The True Gospel

and the

Ezekiel Warning

CHAPTER 5 - HOW TO KNOW THE TRUTH

How to Know a Prophet

Bible prophecy shows that at the end time there will be both true and false prophets.  "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth....And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth" (Revelation 11:3, 10, KJV).  "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.  Behold, I have told you before" (Matthew 24:24-25, KJV).  Even in our time now, there are churches whose members believe or practice the teachings of one or more of their past leaders whom they regard as prophets.  The Mormon church regards Joseph Smith as a prophet and the Book of Mormon as inspired writing.  Seventh Day Adventists regard Ellen White as a prophetess.  In the days ahead, before Christ returns, there will be those who claim to be or will be regarded by some as prophets.  Some may be true prophets of God, such as the two witnesses Revelation speaks about, and some may be false prophets (Revelation 16:13).  It is important to know what the Bible says about prophets, including how to know a true prophet from a false prophet.

The word "prophet" can be used two ways in the Bible.  First, it can be used in a general sense for those who preach on God's behalf.  In this general sense, it can refer to any minister or preacher and when he preaches he can be said to be prophesying (1 Kings 18:4, 2 Kings 2:15-17).  I am not talking about prophets in this general sense to refer to the ministry or to those who teach from the Bible.  There is a more specific meaning of the word "prophet," and it refers to one who receives direct divine revelation from God to deliver a message from God to the people or to an individual, and it is this kind of prophet that is the subject of this chapter.  This is the way the term is understood by most people today.

Prophetic Communication

There are a number of ways God may communicate with a prophet.  God appeared and spoke to Moses face-to-face (Exodus 33:11).  God sometimes speaks to a prophet in a dream (Numbers 12:6, Daniel 7:1-2).  God may communicate in a special vision (Numbers 12:6, Ezekiel 8:1-4).  In the case of Samuel, he heard a voice speaking to him, and that voice was the voice of God (1 Samuel 3:1-10).  The example of Samuel also is a good example of why God often communicates with a prophet.  God gave Samuel a message to give to the priest (1 Samuel 3:11-21).  God often communicates supernaturally with a prophet so that prophet can deliver a message to someone else.  The message can be for a particular person, such as when Nathan delivered messages from God to David (2 Samuel 7:4-5, 2 Samuel 12:1-14) or to a group of people (Jeremiah chapters 42 and 43, Ezekiel chapters 2 and 3).  The message can be delivered in person, or put in writing.  Ezekiel was given a message for the house of Israel, but he was not able to deliver the message in person because Israel had gone into captivity years before, and the message to the house of Israel was not for that generation anyway.  The message is for our generation today, and Ezekiel did his part to deliver that message by RECORDING it in writing in the book of Ezekiel which we have in our Bibles.

So God can give a message to a prophet in a number of ways, and that prophet can deliver the message to a person or group personally or in writing.  But always it is a direct message from God, not the prophet.  The prophet only delivers the message, as a postman delivers the mail.  If the prophet is a faithful and true prophet of God, then the message he delivers is from God and not the prophet's opinion.

Can a true prophet make mistakes in his general teachings?  Yes.  When delivering a message from God, the prophet must faithfully deliver the exact message as God gave it to him, and God does not make mistakes in the messages He gives.  But the prophet himself is not infallible in his opinions, and when he teaches or speaks on God's behalf APART from delivering a particular message God has given him to deliver, he can make a mistake.  There is example of this in scripture.  David wanted to build a house or temple for God, and he told Nathan the prophet what he wanted to do.  "Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remaineth under curtains.  Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee.  And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in" 1 Chronicles 17:1-4, KJV).  Nathan was a true and faithful prophet of God, and he did not sin when he told David it would be fine for David to build a temple for God.  But the prophet was speaking his opinion, and he did not know God's will in that matter.  It was an easy mistake for the prophet to make because building a temple to God seemed like a good thing to him and he knew of no reason why David should not be the one to build it.  But while building a temple was a good thing, it was God's will that David's son build the temple, not David.  So God promptly corrected Nathan giving him a direct message for David that David was NOT to build the temple, and Nathan then delivered that message to David.

So if a minister or prophet of God expounds and teaches from the Bible or from his personal experience, he can make mistakes.  His overall teaching may be right, but he can misunderstand portions of scripture.  Even though he is faithful, he is also human.  But if God gives him a direct message by divine revelation, that message contains no mistakes.

The writings of the Old and New Testament, whether written by a prophet or an apostle (Ephesians 2:19-22), are infallibly correct because they are inspired by God as God's word (2 Timothy 3:16-17, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18, John 10:34-36).  So prophets and apostles are not infallible.  The Bible gives examples of their mistakes and shortcomings.  But when a prophet or apostle faithfully delivers a direct message from God he has received through a dream, a vision, or through some other direct, miraculous revelation, the message from God is true and right.  And when prophets and apostles wrote the books of the Bible, God inspired them to write those books correctly, and we can trust their writings in the Bible.

