There ae several warnings in the bible about false prophets and the danger of allowing them to influence us, however very little mention of these warnings are made in our churches today except when one pastor's doctrine is in conflict with another's. In all probability they are both false prophets. What i would try to do here is to show us from the bible who a false prophet is and to let us understand that there are a lot more false prophets out there than real ones. The method i would employ is quoting of scriptures in which i would insert commentaries in bracket to drive home the point or show us mordern day examples. I beleive it is very important for us as believers to be able to discern false prophets so they don't just rob us of our money but worse still our salvation. I would start with old testament scripture but the thread progresses i would delve more on new testament warnings which is more relevant to us.

Happy reading 

That's why you have to continually read the scripture.

Jeremiah 23:16-32:
  16 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to his people:
  “Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you,
     filling you with futile hopes.
  They are making up everything they say.
     They do not speak for the Lord!
  17 They keep saying to those who despise my word,
     ‘Don’t worry! The Lord says you will have peace!’
  And to those who stubbornly follow their own desires,
     they say, ‘No harm will come your way!’ [this reminds me of the false promises prosperity and word of faith pastors are notorious for]  
  18 “Have any of these prophets been in the Lord’s presence
     to hear what he is really saying?
     Has even one of them cared enough to listen?
  19 Look! The Lord’s anger bursts out like a storm,
     a whirlwind that swirls down on the heads of the wicked.
  20 The anger of the Lord will not diminish
     until it has finished all he has planned.
  In the days to come
     you will understand all this very clearly.
  21[b] “I have not sent these prophets,
     yet they run around claiming to speak for me.
  I have given them no message,
     yet they go on prophesying.[/b] [does this remind you of Pentecostal pastors who are always prophesying what you want to hear to your ears?]
  22 If they had stood before me and listened to me,
     they would have spoken my words,
  and they would have turned my people
     from their evil ways and deeds.
  23 Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the Lord.
     “No, I am far away at the same time.
  24 Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?
     Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?”
     says the Lord.
  25[b] “I have heard these prophets say, ‘Listen to the dream I had from God last night.’ And then they proceed to tell lies in my name. 26 How long will this go on? If they are prophets, they are prophets of deceit, inventing everything they say.[/b] [ I hope my word of faith brethren are still reading] 27 By telling these false dreams, they are trying to get my people to forget me, just as their ancestors did by worshiping the idols of Baal.
  28 “Let these false prophets tell their dreams,
     but let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word.
     There is a difference between straw and grain!
  29 Does not my word burn like fire?”  [contrary to sweet prophesies of our modern day preachers
     says the Lord.
  “Is it not like a mighty hammer
     that smashes a rock to pieces?
  30 “Therefore,” says the Lord, “I am against these prophets who steal messages from each other and claim they are from me [regurgitated twisting of scriptures that is spread around churches in the name of God. The false doctrine of tithes popular in churches today is a brilliant example of this]. 31 I am against these smooth-tongued [Oyakhilome and Co] prophets who say, ‘This prophecy is from the Lord!’ 32 I am against these false prophets. Their imaginary dreams are flagrant lies that lead my people into sin.[ this is serious] I did not send or appoint them, and they have no message at all for my people. I, the Lord have spoken!

But why do people go into the business of beocimng false prophets even when they know they can icurr the wrath of God? To me i would answer that they are probably not God fearing but this is what the bible as to say about their motivation.

Jeremiah 8:8-10:
8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the word of the Lord,”
when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies? 9 These wise teachers will fallinto the trap of their own foolishness, for they have rejected the word of the Lord. Are they so wise after all? 10 I will give their wives to others and their farms to strangers. From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that. They are all frauds.

Yes the above summarizes it all. These false prophets twist the word of God because heir lives are ruled by greed and they are fraudulent characters yet the pretend feigning false piety and assuming a spiritual moral high ground. What is the implication of this? Evidently this passage squarely addresses the proligacy of biblically unsound tithes, offerings, seed sowing, first fruits, thanks giving and other forms of clever lies employed by the clergy to extort money from the flock. The truth is in the bible but brethen would rather allow false prophets to read, interprete and twist the bible for them.

Matthew 23:15:

15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!

Does the above passage sound familiar?? Today preachers win converts members and indoctrinate them with selfish and unchristlike doctrines.

Matthew 23:4:
4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.

