What is False Prophecy?

This is Part 2 of the series, "Recognising and Overcoming False Prophecies" Other parts are available via the following link:

Part 1. Understanding Prophecies

On Truth

The word of God is truth. Truth is constant and truth is one. It is therefore absolute rather than relative. Though the manifestation of truth to human beings is necessarily compartmentalised because of our nature (e.g. life, morality, integrity, divinity, eternal salvation, etc.), truth remains one in essence and these compartments or dimensions are mere differences of expression rather than fragmentation or divisions. Further, because of the limitations of human lives, it may be necessary to focus more on one dimension than another at one time or the other. This does not mean relativity of truth but grading of relevance to human experience. For example, a core dimension of truth is sacredness of human life which should propel us to do everything in our power to preserve it - both our lives and the lives of others whatever their circumstances and station in life (fetus, infant, aged, sick, atheist, Muslim, Christian, etc.). However, if there occurs a human situation which truly compels us to choose between sacredness of life and eternal salvation (another dimension of the same truth), we have to choose the later. (Daniel 3:16-18) In all this, truth remains one and absolute even when our experiencing of it is "graded".

Falsehood

Basically, falsehood is anything contrary to the truth, which is the word of God. We have noted that prophecies have the three elements of source, carrier and destination, together with the information transmitted. With this, it is immediately obvious that any content contrary to God's precepts is false. But this is not the whole of the matter. The word of God is not just letters of precepts but also its inherent Spirit which makes it a living entity. (Hebrews 4:12) The mere pronouncement of the "words" of God does not make it the word of God! The Source of the utterance must also be God. (Acts 16:16-18, Acts 19:14-16). Anybody can open the Bible and recite some favourite verses and anyone can hear a word from a genuine prophet of God and repeat it to some other people. If such proclamations are not authorised by God, the message is false even though it may coincide with the original divine words. And one more thing, such an occurrence is actually a theft (or should we saw spiritual plagiarism? Jeremiah 23:30). Who will deny that stealing is contrary to the word of God (the truth), and thus proved to be false prophecy.

At the risk of sounding repetitious, it is important to stress that factual accuracy is not, of itself, a sign of divine source of prophecy (Deut. 13: 1-5). There remain the issues of who God has actually sent, the preservation of the purity and the sanctity of the message, and the delivery to the intended destination.

False Prophecy

To summarise, false prophecy is any purported supernatural message which is not sourced from God, or which requires human mediation for completeness, or which is not delivered in accordance with divine instruction, or which is in any way contrary to the word of God.

Normally, it ought to be that true prophecies will always and only be carried by true prophets of God while false prophecies would be the products reserved for prophets not appointed by God. But due to man's unfaithfulness and God's sovereignty, it so happens that false prophecies may emanate from genuine children of God while God may also route true prophecies through strangers to the household of faith, even including non-moral beings such as donkeys!

We shall next look at how these things happen.