Actually, there is an example in the Bible of a man who received and delivered a true prophetic message from God, yet he was not personally a righteous man.  Look at the example of Balaam (Numbers chapters 22 through 24, 2 Peter 2:15-16, Jude 11, Revelation 2:14).  Balaam was not a righteous man, yet God caused him to bless Israel and deliver a true prophetic message to Balak.  So the truth of a prophet's message does not depend on the prophet being a perfectly righteous man.

How to Know a True or a False Prophet

So how does one know today if someone claiming to be a prophet, or someone that others claim is a prophet, is a true and faithful prophet from God?  If a man or woman claims to have received direct revelation from God and delivers that revelation to the people, how can we know if the message can be trusted?  This is important, because there are groups, such as the ones I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, that regard one or more of their past teachers as prophets, and there are prophecies in the Bible that say there will be true and false prophets in these end times, including the great false prophet (Revelation 16:13) and the two witnesses, who are true prophets (Revelation 11:3, 10).

A false prophet may be sincere.  He or she may truly have received a message through unusual means such as a dream, a vision, or a supernatural voice.  But that message may not be from God.  It could be from Satan or a lying demon (2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Matthew 24:24, 1 Kings 22:5-28).  So a false prophet is not necessarily a liar or an insincere person.  A false prophet can simply be a victim of Satan's deception, or of self-deception.

The Bible gives guidelines on how to know if a prophet is a true prophet and if his prophetic message is from God.

Jesus said, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  Ye shall know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:15-20, KJV). 

What is meant by fruits?

Fruits of a minister or prophet certainly include his teachings.  In fact, what a man says and teaches may be the primary fruit Jesus is talking about.  Notice how He talks about what a man says and teaches as like fruit, comparing a man with a tree that is good or bad and his words to the fruit of that tree: "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.  But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:33-37, KJV).  

God inspired Moses to write, "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.  Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him" (Deuteronomy 13:1-4, KJV).  Also notice Isaiah 8:20:  "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (KJV).

One of the primary ways to determine if a man is a true prophet or not is to compare his doctrines with the teaching of the Bible.  Anyone can make small mistakes in understanding the Bible, and a converted mind is willing to learn and admit mistakes and turn from them over time (1 Corinthians 13:9, 2 Peter 3:18), but if he teaches a false gospel overall, he is not a true prophet of God (see chapter two on the true gospel).  Also, although a man may make small mistakes in expounding the truth of God from the Bible, if he claims to have received a message from God through direct revelation, that message cannot contain any errors if it is from God.  There can be no contradiction between a message from God and the Bible.

God cannot contradict himself.  He will not give a prophet a message that contradicts the Bible. 

So the first test is, is the man overall teaching the truth from the Bible or is he teaching a false gospel?  If a man has doctrinal errors so serious that the gospel he teaches is a false gospel, rule that man out from being a true prophet - do not believe his message.  And the test of whether or not the man teaches the true gospel is not how his teachings measure up with the mainstream doctrines of traditional Christianity but how his teachings measure up with the Bible. 

Secondly, if his message is from God, the message itself cannot contradict the Bible.  God cannot lie and God cannot contradict Himself.  If a message that a man or woman claims is from God contradicts the Bible, it cannot really be from God.

These two criteria are more important than whether the man or woman claiming to be a prophet can predict the future or can show signs and wonders.  As God points out in Deuteronomy 13:1-4, He may test us by allowing Satan and his demons to work false miracles or to make successful predictions through a false prophet who teaches against God's truth in the Bible in order to see if we will remain loyal to God and God's word.  Revelation 13:11-15 shows that Satan will be allowed to work signs and wonders to deceive people, and the great false prophet will show signs and wonders (Revelation 16:12-14).  So God can TEST us by allowing Satan to back up a false prophet with supernatural signs and wonders and successful predictions.  To pass the test, we have to know our Bibles.

My experience tells me you cannot learn the truth of the Bible in a day.  If you want to be protected from Satan's deceptions including the deception of false prophets and prophecies, you have to be reading or studying the Bible on a regular basis.  It is those who already know their Bibles and the true gospel because they believe what God says and have made regular Bible study a part of their lives for years who will be protected from the deception of false prophets.  You cannot neglect Bible study all your life and wait until a false prophet appears working signs and wonders, and then "cram" to study your Bible to see if his message is true or false.  In that case, you are likely to be deceived.  You will reap the penalty for neglecting your Bible for years and for putting God's word in second place in your life.

Finally, if the prophet and his message pass the first two tests, there is one more test to determine if his message must be believed.

