False prophet

“ This case, that a man is regarded as a false prophet and punished in consequence, simply because he prophesies, rests upon the assumption that at that time there will be no more prophets, and that God will not raise them up or send them any more. ”

“ It is a difficult and dangerous office, this of the prophet; it calls for a considerate and honest mind as well as a flashing insight and an eager heart. The false prophet exposes that he may exploit his age ”

“ I believe this verse to be spoken by the prophet, and that God proceeds with the next verse, and so on to the ninth inclusive.
Verse 3
They bend their tongues like their bow for lies - And their lies are such that they as fully take away life as the keenest arrow shot from the best strung bow. The false prophets told the people that there was no desolation at hand: the people believed them; made no preparation for their defense; did not return to the Lord; and the sword came and destroyed them.
They are not valiant for the truth - They are bold in sin, and courageous to support their lies ”

“ Should evil be repaid for good, that they have digged a pit for my life?" And after his solemn testimony before the elders in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and before the people generally, in the court of the Lord's house (chap. xix.) , the prophet was seized by order of Pashchûr, the commandant of the temple, who was himself a leading false prophet, and cruelly beaten, and set in the stocks for a day and a night. ”

“ But the false prophet falls into a spurious ecstasy, which is accompanied by a want of all shame and fear. For beginning with a voluntary (designed) rudeness, he ends with an involuntary madness of soul, as has been already stated. But they will never be able to show that any one of the Old Testament prophets, or any one of the New, was carried away in spirit after this fashion. ”

“ Be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. Those that were here guilty of this sin were some of the false prophets, who perhaps came to steal the word of God from the true prophets, some of the priests, who perhaps came to seek occasions against them on which to ground an information, and some of the people, who had learned of the profane priests and prophets to play with the things of God. The people would not have affronted the prophet and his God thus if the priests and the prophets, those ringleaders of mischief, had not shown them the way. ”

“ He that had resolution enough to refuse the invitation of the king, who promised him a reward, could not resist the insinuations of one that pretended to be a prophet. God's people are more in danger of being drawn from their duty by the plausible pretences of divinity and sanctity than by external inducements; we have therefore need to beware of false prophets, and not believe every spirit. ”

“ But the characteristics of the prophet are set in strong contrast to those of the diviners and magicians, and lift the order high above all the filth and folly of these others. First, the prophet is 'raised up' by God; the individual holder of the office has his 'call' and does not 'prophesy out of his own heart.' The man who takes this office on himself without such a call is ipso facto branded as a false prophet. ”

“ The fruit of a false prophet is a false doctrine. A doctrine in opposition to the plain, simple doctrine of Christ is the principal characterizing feature of a deceiver. The doctrine of Christ is light. All who abide in the doctrine of Christ are a light in the world. Any doctrine contrary to the doctrine of Christ is darkness, and its propagator, a deceiver and an antichrist. This same apostle in his first letter, cautions us to “try the spirits [and doctrines] , whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. ”

“ As God has promised that when he pours out his Spirit upon his people both their sons and their daughters shall prophesy, so the devil, when he acts as a spirit of lies and falsehood, is so in the mouth not only of false prophets, but of false prophetesses too, and those are the deceivers whom the prophet is here directed to prophesy against ”

“ False prophets must be slain, and idolatrous cities destroyed.
13:1. If there rise in the midst of thee a prophet or one that saith he hath dreamed a dream, and he foretell a sign and a wonder,
13:2. And that come to pass which he spoke, and he say to thee: Let us go and follow strange gods, which thou knowest not, and let us serve them:
13:3. Thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet or dreamer: for the Lord your God trieth you, that it may appear whether you love him with all your heart, and with all your soul, or not. ”

“ But if he is inferior, he cannot be perfect. And if he is not to be perfect, it is not of him that the apostle speaks. But if it is not of him that the apostle speaks, while he still makes the mendacious statement that it is of himself that the said word of the apostle was spoken, then surely he is to be judged a false prophet. ”

“ In like manner, a false prophet, one whom God hath not sent, does not bring forth evil fruit, accidentally or sometimes only, but always and of necessity. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. ver. 19. Such infallibly will be the lot of those prophets, who bring not forth good fruit, who do not save souls from sin, who do not bring sinners to repentance. Wherefore let this stand as an eternal rule, By their fruits ye shall know them. ”

“ Nevertheless, we have just seen that Moses acknowledges that false prophets can predict things which will happen. And the Saviour warns us in the Gospel that at the end of the world several false prophets will arise, who will seduce many [194] —"They shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive even the elect." It is not, then, precisely either the successful issue of the event which decides in favor of the false prophet—nor the default of the predictions made by true prophets which proves that they are not sent by God. ”

“ As we have heard now from you, as Paul himself also seems to tell us, and, further, as we have learned likewise from the earlier account given in the Gospel, an introduction to preaching, or teaching, or evangelizing, or prophesying, is not, in this life at least, held out on the same terms to any person in times subsequent to the apostle’s: [16] and if the opposite appears ever to be the case, the person can only be held to be a false prophet or a false Christ. ”

