YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A CESSATIONIST | Giving a False Prophecy Makes You A False Prophet

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith's ongoing series,

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You Don't Have to be a Cessationist. The basic idea behind You Don't Have to be a

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Cessationist is that we recognize that there seems to be a logjam, a stalemate if you would, between cessationists and continuationists, and as a result of it we are going to work around that logjam by, well, looking at stuff that you don't have to be a cessationist to actually believe, challenging the doctrines and methodologies and teachings of many of the things that are going on within the

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Charismatic and Pentecostal movements. The basic idea is that cessationism and continuationism, the question that a lot of people have is which of them is biblical, and so the continuationists muster their biblical arguments, the cessationists muster their biblical arguments, it's kind of a winner -take -all approach, and the result is that if the continuationist is not convinced that cessationism is biblical, then sadly it's turned into kind of anything goes, you know, and if you challenge anything then you run the risk of committing the sin of the blasphemy of the

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Holy Spirit. As far as the anything goes, let me give you an example of what anything goes sounds like.

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One night my husband and I went to dinner at a really good restaurant that just happened to be inside a casino across from our house, and after the meal we were walking through the casino to get to the parking lot when we saw a bank of slot machines that had a jackpot of $818.

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So I jokingly said, look honey, Deuteronomy 818, God gives us the power to create wealth.

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So not even thinking, the hubby whips out a buck, puts it in the machine, and as soon as I pull the lever,

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I hear in my mind, you just started a war. Within an hour, I had the worst yeast infection

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I'd ever experienced. Demonic yeast infection caused by gaming.

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I think you get the idea. So what we try to do here is, like I said, approach this from a more kind of piece by piece basis rather than the all or nothing approach.

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And today we're going to be looking at the idea that you don't have to be a cessationist to know that someone who gives a false prophecy is a false prophet.

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And we're going to provide some biblical clarity to a subject that sadly gets really mixed up nowadays.

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So let me go ahead and kill this screen here and turn up our

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Bible and we're going to take a look at a couple of biblical texts first and to kind of anchor our discussion today.

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So here's the idea. First Thessalonians chapter 5, 19 through 21 says, do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast to what is good.

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Now it's important for us to understand that as mere mortals and, you know, in Christians and saints, we do not have the authority to determine what the tests are.

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In fact, Scripture gives us what those tests are, two very specific tests.

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We're going to look at one of them today. But test number one is, does somebody give a prophecy and it doesn't come to pass?

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Well, then they're a false prophet. Second is, do they give a prophecy and it comes to pass, but their doctrine is false?

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The idea being is that God, the Holy Spirit, would never contradict himself.

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And so even if somebody is prophesying in the name of Jesus or in the name of, you know, the one true

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God, and they give a proper prophecy, something happens that they said would happen, but they are leading you after a false

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God. For instance, the false God could be the kind of God that says, God told you to leave your wife and go and marry your secretary.

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Well, see, that's a different God. That's a false God. And how do we know this? Because Scripture clearly says, thou shalt not commit adultery.

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So that's kind of the basic idea. But what we're going to look at today is one test in particular.

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And understand, this is a biblical test, and it's still in effect today. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, it says this,

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Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me. And this is Moses speaking from among you and from your brothers.

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And so this is a prophecy regarding Jesus. It is to him that you shall listen, just as you desired of Yahweh your

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God at Horeb on the day of assembly, when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my

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God or see this great fire anymore lest I die. And Yahweh said to me, they are right in what they have spoken.

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I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

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And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

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And so you're going to note that the prophecy, and this is fulfilled in Christ, that the prophecy regarding the one whom

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God would raise up, a prophet like Moses, and Jesus is prophet, priest, and king, that in his prophetic office,

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God makes it very clear that anybody who will not listen to the words of Jesus, who despises his words, that God will hold them accountable for that.

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So then he goes on, but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, and see there's kind of your second test, and it's better fleshed out in Deuteronomy 13, but that's for another installment, speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

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So you'll note that in the Old Testament theocracy of Israel, false prophecy was punishable by death.

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It was a capital crime, and false prophets were put to death. They died for this particular crime.

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And so the question immediately comes up, all right, you're going to raise a prophet like Moses from among us, and you're going to hold us accountable if we don't listen to them, so then how do we know whether a prophet's a true prophet or a false prophet?

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That's the gist of what comes up next. And so if you say, how may we know the word that Yahweh has not spoken?

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Answer, when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that Yahweh has not spoken, the prophet has spoken it presumptuously.

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You need not be afraid of him. And you're going to note that every one of the Old Testament prophets, they never gave a false prophecy.

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True prophets don't have a batting average. True prophets always hear the word of the Lord, and they convey it correctly, and none of their words fall to the ground.

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Now some today literally argue, well, you know, New Testament prophecy is different than Old Testament prophecy.

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But they cannot provide a single biblical clear text that says that New Testament prophets will actually get it wrong.

