False Prophets and their False Predictions
Many love to hear of the doctrine of the last days, people flock to hear the end times but many will ignore to hear of the Holiness of God and sanctification. Why is it that many would love to hear the doctrine of the last days? Even the unbelievers are curious to know of the future. By nature people like action and for many there is no colorful action in growing in sanctification, in holiness but for them there is so much action when it comes to the last days, it truly excites the flesh. What about the last of the last days, the final judgment? People do not want to hear judgment but the antichrist. Friends, we cannot delete what we do not like.
Rev 20:11-15
We are to study the whole counsel of God and what we like and delete what we do not like. The study of eschatology should bring a greater honor to God in our sanctification and motivation to evangelize the lost.
Today the body of Christ the church is divided when it comes to the doctrine of the last days. Why? Doctrine of the last days is not very clear in the Bible.
Mt 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Mt 24:42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
But through out the ages people have predicted the date and the year of the Lord’s return and they were proved wrong. Some have predicted the year of his return but they were proved wrong. We tend to forget these false prophecies as the years go by, but we need to remember if they made a claim and did not happen, how can you trust in their church. Jesus him self warned the church repeatedly, before his coming many false prophets will rise. False prophet is any person who gives a prophecy or a prediction and it will not happen.
Mt 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Let me go over some of the false predictions given by certain people in our time.
Church Universal and Triumphant: Elizabeth Clare Prophet prophesied that nuclear war would occur in 1990. The group is now suffering a dramatic decline as members tire of waiting for Armageddon.
Jehovah's Witnesses: Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, prophesied that the end of the world would occur by the end of 1914. (Charles Taze Russell, The Time is at Hand, 1889, p.99. The Watchtower Society predicted that Armageddon would occur in 1914. They now teach that Jesus Christ returned invisibly in 1914. They also predicted that Abraham and others would be resurrected in 1925, and that Armageddon would occur in 1941 and 1975 (they deny the 1975 prediction). They also predicted that Armageddon would occur with the "generation of 1914." They now say that "generation" is a figurative term for anyone who can understand the significance of 1914.
William Miller: Prophesied that Christ would return in 1843, then 1844. The Seventh-day Adventists Church came from the Millerite movement.
Ellen G. White, spiritual founder of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, spoke as a prophet of God in declaring that anyone who had not accepted the Adventist message by October 22, 1844 had no hope of eternal life. (Robert D. Brinsmead, Judged by the Gospel: A Review of Adventism, 1980, pp. 130-133.)
"Moses" David Berg, leader of The Children of God, prophesied that the United States would be destroyed in 1974 by the comet Kohoutek. (David Berg, "The Third Letter of Moses on the Comet," November 12, 1973.)
Jean Dixon, America's most famous psychic, claiming that God spoke through her, predicted that a woman would be elected President of the United States
On 1835-FEB-14, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, attended a meeting of church leaders. He said that the meeting had been called because God had commanded it. He announced that Jesus would return within 56 years -- i.e. before 1891-FEB-15. (History of the Church 2:182)
When asked about a possible backlash by supporters because of false divination, Robertson replied, "What are they gonna do, stone me? I'm just giving weather reports, for pete's sake."
1988-MAY: A 1981 movie titled "The man who saw tomorrow" described some of Nostradamus predictions. Massive earthquakes were predicted for San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Let us look at scripture what the word of God says of a false prediction. The result is death.
13:1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
We Christians should not follow anything that comes out of the pulpit or follow the crowd as the church is big but only listen to the advise of apostle Paul by testing everything that comes from the pulpit.
Acts 17:10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
But today due to the worldliness in the church, and many have turned the purity of the gospel into entertainment, fleshly appetites as many are serving the Lord not in the spirit but in the flesh, there is a famine in the land. God’s prophecy is true.
Amos 8:11 “Behold,
the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“when I
will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a
thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.