ENTRY 6 FALSE PROPHETS

“15 ¶Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:15-20)

Christ gives a warning in the Sermon on the Mount.  He tells us to Beware of False Prophets.  And he provides a test we can apply to determine if the prophets are true or false.  The very fact that He gives a test to determine the validity of anyone claiming to be a prophet is proof that we must examine the claims of men and determine the validity of the claim.  There are true prophets and there are false prophets.  You and I are under a charge by the Lord to determine the truth of their words.

Christ in the Sermon on the Mount continues with the following:

 “21 ¶Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

These false prophets claim to speak in the name of Christ.  They claim to cast out devils in the name of Christ.  These false prophets claim to do many wonderful works in the name of Christ.  We know that a house divided against itself cannot stand therefore if there be any prophesy it comes from Christ.  And if there be any casting out of the devil, it is by the power of Christ.  And if there is any wonderful work done, it is by the power of Christ.  But the spirit of God may descend upon a man and not tarry with him.  So it could be that these false prophets simply claim to accomplish something that they never did, or it could be that in a moment of true humility and faith, they received by the power of Christ these miracles, but then took the glory of the miracle upon themselves and lost the favor of God.  But to test the prophets, we know this much by the Lord’s counsel, their claims of prophecy, their claims of miracles, their claims of many wonderful works are not the measuring scale we are to use.  It is their fruit, specifically it is the fruit of iniquity we are to beware of.

What is Iniquity? 

It is In-Equality or the establishment of unequal treatment among the people.

Iniquity is setting ones-self up to be greater than another, to make yourself higher than another rather than making yourself equal to the other.  

Therefore, do the prophets set themselves up at the height of a hierarchical pyramid?  Do they place themselves between the members and God?  For example, do they insist that only their revelations can be accepted as the word of God and no one else is permitted to speak outside the bounds of the stewardship they the leaders have established?  Do they refuse to listen to the least of these their brethren even when the least of these speaks the words of truth? Do they use the tithing to support themselves?   Do they know when to diminish their ministry that they may make way for the Lord as did John the Baptist?  If they fail this test, then we have a prophet who is practicing Iniquity and is a False Prophet. 

King Noah is a good example of a False Prophet.  Notice that he organized the priests (Mosiah 11:5).  Notice that he was a temple building leader (Mosiah 11:12).  Notice that he built a very fine podium from which to give direction to the people (Mosiah 11:9).  They called their podium a throne.  Notice that the people prospered under his leadership (Mosiah 12:15) and had many victories and much success (Mosiah 11:19). 

Now the Book of Mormon does not acknowledge him as a prophet because he was a false prophet.  But the people of Noah surely acknowledged him as such.  Review Mosiah 12:20-24 to read a description of how his people viewed their leader.   “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that publisheth peace!” 

The priests interrogating Abinadi asked the question, “What meaneth the words of these scriptures?”  Why would they ask this question of Abinadi, a nobody who brought a message of repentance? We don’t have the rationale behind their thinking when they asked this question, because the account is written by the faithful.  What we do have is Abinadi correcting their errant thinking and teaching them the true meaning of these verses.  But ponder this question for a moment, why did the priests, these lawyer types, ask that question?  We know that a lawyer never asks a question which he does not already know the answer to.  These priests knew perfectly well the answer to their question that they hoped Abinadi would give.  They already knew the interpretation of those verses.  That is to say they knew the interpretation that the people of their kingdom taught among themselves.  Those lawyers knew that the people of King Noah believed King Noah himself was the fulfillment of the prophecy in those verses.  “How beautiful upon mountain are the feet of King Noah!”  King Noah will never lead the people astray, just look at how the kingdom has prospered under his hand.  He is the fulfillment of the scriptures!  And they knew the people believed that because they were the ones who taught them.  This is why they asked Abinadi.  They knew Abinadi would contradict that belief.  Abinadi would blaspheme that “sacred truth” and contradict what everyone else just knew to be true, and therefore in their minds, Abinadi’s death would be warranted.

But Noah was filled with Iniquity, that is to say In – Equality.  He taxed the people.  He lived off their taxes.  He set up a hierarchy of priests to rule over the people.  If anyone dared to challenge the leadership they were not just driven out, they were put to death.  He lifted himself up to be the fulfillment of their scriptures.  This is Iniquity and is the fruit of the false prophet.

Contrast that with the fruit of a true prophet found in the example of another King.  King Benjamin is another leader-prophet but who was a true prophet.  Notice that he organized the leadership as well (Mosiah 6:3) but the philosophy of that leadership style was to surrender the rights to rule for the cause of the Lord (Mosiah 28:10).  And he served the people (Mosiah 2:17-18).  He labored himself, he did not live off the taxes of the people (Mosiah 2:14).  He built temples as well (Mosiah 2:1), but his podium was a temporary structure rather than a permanent throne (Mosiah 2:7).   

King Benjamin’s works by which we can know him is in his lack of iniquity found in his actions.  Notice that he did not set himself up to be the one who could never lead the people astray, rather he acknowledged his own infirmities (Mosiah 2:10-11) and pointed the people to Christ (Mosiah 4:11).  He did not receive a stipend for his support (Mosiah 2:14), and he ensured that the poor would be cared for (Mosiah 4:16-27).  In fact, he did not judge the poor for asking nor turn them away if they did ask (Mosiah 4:22).  He received messages from True Messengers which are Heavenly Beings (Mosiah 3:2) and he was not ambiguous about acknowledging the true source of his message (Mosiah 3:23) because he indeed received words which the Lord God would have him deliver to his people.  King Benjamin was a true prophet.

We can learn a lot from the examples of these two prophet-leaders in the Book of Mormon.  One false and one true.  Their examples are given to us today so that we may use the same measuring stick to beware of false prophets in our day and receive and accept messages through real prophets in our day.

As a side note, notice that prophets do not have to be leaders of the congregation.  Abinadi is evidence that prophets can come from obscure places.  As was Samuel the Lamanite who delivered his message and then departed.  John the Baptist who lived in the wilderness and made it clear that his leadership must diminish.  And let us not forget the women called prophets of our Old and New Testaments. 

Leadership position never determines an individual's capacity to be a prophet.  Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.  True Words!  But when the call is received from a man who holds a higher office, does the man dare to call himself God?  Let God call His own prophets by His own voice. Let man be humble in his claims of authority.

Again from the Sermon on the Mount, Christ tells us the following:

 24 ¶Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

 28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

 29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

He spoke this analogy in relation to the subject of prophets.  Prophets speak His words.  False prophets teach the things that are pleasing to the people to win favor of the people.

We cannot reassure ourselves that everything spoken by a prophet is a message from God, we must determine which messages are true and which are not.  Christ has warned us to beware of false prophets because they do not deliver His words.  Accepting the words of a false prophet is likened unto building our house on sand. 

And on the other hand, we cannot dismiss every message delivered just because there are false prophets among us.  We are reminded that true prophets will speak the word of the Lord and if we do those things that Christ teaches us through those true prophets, we will build our house upon the rock. 

The lump of truth that people just can't seem to swallow is that God will let that false prophet and that true prophet reside in the same person.  But it is so.  When a prophet does not step down and diminish at the appointed time, God delivers him over to the people.  The people use the man to uphold their own iniquities by forcing the man from behind to serve as their prophet and king.  We see this in the failings of Moses who was certainly a prophet without question.  If we look carefully, we may recognize this in the patterns of our own day.  For that purpose, always hold to the messages of truth delivered by any man and always know when to let go of the man in his ministry that you may draw closer to the Lord who is Jesus Christ.

We must necessarily decide which messages are false and which messages are true.