CHAPTER SIX –FEAR, FLATTERY, FILTHY LUCRE AND FALSE PROPHETS
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Take a moment to review Deuteronomy 18:22. Christ inspired Moses to warn God’s people to “not be afraidof” false prophets. This is because they do engender fear in their followers! Actually, this is their central goal.FEAR is generally how they motivate followers.
Any false prophet “worth his salt” knows he must make his followers fear to leave him. One way he does this is to promise them things if they stay with him. Also, if people leave, he knows that he loses financial support. No mystery here!
Titus warns of “gainsayers…vain talkers and deceivers…whose mouths must be stopped” because they “teach things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Titus 1:9-11). In the end, false teachers always have a money angle hidden in their “new teachings.” II Peter 2:1-3 explains that the false prophets of the Old Testament (of which Peter was speaking) functioned like false teachers in the New Testament. 2 Peter 2:3 shows that it is through “covetousness which they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” Another way of stating this is false prophets try to deceive you so that they can take God’s money from you!
Do you believe these plain warnings?
Here is another more extensive statement from the Correspondence Course about the psychology that false prophets use on their followers. Notice the “fear angle” and the “money angle.” Carefully follow the logic and teaching. It may help unlock your mind from the fear preventing you from leaving one employing these tactics:
“But just HOW would you KNOW whether a man is a ‘false prophet?’
“Would YOU know, for sure, how to recognize a false prophet?
“There is one absolutely SURE WAY to know.
“Here it is: When you search the Bible from beginning to end, you’ll find the false prophets have had ONE THING IN COMMON. They have always put the emphasis on a promised desirable RESULT, while ignoring, rejecting, or opposing GOD’S WAY to that result. They always treat the EFFECT, not the CAUSE. But the TRUE prophets of God have always put emphasis on the right CAUSE—on God’s WAY to the desired blessings…
“But the false prophets ignore or oppose God’s Law. They encourage people in continuing their WRONG WAY. They ignore or tacitly approve this WRONG WAY. They work for PEACE, for prosperity, for desired GOOD THINGS, while encouraging people to travel the OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM those desired ends!…[Author’s Note: They may even tell you that they are continuing God’s Work.]
“King Ahab gathered together these false prophets before him, and asked: ‘Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?’ And they answered, ‘Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king’ (I Kings 22:6). These false prophets advised the king to go a WRONG WAY, and promised a GOOD RESULT.
“…‘Thus saith the ETERNAL of Hosts, Hearken NOT unto the words of the prophets that preach unto you: they make you vain:’ that is, they flatter, approve, encourage vanity—‘they speak a vision of their own heart, and NOT out of the mouth of the ETERNAL. They say unto them that despise me, The Eternal hath said, Ye shall have peace;’—they promise a GOOD RESULT, while approving a WRONG WAY. Or, to quote from the Revised Standard Version: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets (preachers) who prophesy (preach) to you, filling you with VAIN HOPES; they speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the ETERNAL. They say continually to those who despise the Word of the ETERNAL, “It shall be well with you”; and to every one who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, “No evil shall come upon you.”’”
“That is, go THE WRONG WAY, and there will be no penalty—no evil RESULT. They promise a good result for a wrong cause.
“This 23rd chapter of Jeremiah is a prophecy about conditions in OUR TIME, NOW shortly before Christ’s return as KING of kings to rule the whole earth. Notice, in Jeremiah 23:20 ‘… in the LATTER DAYS, ye shall consider it perfectly.’”
Test 6, Lessons 21-24, 1960, 1968
Notice that this quote spoke of false prophets “promising you a good result.” Now ask: “Am I being repeatedly told that if I follow my leader, he is my ticket to the Place of Safety?” No one wants to go through the Tribulation. I don’t! I doubt you do. It certainly “plays well in Peoria” to promise protection through this horrendous period, unlike all others. To be “protected,” all that one must do is succumb, give his mind to the prophet, and his “new revelations” and “new truths,” and the Place of Safety is secured! The flip side of this is that this man relentlessly threatens his followers with the Tribulation—or the lake of fire—IF THEY LEAVE HIM!
Be careful of declaring, “Well, our leader is not speaking against the Law!” Yes, he is—and plainly so! Moseswrote the five “Books of the Law,” including Deuteronomy 18:15. If someone tries to convince you that That Prophet is someone other than Christ, he is speaking directly contrary to “the Law,” which has always been far more than the Ten Commandments.
Do you see this?
King Ahab thought he could trust a false prophet, and it cost him his life! Recall that Jeremiah’s prophecy is for those in the “latter days.” He wrote, under inspiration of God, that we today should “consider it perfectly.
Do not let your leader control your mind through fear of missing out on the Place of Safety. He knows that if you leave him, he misses out on God’s tithes (and he will also miss out on the Place of Safety, anyway—and the kingdom of God—if he does not repent). Keep this simple. Peter and Paul knew carnal-minded false prophets could figure out this angle. Certainly then, you and I can. As Christ warned, referencing the abomination of desolation in Daniel, “he who reads, let him understand”—and this includes understanding the many great dangers present at the end of the age. Incidentally, Christ said this in Matthew 24:15, just eight verses before warning of false prophets and false Christs. Review this passage, asking if you are one that Daniel described as the “wise that understand” (Daniel 12:10).
Jeremiah 23 ALL is a truly remarkable prophecy. Notice that it warns how false prophets “make you vain”—that is, they flatter, approve and encourage vanity. (Remember, the Correspondence Course quoted extensively from it.) The “wise that understand” is also addressed in Daniel 11 ALL!
The following passage should inspire and motivate the strong among God’s people! Carefully note: “But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that UNDERSTAND among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. Andsome of them of UNDERSTANDING shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed” (Daniel 11:32-35).
This prophecy pictures the trials, tests, difficulties and determination of “strong” people of “understanding” in God’s Church at the end of the age, stating that there will be a people “with understanding…[who] shall instruct many…even to the time of the end.” Mr. Armstrong related that he asked God for understanding more than any other single gift. Obviously, God answered him—and he taught God’s ministry and people to pursue understanding.
This passage proves flatterers get into the Church—and that flattery plays a role in the strategy employed by false prophets.
This is the end time. Will you let a false prophet “cleave to YOU with flattery”? Will you let him “make you vain” by continually telling you how special you are? How you are automatically Philadelphian if you follow him? How you cannot be deceived if you follow him? How you will be protected if you follow him? How you will receive more new and special understanding, if you follow him? These are compelling inducements designed to control you through a combination of fear and flattery. Will you allow clever psychology to CONTROL you?
Force yourself to objectively answer these questions!
Isaiah 8:20 teaches that if leaders (including wizards, false prophets, people with “familiar spirits,” etc.) do not speak according “to the law and to the testimony,” and “if they speak not according to this word Deuteronomy 18:15-22 is part of God’s word and the law], it is because there is no light in them.” We will see that SOMETHING ELSE is often in them. And this verse is God’s warning about it.
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