Because the Bible was ultimately inspired by God Himself (I Timothy 3:16), He many times exposed fake prophets and apostles so people will not be deceived by any teachings that contradict the truth of Scripture. He also revealed how to recognize a phony prophet.
Moses warned Israel that if someone seems to be a prophet, but tells people to “go after other gods” and tells them things contrary to any of God's commandments, he is a false prophet and must be punished (Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:20).
Moses also said that we can know when a prophet is phony if his prophecy fails to come to pass (Deuteronomy 18:21,22). Even if someone claims they are speaking for God, they can be running a scam or speaking a demonic counterfeit. Countless prophecies of scripture have been proven to be fulfilled. In fact, when a prophecy is authentic, it's fulfillment was many times recorded in the Bible later by another genuine spokesman of God. Many more prophecies will yet come to pass, such as the tribulation period, the second coming of Christ, the thousand year reign of Christ, and the great white throne judgment. We’ve seen in the previous articles how the prophets and apostles of the Bible who foretold these events have already proven their authenticity. We can be sure that their end days prophecies will also be fulfilled.
The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel both warned against false prophets who “prophesy lies in my name, …prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, …speak a vision of their own heart, …follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing, …have seen vanity and lying divination.” Ezekiel went so far as to say that all such false prophets shall not “be written in the writing of the house of Israel” (Jeremiah 14:14; 23:16; Ezekiel 13:1-9, KJV). So God was determined to draw a line between the true prophets and the fakes. Only God's genuine prophets were added to the Scripture kept by the ark of the covenant.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul declared the same kind of warnings against those who would preach a phony gospel.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel to you other than what we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, and I say again just now, if anyone preaches a gospel to you other than what you received, let him be accursed. – Galatians 1:8,9, EMTV
Paul revealed the king of spiritual scams in his second epistle to the Corinthian church. He taught that false apostles of Jesus were ministers of Satan, who “himself is transformed into an angel of light” (see II Corinthians 11:1-15).
Satan’s alias name, Lucifer, refers to light. Lucifer is the name revered by many
fake religious systems, the occult, and secret societies today. They believe that they
are illuminated or enlightened, when in reality, such deceived followers have been
“blinded by the light” of Lucifer (II Cor. 4:3,4). They are not likely to believe that Jesus
was God come in the flesh–which is the modern-day test to reveal leaders or followers of counterfeit teachings and false christs, who are ultimately getting their information from cleverly disguised evil spirits.
Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory. – I Timothy 3:16, WEB
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this the Spirit of God is known: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world. – I John 4:1-3, EMTV
Lastly, spiritual scam artists will add things to the Bible that God never said (or wouldn't say) or remove things they don't want people to know. The authentic prophets and apostles of both the Old and New Testaments were not permitted by God to add or take away from anything that God had spoken to them. They only spoke and wrote what God commanded. They also warned everyone else to abide by the same rule (Proverbs 30:5,6; Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Jeremiah 26:2).
For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. – Revelation 22:18,19, NKJV
The Bible speaks well in its own defense. We have to choose to believe it all or don't trust a thing in it. Stop back for the final segment: Why believe the Bible X, You decide
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