God does not expect us to be naive and gullible.  God backs up his prophets and apostles when they deliver a direct prophetic message from Him.  We can require evidence that the message is from God, and if there is no evidence, I do not think God would require us to believe the message.

God backed up Moses with miracles that all Israel witnessed.  Notice how God provided evidence that He was working through Moses and Moses was speaking what God commanded him to speak:  "And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.  Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:  And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey....And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.  And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.  And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.  And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:  That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.  And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.  And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.  And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.  And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land" (Exodus 3:15-17, 4:1-9, KJV).  Right from the beginning of Moses' job as prophet, God backed up his message with the ability to work miraculous sign.  See also Exodus 4:29-31. 

The people of Israel saw the supernatural plagues upon Egypt (Exodus chapters 7 through 12).  They witnessed the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:10-31).  They saw miracle after miracle.  Many Old Testament prophets such as Elijah and Elisha worked miracles (1 Kings 18:21-39, 2 Kings 2:13-15, 2 Kings 8:1-6).  Jesus Christ and the apostles worked miracles such as healing the sick and raising the dead (Matthew 11:2-6, Mark 6:7-13, Acts 19:11-12, 2 Corinthians 12:11-12).  We are told to test or prove all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21). 

God did not expect people to believe the messages He gave through prophets and apostles without supernatural evidence of some kind that they were God's prophets.

What about today?

Today we have the Bible, complete and readily available via mass printing and publishing, which was not available in old or new testament times because it was not complete and most people did not have copies even of the parts that were written.  Today we also have the evidence of prophecy fulfilled in the last two hundred years that proves that the Bible is inspired by God.

So when God speaks to mankind, He provides evidence that it is He who is speaking.  In Bible times, God provided the evidence of miracles by his prophets and apostles who preached His word.  In our time, God provides the Bible and proof in fulfilled prophecy that He inspired the Bible.

So if a man claims to be a prophet of God delivering a message from God, I think it would be reasonable for me to want to see some evidence that the man is really a prophet before I could be certain his message is really from God.  This is in addition to the two tests that the man's teachings and message must be consistent with the Bible. 

The main thing to remember is that if we want to be protected from Satan's deceptions, including deceptions through false prophets and false prophecies, we have to make God's word a part of our lives.  We need to learn to live by every word of God.  We need to put God first and study the Bible on a regular basis in an attitude that is willing to believe and obey what God says.  Then God can help us understand the Bible and bring the scriptures to mind that will protect us from being deceived (John 14:25-26).

How Can You Know the Truth?

There are many different views about religion in the world.  You have atheists who believe there is no God and agnostics who do not know.  Those who believe in God are divided into various groups.  There is the Jewish religion, Islam, and Christianity for example.  Even mainstream Christianity is divided between Catholics, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.  All these groups and categories believe and teach different things, though some of them share some common points of doctrine.

How can you know the truth?

Most people just assume whatever they were taught growing up is true.  That is why these groups continue from generation to generation in the same families.  Most Catholics, for example, believe and practice the Catholic tradition because their parents did.

But just going along blindly with the religious beliefs of your parents can't be the right way to know the truth.  Your parents could be wrong and their parents before them.  In fact, most parents in the world are wrong in their religious beliefs simply because most people are wrong.  In a world of differing religions, only one, at most, can be right - the rest are wrong in varying degrees.  No set of religious (or non-religious) beliefs is embraced by a majority of mankind, so if there is a true religion (there is), it is certainly believed by a minority of the seven billion humans on earth.

Most people feel comfortable staying with the beliefs, customs, and traditions of their families, and they are not really looking for truth.  Maybe deep down inside they think there is no real way to know anyway, so the lie they already believe is more comfortable to them than any other potential lie, so they stay with what they have.

If you are in that category, you probably will not benefit from this book.  But if that is the case, you probably wouldn't have read this far already.

In chapter one, I spent time showing you how to prove if God exists and if the Bible is His inspired word.  Many people cannot accept those proofs because they do not want to believe them.  Nevertheless, if your mind is open, you can prove these things logically and objectively.  You can know that the Bible is God speaking.

But for some people raised in traditional Christian churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church or the Greek Orthodox Church, this can pose a dilemma.  Some have been taught that God guides their church to understand the Bible and all true Christian doctrine infallibly, and for these people, that can be an article of faith that they are committed to as deeply as they are committed to faith in God.

If you ask these people, what do you believe, the Bible or your church's teachings, they will say, "both".  And if you ask them, what if they contradict, they will answer, "they can't", or "they don't".  They have a deeply held faith in two things.  One, the Bible is true because God, who is perfect and infallible, inspired it.  And two, the leaders of their church correctly understand the Bible and true Christian doctrine because God inspires those leaders to correctly interpret the Bible.

