Introduction

In our last edition of Locusts and Honey we discussed true and false shepherds.  Generally where you  have false shepherds, you will also find false prophets and teachers.  The characteristics of the false shepherds are very similar to the characteristics of  false prophets and false shepherds.  In this edition we will review some instances of false prophets and teachers in the Bible along with the characteristics and fruits of  false prophets and teachers.

The Origin of False Prophecy and False Teaching

The origin of false prophecy and false teaching can be found at least as far back as the Creation Story; but it may have even existed prior to that time by the seduction of angelic authorities by Satan.  However, we can find false prophecy and false teaching in the Garden of Eden.  As we know from the New Testament, the purpose of Satan is to “kill, steal and destroy”.  One of the ways that this is carried out is by deception, and deception is what we find in the Garden of Eden.  For instance, the Serpent lied to Eve and said, “You will certainly not die….”  The Serpent deceived Eve (Gen. 3:4).  In Gen. 3:1, the Serpent is described as “crafty.”  Deception, lying and craftiness are the hallmarks of false teaching and false prophecy.  Satan uses false prophecy and false teaching as a way to entrap and harm mankind.

False prophecy and false teaching often results in false religion and heresy.  It is not always easy to detect.  Part of the reason why it is difficult to detect is that there is often an element of truth in it.  Sometimes it is an unhealthy mixture of truth and falsity.  I had a friend one time who said that “heresy was truth taken to an extreme.”  False prophecy and false teaching can sometimes manifest itself as truth taken to an extreme and at other times it can be a confusing mixture of truth and error.  One of the reasons why deception works is that there is often an element of truth in it.  An example of how deception works could be taken by a simple admonition such as “Obey your Shepherd.”  If one makes this the mantra of your spiritual life where this is the highest command, you may end up obeying false political leaders like Hitler or false spiritual leaders like Manson or Jim Jones.  In short, truth is balanced.  Do not rely entirely only on one Scripture but seek the whole counsel of God.  Satan uses deception to confuse and harm mankind.  The origin of deception through false prophecy and false teaching is not new.

Moses and False Prophecy

Deuteronomy 13: 1-5 warns against false prophets.  It says:

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces a sign or wonder,

and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says,

“Let us follow other gods (gods you have not known) and let us worship them,”

you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer.

The Lord, your God, is testing you to find out whether you love him

with all your heart and with all your soul.  It is the Lord your God you

must follow, and him you must revere.  Keep his commands and obey him;

serve him and hold fast to him.  That prophet and dreamer must be put to death

for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt

and redeemed you from the land of slavery,  That prophet or dreamer tried to

turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow.  You must

purge the evil from among you.

In short, Satan can  use a false prophet who appears to tell the truth or presents a sign or a wonder as a means of subverting God’s people.  The goal of the false prophet (or false teacher) is to turn you away from God, and to cause you to move in rebellion to God.  The purpose is also to divert you away from God to false gods and false religions.

Two Examples of False Prophets in the Old Testament.

Although there are many examples of false prophecies and false prophets in the Old Testament, we shall look at only two of many.  They are Balaam who was outside of the tribe of Israel and Hananiah a prophet of Gibeon, who was a prophet during the time of Jeremiah and who was part of the nation of Israel.

Balaam

Balaam was a Midianite prophet during the time of Moses.  As Israel travelled to the Promised Land, the Moabite Nation which was an ally of the Midianites asked that the well-known Midianite prophet, Balaam, come and pronounce curses over the Israelites.    The story of how Balaam sought to curse Israel and other attempts to seduce Israel into following false gods is found primarily in Numbers 22-25.

The leader of the Moabites was Balak. The tribes of Moab and Midian allied themselves and sent for a well-known prophet to come and curse Israel.  The prophet was Balaam and he was at first reluctant to come.  Balak promised to reward Balaam for his efforts and after a couple of refusals Balaam agreed to come but told the Moabites that he could only say what God told him to say.  Most of us are familiar with the story of how the Angel of the Lord sought to block Balaam from cursing the Israelites.  On three occasions the donkey on which Balaam was riding to curse the Israelites avoided the Angel of the Lord and was beaten for his trouble.  Finally, God gave the donkey a voice and the donkey asked Balaam while he was being beaten by him.  God finally opened the eyes of Balaam to see the angel of the Lord.

On three occasions, Balaam tried to curse Israel but instead could only bless them to the consternation of Balak. Balaam finally was sent back home by Balak failing ever to curse Israel but instead only blessing them.

The story is interesting in a number of different ways.  Balaam is not your normal prophet.  He is called both a prophet and a diviner.  Apparently Balaam did not just prophesy God’s word but he also had the ability to curse which falls more into the category of witchcraft.  Balak says to Balaam, “For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed.”  (Nu. 22:6).

Interestingly, Balaam had some type of real communication with God.  Some examples are:

• God spoke to Balaam and Balaam responded to God  (Nu. 22:8;12).
• Balaam initially refused to curse the Israelites and sent the messengers of Balak back (Nu. 22:13).
• Balaam says:  “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God.”  (Nu. 22:18)
• God gives Balaam a prophetic word for Balak (Nu. 23:16).

