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a)
Assumptions
In telling people to “beware of false prophets”, Jesus obviously
assumed that there were such. There is no sense in putting on your
garden gate the notice `beware of the dog' if all you have at home is a
couple of cats and a budgerigar! No, Jesus warned his followers of
false prophets because they already existed. We come across them on
numerous occasions in the Old Testament, and Jesus seems to have
regarded the Pharisees and Sadducees in the same light. "Blind
leaders of the blind', he called them. He also implied that they
would increase, and that the period preceding the end would be
characterized not only by the world-wide spread of the gospel but also
by the rise of such teachers as would lead them astray. (Mt.24:11-14.).
We hear of them in nearly every New Testament letter. They are
called either `pseudo prophets' as here (`prophets' presumably
because they claimed divine inspiration), or `pseudo-apostles' (because
they claim apostolic authority, 2 Cor.11:13) or `pseudo-teachers (2
Pet.2:1) or even pseudo-Christs' (because they made messianic
pretensions or denied that Jesus was the Christ come in the flesh,
Mt.24:24; Mk.13:22: cf. 1 Jn.2:18,22). But each was `pseudo' and
“pseudo” is the Greek word for a lie. The history of the Christian
church has been a long and dreary story of controversy with false teachers.
Their value, in the overruling providence of God, is that they have
presented the church with a challenge to think out and define the truth,
but they have caused much damage. I fear there are still many in
today's church.
In telling us to beware of false prophets Jesus made another
assumption, namely that there is such a thing as an objective
standard of truth from which the falsehood of the false prophets is to
be distinguished. The very notion of `false' prophets is
meaningless otherwise. In biblical days a true prophet was one who
taught the truth by divine inspiration, and a false prophet was one who
claimed the same divine inspiration but actually promulgated untruth.
Jeremiah contrasted them in these terms: false prophets `speak visions
of their own minds', while true prophets `stand in the council of the
Lord', `hear his word', `proclaim it to the people' and `speak from the
mouth of the Lord' (23:16,18,22). Again, `let the prophet who has
a dream tell the dream; but let him who has my word speak my word
faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? (23:28) So in referring
to certain teachers as `false prophets' it is clear that Jesus was no syncretist,
teaching that contradictory opinions were in reality complementary
insights into the same truth. No. He held that truth and falsehood
excluded one another, and that those who propagate lies in God's name
are false prophets, of whom his followers must beware.
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Tomorrow: Matthew 7:15-20. The peril of false teachers. b)
Warnings
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