The Bottom Line, Ministries Christian News, Articles, & Poetry 
This world is full of evil. You don’t have to look far to see someone claiming to be a faith healer or someone claiming to give you your best life now. These wolves only have one thing in mind, deception. Deception that stems from the evil one. The ruler of the people of this world, the devil, looks to deceive people with false claims that doing what you really want to do now is the only thing that should matter to you. The bible is overwhelmingly opposed to us doing what we want. Man left to his own only wants evil and that’s what the devil serves on a silver platter.
Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
This wickedness is pinned to the heart of every unregenerate man. When God saves a man’s soul he crucifies the old man and raises up a new one. One that flees from sin.
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
So then the believer being in Christ runs from the sins that plagued him before. This is not to say he doesn’t sin, he sins less as he is being sanctified. Throughout this process there will come times of temptations. Temptation from his old sins. This is where the devil is best. The devil works in those situations that tempt you to try and deceive you using your own sin nature. We all have that sin nature and we all differ in the sins we are prone to. Knowing yourself and which ones you are prone to will help in the fight of these temptations.
Some of the people who are prone to the false prophets are those that aren’t in the word regularly. Without God’s perfect word in our minds we are prone to falsehoods and heretical teachers. Using the bible as our ultimate authority we can better discern these false teachers and the lies they try to spread.
The verses below highlight some of the false prophets/teachers and some characteristics they possess. Knowing what to look out for is crucial.
Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. These are just a few of them.
2 Timothy 3:5-6 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
2 Timothy 4:3-4 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.
This is a good place to start in discerning the righteous preacher from the unrighteous heretic. Not only will you be better able to tell them apart, you will be better able to help others see what they may not be seeing. The verses in 2 Timothy above use the word lusts twice. Lust is a psychological force that produces an intense desire for something. When lust takes over a person he is essentially blind to everything else around him. Being outside that force a fellow discerning believer can help to point out the things another person may be missing whilst being blinded by their own desires. Every believer has a God commanded duty to love their neighbor as themselves. Therefore you should strive to help others and yourself out in that aspect of discerning the false teachers from the solid biblical teachers.
Excellent!
Blessings~
Matthew, the instructions you outlined for recognizing false prophets are sound and helpful. It is worth having a look through the Old Testament too to identify their characteristics. They constantly told the Israelites what they wanted to hear, rather than what God said. They were people-pleasers first. Leaders who claim to be led by God, yet don’t teach and honor His word, are prolific. Let’s be diligent in ensuring that we are following leaders who are truly worth following.