Embracing the God-given Ministry of False Prophets<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
By K. Jentoft
 
False prophets have an important ministry in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Kingdom of God.  They bring us miracles and fill their God-given role in the church to the benefit of God's people and help clarify the message of the gospel.  The legitimate ministry of the false prophet is detailed in Deut 13 and 18 and confirmed in 2 Thess:
 
"If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. "You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
 
From 2 Thess 2:  because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence (with all power and signs and false wonders) so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
 
2 Chron 18 details God's plan to filter out the house of Ahab from Israel.  A spirit sent from God empowers 400 prophets to deceive Ahab so that he would go out to His judgment.
 
I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right and on His left. "The LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab king of Israel to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said this while another said that. "Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.' And the LORD said to him, 'How?' "He said, 'I will go and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' Then He said, 'You are to entice him and prevail also. Go and do so.' "Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of these your prophets, for the LORD has proclaimed disaster against you."
 
Deuteronomy 13 reveals that God gives false prophets to His people and empowers them to perform miracles.  Clearly, false prophets have an important role to fill in the economy of God.  They are a filter.  They are the shepherds of the apostate nurturing them with false assurance and "Peace, peace where there is no peace."  God raises up false prophets to filter His church and remove those who don't love Him and come to Him on His terms.  Their role is to offer a different gospel and an altered message to tempt those who will not love the truth and to lead those who do not love the truth out from God's people.  They offer miracles, a comforting message and peace with God – a message based on their own words and their authority.
 
2 Cor 11:  But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully…. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
 
John also explains how God's filter works in 1 John 2.  These prophets perform an important assignment to purify the church of God..
 
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
 
Paul explains this same role to the leaders of church he founded in Ephesus in Acts 20. 
 
"I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
 
False prophets are sent by God and are raised up within the church to lead people away from the flock of God.  Ultimately false prophets are there to lead their followers to destruction so that they will not inherit eternal life with the people of God.  We know that God increases the ministry of false prophets as we approach the time of the end.
 
From Matt 24: "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am anointed' and will mislead many…Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many…For false anointed ones and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.  Behold, I have told you in advance."
 
God has also told us how to receive the ministry of false prophets He sends to us.  In 2 Timothy 2, Paul commands Timothy to correct those in Ephesus who were in opposition, these same men that we heard about in Acts 20.
 
The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
 
Another way we can receive false prophets is to express the love of God by opposing their message.  James 5 tells us that we "cover a multitude of sins" by turning them from error to the truth.
 
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
 
Jude commands us to contend against the false prophets and that it is necessary that we should do so.  In fact, God sends them to us for this very purpose.
 
"Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ…. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh."
 
May God grant us the grace to obey His command that we can properly "embrace" the God-given ministry of false prophets and "contend earnestly for the faith which was one and for all handed down to the saints."