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Nope, they don't. And so one of the texts that they try to make it look like teaches this, is that in 1

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Corinthians 14, 29, it says, let two or three prophets speak, let the others weigh what is said.

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And what is said about this text is that, well, see, because it has to, what they say has to be weighed, it's just assumed that from time to time,

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New Testament prophets are going to get it wrong. No text says that. Instead, when we test prophecies, we have to test them according to the biblical tests given to us, and one of them has to do with giving false prophecies, stating something will happen when it doesn't happen, then you know they're a false prophet.

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And you do not have to be a cessationist to recognize this. Now we're going to give examples of two very well -known charismatics who have invented their own tests, apparently, and refuse to apply this biblical test that God has given us to today's

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New Testament prophets. So let's take a look here. Number one,

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Mike Bickle of IHOP, and listen to what he says here.

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He literally believes that 80 % of the prophecies that he hears, people saying,

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I had a dream or a vision or the Lord spoke to me, that 80 % of them are false.

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And listen to what he says regarding that. I get probably, I don't know how many dreams or visions sent to me because of the internet around the world, email, or even people from our city that aren't a part of IHOP and people part of IHOP, and most of them

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I don't pay attention to. I just think they're a distraction. I think they're not real. I don't mean the people aren't real.

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Some of them are faking it, and there's a lot of people faking it, but even good people just have dumb stuff.

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It's just dumb. I'd say probably 80 % of what I hear, I throw it away. Does it move me at all?

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Does it bear witness to me? I still like the guy, believe in his walk with God, but I don't believe what he says from God, the dream.

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Same with healings. I think there's a lot of healings. So you're gonna note that Mike Bickle, a guy who is, you can make the case, is a continuationist.

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He is not a cessationist, and out of his own mouth is the confession that 80 % of the prophecies, dreams, visions, words from God that come out of the charismatic movement, they're not from God.

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The people are faking it. Now, here's Dr. Michael Brown from his radio program,

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October 26th, 2016. I want you to note that a listener called in and was questioning him about the apostolic anointing service for Todd Bentley, which was presided over by C.

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Peter Wagner, Shea Onn, Bill Johnson, and John Arnott. They were, in fact,

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Shea Onn and Arnott and Bill Johnson, they were three apostles, literally acting in the office of apostle at Todd Bentley's apostolic anointing ceremony, and Bill Johnson in particular gave a false prophecy regarding, well,

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Todd Bentley. The prophecy he gave didn't come to pass. And so this fellow called in to Michael Brown's Line of Fire program and asked him specifically, hey, these guys made prophecies and they didn't come to pass, and watch what happens next.

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My question would further be, not as much of the discernment part, but if they were claiming to be prophets and apostles speaking from God, and that was in fact a false prophecy, why should we not believe that they are indeed false prophets today?

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Ah, okay. Why would their word, why should we believe something Bill Johnson says today if he got on cable

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TV and falsely prophesied for the whole world to see? Which he did. He absolutely did.

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So now Michael Brown's in a pickle. What do we do here? Because Deuteronomy 18 is explicitly clear, and there is literally, and I mean this, no words in the

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New Testament that say that New Testament prophets can prophesy falsely and still be a true prophet.

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It doesn't make any sense. And yeah, I mean, think about this. And we now have Mike Bickle saying 80 % of the prophecies that he hears in the charismatic movement are not even true, 80%.

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Listen to what, well, Michael Brown does next. Ryan, that's a valid concern.

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So yeah, yeah, but I'm glad we got to address the other things too, because I want to be on record plainly and clearly for those that don't know where I stand.

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But in short, in short, Ryan, as I understand scripture, a false prophet is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

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No, Deuteronomy 18 literally says a false prophet is somebody who says something's going to happen and it doesn't happen.

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That's one of the ways you know somebody's not hearing from God. You know, it makes perfect sense if you think about it.

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And I want you to consider this, that no occurrence in the Old Testament when

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God was speaking when God actually spoke to a person, were they ever confused about whether or not

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God was speaking? And they knew they were hearing from God. And and so when people prophesied, they clearly communicated.

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And here's the reason why. God being all powerful has no problem communicating to his creatures, none whatsoever.

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In fact, if you were born deaf, God can open up your ears so you can hear his audible voice.

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Yeah, no doubt. So what's really fascinating is that in the

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Charismatic and Pentecostal movements is this belief that somehow you have to attune your heart or your soul.

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They liken receiving prophecy today like tuning a radio to a particular radio station.

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There's God communicating on KGOD, hello, this is

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God, I have something to tell you. And it's up to you to make sure you can tune in properly.

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And sometimes you get it wrong, which doesn't make any sense. I mean, seriously, if somebody comes to you and says,

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I have a word from God, this and thus is going to happen and it doesn't happen, Deuteronomy 18 makes it clear that person's not hearing from God at all.

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And by Mike Bickle's own admission, 80 % of the people in the Charismatic movement claiming to be receiving direct revelation from God are not.

