As you know, we live in a crazy, information flooded age. Everyone is a writer and an expert. They now blog, tweet, and post the truth (as they see it). Let me remind you that everything written is not true. We saw much of this during the 2016 election and over the last four years. All kinds of false information was perpetrated as “news”. Jesus warned us about this in Matthew 24, which talks about the end of time on earth:
Matthew 24:11 (NIV), “and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.”
Matthew 24:24 (NIV), “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
Peter and John (two of Jesus’s closest friends and disciples) also spoke about false prophets:
2 Peter 2:1-3 (NIV), “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.”
1 John 4:1 (NIV), “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
Over the last five years, I’ve encountered a number of false prophets. In fact, I encountered one on Facebook. I had posted a very solid bible-based blog post titled Heading to Hell and his response was that we were already in hell. He expounded that humans are the fallen angels the rebelled against God and were then sent to earth (which is hell) to redeem themselves (no Jesus necessary). WOW! He even tried quoting Bible verses, but when I questioned him about them, he decided not to respond. I also asked him about the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2 and how that fits into his whole crazy theory. He chose not to respond to that either. Upon further research, I found out this guy has a whole internet-based ministry and is misleading others.
Given that situation, I want to go back to 2 Peter 2:1-3, which says, “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them…” Clearly this idea that humans are fallen angels currently living in hell, who are here to redeem themselves, so they can go back to heaven as angels, is a destructive heresy that denies the sovereign Lord (Jesus) who bought him.
I’m thankful that I’ve spent many years studying the Bible, building my relationship with God, and have the Holy Spirit living in me, so that I can recognize these false teachings. In Matthew 24:24 Jesus said that even the elect (Believers) might be deceived by the false prophets. Having been around church nearly all my life, I can easily see how this could happen, as hardly anyone reads the Bible anymore. They rely on a 30- to 45-minute sermon once a week and perhaps a few classes. This isn’t going to cut it, when the false prophets, empowered by Satan, start performing miraculous signs and wonders to try to support their deceptive teachings.
True Disciples of Jesus study and meditate in the Bible EVERY day. They are guided by the Holy Spirit into all truth (John 16:13), so that they will not be among the elect who are deceived and misled by the false prophets. Are you a True Disciple?
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