Lately, the last three to four weeks, we have opened up a room on Paltalk in the Christianity section that is titled “May 21 2011 The Rapture” We have had that room open twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday nights. People have been coming in and you can tell that many people who are in churches and congregations are coming in.
They have been, in a sense, discussing the nature of that room, which is that we are saying that Christ is coming at a specific time, a specific date, and that God is going to bring judgment on the world. That idea attracts people and they are coming in.
I have noticed that a lot of times, before they have really heard anything, they will put out a verse from the Bible that says, “No man knows the day or hour.” Following that, they will make a statement like, “You are teaching falsely; you are a false prophet.”
I thought that was kind of interesting because normally you wait until it does not happen before you label someone a false prophet, before you say, “This is not of God,” but many people are not waiting. They are not waiting and they are saying right now that anyone who would give a date for the return of Christ is a false prophet.
So I thought that it would be good to look at what the Bible has to say about false prophets, because people have it in their minds that if you give a date you are acting like a prophet. Since all previous dates that have been given in history were wrong, you are automatically a false prophet.
However, if you think about what the Bible has to say about false prophets, is there anywhere in the Bible that points to an individual who gave a date and the date did not come to pass so they are called a false prophet? Is that the definition of a false prophet?
I cannot think of anyplace in the Bible. Yes, there are times in the Bible where a prophet would prophecy a future event, because God moved them to prophecy of the coming Messiah, of the Lord Jesus Christ entering into the world; there are Scriptures like that. But actually, and I will say virtually, there is no record in the Bible of someone who prophesies of a date and it does not come to pass where everyone goes, “Aha! You are a false prophet!” There is nothing like that in the Bible.
The Bible’s idea of a false prophet really is entirely different. A false prophet, which we will look at today, is someone whose characteristics you might be very surprised at. You really might be very surprised at what the Bible will label a false prophet.
Now, there is something that I have learned and have been telling people, because their response is so easy and so quick; it is just a snap of the fingers. When someone hears that we have very little time left and that Christ is coming and that this is a matter-of-fact declaration because the Bible teaches this and they say, “No, the Rapture will not take place on May 21, 2011; Christ is not coming on that date; you are a false prophet; that is not going to happen; the world will not end in 2011,” what are they doing? They are prophesying; they are prophesying. It is a negative prophecy, but it is a prophecy; it is very much a prophecy.
They are saying that God is not going to do this. A lot of times, it is very superficial. They throw out that verse, which we have discussed the last couple of weeks, “No man knows the day or hour” and “Not so; no way.” Well, they had better watch out. They had better be careful because they have just prophesied. They just prophesied, so we will try to take a look at this.
Let us go to just a couple of passages to get us into the subject. In 2 Peter 2:1-2, it says:
But there were false prophets also 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.
When the Bible speaks of false prophets, they are normally in large numbers; that is normally the case. In the days of Israel when Elijah, the true prophet of God, was bringing the Word to the people of Israel, there were four hundred and fifty [note: speaker inadvertently said “four hundred” instead of “four hundred and fifty”] prophets of Baal who came to the contest on Mount Carmel to show who was the Lord’s prophet and who was not, plus hundreds of prophets of the groves. But of the Lord, representing the Lord and the Word of God, there was one man, Elijah, one man, one single individual.
So that is something that we have to consider, that false prophets are normally numerous and many follow them. Many will follow their pernicious ways or ways that lead to damnation and destruction. Many there are who go down the broad way. Few there are who follow the narrow road that leads to life. That is two things for us to keep in mind. False prophets are normally popular. They are normally popular and many follow their teachings.
Let us also go to 1 John 4. This is very good instruction that the Lord has given to every person in 1 John 4:1:
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God…
Whether God is saying “Gospel” or “Christ” or “Spirit,” it is all the same thing. They are synonyms for the Word, the Bible. If people come and they say, “This is what the Bible says,” then they are preaching Christ. They are saying, “This is of the Spirit of God.”
So God is saying to the beloved, to true believers:
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits…
And that word “try” is translated as “discern” or “prove” in some places. So the beloved, the child of God is to examine. It is also the word “prove” in 2 Corinthians 13. It is to make sure that what you are hearing is true. Why?
