In the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a simple statement about the world in general that has become my core defense against false doctrine. From the Revised Standard Version we read: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done there is nothing new under the sun” (ECC 1:9 RSV).

If there is nothing new under the sun, how is it possible for people to keep finding new interpretations of Scripture? If the Bible is said to be sealed up (Rev. 22:18-19), why does God supposedly keep providing new information to select groups of people? The only valid answer I can think of is that this new stuff is just the same old lies and deceptions repackaged.

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18-19 KJV).

The Bible is God’s complete and exhaustive manual on how to maintain a good Christian life. There is no need for us to go on a quest for higher understanding. Any difficulty on the part of man’s understanding rests with his inability to just accept the boring truth. Satan keeps trying to say, “You’re missing something,” or “There’s a better way.” He told this lie to Adam and Eve, and we all know what happened to them.

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NIV).

Standing On The Word Of God

Christian apologists spend a huge amount of time refuting every new teaching that springs up. Because the devil is continually on the job, erroneous doctrine tends to encroach upon us like jungle vines. In the early Church, every time Paul turned around, he had to combat some new falsehood that was creeping into the body of Christ.

Because an unlimited number of false doctrines is circulating in the world, rather than reading up on what everyone else believes, I think it’s a far easier task to focus on what we should believe concerning God’s Kingdom.

In many cases, heretical doctrine can be very difficult to detect. A lie can be wrapped in 95% truth and still be a lie. This is why we need to use the Word of God like a Geiger counter. And we don’t just need to use it to help us discern the truth about what others believe, we also need to use the Bible to help us evaluate what we believe because deceived people are often led to believe that everyone else is in the grip of deception.

One of the easiest ways to identify false doctrine is to constantly remember that there is nothing new under the sun. If someone comes to you with a new revelation or a vision he or his organization claims to have received from God, this new doctrine needs to parrot what is already plainly written in the Bible in order to be considered truth.

New doctrine also must stand up against any opposing passages. Several years ago, a group in California claimed that the Bible granted the right to smoke marijuana. They cited Genesis 1:30: “I have given every green herb for meat.” The local police allowed this band of potheads to get away with smoking grass in public on the grounds of religious freedom until they caught some of them selling the green herb to undercover agents.

Genesis 1:30 does say that God has given us every green herb; however, elsewhere in the Bible it says we should be sober-minded. Taking a stand against man’s first choice of drugs and alcohol, the Word of God says, “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Th. 5:7-8 KJV).

My 1,000-Cults Rule

Many cults have sales pitches that sound very compelling. With recruitment being their primary goal, it should come as no surprise that most cults use a number of enticing tactics.

When approached by a cult member, you might get the hard sell: “If you don’t join us, you’ll end up getting tossed into the Lake of Fire with the rest of the harlot church. Or you might hear the soft sell, which might go like this: “Don’t you want to be a part of God’s perfect will?”

Before you get stressed out from trying to figure out whether they’re right, you need to realize one very important fact. If 1,000 cults are active in the world, with each one claiming to be the one true religion, the law of mathematical improbability should put the burden of proof on them, and not you.

Your average cultist just assumes his group is the lucky one out of 1,000 that holds a monopoly on the truth. It should be obvious that they all can’t be right. If it were legally possible to patent religious slogans, I’m sure there would be quite a fight at the U.S. Patent Office over who gets to claim the right to “the one true religion.”

“Beloved, 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).

Where Do People Keep Coming Up With This Stuff?

It never ceases to amaze me how people can hold firmly to beliefs they never bother to verify. When we get into the shower, we first check to see if the water is too hot or too cold. When we go on an extended trip in our cars, we make sure the gas tanks are full. How in the world can people just blindly assume they have it right without first checking the Bible?

I fear many people must think the spiritual world runs exclusively on the power of positive thinking. Those blank pages at the back of your Bible are for dedications; they’re not there for us to write in our own opinions of what constitutes biblical truth.

When men decide to implant their own ideas into the Bible, false doctrine results. And once it’s conceived, the author of the false doctrine will often bend Scripture to support his new interpretation. Quite often, false doctrines are so much in conflict with the rest of the Bible that huge portions of Scripture need to be given special interpretation.

One of the worst cases of Scripture bending I’ve seen is the “Jesus only” doctrine. This cultic teaching says there is no God or Holy Spirit; there’s only Jesus Christ. It is based on Acts 2:38, which records Peter telling people to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Oneness people have an incredible task in trying to explain away hundreds of passages that imply oddities like God talking to or sitting next to himself. If Jesus is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then who was praying to whom at the Garden of Gethsemane?

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

The Best Of Times; The Worst Of Times

With prophecy being fulfilled every day and with the rapture of the church ever closer, we could easily say we are living in the most exciting part of the Church Age. Because the end times are predicted to be times of gross apostasy, we are also living in very spiritually dangerous times.

