FALSE PROPHETS

Signs of the End Times 

A series on the signs that Jesus said would presage the coming of the End of Days.

By Gina Detwiler

PT 3 - FALSE PROPHETS

Matthew 24: 11  And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

“Christian Prophets Are on the Rise. What Happens When They’re Wrong?”

That was the title of a 2021 New York Times piece on the sudden proliferation of self-described “Christian” prophets on the internet. This should not be surprising. Jesus told his disciples that false prophets were just one of several signs that the end was near. Many of these people have huge YouTube channels and lucrative ministries. They seem to have pulled the proverbial wool over many a Bible-believing Christian’s eye by claiming they can predict the outcome of elections, the price of gold, the movement of the stock market, and, of course, the end of the world.

Some of them are quite hilarious. Take Kat Kerr, a pink-haired prophetess who claims to have been in heaven (many times), where she’s met angels (they’re big!) She says there is a “Christmas Town” and “Ice Cream Land” in heaven where the scoops are “huge” and “all your pets will be there, and they will be eating your food.” She has nearly 50,000 followers.

Then there’s the scary ones, like Kenneth Copeland, a man who looks like an actual demon. He says he can make hair grow by grabbing a bald man’s head and screaming, “Hair Grow!” and he proclaimed in 2020 that a supernatural heat wave would destroy the COVID-19 virus. (spoiler alert: it didn’t) He’s the richest prosperity preacher in the country, with 400,000 YouTube subscribers.

Many of these “prophets” were propelled into the mainstream by Donald Trump, who even asked Copeland to speak at one of his rallies. Trump’s “spiritual advisor” was Paula White, a wealthy megachurch “pastor” and televangelist who claimed to receive prophetic visions from God. (I’m sorry for all the scare quotes – but I just can’t help it)

In one of her weirder proclamations during the 2020 election, White declared:

"I hear a sound of victory, the Lord says it is done," she said. "For angels have even been dispatched from Africa right now... In the name of Jesus from South America, they're coming here."

Apparently, those angels failed to show up, because the election results were not overturned as she and so many of her ilk had promised. Some of them apologized for being wrong. Most did not. 

The NAR

This prophecy fad is all part of the New Apostolic Reformation, a quasi-religious movement that prioritizes mysticism and personal revelation over biblical teaching. Its adherents believe they are God’s anointed apostles and prophets, handing out new revelations to the world.

One of the major proponents of the NAR is Bethel Church, a “Christian” mega-church in Redding California, led by obvious false teacher Bill Johnson. Bethel engages in mystical practices like “Grave Soaking,” in which a person lies on the grave of a dead church leader to absorb their supernatural energy. They also perform a “Fire Tunnel,” a bizarre ritual where people walk through a tunnel of other people who lay their hands on them, “anoint them,” and generally carry on in the most paganistic manner. 

Bethel even has its own version of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—the BSSM—Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, in which people learn to wield their supernatural powers for prophecy and healing, purportedly without the need for wands.

The core of Bethel’s ministry appears to be supernatural healing. Johnson teaches that sickness is demonic, therefore anyone with enough faith will be healed of every disease. “It’s always God’s will to heal,” says Johnson. This is not only misguided, it’s downright dangerous. They once spent six days trying to resurrect a two-year-old girl who had died in her sleep. Their failure probably led to a lot of confusion and disillusion among the believers. yet Bethel continues to rake in the profits, particularly from “spiritual tourists” who go there seeking healing. So far, Bethel has not produced any medical evidence of supernatural healing, though they have many unverified anecdotal accounts. 

The OG False Prophets

Despite the fact that the NAR has “new” in its name, it’s really not new. False prophets have been around since Jesus’ time. Paul and his minions encountered many of them on their missionary journeys. Six hundred years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, a caravan robber by the name of Mohammed claimed to receive a new revelation from an angel and founded the religion of Islam. In the 19th century, a man named Joseph Smith got yet another new revelation from a different angel and founded Mormonism. (Interestingly, both these revelations contain the notion that the leader can sleep with and marry as many women as he wants.)

Many pseudo-Christian religions started with prophetic revelations: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, Institute of Basic Life Principles, Jonestown, and Moonies to name a few. Most of the founders became very wealthy in the process. L. Ron Hubbard capitalized on this principle by inventing a religion called Scientology where he was not only the prophet but the god. 

In the last eighty years, the prophet craze began to infiltrate actual Christian churches. It started in the 1940s with the rise of the charismatic and Pentecostal movements. According to the Bible, a select few were gifted with prophetic vision during a certain time period long ago. But these these movements taught that everyone, any believer, could be a prophet. God speaks to all people, all the time, giving them dreams and vision about what the future holds.

There is some basis for believing this. As Joel, an actual prophet, foretold:

And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
 Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

Joel 2: 28-29
 Could it be that this time has come? 

The key word here is “afterward” or “after this.” After what? Well, if you read the rest of the chapter, you’ll discover that Joel prophesied a huge cataclysm that looks very much like the Great Tribulation: “a day of darkness and gloom” and a “desolate wilderness” in which the people are “in anguish” (Joel 2: 2,3,6) and

Before them the earth quakes,
The heavens tremble,
The sun and the moon become dark,
And the stars lose their brightness. 

Joel 2: 10-11
I’m pretty sure none of that has happened yet.

Besides, the idea that God is now raising up new prophets is completely unbiblical. Paul says in Ephesians 2: 

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, Eph 2: 19-20

In other words, the apostles and prophets provided the foundation of faith after Christ’s resurrection, before the New Testament books were assembled. But you don’t build a foundation on top of a foundation. The foundation of faith has already been laid. It’s done. Therefore, anyone calling themselves an apostle or a prophet after that time must be misguided as best or deliberately deceptive at worst.

There’s another way to tell these new-fangled prophets are false. They’re almost always wrong. That’s a big no-no. There are no mulligans for prophets. Sure, just as a broken clock is right twice a day, they occasionally get things right. Take Jeremiah Johnson, who gained fame when he predicted Trump’s victory in 2016. He was lauded as a true prophet for predicting something no one else thought possible. But then he said Trump would win again in 2020. He apologized and shut down his ministry for a while, but now he has re-emerged as a prophet of the End Times and claims that angels have visited him and told him what was about to happen.

Recently, a man named Brandon Biggs gained notoriety for predicting the assassination attempt on Trump three months before it happened, even saying that the bullet would pass close to his ear. That sounded amazingly accurate. But Biggs also said that the bullet would break Trump’s eardrum (it didn’t) and that Trump would immediately fall down and worship and then become born again. That doesn’t seem to have happened, though Trump was on his knees following the attack while the Secret Service piled on top of him. Like that broken clock, Biggs got one or two details right. But the rest of the prophecy, as with all of his other prophecies, has been wildly wrong—he's been predicting major economic, political, and natural disasters that have failed to materialize for years. He claims that there will soon be another plague that will kill 350 million people. Too bad he missed the Covid pandemic. That would have been a good one to predict.

Why are these false prophets so popular? Peter gives us the answer:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

 2 Peter 2: 1-3

“Many will follow their sensuality” and “in their greed they will exploit you.” In other words, false prophets use emotional manipulation to hook people into following them and giving them their money. 

Full disclosure: I write books about the supernatural world of the Bible. I believe wholeheartedly in the supernatural world of the Bible. But false prophets exploit the supernatural for their own ends. They engage in paganistic, demonic practices which have nothing to do with biblical truth. It’s as simple as that.

This is no doubt part of the great “falling away” I wrote about in Part 1 of this series. We would do well to remember Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 5:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5: 15-20