For as long as there have been Biblical prophets, there have also been false prophets. A few prominent examples from the Old Testament are in 2 Chronicles 18, Jeremiah 14:13-16, Ezekiel 13, and Ezekiel 22:28. In each of these passages, prophets said what was politically correct at the time, telling the people and their kings that all was well: God was on their side. In truth, all was not well. The land was full of sin and was about to experience God’s judgment. That judgment would fall very harshly on the fake prophets who lied when claiming to speak for God.

Warning: False Prophets Are Prevalent

Matthew’s Gospel records two separate times when Jesus warned against more false prophets to come, who would seem sincere while really being deceptive. The first warning was during the Sermon on the Mount to a large crowd of people:

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
…
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

Matthew 7:15-23

The second time was near the end of His ministry, just two days before His arrest and crucifixion. This “Olivet Discourse”, to His closest disciples on the Mount of Olives, describes the coming End Times. Jesus emphasized that His followers are to stay focussed, prepared for the transition at any moment. He gave warning signs that will come before that transition, including “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many (Matthew 24:11 , for the full Discourse, see Matthew 24-25).

Note that He explicitly says that some of the signs He mentions are not yet the end, but are only the beginning of that end. Some, such as wars and rumors of wars, are sadly a part of ongoing human history, just as are false prophets. The evil that has always been here will build to a peak just before the final end, however ¹.

In the New Testament letters from the Apostles to the new churches throughout the Roman Empire, the writers reinforced Jesus’ warning. They taught Christians to pay close attention, testing anyone who claims to speak for God and interpret God’s word.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

2 Peter 2:1

False Prophets Are Subtle

Jesus and His apostles knew that false prophecy is sneaky. As with most deception, it includes an element of truth, hiding the associated distortions. After all, no one would be fooled by a con man who told obvious lies. Any successful con has to bury the hook within something that seems right and attractive.

To avoid that hook requires what the Bible calls “discernment”: a wisdom provided by God’s Spirit that allows us to notice when something is not completely right with what is being taught.

How are we to acquire that discernment?

Ask God To Provide Wisdom

James 1:5 says “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.“

About 1000 years before Jesus lived, King Solomon did just that. His first request of God was for this kind of discernment: “…give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil.” (1 Kings 3:9) 1 Kings 4:29-34 tells us that God answered Solomon’s prayer, and gave him great wisdom.

Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, told the believers that their entire message was based on this powerful wisdom provided by God. It is greater than normal human understanding. In fact, it can even seem foolish ² to those who don’t know God. But it sees farther and more clearly than we could ever achieve on our own. (See 1 Corinthians chapter 2.)

Test All Claims Against Scripture

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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

1 John 4:1-3

We often hear that Jesus said “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” (Matthew 7:1) But He definitely did not mean to turn our brains off and just accept everything we’re told at face value ³. No, we are to pay close attention to what we’re being asked to believe. We are to question new information and constantly cross-reference it to the entirety of what God has taught us in His word. Like mining for gold, we keep nuggets of good insight while discarding the trash around it.

But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:21

Practice, Exercise, Grow

The spiritual maturity to recognize falsehood hidden among truth does not come all at once. As the writer of Hebrews tells us, it takes practice to have our senses trained to discern good and evil (Hebrews 5:12-14). Paul, writing to the Philippian church, prayed that their love, knowledge and discernment would continue to grow (Philippians 1:9-11). Writing to those in Rome, he phrased it as…

…be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

Not Everyone Wants Truth

Just as the false prophets of old were rebuked for telling their listeners what they wanted to hear, rather than the truth, modern false prophets will do the same.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

Truth can be harsh, when someone is in the wrong and resists being corrected. But comforting lies do not provide any benefit. They only cause harm by enabling us to drift farther and farther off track.

Some Current-Day Examples

I try to keep politics out of this website. It is far too easy to get deep into weeds and lose sight of God’s eternal plan. But we are coming up on an election, and there is one politician who is very publicly using his distorted view of Christianity to push his own agenda. That makes him a good object lesson in recognizing false prophecy.

In this video, James Talarico — who is a member of the Texas legislature now running for Senator — says that, since Jesus didn’t charge deductibles or co-pays when healing people, neither should insurance companies. He is advocating for “free” (as in paid by taxpayers) health care for everyone. Is he correct in saying that his position is Biblically based? Why, or why not?

In this one, he is arguing against legislation to enforce that K-12 children play on sports teams that match their biological gender. He extrapolates from the fact that God is above and beyond the gender distinctions that He built into His creation (which is true) to saying that “God is non-binary”. He says that the plurals used in Genesis 1:26 (“Let Us make man in Our own image.”) are referencing “the infinite multitude of God, the masculine, the feminine, and everything in between”. He says that “trans” children are special and beautiful (again true, since all human beings are infinitely valuable and created in God’s image). Then he says that, therefore, it is “hateful” to require that only biological boys play on boys’ teams while only biological girls play on girls’ teams. Is he accurately presenting what God says? Where is the deception (if any)?

Finally, here is one of the pastors at his long-time church home, Babs Miller, saying that the Virgin Birth did not really happen, that the God of the Old Testament is not loving, that she doesn’t know if Jesus really lived, and that if he did live and die, it wasn’t to be a Savior. Is she right that such things don’t make sense? How should a Christian respond ⁴?

As I type these paragraphs, I suspect that most readers will agree with me that the statements in the videos are a problem. But I encourage you to take time to actually watch the videos. The longest is only six minutes.

James Talarico and his pastor don’t look like wolves. They speak in calm, reasonable tones. Their body language is relaxed and confident. They project assurance that, of course, what they are saying is true; anyone who disagrees must have something wrong with them.

It is frightening to see just how convincing they can be, even to someone like me who knows better. How much are they misleading those without strong foundations?

Jesus Warned Us

Whether the political campaign of James Talarico is an example or not ⁵, it takes very little to see that not all of the “sheep” claiming to be good guys are on God’s side. There are wolves among us. We need to pray for and practice discernment, so that we can recognize falsehood and error, and not be led astray by it.

This is not easy to do, or something to be taken lightly. It is a matter of eternal life and death. Beware!

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!

Isaiah 5:20-21

1. The article “The Generation Who Sees the End” discusses a bit more on this point, including the dual fulfillment with the Temple destruction in 70 A.D. as a precursor to the final destruction.
2. See article “Foolishness vs. Wisdom“.
3. See articles “To Judge or Not To Judge” and “Spirit and Mind” for more discussion on this topic.
4. One response to the “not loving” accusation is in the article “Bloodthirsty God?” Several responses to the other points are in the topic “Evidence for Belief“, and especially in the article “Resurrection: Fact“.
5. There are any number of other examples I could have chosen.