“Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.” – Jeremiah 14:14
OUR LORD FORETOLD THAT “many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:11); the apostle Paul, that the time would come when men would not endure sound doctrine, but turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables (2 Timothy 4:4). This foul pairing predominates much of what is mistakenly called “Christianity” in our present age, where perversions of the gospel are classified as “the gospel”, where perversions of the Bible are classified as “holy scripture”, where decontextualized and distorted Old Testament passages are perverted to idolize present-day, counterfeit, manmade Israel. Yet unsaved religious people love to have it so, and, rather than rebuke the false prophets presenting these lies, they adore them as “men of God” and gnash their teeth against those who endeavor to warn them of the deceivers they cherish. I ask that you bear with me as I labor, by the power of the Holy Spirit, without whom I can do nothing (John 15:5), to expand upon this subject, and demonstrate four ways by which the prophets prophesy lies.
LIE #1: FALSE GOSPEL
In the first place, the prophets prophesy lies about salvation. There is no greater deception in the world today than the odious lie of Lordship Salvation, that despicable falsehood that a man cannot go to heaven simply by acknowledging he is a sinner and believing the gospel for salvation, but that he must also pledge to surrender his life to following Christ as “Lord.” Yet, that detestable, accursed corruption of the gospel is not the only deception the false prophets proffer. A false definition of “repentance” which falsely requires sinners commit to turning from, and giving up their sins as a condition of salvation is likewise taught. So, too, is the myth that, in order to be saved, one must give his heart to God, or invite Jesus into his heart, or surrender his life to Christ, or turn over a new leaf and live a dramatically changed life.
Though each of these false gospels may sound reasonable, and though they greatly appeal to unsaved religious people whose self-righteous opinion of themselves prevents them from humbly acknowledging they can have no part whatsoever in their salvation, they are all in direct contradiction with the King James Bible. Salvation is by grace, and if it is by grace, it cannot also be of works, otherwise grace is no more grace (Romans 11:6). Men do not have eternal life because they make themselves good enough to deserve it, or earn it through their pious labors, for they can do nothing of the kind. In order to go to heaven, men must have the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed on their behalf (verse reference); their own filthy rags of self-righteousness and good works can never suffice (Isaiah 64:6). The only way a man can have Christ’s righteousness imputed on his behalf is by believing that he is a sinner guilty of violating God’s law, condemned to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire, and by believing that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten, sinless Son of God, died on Calvary’s cross for his sins, was buried, and was bodily resurrected three days later unto his justification.
LIE #2: MODERN BIBLE PERVERSIONS
The prophets prophesy falsely about the word of God. While denigrating the venerable King James Bible as archaic, inaccurate, unreliable, and unsound, the false prophets heap praises upon the modern translations of the Bible. Absurd as these praises may be, they are accompanied by the insidious lie that the modern versions come from the same text as the King James Bible, and that the two differ only in the obsolete vocabulary of the latter being modernized to become easier to read and understand. Yet, this farcical falsehood is quickly contradicted by their equally dubious claim that the modern versions are based on better and older manuscripts than those from which the King James Bible is derived, thereby admitting the two come from completely different families of manuscripts. They even go so far as to claim the modern philosophies of translation, whereby the text is rendered thought for thought, rather than word for word, can somehow be more accurate than directly translating word for word.
As I have written at length about this subject many times in these pages, I will but briefly delve into this crucial topic by referencing the philosophical problems which arise from such statements. The prevailing notion that the King James Bible is “hard to understand” is a myth disproven by the fact that its syntax is simple and it reads at a lower grade level than the unnecessarily complex and imbecilic “easy to read” modern translations. If the King James Bible is based on erroneous and faulty manuscripts, then that means God failed to perverse his pure words unto every generation as he promised in Psalm 12:6-7. And if he failed to preserve his words when he said he would, how can he be trusted to have raised Jesus Christ from the dead as he said he did? How can he be trusted to save those that believe on Christ? A God that cannot so much as preserve words written on paper can scarcely be thought capable of redeeming sinners from hell. If this were the case, how can we take him at his word for anything?
Moreover, the textual “experts” themselves readily declare that their “science” of Bible butchering is constantly changing as different manuscripts are discovered and new methods of analyzing them are developed. Many of the modern perversions, such as the hellish NIV, have been “updated” significantly multiple times since they were published, and doubtless will continue to be “updated” in years to come. That some of what they say now will eventually be changed means that some of what they say now is WRONG and INACCURATE, the very things false prophets falsely accuse the King James Bible of being. Why would one hearken unto a error-laden, ever-changing text with no hope of ever being accurate, when the pure King James Bible remains unaltered in over four centuries of existence?
The Almighty cannot change (Malachi 3:6). It is he “with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). He is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). His word is not a feeble, transient thing which must be perpetually updated and corrected by sinful men, but is a thing which endures forever (1 Peter 1:25), and shall not perish though the grass wither and the flower fade (Isaiah 40:8), though heaven and earth pass away (Matthew 24:35). It stands to reason, then, that any so-called “Bible” version whose very existence violates these sober truths cannot be of God. It stands to reason, likewise, that any interpretation of the holy scriptures which destroys their very foundation cannot be just.