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So what do you do in a situation like this? Answer? Michael Brown and others, they change the definition of what a false prophet is, and that's what

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Michael Brown is doing here. A false teacher is a heretic leading others to hell. A false prophet is not someone who loves the

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Lord and prophesies falsely. Remember, we're not under the Old Testament. Yeah, actually, that's exactly what a false prophet is.

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Isn't that weird? Where people were dependent on the prophet to lead the nation. Now I'm going to back this up just a little bit, and I'm going to back this up so that you can again hear it in context as he literally invents his own definition of what a false prophet is.

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And that's exactly what he's doing. Listen again. A false teacher is a heretic leading others to hell.

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A false prophet is not someone who loves the Lord and prophesies falsely. Remember, we're not under the Old Testament, where people were dependent on the prophet to lead the nation, and a wrong word would get you stoned, okay?

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So because we're not under the Old Testament and prophets are not leading nations, therefore, by his weird logic, false prophecies are going to just happen.

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Which is weird because, I mean, if you think about it, if a false prophecy doesn't make you a false prophet, and the reason being, well, because prophets aren't leading nations anymore.

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He's literally saying leading a nation is more important than leading Christ's church. And we should just expect a whole lot of prophetic error in Christ's church.

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And the people who are claiming to be prophets, they're leading Christ's church.

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Which is obviously, according to Michael Brown, less important when it comes to accuracy than it would be, like, leading a nation.

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But here's the thing. That's his own logic. No biblical text says this.

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Deuteronomy 18 is still the gold standard for finding and determining whether or not somebody is a true prophet or a false prophet.

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It's not the only test, but it is still the gold standard. And there's no

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New Testament texts that tell us that New Testament prophets are going to get it wrong.

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So I would say that if someone prophesies falsely today, they are corrected for it.

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They can be a believer who loves the Lord, but they make a mistake. They speak in the flesh. They confuse the voice of the

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Spirit for their own thoughts. And according to Mike Bickle, 80 % of the people in the charismatic movement are doing that right now.

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They speak falsely. I will not brand them a false prophet or false teacher. Yet Scripture does.

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Deuteronomy 18 does. It's based on New Testament terminology, you know, that these people are wolves in sheep's clothing.

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Yeah, see, he's playing word games. He's avoiding the clear text. And the reason is quite simple.

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Because if he were to actually apply the biblical standard, this biblical standard, for determining a false prophet, then

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Benny Hinn's a false prophet, Bill Johnson's a false prophet, John and Carol are not our false prophets, even

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Michael Brown is a false prophet. I will say this. If I said something publicly, that I got up on radio and said,

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God has shown me that Ted Cruz is actually going to be our next president, that it's not going to be

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Hillary or Donald Trump. Now, we covered this on my program. Right after the election in the United States, we did a roundup of the different prophecies that were running around the landscape regarding who would win the election.

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And we noted that there were many people claiming to hear from God who were saying that Trump would be dumped, that Hillary was going to win, the next president was a female, the next president was a senator, and things like that.

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And they all turned out, they got it wrong. By Michael Brown's standard, not the

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Bible's, by Michael Brown's standard, these are true prophets who have prophesied falsely.

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That's not a biblical category. There is not a single instance of a true prophet who has prophesied falsely.

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It didn't happen. That would not make me a false prophet. That would mean I prophesied falsely.

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But you better believe that I would need to publicly apologize, that I would need accountability to speak into my life, to help me to see where I made the error.

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And then if I ever did claim to speak prophetically again... Which everybody who gives false prophecies does, like, the next day.

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Still claiming to hear directly from God, weird. Expect people to be very skeptical. That would be the natural fruit of it.

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If we're in a prayer meeting together and you say, hey, Dr. Brown, I really sense the Lord is saying this.

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And I said, you know, Ryan, I don't sense that at all. Let's keep praying. I'm not going to brand you a false prophet if you're wrong. Why not?

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Scripture does. So you're going to note that we've got a major problem. And that is, is that within the charismatic movement, there are major leaders who are denying the clear teachings of the

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Word of God, that if you give a false prophecy, you are a false prophet.

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And you don't have to be a cessationist to know this. I think you get the idea.

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So if you found this resource to be helpful, you can support us in several different ways by sharing this video.

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The other way you can support us is, well, have you started listening to our Fighting for the

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Faith podcast yet? Did you know that we offer 10 plus hours per week of this exact type of discernment work on our podcast?

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And you can find it at fightingforthefaith .com, where you can subscribe on iTunes or via an RSS feed.

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And of course, you can support us financially by, well, joining our crew or sending us a one -time contribution.

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All the information on how to support us or becoming a patron on Patreon, it's all down there below.

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So hopefully you found this helpful and clarifying. And again, you don't have to be a cessationist to recognize that Scripture clearly teaches, unambiguously teaches, that if you prophesy falsely, you are a false prophet.

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All right, till next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.