In other words, they believe that God inspired the Bible and then provided ministers and leaders in the church to interpret the Bible.  The same God who inspired the Bible and ensured its accuracy also inspired the church to understand and interpret it correctly, and as the Bible is infallibly true, so too is church doctrine.  So in this view, there can be no contradiction between their church's doctrines and the Bible because God provided the church to interpret the Bible.

Why do they believe this?

For some, they believe because they believe because they believe.  They feel a certainty in their minds which they believe is a gift of faith from God, and they don't question it.

It is a different path to belief than presented in this book.  It is not the path of first proving God's existence, then proving through fulfilled prophecy that the Bible is inspired by God, then choosing to believe what God says in the Bible, then proving everything else by the Bible, which is what this book tries to do.  It is rather the path of acquiring a certainty of mind that one's church's teachings and the Bible are equally true along with a certainty of belief that this belief itself is a gift from God and therefore should not be questioned.

In fact, the Bible teaches that no church's teachings are infallible, not even the teachings of the true church. 

The Bible warns against false churches founded by or led by false ministers and leaders.  Just because a church claims to be Christian does not mean it is Christian in God's sight.  "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works" (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).  There can be false gospels and false churches worshipping and teaching a false Jesus in their doctrines.  "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him" (2 Corinthians 11:3-4).  "I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel to you than that you have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:6-9).  Obviously, the teachings and doctrines of a false church can be false.  Such a church may teach a mixture of truth and error.  The fact that it has some true teachings (such as, "Christ died for our sins") tends to give it credibility in the minds of its followers, but overall it is false.

But even the true church can make mistakes.  It's overall body of doctrine will be correct, but it can make mistakes and have problems in its teachings on various points here and there.  If you look at Christ's messages to the seven churches in Revelation, you will notice that Christ rebukes most of them, sometimes severely, for their errors, some of which are doctrinal (Revelation 1:11-20, 2:4, 14-16, 20-23, 3:1-4, 15-17).  "But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.  So have you also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate." (Revelation 2:14-15).  Yet these are Christ's churches (Revelation 1:12-13, 20).  They were congregations, all part of God's true Church.

True ministers, leaders, apostles, and prophets can make mistakes, according to the Bible.  Paul rebuked Peter for his hypocrisy (Galatians 2:11-13).  Paul and Barnabas had contention (Acts 15:37-40).  Nathan, a true prophet of God, gave a wrong answer to David about David's desire to build a temple for God, until God corrected Nathan (1 Chronicles 17:1-4).  Only God's word, the Bible, can be trusted to be infallible and 100% free from error, because it was directly inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:15-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21).  As Jesus said, scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35).  

We may think it is right to have faith in our churches' teachings, but if we do, we are trusting in men and in ourselves, our opinions and our feelings.  "There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12).  God pronounces a curse on those who trust in people (Jeremiah 17:5, Psalm 146:3).

If you believe your church and think your church cannot contradict the Bible, you will consciously or unconsciously try to fit or "interpret" everything you find in the Bible into the framework of your church's teaching.  And if anyone points out, by the Bible, an error in your church's teaching, that point of truth will seem odd, out of place, out of sync.  Of course!  It won't fit with the other errors in what you have believed.

You have to get the whole picture.

Yet God reveals the truth a little at a time.

Satan is the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9).  By our own human strength alone we cannot escape Satan's deceptions.  We need God's help to properly understand the Bible, and God gives that help to those who believe and obey Him (Psalm 111:10).

The secular world follows the scientific method of experimentation, observation, and interpretation.  The religious world follows its traditions and its "faith" in those traditions.  But God has a different method for revealing truth to those willing and able to receive the truth.  I call it the "faith method". 

It works like this.

You read the Bible.  You find something that corrects you, shows you that you are wrong about something, either in your behavior or your beliefs (or both).  If it is something hard to understand, you may do more research in the Bible, getting all the scriptures on that subject to let the Bible interpret the Bible, letting clear scriptures interpret difficult ones.  You should do this with an open mind.

Now, let's say that after your research, the Bible still shows you that you are wrong.  Will you accept the correction?  Will you let God teach you something new and surprising?  Will you believe God and change the doctrine you have been believing up to that point?  Will you obey God and strive to change your behavior?

If you do, God will then help you to understand more truth.  He will work with your mind to free you from the deceptions of Satan's world and help you to understand more of the Bible.  In this way, God will teach you more truth one point at a time.

But if you refuse to believe God, if you reject God's knowledge, either by deliberately rejecting the Bible or by mentally twisting scriptures to make them fit what you want them to mean, the understanding stops.  God stops helping you understand once you choose to reject God's revelation.

It is a test, and it is a choice you must make.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).

"But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).

"For all those things has my hand made, and all those things have been, said the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66:2).

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endures for ever" (Psalm 111:10).

I challenge you to really believe what God says in the Bible, to prove what is true by God's word, and not just believe what you want to believe or what other people tell you.