…try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
And don’t we know it. Don’t we know it! How many people profess to be Christians today? Nearly or about two billion. Wow! Two billion in the world. Almost about one-third of the world’s population, which covers everything under the sun: Catholics, Protestants, Independents, Charismatics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons. That is the whole conglomerate. It is the whole collection of those who profess to be Christian.
So there are many and their prophecies or their gospels or their teachings from the Bible conflict with one another. They are teaching things that do not agree with one another and, therefore, we know that many of them are wrong and that they are not teaching the truth.
God is saying to every person—especially in our day, this is so—try the spirits to see if it is from God; that is, check it out in the Bible. When you hear something, go to the Bible to see if it is so. Search the Scriptures, like the Bereans whom God identified as being noble because they were checking the Bible when they heard new things to see if God had said it in His Word. The reason is because it is very easy to follow a false prophet. Well, not for a child of God. But for the masses, it is very easy for them to go after somebody, no matter how crazy their teaching might be or off-the-wall.
Also, in 1 John 4, for a little bit more information, it says in verse 5, 1 John 4:5:
They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
Which explains a lot. It explains a lot because the vast majority of people in the world are unsaved. God is saving a great multitude today. He is going to save two hundred million people all through history, with the great majority of those today in the last days of the Great Tribulation. That is a lot of people; but still, if all two hundred million came out of seven billion today, that would leave six billion+ who are not going to be saved. Therefore, they are not understanding the truth or the true spirit because they do not have ears to hear.
This explains why there can be mega churches with paltry gospels. You can have mega churches, a huge response to a social gospel, to a political gospel, to a gospel that teaches falsely, to a gospel that is very moral and humane and wants to help the neighborhood. You can have all of that and people respond, sometimes in masses, especially if there is a charismatic individual who has a way with words, who is very eloquent and very dramatic and who can motivate people and stir up their emotions.
You can fill whole stadiums actually with crusades. You can have sixty to seventy thousand people at a stadium and they can be doing the wave and falling down the aisles where great impact, it seems, is made upon their hearts, and yet none of that is true. It is all physical; it is all natural; it is all emotional; it is all on a level that is apart from the spiritual nature of the Gospel that has to impact the heart itself and change a man’s heart.
It is not about getting someone to start crying. Of course, there is nothing wrong with mourning over sin; however, it has to be done in a true and right way. God is the One who will bring conviction to an individual. Yet this explains why you can have a church that numbers hundreds of millions of people, and so on, and people love the appearance of their leader because:
They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
Then it says in verse 6, 1 John 4:6:
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
God has to give us ears to hear. It really will finally come down to that. Ultimately, we will not be able to discern truth from a lie or a true prophet from a false prophet unless we are one of God’s elect and He gives us ears to hear. Otherwise, you will not be able to distinguish; you will not be able to tell the difference and you will be caught in the snare that false prophets bring.
Let us go to Deuteronomy 13 in the Old Testament. God has many things to say about false prophets throughout the Bible. It says in Deuteronomy 13:1-2:
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
You see, there is nothing here about dates. There is nothing here about predicting the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. It is simply someone who is saying something in the Name of the Lord; however, he is leading people to other gods. Every time that we teach falsely, if we would teach a falsehood, this is what it is doing; it is leading people to another kind of a god than the true God.
So God is saying, “Okay, if this happens, here is what I say about it.” Verse 3, Deuteronomy 13:3-5:
Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for JEHOVAH your God proveth you, to know whether ye love JEHOVAH your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after JEHOVAH your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from JEHOVAH your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which JEHOVAH thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
Now, God is letting us know, and it is interesting that this is in the frame of signs and wonders, “If they are leading you after other gods, then no, I have not sent them no matter what the sign or wonder is. No matter how good they sound, I have not sent them.”
This is such a serious offence that he is to be put to death for being a false prophet, “Put him to death,” and that is said in a few places in the Bible. This was the death penalty that God instituted for false prophecy. We can see from this passage and from other passages in the Scripture how the church, throughout the early years of the Church Age and actually into the Middle Ages of the Church Age, would get the idea, since they thought that they were the authority of the Bible, that if anyone contradicted their teaching and their authority, then they were a heretic, that it was heresy what they were saying.
