False Prophets and Those That Believe Them 2

Brothers and Sisters, I know there is no text this time. I will try to catch up sometime in the future. Until then, the video will give you the major points to my argument.

False Prophets and Those That Believe Them 1

Brothers and Sisters, thank you for visiting the Blog again.  I hope the words inspire you to cultivate good fruit in your lives.  Today, I was inspired by the word of God to explore a topic that has been on my mind to explore for a number of years.
I have read this particular passage several times and yet only today have I understood it this way.  The passage is 1 Kings 13:11-24.

11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen[a] which way the man of God went who came from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, 14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

And he said, “I am.”

15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”

16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17 For I have been told by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’”

18 He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He was lying to him.)

19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”

23 So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.

What struck me while I was reading was that the man of God who had just been used by God was so willing to believe the lying tongue of the false prophet.   He had heard from God already, yet he was still able to convince himself to go with the false prophet to eat and to drink.  How easy it was for this man of God's belly to become his God!   

Church, we are the body of Christ.  And just as a doctor performs surgery and cuts out the cancer so the cancer does not spread, it is time for us to clean up some things in the body.  It is past time for us to address some issues related to false teaching.  

There are two aspects at play here.  On the one hand we have the false prophet.  He was lying and he knew he was lying.  There are several so-called preachers who lie to their flocks every Sunday.  They distort the word of God to make it fit into their own world-view, instead of conforming their world-view to Christ.  

On the other hand we have the men and women of God who follow these false prophets.  These are they who are saved.  They love God.  They read the scriptures, yet they continually sit under false teaching.  They tithe into ministries that actually lead people to hell and damnation.  

Which one is worse?  I believe they are both shameful.  They are both sinful.  A liar cannot lie unless he has someone who is willing to believe his lie.  It is a symbiotic relationship between the false teacher and the misled. One cannot exist without the other.  Both exist in large numbers in the body of Christ.  

In subsequent posts, I will begin to expose both the false teachings and the critical role played by the congregations that sit and listen to them weekly.   Even forcing children to sit and listen to these falsehoods; indoctrinating them with lies.  

Brothers and Sisters it is easy to identify false teachings and false teachers.  If they preach something that runs contrary to the word of God, guess what?  They are false teachers.   

It is much harder to delve into the psychology of those who sit and receive the lies as their own.  It is here that I will begin with my next post.  I think it is critical to understand the men and women who say they love Christ, but sit and listen to His word get distorted every week.