LIE #3: ISRAEL
The prophets prophesy falsely about the modern, manmade nation of Israel, in spinning fantastic yarns which claim this evil, warmongering, abominable nation is not a counterfeit of biblical Israel, but the genuine, God-ordained country populated by “God’s chosen people.” They will trod underfoot the two commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets – to love God with all of one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love thy neighbor as thyself – in excusing Israel’s sordid history of war crimes, deceit, unprovoked violence against Palestinians, sadistic treatment of political prisoners, and wanton contempt for Jesus Christ. They will aim to convince you that a God of love and justice somehow approves of slaughtering the weak and innocent simply because wicked, Christ-rejecting Jews desire their lands and properties. They will even go so far as to claim God loves Jews more than Gentiles, that the entire Bible is focused on Israel rather than Jesus Christ, and that unsaved, unbelieving Jews are more precious to the Almighty than Gentiles who have believed on his Son.
I have previously exposed the insanity and depravity of so-called “Christian” Zionism, but I shall briefly reiterate the points I formerly made. In the first place, the modern nation of Israel is an abomination to the Almighty, a cesspool of blasphemers, revilers, hoodlums, and war criminals which deserves the universal disgrace it has never sufficiently received. It was created in 1948, not by the “will of God”, but by the brute force of international bankers and occultic racketeers who stole the land from Palestinians to spearhead their plans for world government of which Revelation has long testified. And for this, and many other reasons, I contend, contrary to the sickeningly distorted misinterpretation of Genesis 12:3, that God’s CURSE is upon those who bless this contemptible nation of Christ-rejecting blasphemers.
The word of God’s focus is the gospel of Jesus Christ – not Jews. Revelation 19:10 tells us that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” The testimony of Jesus – not Jews, but Jesus. And since there is no respect of persons with God (Romans 2:11), Jehovah casts Christ-rejecting Jews into hell just as he casts Christ-rejecting Gentiles. God does not view Jews more favorably than Gentiles, for Jews are sinners just as Gentiles are sinners. The Jew never has been, and never will be, favored by God over the Gentile. Yet, I would do you, my reader, a disservice, without mentioning the Bible’s definition of “Jew”:
(28) “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: (29) But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Romans 2:28-29)
According to the holy writ, those who have stolen Palestine from Palestinians are not even true Jews. What with the fact that the false Jews have distorted the Old Testament to make it seem there was a biblical mandate for them to return to the land, and the fact that, because they are not real Jews and not even biologically related to Abraham, they never were qualified to return to the land in the first place, and the condition that true Israel must first return to the Lord before returning to the land (which the false Jews obviously have not done), it becomes evident why so much deception is necessary. I scarcely need mention God hates a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood (Proverbs 6:17).
LIE #4: JUDGING AND REBUKING ERROR
The prophets prophesy falsely about the necessary act of judging and distinguishing evil from good, and false from true. The detestable ecumenical movement has become increasingly popular in recent years, and with it has ineluctably followed an apostasizing flow of false doctrines and general ungodliness. Ironically, the great “enemy” of the ecumenical movement is not the false prophets, who rightly, under Old Testament law, were to be executed for their pernicious ways. Nor is it the false “Bible” perversions which ought only be used for supplying the fireplace in winter. Nor is it the swarms of worldly wicked who proffer the baleful lies of evolution, humanism, psychology, atheism, and every false religion under the sun.
Rather, the “great” enemy is anyone who desires to obey God by heeding the command to “earnestly contend for the faith” (Jude 1:3). It is anyone who seeks to please the Father of lights by obeying the command to “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). It is anyone who wants to heed the Almighty by proclaiming God’s curse upon all who preach another gospel (Galatians 1:8-9). In short, if you desire to proclaim Jesus Christ as the only way to heaven, and denounce all other paths as false ways which lead to the Lake of Fire, you have violated the great ecumenical law of “tolerance”, which stipulates that everything false is to be accepted, while everything true is to be reproved.
Ecumenicism’s disgusting hypocrisy aside, God pronounces woe “unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Christ commanded his disciples to “judge righteous judgement” (John 7:24), because false prophets would be known by their fruits, that is, their doctrine (Matthew 7:20). The apostle John warned believers to “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
If there was no difference between sound and unsound doctrine, why would God have given man such means for distinguishing the one from the other?
CONCLUSION
Many deceivers are entered into the world, dear reader; that these deceivers claim to represent Jesus Christ, and love God, and profess zeal for the scriptures, is merely the guise by which they beguile many into receiving their damnable heresies. They perpetuate deceitful myths and despicable lies which corrupt the gospel, change the truth of God into a lie, and undermine believers’ belief in the accuracy of the King James Bible. And they do it all while blandly assuring their listeners that their speech is godly and their doctrine sound.
But these things ought not so be. Rest assured, they will not forever be, for these ungodly men were of old ordained to this condemnation, and though they now perpetuate wretched falsehoods, their damnation slumbereth not. Please do not allow the John MacArthurs and Joel Osteens of the world to swindle your soul out of the free gift of eternal life, dear reader. To be saved, you do not need to change anything about yourself, except realize you are a sinner who is incapable of redeeming yourself from hell, and believe the gospel as your only hope for heaven. I pray that you do not allow false prophets through covetousness to make merchandise of you with feigned words, but rather believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.