We have the opportunity to be the first generation to not experience physical death, but we also have the same opportunity to come under God’s unrestrained wrath. It behooves us to choose very wisely which path we intend to follow.

As we near the conclusion of this age, who knows what kind of tricks the devil has up his sleeve. It’s not just the well-identified cults we need to worry about. Deception is erupting in some of the most unlikely areas of the Church. Denominations that once stood firmly on God’s Word are now suddenly falling victim to false doctrine.

So what do you do when you hear some new teaching that sounds as delicious as homemade ice cream on a hot summer day? Remember to verify it against the Bible, first keeping in mind that there is nothing new under the sun.

Warnings From Scripture

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth” (1 Timothy 4:1-3).

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24).

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Peter. 2:1-3).

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thes 2:3-8).

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Over the years, I have heard countless divine revelations that people claim to have received from God. In all this time, I don’t recall encountering a single instance that truly deserved the title revelation. The poor spiritual state of the Church today is the primary reason these types of messages go unchallenged. People will latch onto anything that seems spiritual. As long as it tickles their ears, they don’t care what the Bible has to say about prophets who stray from the core salvation message.

 

“Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you. And they have not laid open your iniquity, to provoke you to repentance. Yet they have seen for you false revelations and banishments” (Lam. 2:14).

 

“Now the Spirit has clearly said that in the end times some persons will depart from the faith, paying attention to spirits of error and the doctrines of devils….” (1 Tim. 4:1)

 

Adding to the Word of God

 

The best defense against strange new teachings is to understand that man is barred from adding to the Bible. A few groups have added material to the Word of God. Most people who make an attempt to add to the Bible do so by changing the meaning of Scripture.

 

In America, thousands of Christian organizations all have their own interpretations of the key biblical passages. The reason we have so many conflicting doctrines is because too many people use the Bible to reinforce their own personal views. Unless you allow God’s Word to do the leading, your imagination will take over and lead you astray.

In 1919, Dr. Isaac M. Haldeman, pastor of the First Baptist Church in New York City, predicted that before the Jews returned to Palestine to establish a Jewish State an event that happened in 1948– the Antichrist would appear.

 

Haldeman explained: “The Scriptures teach that this man (the Antichrist) will be the prime factor in bringing the Jews back, as a body into their own land; that he will be the power that shall make Zionism a success; that through him the nationalism of the Jews shall be accomplished.” Haldeman was in error because he expected the course of world events to follow his own timeline instead of one God predestined.

 

In his book, Armageddon Now!, Professor Dwight Wilson includes this wise caveat on the cover jacket: “The author cautions his fellow Premillenarians that they will lose their credibility if they continue to see in each political crisis a sure fulfillment of Biblical prophecy” despite their obvious errors concerning earlier crises.”

 

The Bible has its own warning for people who tamper with God’s Holy Word. At the end of Revelation, the Lord promises eternal damnation for anyone who adds or takes away from “this book”: “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18-19 KJV).

 

 

A Prophet’s First Mistake is His Last

 

There are two forms of prophet: the one who tells the future, and the one who poignantly explains the “signs of the times” as a way of critiquing and calling the people back to God. Because the word “prophet” has become so misused, Terry and I would not want to be called end-time prophets. We are simply people who expound upon the prophetic message that God has already given.

 

The problem generally rests with people who claim to have received new divine revelations. Because only God knows the future, any detailed prediction that does not come from Him will most likely fail to come to pass.

The minimal standard for anyone claiming to be a prophet is 100 percent accuracy. His or her credibility ends at the first mistake. In fact, the Bible tells us that this is how we should judge such predictions: “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that [is] the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, [but] the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him” (Deut. 18:22).

 

Pat Robertson of “The 700 Club” is famous for making yearly predictions. On May 8, 2006, he made the following forecast: “If I heard the Lord correctly about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms.” The following Wednesday, he added, “There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest.”

I selected the Robertson quote as the title of this article because of a comment made by comedian Jay Leno. In a mocking tone, Leno said,

 

“Please, Pat, pay attention. This is a life and death issue.” Robertson was obviously dead wrong. There was no flood, tsunami, hurricane or any other water-related disaster in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, all of North America was unusually quiet that year.

 

Robertson received further scorn when a site called the Sacred Sandwich ran a fake news story that reported Pat had been named “Meteorologist of the Year” by the American Meteorologist Society. The author of the article noted, “Sure, his hurricane prediction was a colossal blunder, but when was the last time Willard Scott got anything right?”

 

An endless number of false prophets try to predict end-time dates. Someone recently forwarded me a link to a site that described a vision of the rapture occurring the summer of 2007.

 

“I received a vision from God through a dream in 1986. God showed me the rapture of the church in relationship to my life. Everything God showed me that was going to happen in my life has happened exactly as He showed me. God directed me to write a book. He told me I would have 3 years to spread this message. I got the book published in 2004. When I got the book published, that was the beginning of my mission. Three years from 2004 is 2007. God showed me that my family and I were swimming in the pool the day before the rapture. I interpret that to mean summertime, which is anytime between June 21-September 21. This is how I came up with SUMMER 2007.”