What they were saying in many cases, actually, was not heresy, according to the Bible because the Bible, which was what they were reading and declaring, was in opposition to the church’s traditions and its teachings, to the church’s doctrines. Yet since the church thought that they were the authority and that whatever they said should be accepted and that no one should dare contradict them, “We will put you to death; we will put you to death,” and they did that. They did this many times, we know, in the early days. In the early years of the church, into the Middle Ages, men of God, true men of God were called heretics.
What is a heretic? It is a false prophet. They were called, labeled, identified, as a false prophet for wanting the Bible in the language of the people and bringing the Gospel to the people. Some of these men were slain in various ways. Many were burned at the stake at the time of the Reformation because they were saying, “No, the Bible does not teach indulgences. The Bible does not teach that the church is the authority but that the Word of God is the supreme authority.” They also were slain, labeled as heretics and their teachings as heresies and put to death as false prophets, and the church that had great numbers of people were the ones behind it. Many false prophets are out there in the world.
It was just a few individuals, they numbered hundreds or even a few thousand, who would have suffered the flames of fire as they were taken to the stake and burned. It was only a remnant of people. They stood for the Word of God and yet, in the eyes of many, they were false prophets.
I do not like to be called a false prophet. I do not like that. I do not like to be labeled as being a cult member. I do not like it when people say, “It is heresy and you are a heretic!” I do not like it; however, some people of God have died with that label and I do not think that I am above them. I do not think that I am better than them, definitely not. If they died in the flames, that actually makes it rather appealing.
Do you know that the Lord Jesus was said to have Beelzebub? “Beelzebub! He deceiveth the people!,” the Jews said. When He was having His trial, they brought false witnesses who made the accusation, “This deceiver said…” He was labeled a deceiver. That is one of the names of Christ according to the Jews of His day, a deceiver, which makes that a name that is also honorable if it is said of you because you happen to be supporting what the Word of God says. You are just saying what the Bible teaches and yet you are called a deceiver.
We have voicemail now and we are getting some messages. It does not ring at my house anymore because some people were calling upset when they got the tract “The Rapture May 21, 2011.” A mother in Idaho called me upset that her teenage boy had gotten a tract. She told me that she was part of a Reformed Church and that she did not want this kind of information going to her son. Well, I thought about my children getting that kind of phone call, so we have voicemail and we are taking care of it another way.
This week, a pastor called because he wants to talk to me. He believes that we are deceiving the world, “Won’t you please stop deceiving the world?” But, you see, that is the common picture. It is easy to say about those who are bringing the Gospel, “You are a deceiver; you are an antichrist; you are a false prophet.”
Yet, what does the Bible say about false prophets? Let us go to Jeremiah 37, beginning in verse 6, Jeremiah 37:6-8:
Then came the word of JEHOVAH unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to inquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land. And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
See, God gave a little reprieve to Jerusalem. As the army of Egypt gathered together and came up, the Babylonians or the Chaldeans fled. They left and so there was rejoicing in the city, “Oh, this is wonderful! This is great! The Lord has delivered us!”
But Jeremiah is saying, “No, no, do not trust in the Egyptians; do not trust in that army.” In Isaiah, God calls them a “bruised reed” [note: translated as “broken reed” in Isaiah 36:6]. “Do not lean upon them, because, still, the Chaldeans will come again and fight against this city and take it and burn it with fire.”
That is not pleasant news. That is not good news. But this is what the Word of the Lord says. This is what God says in His Word. It is what He moved Jeremiah the prophet to declare again and again and again: judgment, wrath, evil tidings against this city, against this place, against this land, and against this people, repeatedly, over and over again, even when there was a period where it seemed, “Maybe we can find deliverance; maybe we can be rescued; maybe God will fight for us.” No, no. It was not going to happen.
Well, then a little further down in verse 13, Jeremiah went to the gate of Benjamin, and it says in Jeremiah 37:13:
And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.
“You are a traitor! You are a traitor, Jeremiah!” And we can see why they would say that, right?
