 Truth Seekers
In this world with a never ending news cycle and the abundance of ability for everyone and anyone to post and publish at will, I believe most of us just want to know what is true. I acknowledge that some may simply want to believe what makes them feel good or what confirms their prejudices and bias, but I genuinely think that most of us want to know the truth. Especially about the most important things, and nothing can be more important than knowing the truth about what God has and has not said. Last week, we looked at the danger of believing a false word from God. This week, we will look to the scripture for a biblical strategy for dealing with the claim of a word from God. Now regardless of your view about the cessation or continuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I want to acknowledge that I presuppose that the canon of Scripture is closed and there should be no expectation by any Christian of ongoing revelation either public or private. Prophets In Jeremiah 28, a prophet named Hananiah comes to Jeremiah and speaks to him in the house of the LORD and in the presence of the priests and all the people. Hananiah brings a message of liberation, prosperity, and peace that was surely a welcome thought as Jeremiah had just delivered a message from the LORD prophesying the subjection of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Interestingly, God had just warned the people through Jeremiah’s prophecy that they should not believe any prophet bringing a message identical to the message of Hananiah! So what do you think Jeremiah did? It seems obvious that Hananiah is the equivalent of our modern prosperity spewing heretics so surely Jeremiah responds by engaging in the harshest possible polemical prose to deal with this false teacher, right?! Well, actually, he doesn’t do that. Jeremiah the true prophet says, “Amen”! Jeremiah says, “May the Lord make your prophecy come true.” Jeremiah says that would be great. However, Jeremiah doesn’t buy into what the false prophet is peddling! In verse 7, Jeremiah says “yet” or “but” all the earlier prophets have said what Jeremiah said so we must wait and see if Hananiah’s prophecy comes true. This means that as Bible believing Christians we must not believe anything that someone says is from the LORD if it is not clearly delivered to us in His word. When people bring to us a presumed message we can react appropriately to the content of the message, but we must not trust in, rely upon or proclaim such a message unless it is proved true according to the rock solid standard of the Holy Scriptures. The End of the Matter So what happened with Hananiah? Well the LORD speaks to Jeremiah and reveals that Hananiah is a false prophet and that the LORD never said the things that Hananiah had claimed to prophesy. The LORD sends Jeremiah to proclaim judgment on Hananiah. Even that Hananiah would die for his dastardly deeds of false prophecy. Then in the final verse of the chapter Hananiah dies exactly as the LORD had truly said! Last week I responded here to the video of pastor Dana Coverstone recounting some dreams he had that he believes to be from the Lord. He repeatedly claimed to not be a prophet but still insisted that these dreams are from the Lord. To that I responded that under the old covenant he would have been in danger of the death penalty at the hands of the civil/ecclesiastical authorities according to Duetoronmy 18. But on an even more sobering level, based on this text from Jeremiah, I must warn anyone who claims to speak for God, beyond what is written in the closed canon of scripture, that you are putting yourself not simply in danger of the judgment of men but in danger of the judgment of God!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |