CHAPTER SEVEN –MORE CHARACTERISTICS
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There are additional elements of character and conduct common to false prophets that need to be examined and understood. The first is introduced with one of the Bible’s most tragic examples.
King Saul’s love/hate relationship with David is well-known. Most are familiar with this sad but instructive story, where Saul slowly yielded himself to a demon. This account proves that people can start out “little in their own eyes” and yet fall so far from God that they can actually become demon-possessed. In I Corinthians 10:11, Paul was inspired to record that “all these things [the many Old Testament accounts] happened unto them for ensamples [margin: types]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
What can be learned from Saul’s tragic end?
It would take much time to show how Saul left serving God. Suffice to say that he ignored Samuel’s instruction and slowly came to fear David, once a dear friend, and came to see him as an adversary—a competitor—and twice sought to kill him with a javelin.
In I Samuel 19 ALL, an amazing account culminates in 1 Samuel 19:24. A demon spirit was said to be “upon Saul” (1 Samuel 19:9), making him completely crazy (1 Samuel 19:23-24). The account states that he stripped himself naked and “prophesied” all night. The Hebrew word prophesied is better translated “raged,” and Saul literally did this all night. Incredibly, the result was that people began to say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
This is a curious statement. While at first glance it does not seem to fit the context, it actually does. How? And what is the message for us? Remember, these accounts are written for “our admonition upon whom the ends of the world have come” (I Cor. 10:11)!
Here is the point! False prophets do often rage, sometimes in great anger, and conduct themselves in a bizarre fashion. Strangely, this account reveals that it can be this very conduct that causes people to think themselves in the presence of a prophet of God! Religious people (particularly in a “spiritual” or “church” setting) often reach this wrong conclusion—and this Old Testament example explains why.
What was really occurring was simply a demon controlling a human vessel!
Saul was vexed, and often outright possessed, by a demon. The unwitting and fearful (which was apparently almost everybody in Israel at the time) continued to follow him anyway simply because he was “the king”—and this led them to eventually conclude that he was “among the prophets.” Fear gripped the MAJORITY—while only a few hundred people chose to follow David until Saul died! The lesson is that despite the fact that Saul had become a crazy demoniac, most of his subjects continued with him anyway!
This account should truly sober you! It is a characteristic of false prophets and demoniacs to bellow, rage, belittle and attack other people—sometimes relentlessly—to elevate themselves. Apparently, Saul also had a particularly murderous spirit, which repeatedly tried to kill David, or have him killed. Saul became abusive. Yet, few had the courage to stand against him, because he was “the king.” Over time, Saul became a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” One moment, he could be warm, friendly, charming, and David’s best friend, and seconds later a raging murderer seeking to kill David!
Be careful if what is being described is a pattern visible in your leader. It is not of God.
Another scripture directly relates to what we have just discussed. Revelation 12:10 calls Satan the “accuser of the brethren.” He attacks, accuses and slanders God’s people “day and night” before God—never letting up. Constant accusation is a common characteristic of those in Satan’s grip!
Let’s consider. As weak and pitiful as is the condition of Laodicea, those of the final era are still God’s people. While very different from Philadelphians, they are still brethren. Never lose sight of this.
Tragically, the PCG leader has, because he has instructed his followers that they can speak to worldly unbelievers, but not to converted Laodiceans.
Reflect a moment! Above all of the qualities that Philadelphians are known for, God named those of the sixth era for brotherly love. While they “hold fast what they have” doctrinally, and have “kept [His] Word,” among others, God actually names them for BROTHERLY LOVE. No true Philadelphian (or Christian, for that matter) continually attacks, slanders, maligns and accuses all the “evil Laodiceans”! Those of the seventh era do keep God’s commandments and have the testimony of Jesus! Again, they are God’s people! Sadly, it is true that only half will make it into the kingdom of God, and they will have to lose their lives in the Tribulation to get there (Rev. 20:4). But no one with God’s Spirit would ever forbid all contact with them.
It should be a great warning to you if your leader continually attacks and accuses the “evil Laodiceans”! The devil is always the one behind the raging, slandering and relentless attacking of those who need help—from God and their brethren—to awaken!
Recall that Daniel said, “They that UNDERSTAND …shall INSTRUCT many.” How does this fit with blasting, lambasting, attacking, slandering and accusing anyone—never mind brethren—through endless name-calling. This will not help awaken God’s people—it will drive them away, and possibly into the lake of fire! No one who loves his fellow man can ignore the seriousness of helping precipitate such a terrible end for those whom GOD calls brethren. The Christ of the Bible would never have His servant declare “civil war” between eras by stating, “We are at war with the Laodiceans.”
If this is your leader, he is wrong and his actions are absolutely ungodly! But they are consistent with the conduct of a RAGING FALSE PROPHET!
Another characteristic of false prophets is that few or none of their prophecies ever really come to pass. For instance, if a “prophet” openly identifies (predicts) the man of sin, and states that Christ will destroy this man “with the brightness of His Coming,” and the man subsequently dies of natural causes long before Christ comes—the case with Mr. Armstrong’s successor—this is a failed prophecy, disproving the prophet’s authority!
If a man predicts (in 1995) that the O.J. Simpson trial would “produce a guilty verdict” and that race riots would ensue as a result, and the verdict comes back not guilty—and there are, of course, no race riots—this is a failed prophecy, disproving the prophet’s authority!
If a man predicts an earthquake (in 1994), or any other major event for a specific date, and it occurs even a few hours into the next day—and this happened with the one claiming to be That Prophet—this is a failed prophecy, disproving the prophet’s authority! Close is not good enough. Actually, the chilling truth is that being closemeans that the man is connected to EVIL ELEMENTS IN THE SPIRIT WORLD!
Do you grasp this?
Demons are also aware of events that God is controlling. In the end, being close to correct is actually worse than if the prophet were far from correct. At least this way he might then have only been speaking presumptuously (Deut. 18:22), without contact from either God or evil spirits.
Carefully reflect on what God declares in Ezekiel 14 ALL: “And if the prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy himfrom the midst of my people Israel” (Ezekiel 14:9).
If this passage does not sober a false prophet, probably nothing will. But, more important, will it sober you? God reveals that the real source of the false prophet’s delusion is actually HIM—GOD! W hen a prophet speaks falsely, it is because he has already departed from God, and thus become the recipient of God’s own form of “deception.” As with King Ahab of Israel, for instance, the Bible reveals that God sometimes sends “lying spirits” to carry out His purpose, in that case to deceive Ahab to go to battle where he would die.
This passage in Ezekiel reveals that within the understanding that demons are actually the ones inspiring a false prophet, it is God who has sent one or more of these spirits to fulfill His purpose, which can also be to present a test to God’s people regarding whether or not they will follow those He has not sent.
If a prophet is sent by God, every one of his prophecies will always be PERFECTLY accurate—no exceptions! He would not merely be close to the timing and truth of events “foretold.” He would always be completely correct, if God was sending a warning through him. Never forget this, because God is always right!
But there is an important, related aspect about false prophets.
The last section described a prediction from the one claiming to be That Prophet about Mr. Armstrong’s successor being the man of sin, and how this man was scheduled for destruction by the “brightness” of Christ at His Return. Besides the fact that this was a failed prophecy, there is another even greater problem with this prognostication. (First, realize that this false prophet simply shifted his “prophecy” about this deceased man to his son—now believing that the son of Mr. Armstrong’s successor would, in fact, be the man of sin. It was sort of, “Oops, I had the wrong WCG leader in mind. Not to worry, it’s the son, not dad.” Incredibly, most of his church seemed to give him a free pass on this.)
Now let’s understand the much greater problem than having in mind the wrong generation of the same family!
To those with the Spirit of God, the Bible is plain about the identity of the man of sin. Mr. Armstrong taught, and the Church long understood, that the man of sin is the final “false prophet” who will usher in the “beast” (a political/military superdictator), foretold to be given power over a ten-nation combine, often referred to in the Church as the United States of Europe. Virtually no one had any doubts about who the man of sin would be. There were never discussions speculating on where this religious “leader” might come from. (There were many discussions, however, about when this man might appear.) No one in the Church doubted that he would arise out of the great “woman” church, described variously in Revelation 17:5 as “Babylon,” a “whore” and the “mother of harlots.” The entire Church once understood that this figure would almost certainly be possessed of the devil and would be given special supernatural power by him to perform lying signs and wonders for the purpose of bringing the whole world to worship the beast (II Thes. 2:9). In fact, 2 Thessalonians 2:10 and 11 in the same chapter warn that those who do not “love the truth” would be sent “strong delusion” to believe lies from (and about) the man of sin.
Everyone knew they had better keep this understanding straight!
Any number of books and booklets made this man’s identity most clear. So did many sermons. The most important among them was Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast? The very newest members of the Church understood these things—PLAINLY! Yet, the one claiming to be, in effect, the greatest prophet of all time—That Prophet—no longer understands what 150,000 brethren knew as surely as they knew Christmas and Easter are pagan, Saturday is the Sabbath and God is not a trinity!
You must ask yourself: Is it even remotely within the realm of possibility that a true prophet of God could become confused about the identity of the man of sin, when even widow Jones in Paducah was never confused about this?
Actually, the question grows: Could a true prophet of God (never mind That Prophet) become mixed up about such a fundamental and major centerpiece about how the entire plan of God and prophetic sequence of events at the end of the age would play out? Of course not!
The problem was that this false leader fell into superimposing the truth that the Church is God’s temple with the fact that the man of sin was also foretold in II Thessalonians 2 ALL to “sit in the temple,” claiming to be God. (I can tell you that Mr. Armstrong told me personally, in the middle of a wide-ranging discussion [in about 1980] about prophecy, that these temples could not possibly be one and the same.) This “temple-error” thinking has led this man into a host of other temple-related ideas that could only be described as ridiculous—absolutely absurd! Some of these will be seen in the list of his errors found in a later section of the book.
This list will take the reader deep into other kinds of horribly botched, butchered and mangled understanding of prophecy that this man has fallen into. Consider this. You will learn that he no longer even has a basic understanding of what is the Church’s prophesied commission—the Great Commission of Matthew 24:14 and 28:19-20—which is to announce the kingdom of God to the world and to warn the modern nations of Israel. Having forgotten this, this blind leader openly declared in late 2005 that the Church’s commission is to “expose Satan and his evil everywhere we find him.”
What? Where could he—how could he—come up with such an idea? Certainly not from Mr. Armstrong!—and certainly not from God!
Obsession with obtaining the copyrights to some of Mr. Armstrong’s books and booklets has contributed to the now opaque darkness that has replaced the light of truth once in his thinking. Anger and hatred at those who took the Worldwide Church of God into apostasy has caused so many to lose their sense of proportion—their basic soundness of mind (II Tim. 1:7) toward Scripture—and this is what is propelling the one claiming to be “That Prophet.”
Such leaders—such “prophets”—are no longer (or possibly never were) God’s servants, let alone true prophets. How could even one person believe he was following Christ by following such men? Yet, thousands seem to have no problem.
The real source of this leader’s problem presents itself in the next section.
A less familiar characteristic of false prophets, and this is related to the last two sections, is that they are often extremely prolific in claiming new revelations from God. True prophets always speak plain, simple truth, delivered without frills!
Typically, false prophets claim that they are getting “more and more insight.” They often work late at night (recall that Saul raged all night), while they produce things that are increasingly bizarre, odd and strange. They also claim, and I have seen this several times in my 30-plus-year ministry, that the new understanding they are receiving is coming “faster than they can record it.” This makes no sense if such understanding or supposed new insight were coming from God. If God wants to send a message, why would He give it faster than the prophet could receive it? As a man yields himself to the demon manipulating him, in fact, he does become consumed with his messages and the need to deliver them. The God of peace would never rev His servants to fever pitch. The Bible does not record such a pattern.
I have dealt with any number of demon-possessed people. It is these spirits who create a frenetic, rushed, frantic mindset in those they are vexing or controlling. Remember—God’s Spirit reflects “power, love and asound mind” (II Tim. 1:7). When what is being said, and/or a person’s actions, are continually unsound, it is NOTcoming from God! “Revelations” often occur late at night because spirits know that the mind of a sleep-deprived person grows weaker and more open to outside influence! I have seen this pattern far too often!
No description of false prophets is complete without explaining one final characteristic. These deceivers always seem to find new ways to elevate themselves to greater offices and roles! Declaring oneself to hold the second-highest New Testament office—PROPHET—is, in itself, a huge self-elevation. But it rarely stops there.
While other splinter leaders have said “they could beapostles” or “some may think” they are apostles (Ron Weinland also believes himself an apostle) Gerald Flurry has also now declared himself to be one. He stated this long after this book was written. This man is an apostle—a false one (actually both men), because of the many heresies he teaches. His fruits, along with PCG’s fruits, are terrible. We saw in II Corinthians 11:13-15 that Paul was not afraid to declare men to be false apostles. Neither am I afraid to call these men what they are. But it is ultimately the responsibility of God’s people to discern the difference between true and false apostles. More false leaders will rise in the future to make this claim.
Declaring himself an apostle becomes a means by which he can validate his assertion that he is a true prophet. Since there is no living apostle for him to report his “truth” to, he simply declares himself to hold both offices, even though there is no biblical pattern or example of such! Since this deceiver claims to be delivering newrevelations from God, he can easily declare himself an apostle. Remember, the Bible teaches and Mr. Armstrong taught that truth only enters the Church through apostles.
This never-ending acquisition of more titles better secures the false prophet’s followers under his spell. The man declaring himself That Prophet also claims he is The Lawgiver, The Voice, King, Father, The Messenger, Teacher of Righteousness, The Nail, among MANY others! Of course, there will be more in the future. Such is the working of a cult leader.
BUT THESE DIVINE AND RELIGIOUS TITLES HAVE ALL GIVEN HIM A TREMENDOUSLY POWERFUL GRIP ON THOSE WHOSE WORSHIP HE SEEKS!
God the Father is the only Lawgiver in the Bible. Jesus Christ will bring and administer the Father’s Law to the whole world at His Return, and Moses is the only human who was ever a type of Christ in this way. It should be clear that anyone claiming to be “The Lawgiver” is taking another role of both God the Father and, in an indirect sense, Christ. This is a second reason that PCG’s leader is also a false Christ! Further, Mr. Armstrong and John the Baptist were both Elijahs who filled the roles of “a voice” and “a messenger.” No one else in the New Testament is prophesied to be a similar voice or messenger. But anyone elevating himself into these roles isfully consistent with a false prophet!
It is important to recognize that only Jesus Christ is both an Apostle and a Prophet. Hebrews 3:1 states that He is an Apostle, and we have already proven that He is That Prophet. Christ’s roles are consistent with what Mr. Armstrong taught. Recall that he explained there cannot be a true prophet without a living apostle! This becomes proof that Christ inspired Mr. Armstrong to teach as he did.
Consider! Christ Himself could not have been a true Prophet unless he was also an Apostle. Remember, you can have an apostle without a prophet, but never vice-versa. This explains why God assigned both offices to Christ!
But has this man’s habit of taking titles gone further than any have realized?
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