Just think, this is your home, this is your city, this is your nation, this is your king, and here is a man who is declaring publicly in the gates, “The Babylonians are going to win. The sword is against you. A famine will be in this city and you are going into captivity. This city and the house of God will be burned!”
Just imagine how unpatriotic that sounded, how unpatriotic. It is as if America had a war with a nation and somebody started saying, “Well, the other nation is going to win in Iraq. The Iraqis are going to win. God is going to turn America over.” Please, I am just saying that you can imagine how this sounded.
Now, God tells us that we are to support our country and I would never say something like this, that this is the case. I am just using it as an example so that we can see how it sounds to our own ears when someone would say something contrary to their nation, “You falleth away to the Chaldeans. You are a traitor! A betrayer! You are someone who should not live.” You see, Jeremiah was a true prophet, though, and God was giving him those words to say.
Yet, let us go to 1 Kings 22. We are going to find false prophets here and true prophets. Well, prophet, not plural; false prophets, plural, but one true prophet. 1 Kings 22 is the account of King Ahab who really was a good king, as far as the people were concerned, the people of Israel. But not according to God; he was a wicked man. Ahab was king of Israel and Jehoshaphat was king of Judah in the south, and Ahab called for Jehoshaphat and requested that he go to battle with them. In 1 Kings 22:3-6:
And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria? And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramothgilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word JEHOVAH to day. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
Glory! Wonderful news, is it not? Go up! What encouragement! What positive things to say! It is good news; all the prophets agree. With four hundred prophets all on the same page, certainly, they are speaking the truth! Certainly, God is with them! “See what we hear? And not only that, but this supports our nation, this supports our king, this supports our plan to do battle, so everything is wonderful!”
But Jehoshaphat, I do not know what he is doing there. God later questions him about this because he was a true child of God. Jehoshaphat, being a true child of God, had an ear to hear, “My sheep hear My voice; but the voice of a stranger, they will not follow.” He had an ear to hear and everything seemed right, but something inside him sensed, “No, this is not quite right what all of these prophets are saying.” In verse 7, 1 Kings 22:7:
And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of JEHOVAH besides, that we might inquire of him?
What was wrong? What was wrong? “What is wrong with you people when you are in our church and our church has taught this for hundreds of years? Look at everybody, happy and content with what the church teaches, yet you come in, and you have only been here a year or two, and you do not like this? You do not think that our teaching is Biblical? You do not think that our doctrines are right? You know, they are based on the confessions and creeds. Everything we teach in this church is according to our fathers and the traditions that have been handed down for hundreds of years.”
It is almost as if you feel like a betrayer. It is almost as if you are unpatriotic, as far as that church goes. You are stirring the pot and you are bringing trouble and that is how God’s people have been throughout the ages of the Church Age.
Of course, we do not have to worry about that today because the Church Age is over and God has greatly blessed His people in telling us, “No, come on out; come on out; just go to the Bible; be under the hearing of the Word of God.” While God wanted us to go to the church, we obeyed and we went; but it is a wonderful blessing to be in unity with God’s Word as an individual and to be in agreement with what the Bible says, and that is all that we have to worry about. We do not have to worry about what the church teaches anymore because the Church Age is over.
Well, Jehoshaphat, being a child of God, had an ear to hear. I cannot stress how much the Bible stresses that this is extremely important. In John 8:47:
He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
Simple! Very simple, ultimately. If you are of God, you will hear. If you are not of God, you will not hear. Hearing involves a lot. We are not going to get into that, what exactly that means, but that is what it comes down to. Jehoshaphat did not hear the assurance of the spirit within him assuring him that these words that he was hearing from so many prophets were of God [note: the speaker inserted an extra “not” in this sentence, which has been removed from the written transcript to make things clearer]. So he says, “Is there not another prophet?,” and then in verse 8, 1 Kings 22:8:
And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man…
One individual!
…Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of JEHOVAH: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
I love this passage! I really do. Every time I read it, it really reveals so much that is going on in the spiritual realm.