The above reminds me of tithes, seed sowing, first fruits, thanksgiving offerings, faith offerings e.t.c Als mercahndizing items like rapshody of unrealities, twisted books, handkerchiefs, annointing oil e.t.c

Matthew 23:6-10:
6 And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. 7 They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’   8 “Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters. 9 And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’[Daddy G.O] for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father. 10 And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah.

The above reminds me of all our ego centric and pompous preachers who think they are God's representative on earth, see what Jesus had to say about them.

Matthew 24:4-5:

4 Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, 5 for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many.

Obviously many people are already deceived today, the evidence abounds on nairaland.


Matthew 24:24:
24 For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.
This teachings/warnings were made by christ for our benefit, i wonder why we are not heeding that warning today and allowing mere men to lead us to the slaughter house.

Mark 12:38-40:

38 Jesus also taught: “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. 39 And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. 40 Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be more severely punished.”

This reminds me of our so called men of God who pretend to be highly spiritual yet they idulge in taking advantage of the ignorant flock. Thy collect tithes even from the poor and give them false hope and promises instead of giving to them out of the church contributions.

1 John 4:1 msg for false prophets

I dont like the idea of going to a one-man-business-empire church.

One foolproof way of recognising the false prophet is checking out what the prophets says/said. Surefire signs of a false prophets are:

1) Someone who claims to be the son of God;

2) Someone who makes prophecies that do not come to past;

@ huxley, duh,

So this comprehensive dossier on identifying false prophets is embedded in the bible yet nigerian christians fail to see that the likes of Oyedepo and Adeboye are charlatans. . . . . Is this a sign of stupidity or what?

2 Corinthians 11:3-4:
3 But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. 4 You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different gospel[prosperity gospel] than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15:
13 These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.

I hope all our pastor worshippers on this forum are reading and learning.

Ephesians 4:14:
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people[false prophets] try to trick us with lies so clever[tithes is a good example of clever lie] they sound like the truth.

The above scripture teaches why we must mature in the true faith and have a good understanidng of it. The best way to do this is to study the scriptures with an open mind hand hold fast to the undiluted truth found there, don't allow yourselves to be tossed and blown about your pastors who mostly preach based on their own biase, poor understanding and wrong doctrines that have been instituitionalized in christianity which we now falsely assume is a part of true christianity.

Philippians 3:17-19:
17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. 18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite[money], they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth.

Some times i wonder if some of these our so called pastors read the bible at all. They have conviniently left the life of humility they were called to live and now preach about things of this world[properity gospel]the even go on to brag about shamefull things such as "i cannot be poor" after shamelessly fleecing the same flock they are bragging to. A clear sign of a false prophet is one who constantly preaches prosperity, CEC plc, winners chapel, KICC, and other prosperity gospel church members please take note.

KunleOshob:

I hope all our pastor worshippers on this forum are reading and learning.

Tudór:

So this comprehensive dossier on identifying false prophets is embedded in the bible yet nigerian christians fail to see that the likes of Oyedepo and Adeboye are charlatans. . . . . Is this a sign of stupidity or what?

na, me thinks its a super combination of plenty of factors, like waiting for the "spirit" to tell dem whats already written in black and white, or waiting for their "man of gawd" to come and twist it further for dem,

and they think only about this life here on earth.

u forgot to highlight this part cos the way the naija modern day demi-god celebrity preachers of 2day go about with trying to acquire the finest things of this world pushing fleecing their flocks to do same in the name of tithes, seed faiths, first fruit etc for thousand fold canal blessings thereby ignoring the more important message of salvation that brought christ down here to sacrifice himself in human form n brought about the whole concept of christainity in the first place shows that most of these men actually don't believe there's an after life or a bible heaven of gold streets deep inside and would rather acquire their treasure/benefits here instead and guard them jealously with bodyguards n mopol cos "everybody wan go heaven but nobody wan die"

na the mumu followers of these religious con-men i pity for

So the so called pastor worshippers should learn from you the bible or is it Jesus worshipper

timmy7:

So the so called pastor worshippers should learn from you the bible or is it Jesus worshipper

Na you know!!!!!!

More warnings!!

Colossians 2:8:
8See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).

A lot of brethen have been made captive by their so called men of god and they are following their intellectual crude prosperity teachings whilst des-regarding the teachings of christ the messiah which is chiefly to love your neighbour as your self and other selfless teachings.

Colossians 2:18:
18[b]Let no one defraud [/b] you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,

Today chrisitans are not only being defruaded by their pastors but they are being routinely and systematically raped and abused whilst being made to feel good about it based on false hope obtained from twisted scriptures.