Ultimately Balaam is never able to curse the Israelites and only blesses them.  He is sent home by Balak. The Israelites not only defeat and kill most of the Moabites but the Midianites as well including Balaam. (Nu. 31:8).

Balaam is an interesting example of how there can be a mixture of what is true and what is false.  Balaam hears from God, but his desire to please the rulers and his desire for money cause him to ally himself with the enemies of God.  Ultimately despite hearing from God, he causes God to be angry with him and he later perishes with the Moabites and Midianites who were enemies of the people of God.

Another interesting aspect of the Balaam story is that the efforts to curse Israel are closely tied to money.  When the Midianites agree to have Balaam pronounce a curse on Israel, they are given a “divination fee.”  (Nu. 22:7).  Balak in Nu. 22:17 promises to reward Balaam “handsomely” if he will curse the Israelites.  In bitterness, Balak tells Balaam that God has kept Balaam from being rewarded “handsomely” at Nu. 24:11.

Closely associated with the attempt to use a prophet to curse Israel, the Moabites use another method to turn Israel from following God.  The events are recounted in Numbers 24 where Moabite and Midianite women begin to draw away the Israelites from following God by involving them in sexual practices associated with the false god Baal.  The use of sex was associated with false religion and with the intent of Satan to deceive Israel and draw them away from worshiping God.  We will see later on that adultery and sex are methods that Satan uses which are often closely associated directly or indirectly with false prophecy and false teaching.

Balaam and 1 Peter 2.

Most of what we need to know about false prophecy and false teaching is summarized in 1 Peter 2 where the Apostle Peter teaches us about false prophets and false teachers.  Although it is long, I am reproducing a portion of 1 Peter 2 below.

1 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.

2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

3 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….

12 But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!

15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.

19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

Peter lumps together false prophets and false teachers in this chapter.  Some of their characteristics of false prophets and teachers include:

• Heresies
• Denying the Lord
• Depraved conduct
• Causing the Faith to be held in disrespect due to these actions
• Greed
• Fabricating false stories
• Following the flesh
• Despising spiritual authorities
• Abuse and disrespect of angels of God
• Adultery
• Empty and boastful words
• Promising freedom (while they are personally enslaved to the flesh)
• Overcome by the world
• Carousing
• Appeal to the lustful desires of the flesh

Hananiah and Jeremiah

Balaam had been a prophet from outside of Israel.  Hananiah was a false prophet who was a prophet inside of Israel and who lived in the time of Jeremiah.   The name “Hananiah” means “Jerhovah is gracious.”   Hananiah is bold and forceful, but he is wrong and does not hear from God.

Jeremiah had been told by God to wear a wooden yoke on his neck to illustrate that God had given the nations, including Israel, to serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  (Jer. 27:1-6).  The false prophet Hananiah confronts Jeremiah in the Temple before the priests and states that the God of Israel has said that he (God) would break the yoke of Babylon and would within two years bring back the exiles which Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon.  Jeremiah responds by saying that this was wonderful however people had better wait to see whether Hananiah’s words were true.  (Jer. 28:5-9).  Hananiah then rips

off Jeremiah’s yoke and smashes it proclaiming that in the same way God would smash the yoke of the King of Babylon.  (Jer. 28:10-11).

Afterwards, God spoke to Jeremiah and said that although Hananiah had smashed a yoke of wood, God would replace the wooden yoke with an iron yoke and that Nebuchadnezzar would rule the nations with an iron yoke.  Further Jeremiah had a word for the false prophet Hananiah which is repeated in Jer. 28:35-37:

Listen, Hananiah!  The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded

this nation to trust in lies.  Therefore this is what the Lord says, “I am

about to remove you from the face of this earth.  This very year you

are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.”

In the seventh month of the same year, Hananiah the prophet died.

Hananiah was a forceful individual.  He obviously had a strong charismatic personality.  He prophesied openly against what Jeremiah said; however Hananiah was a false prophet and was wrong.  Jeremiah was giving the words of God to Israel in the hope that the people of Israel would repent of their wicked ways.  Hananiah was telling them good things and comforting words rather than the words of God.  In reality Hananiah was preaching “rebellion against the Lord.”  Rebellion against God and His word is how Satan caused angels to fall in heaven and rebellion against the word of God is what Satan sowed in the Garden of Eden by causing Eve (and Adam) to eat of the fruit despite God’s express instructions not to taste of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  False prophets and false teachers lead mankind astray from God and are used to kill, steal and destroy.

Satan is happy to use nice and encouraging words if those words will prevent people from repenting and turning from being disobedient to God.  Today, some false prophets and teachers may use encouraging and uplifting words to dissuade people from feeling like they need to repent.  The Israelites no doubt thought that Jeremiah’s call for repentance was too negative and even defeatist.  On the other hand, Hananiah gave them good words.  He gave them hope; however it was a false hope and a hope which did not demand that they change from their evil ways.

In our next edition of Locust and Honey, we will be looking at what Jesus said about false prophets and teachers along with some examples of false teachers and prophets found in the New Testament period and later in history.