 

It doesn’t matter how appealing someone may be in presenting a new prediction. If they were wrong 10 years ago, they have no feet to stand on today. They should consider themselves fired. Never mind the fact God never hired them in the first place. It’s unlikely the Lord would use someone who defamed his Holy name.

 

Try, Try and Still Fail Again

 

I’ve always been interested in why people continue to follow predictions made by some people who have a track record of being wrong.

 

Evangelist Benny Hinn has been making wild predictions for years, and he has a dismal track record. He is so consistently wrong, someone else could build a career as a much better prophet by simply taking the opposite view of what Hinn forecasts.

 

Marilyn J. Agee has been trying to predict the rapture for 11 years now. Every year she has produced charts showing numerical proof that the blessed hope is right around the corner. When her prediction fails, she moves to the next calendar year. Despite the fact she has been consistently wrong, she still manages to draw the public’s attention.

 

Anyone who faithfully predicts the rapture will come during the next year will eventually be correct. I don’t think anyone can claim the title of true prophet for that kind of forecasting.

 

Human beings seem to thrive on hope. It doesn’t matter how wrong someone has been in the past, there is always the chance that person may be correct in the future.

 

I guess gambling operates on the same principle. For every 1 winner, there are 60 million losers. When the pot builds back up to $300 million, everyone feels like he or she has enough luck to beat the horrendous odds.

In preparation for this article, I looked high and low for prophets of any stripe who were successful in having a small percentage of their predictions come true. I could not find anyone who stood out. Some of the people I looked at were so wrong, it seem to defy laws of random chance that would make them occasionally correct. I truly wonder if God has something to do with their high error rate.

 

“Beloved, 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).

 

God Does Not Ramble

 

Over the years, I have developed my own simple rule of thumb for determining whether someone is truly speaking from God. The Supreme Lord of the Universe does not dictate messages that make little sense or seem trivial in nature. God does use symbolism in describing prophetic truth, but He never leaves us guessing. He always goes on to provide us with keys to understand the symbolism.

 

I recently read a report about a California woman being sued by the city of San Mateo for painting what she called messages from God on her house. Estrella Benavides was fined $5,000 for violating the city’s sign ordinance.

The messages were in white paint, and they consisted of cryptic rants about “rape,” “mafia,” “Bush” and “the Miami teen.” A message above the garage read: “Help worse crime ever: evil + out of mind: from Bush to neighbors using witchcraft + technology against people not belong to their religious group.”

 

The woman writing this garbage on her house is either crazy or under the influence of demonic spirits. There is no biblical example of a true prophet being given a similarly incoherent message.

 

The king of rambling prophets would have to be Nostradamus. His so-called prophetic writings have survived for nearly 500 years because they are extremely vague in nature. Over the years, people have applied them to any number of world events.

 

Here are three examples of his work that are so murky and nonspecific there is no way one could use them as a prophecy:

 

Against the red ones sects will conspire,
Fire, water, steel, rope through peace will weaken:
On the point of dying those who will plot,
Except one who above all the world will ruin. (Century 6:51)

So much silver of Diana and Mercury,
The images will be found in the lake:
The sculptor looking for new clay,
He and his followers will be steeped in gold. (Century 6:2)

Naval battle night will be overcome,
Fire in the ships to the West ruin:
New trick, the great ship colored,
Anger to the vanquished, and victory in a drizzle. (Century 9:100)

 

Another form of rambling often occurs when a prophecy is laced with God supposedly pouring lavish praise on the person giving the message. I remember one such prophet from South America who seemed to be God’s favorite: “My children, please listen to my humble servant. He is my faithful messenger. He will guide you to the truth.”

I once attended a charismatic church where a preacher gave a prophetic message that was so self-serving, I had suspicions about who was the true author of the message.

 

“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” (Jer. 14:14).

 

 

The Quiet Period

 

It would be too easy to say all prophecies today are not from God. I do think that it is possible for the Lord to give a supernatural revelation to someone. He is, after all, God. He can do anything, except lie.

 

The question that needs to be asked: “Is it part of His plan for mankind?” The Lord doesn’t predict things just to provide titillation. Everything done by the Creator of the universe has a divine purpose. Right now, silence might be the top priority on the Lord’s agenda.

 

Terry and I believe the fulfillment of the Church Age is one of the reasons we don’t see people being given any new prophetic messages. God has spent 2,000 years warning mankind through prophecies given in His Word, the Bible. He has let us see world conditions shaping up exactly as He said they would be at the end of the age, just before Christ returns. And now the door to the Church age might be about to close.

 

The rapture is a signless event and is a reward for everyone who is ready to go. Jesus can’t come at an unknown hour if He appoints prophets to go around saying, the Lord is coming within a specific time frame – giving an hour or day.