Apostles Paul's example as a true prophet and teacher of the faith conviniently ignored by most preachers today.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-9:
6 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us. 7 For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. 8[b] We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you.[/b] 9 We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow.

Even though apostle states here that the flock as an obligation to support the ministry, he made it clear that as a good example for other preachers to follow, they worked to support themselves so they don't become a burden to the flock. Today our pastors are not only a burden but a big time liabilty to their congregation, there love for filthy lucre is just insatiable.

Paul's letter to timothy was written specifically to him to teach and set the standards of how a true christian leader MUST conduct himself, any leader that does not conform to these satndards can not be a true minister of the gospel.

1 Timothy 3:2-3:
2 So an elder[church leader] must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. 3 He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money.

How many church elders/pastors today live a life that is beyond reproach and do not crave for money which is demonstrated by twisting scripture to extort money from the flock.

1 Timothy 6:5-11:
5 These people[false teachers] always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy. 6 Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. 7 After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. 8 So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. 9 But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. 11 But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

The scriptures speak for it self, above the love of money is described as evil and timothy as a man of God is told to run away from the love of money, but today our men of god have not runaway from this evil love for money instead they have induldge in it and as a result of that they engage in twisting scripture which in itself is evil to make more money hich they are not suppose to covet in the first place

@KunleOshob: Darby Pubication Company of the United States, the Publisher of the NIV Bible, is now going to edit and publish the "latest" Bible Version of the NIV. The issues that will be improved or made uptodate, shall include, but not limited to gender. Now the question is; how shall this affect the "recognition qualification of false prophets," if one is to consider that improvement can be made to something that is "not perfect" prior to the making of that "improvement?"

Can the True word of True God really be improved upon, except if its made belief word of God or made belief God?

olabowale:

@KunleOshob: Darby Pubication Company of the United States, the Publisher of the NIV Bible, is now going to edit and publish the "latest" Bible Version of the NIV. The issues that will be improved or made uptodate, shall include, but not limited to gender. Now the question is; how shall this affect the "recognition qualification of false prophets," if one is to consider that improvement can be made to something that is "not perfect" prior to the making of that "improvement?"

Can the True word of True God really be improved upon, except if its made belief word of God or made belief God?

And does that mean it will be internationallt accepted? By the way Darby Publication Company might have made mistake that WILL NEED TO BE IMPROVED UPON and which i very much believe so. so what's your take here Baba alaafa

@olabowale
A perfect example of a false prophet is mohammed who went about slaugthering people in the name of his idol whilst having carnal knowledge of little children.(Very shameless "prophet") if people had known how to recognize false prophets way back then, the world would have been spared the evil called islam that as been directly causing the death of millions of people for centuries starting with the massacres personally executed by mohammed himself.

Mudley313:

u forgot to highlight this part cos the way the naija modern day demi-god celebrity preachers of 2day go about with trying to acquire the finest things of this world pushing fleecing their flocks to do same in the name of tithes, seed faiths, first fruit etc for thousand fold canal blessings thereby ignoring the more important message of salvation that brought christ down here to sacrifice himself in human form n brought about the whole concept of christainity in the first place shows that most of these men actually don't believe there's an after life or a bible heaven of gold streets deep inside and would rather acquire their treasure/benefits here instead and guard them jealously with bodyguards n mopol cos "everybody wan go heaven but nobody wan die"

na the mumu followers of these religious con-men i pity for

GBAM!!! Couldn't agree with you more!

Why am i writing this thread and exposing the antics of false prophets? Because the bible makes it clear we should hence they continue to destroy lives of other people.

Titus 1:11:
11 They must be silenced[exposed], because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching. And they do it only for money.

Titus 1:14-16:
14 They must stop listening to Jewish myths [tihes, seed sowing, first fruit e.t.c] and the commands of people[false teachers] who have turned away from the truth.
15 Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16[b] Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live[/b].[flamboyant preachers] They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.

James 2:1-5:
A Warning against Prejudice
1 My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?
2 For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. 3 If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, 4 doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives? 5 Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him?

Does the above example remind us of the descrimination that goes on in our churches when they wealthy men and top politicians attend services? even the clergy and the church heirachy is also guilty of this discrimination. In most churches the church leadership provide special chairs for themselves whilst the congregation that provide the funds have to seat on benches and cheap plastic chairs.