“ Working miracles.—It is very possible that the strongest “proof” of the immortality of man will yet be obtained by the false prophet through materializations of evil spirits, perhaps first at preachers' meetings, and afterwards in public. ”

“ If this man be a false prophet, he will soon perish, and we shall hear no more of him. If, peradventure, as it would appear, he is sent from God, let us not make haste to do him a mischief, lest, haply, we be found contending against the Lord of Hosts. ”

“ Some have come from regions where the false prophet deludes the minds of millions with fatalism and sensual hopes; others from the wide-spread countries where Popery corrupts the truth of revelation, burdens the simplicity of the Gospel with Pharisaic rites, and hides the doctrines of the Cross behind the crucifix. ”

“ Pseudo, or false prophets, speak through the agency of wicked spirits and the power of Satan. Their work is to deceive. And while this is true of those who are under [pg 023] the direct inspiration of superior beings, good or evil, it is true in a more restricted sense that consecrated teachers of divine truth may be regarded as God's prophets; and teachers of error may properly be called false prophets. True and false prophets may be known.
The Crucifixion The prophets of God are teachers of purity, reprovers of sin, and faithful in warning the people of coming dangers. ”

“ False prophets are those who teach things concerning faith or morals contrary to what our Lord and His Church teach, and who therefore, in reality, teach unbelief, and are heresiarchs, seducers, and “ravening wolves”, who lead others to commit grievous sins, and are the cause of their eternal loss. ”

“ God's messengers were speaking men, not speaking trumpets. The Fathers frequently took notice of this difference between the prophets of the Lord and the false prophets—that the pretenders to prophecy (who either were actuated by an evil spirit or were under the force of a heated imagination) underwent alienations of mind, and delivered what they had to say in the utmost agitation and disorder, as the Pythian prophetess, who delivered her infernal oracles with many antic gestures, tearing her hair and foaming at the mouth. ”

“ You have had false prophets among you—for centuries you have had them—solemnly warned against them though you were; false prophets, who have told you that all men are nothing but fiends or wolves, half beast, half devil. ”

“ Do you not know that a false pretender to prophecy is liable to capital punishment, for having arrogated to himself unwarranted distinction, just as the person who prophesies in the name of idols is put to death, as we read in Scripture "But the prophet that shall speak a word presumptuously in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die." ”

“ He shall also judge false prophets, who, without having received the gift of prophecy from God, and not possessed of the fear of God, but either for the sake of vainglory, or with a view to some personal advantage, or acting in some other way under the influence of a wicked spirit, pretend to utter prophecies, while all the time they lie against God. ”

“ He has been as one of themselves, and, save in the forms of their religion, he has become one of them, and now he has had disquieting news of his favourite race. False prophets are working upon their imagination, and stirring them up to no good end, striving to incite them to rise against their best friends the English! ”

“ They are not therefore held excused because false prophets told them lies, for they have given credit to these lies, lies that flattered their sinful passions, and have not been willing to hear or take to heart the word of the true prophets, who preached repentance and return to God. ”

“ You are deluded, you are an impostor, you preach false doctrine, we will have none of your teaching. Men who believe in prophesy and revelation are liable to be deceived, and we are afraid of you, we do not know but you will deceive us. Jesus said there should be false prophets, we believe you are one of them. ”

“ But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. ”

“ The irony of the prophet's remark depends on the consideration that there is, or ought to be, safety in numbers. The impotence of the false gods could hardly be put in a stronger light in words as few as the prophet has used. In chap. xi. 13 he repeats the statement in an amplified form: "For numerous as thy cities have thy gods become, O Judah; and numerous as the streets of Jerusalem have ye made altars for The Shame, altars for sacrificing to the Baal." ”

“ For you are not in every case prophesying through the sacrament of God, since in this case you are merely uttering evil wishes through your own madness. But the prophecy of the true prophets is more powerful than the evil speaking of the false prophets. ”

“ They were dreams of their own bespeaking. False prophets would not flatter people in their sins, but that they love to be flattered, and speak smoothly to their prophets that their prophets may speak smoothly to them. ”

“ If by clouds are understood prophets generally, whether good or bad, who are also called false prophets: false prophets are so ordered by the Lord God, that by them He may rain snares upon sinners. [37] For no one, but the sinner, falls into a following of them, whether by way of preparation for the last punishment, if he shall choose to persevere in sin; or to dissuade from pride, if in time he shall come to seek God with a more sincere intent. But if by clouds are understood good and true prophets only ”

“ And as against the guile of false prophets whose influence with the infatuated people became ever greater, the true witnesses of the Lord could have no more effective means of showing and proving the divineness of their mission and the truth of their testimony than by bringing strongly out their connection with the old prophets and their utterances. ”

“ Therefore they are false prophets who do not teach men to walk in this way.
Now the way to heaven pointed out in the preceding sermon, is the way of lowliness, mourning, meekness, and holy desire, love of God and of our neighbour, doing good, and suffering evil for Christ’s sake. They are therefore false prophets, who teach as the way to heaven, any other way than this.
5. It matters not, what they call that other way. They may call it faith, or good works: or faith and works: or repentance: or repentance, faith and new obedience. ”