Here is Ahab and he has everything that he thinks he needs. He has an army. He has a battle plan. He has full agreement from all of his prophets, but there is one man, “If only that man would go away. If only that man would be quiet. If only that man would not keep telling me things that I hate to hear! I hate him because he never says good things. He is not positive. He does not say, ‘God loves you.’ He does not say, ‘God has a wonderful plan for your life.’ He does not tell me things that are smooth and flattering to my ears and things that are easy to receive. He tells me hard things and difficult things and things that make me angry.”
So Ahab is revealing a lot, and he is speaking for a great number of people in the world when they hear a true prophet. When they hear a true prophet, they do not like it. If they are not of God, they do not like him and they do not like the message, and yet everyone seems to enjoy hearing the false prophets.
By the way, quickly go to Luke 6:26; just one verse, yet a very important verse:
Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
False prophets! You know, if you want applause, if you want adulation, if you want support of people, you can still teach the Bible. You can teach the Bible, but you cannot teach it truly, you cannot teach it rightly, you cannot say it faithfully; because when you do, then you are going to say things that do not tickle the ears, that are not pleasant, that people do not want to hear. Yet Jesus is saying in Luke 6:26:
Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you…
And this is in the context of prophets.
…for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
That is another characteristic of a false prophet. He is not somebody who really is going to offend. He is not somebody who is going to say something like, “May 21, 2011 is the Rapture.” That is not keeping in character with a false prophet.
Now, that is not saying that this means that May 21, 2011 will be the Rapture, but that kind of declaration is not in keeping with what false prophets proclaim. They want to say things that people agree with. They want to say things that people have no problem in hearing.
Well, anyway, let us keep reading here. Ahab said that there is this one man whom he hates because he prophesies evil. Then in verse 9, 1 Kings 22:9-13:
Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith JEHOVAH, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for JEHOVAH shall deliver it into the king’s hand. And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now…
Now, this is the messenger. This is the messenger that the king sent.
…the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.
“Come on, Micaiah. Come on! Do not do it again. Do not do it again! Do not ruin the fun. Do not be the fly in the ointment. Say what everybody else is saying!”
1 Kings 22:14:
And Micaiah said, As JEHOVAH liveth, what JEHOVAH saith unto me, that will I speak.
Then he does go the king in verse 15. 1 Kings 22:15:
So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for JEHOVAH shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
You know that he said that in such a way that there was no feeling or heart in it. He was saying what all the prophets were saying to make a point, “This is what you want to hear, Ahab. This is what all of you people want to hear. Go ahead, go! Go to your battle. Prosper!” Then Ahab knew and we read in verse 16, 1 Kings 22:16:
And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee…
So this was, apparently, his mannerism.
…How many times (Micaiah) shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of JEHOVAH?
So Micaiah does and he tells him, basically, “King, if you go to Ramothgilead, you are going to die. Do not worry about the battle because this is your last one; you are going to die.”
Then we are given a glimpse into Heaven a little later in this chapter, and this is very important for the whole discussion of false prophets, so let us look at verse 17. This is Micaiah’s prophecy and he said in 1 Kings 22:17-22:
And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and JEHOVAH said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of JEHOVAH: I saw JEHOVAH sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And JEHOVAH said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before JEHOVAH, and said, I will persuade him. And JEHOVAH said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
Now, that would be Satan who is that spirit who is able to go into the world. He stirs up people to prophesy. Remember, we read in 2 Corinthians 11 that Satan comes as “an angel of light” and his ministers as “ministers of righteousness.” Speaking of Satan, even that is all lovely and beautiful: an angel of light and ministers of righteousness. They speak good things and they declare things that apparently are from the Bible, and that is why it is said that they come in “sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” They come saying such sweet information that people love to hear it and have it so, yet it leads to their end, it leads to their ruin, it leads to their destruction.
Here, God is indicating that it is all His doing behind the scenes. He is the One who will give individuals strong delusion that they should believe a lie. He is the One who permits Satan to raise up false teachers and prophets.
Notice in verse 23, 1 Kings 22:23-24:
Now therefore, behold, JEHOVAH hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and JEHOVAH hath spoken evil concerning thee. But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the spirit of JEHOVAH from me to speak unto thee?
