeed it was--but it came from an unlikely source.

What source was that? That source came from a fluorescent floodlight that shone from a ceiling high above the evangelists's head. Nevertheless, Branham's devotees believed the halo to be a miraculous sign from above and they've promoted the heavenly halo myth for many years. 

However, there are supernatural signs that come from the heavens that don't have a fluorescent source. But not all of them are good. Let the apostle Paul explain: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Branham's been dead for 50 years, and considering some of the bizarre teachings he delivered from the pulpit during his lifetime, he's probably gotten used to a different ring of fire since he departed the land of the living. 

Whoa! That's no way to talk about a brother in Christ, is it? Well, consider the source that in this case was Branham who wasn't exactly a bible-thumper in the historical sense that dogmatic preachers have sometimes been described. Branham was anything but a bible-scholar, but that didn't hinder his immense popularity with his legion of followers who believed him to be a genuine prophet. 

Chad Creamer is a man who followed Branham closely throughout his life, so let him explain what he learned about the popular evangelist: "Branham claimed to have an angel present with him throughout his life. I have always asked people what the name of this entity was, and to this day, nobody can give an answer. The reason for this is because Branham never disclosed the name of this angel. The angel apparently tutored him on numerous things, explained his visions to him, and on some occasions, told him certain things were THUS SAITH THE LORD. He even received THREE HIGH WORDS from this entity. Branham claimed these words were unknown to any living man but himself. He would use these words to cast out evil spirits and cure diseases." apostasywatch.com

Branham rejected the Trinity and called it a doctrine of the devil. He also claimed that he was visited by the seven angels mentioned in the Book of Revelation who possess the seal judgments. (Revelation 6-8) And he claimed that the Rapture was to occur in 1977. Why do so many people continue to embrace him as an anointed servant of God? Because they follow an experiential form of Christianity that's based upon sensual experience rather than biblical truth.

And that's extremely dangerous because without the Bible, people have no way to determine whether something's from God or from the demonic. Do miracles occur in the modern church? Yes they do. But not all of them come from God. Rather, some of them are demonic.

But how can we tell? By testing them according to the scriptures. If a miracle gives glory to anyone other than God or Christ--for example, to Mary or a Roman Catholic saint--then its source is demonic no matter how powerful the event is. And counterfeit miracles often accompany unbiblical teachings.

Paul issued a prophetic caveat that in the end times, demonic doctrines would invade the church under the guise of Christian teaching. Here's what he said: "The (Holy) Spirit clearly says that in later times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Timothy 4:1) 

But why is this happening? Paul gave us the answer in his second letter to fellow apostle Timothy: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

William Branham was one of those false teachers that many folks gathered around. He tickled their ears with false prophecies and the doctrines of devils. He was a con artist who told people what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear. In exchange for his heretical whoppers, his followers rewarded Branham by feeding his enormous ego with their adulation. That sounds like idolatry, doesn't it?

Certainly, Branham wasn't the only one. There's an army of false teachers and phony prophets out there who make their living by deceiving gullible people who are desperate for hope and meaning in their lives.

For example, there's Morris Cerullo who travels around the world in his private Gulfstream jet. He's worth about $100 million. What's wrong with that? He's gained his fortune by vacuuming the wallets of his deluded followers who believe he's an anointed prophet. Some folks may still remember the healing crusade Cerullo held in Africa several years ago when he brought a desperately ill girl on stage before thousands of people and declared her healed. The girl died a few days later.

That's what's wrong with that. If you're a true prophet anointed by God, you teach sound biblical doctrine, and when you declare someone healed by God, they don't die a few days after you've packed your gear and flown off in your private jet to the next stop to fleece the gullible sheep.

Oh well. Phony halos and phony healings. They come from con men and clowns who'll discover there's nothing phony about hell, because that's the place where they'll be preaching when the Gulfstream finally burns its last drop of jet fuel, paid for by your generous donations.