You know, again, they were identified. The light shone on them; the truth shown on them. Micaiah was saying, “They are all false prophets.” Zedekiah did not like that, so immediately he smote Micaiah. He hit him because there is that reaction to prophets.
Micaiah was taken to prison. Jeremiah spent many days in prison. God’s people have suffered in many ways as a result of prophesying truly and earnestly as to what the Bible says.
There are so many examples that I think we are going have to maybe do a second study on this just so we can cover some of the ground that the Bible does. But to close, let us go to Jeremiah 26. Here in verse 6, Jeremiah again is bringing the Word of God that is very unpopular. It is not well received by the people of Jerusalem, and he says in Jeremiah 26:6-7 where God is speaking through Jeremiah:
Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of JEHOVAH.
And, again, they say, “He is worthy to die, so put him to death.” But there were some princes, a handful of princes who spared Jeremiah at this time. In verse 16, it goes on, Jeremiah 26:16-19:
Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of JEHOVAH our God. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear JEHOVAH, and besought JEHOVAH, and JEHOVAH repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls.
So we see Micah from the book of Micah that we find in Old Testament Scriptures who likewise prophesied in a similar manner as Jeremiah and as Micaiah about Amos. Remember Amos, when he prophesied in Israel against the king that God was going to remove them out of the land? There was a priest of Bethel, which means “the house of God”, who wrote to the king and he complained about Amos.
I know that I said that would be the last verse, but let us go to Amos 7:10-13:
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel (the house of God): for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.
It is the same story, the same story, “Go away! Go away! Far away! Go to Judah. Go away, because we do not want to hear these words.”
This is going to be the last passage. In Jeremiah 28, there was a man who came who was speaking contrary to the word of Jeremiah, which was that God would judge Babylon and that He would send the Jews into captivity. This man named Hananiah did give a time reference of two years and the King of Babylon’s threat would be taken away. It says in Jeremiah 28:4:
And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith JEHOVAH: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Sounds good! Sounds good and Jeremiah agrees in verse 6, Jeremiah 28:6:
Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: JEHOVAH do so: JEHOVAH perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of JEHOVAH’S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
Very similar to Micaiah who was mouthing the words of the false prophets, “Go up and prosper.” Jeremiah agrees with the prophecy, “Amen: may the Lord do so.” Jeremiah is saying, “I would have no difficulty desiring this myself and accepting this.”
If only the Church Age was not over; if only God’s judgment was not upon the house of God; if only the Lord was still working in the churches as He had done throughout the Church Age; however, He is not. He is not, and so it says in verse 7, Jeremiah 28:7-9:
Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people; The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that JEHOVAH hath truly sent him.
Do you see the character of a true prophet? Judgment! War! Evil! Pestilence! And the character of the false prophet, repeatedly: not so! “Not so! No, the Lord will fight for us. This is Jerusalem.” Or as people are saying today, “This is the church! God’s judgment is not on the church. It is His church.” Well, so was Israel His people and He judged them.
So, now, you see, we say, because the Bible teaches it, “May 21, 2011 is the Rapture. October 21, 2011, with five months of torment in between, will be the end of the world.”
Is that a false prophecy? Is that being a false prophet? No, no believer who is saying this is saying that it is because of a dream or a vision or a tongue. It is not coming from any supernatural source. It is not coming from any source but the Bible alone. Judgment! Evil! Pestilence! Like Jonah, “Yet forty day, Nineveh, and you will be overthrown!”
Time and judgment, the voice of a true prophet. That is how they come. And when somebody says, “Not so; no way; uh-uh; there will not be any Rapture; I will see you on May 22, 2011,” well, they just prophesied. They just prophesied and God has said to many false prophets in His Word, “They speak a lie in My Name; I did not send them.” They are prophesying of peace. They are saying, “The world is going to continue. Yes, the world is full of wickedness that it has never seen before, such ugliness is going on in the world that, yes, we would have to admit that it is ripe for judgment. But, nonetheless, the world is going to continue.”
Alright. Well, that is your prophecy. God’s prophecy is coming from His Word and we will see which prophecy will stand.
Let us stop here.