The Problem With Prophets

As I'm sure many of you know, there are people today who lay claim to the office of prophet. They call themselves prophets (or prophetesses), and come straight out and claim they are speaking for God: According to them, their messages are straight from God's mouth to their ears, and from their mouths to your ears. You see them cropping up on social media, where some have gained considerable followings of enthralled listeners who are convinced that every word they speak drips with prophetic import.

Of course, this is nothing new. This has been an issue since Old Testament days, and there is no shortage of Scripture pertaining to the subject of prophets and the gift of prophecy. Although I will be referring to a few Scriptures, this article is by no means an in-depth treatise on the subject of prophecy and prophets. It is only intended to be a fairly straightforward way of determining that today's self-proclaimed prophets do not speak for God and do not possess the biblical gift of prophecy.

And since there are people near and dear to me who follow some of these folks, I already know I'm going to upset a few people and step on a few toes in the process. That's OK—it's part of my job description.

So stand by—I'm in one of those moods this month. As I have in the past with certain topics, I struggled with the decision to name names. In the end, I decided not to—I just felt there was nothing to be gained. People who listen to some of these folks already know some of those names anyway, and those who don't are better off not knowing. Besides, most of what I am going to say applies broadly to a group of people who are saying similar things, and so there is no need to mount what might be interpreted as a personal attack on what are often downright charming people.

Downright charming people who just don't happen to speak for God.

One gnarly passage

When we talk about whether or not there are real biblical prophets among us today, or if the biblical gift of prophecy is still extant as it was in the first century, we're knocking on the door of a fundamental point of doctrine that has arguably caused more strife and division throughout the history of the Church than any other doctrinal point I can name. A few might even say it beats out the Rapture in that regard (although I beg to differ).

You could easily fill a medium-sized library with what has been written about this doctrinal dispute, and one of the key passages of Scripture that routinely comes into play on both sides of the argument is the following:

Bible commentators I greatly respect and who can exegete circles around me have interpreted this passage in a spectrum of ways, with varied and disparate goals in mind. It has been used to support the idea that tongues and the other miraculous sign gifts have all ceased. It has been used in the defense of the continuation of these gifts. It has been used to argue that while tongues have ceased, the miraculous sign gifts of prophecy and knowledge have continued throughout the Church Age. "The perfect" in verse 10 has been interpreted to refer to the completion of the New Testament canon, the Rapture, the Second Coming of Christ, the arrival of the perfect state following the Millennial Kingdom, and possibly a few other things.

And on and on it goes, in an exegetical merry-go-round that leaves the heads of even the most dedicated students of the Bible spinning.

In other words, it gets gnarly.

Relax...I'm not going to drag you through all that. Of course, I do have my own quiver of personal opinions regarding 1 Corinthians 13:8–13, but I still have enough questions about certain details of it to dissuade me from attempting to use it to prove or disprove anything else of substance.

So please don't hit me, but the reason I brought this passage up is to let you know that I was going to pass on it. I know many people were already assuming this would be the first passage I would jump all over to pour cold water on today's self-proclaimed prophets—but there are still a couple of different angles to one or two of the details of this passage that make too much sense to me. So, I'm going to leave it on the shelf for now. I'm going to refrain from using my personal interpretation of this passage to argue that the miraculous sign gift of prophecy given in the first century has ceased and so today's prophets don't speak for God, and the reason is simple:

Luckily, I don't need to.

And why is that, you ask?

There is a much clearer, more effective way
to dethrone today's self-proclaimed prophets
than to attempt to dissect the details of this
one particularly gnarly passage of Scripture.

We don't need to rely exclusively on one particular interpretation of one particular word or phrase in one particular passage of God's Word to clearly see the truth of the matter, which is that today's so-called prophets do not possess the biblical gift of prophecy and do not speak for God.

Of course, anyone who wants to take on 1 Corinthians 13:8–13 with an exegetical scalpel has my blessings and best wishes, but the truth is that it's much bigger than that. The truth is that today's "problem with prophets" leaps out at anyone who has made even a modest effort to rightly divide the Word of truth and then examined what many of these prophets are saying.

To be honest, for people who know God's prophetic Word reasonably well, dispensing with today's so-called prophets should be low-hanging fruit.

Get the picture?

God's Word lays out the blueprints of end-time events for us, providing us with all the details and information that God has ordained for us to know. Throughout the entire Bible, especially the book of Revelation, we are told a considerable amount of information about what God is going to do, how He is going to do it, and why He is going to do it that way—and this is especially true for the action-packed period that includes the Rapture and the Tribulation.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but that should be our primary focus right there—understanding what God Himself has already told us in His prophetically confirmed Word about what He's going to do and what's going to happen, rather than depending on self-proclaimed prophets to tell us such things.

So forgive me for being blunt, but the sad truth is this:

The primary reason people flock to today's prophets is because they don't know what God has already revealed to us in His written Word.

And they don't know because they haven't been taught. Personally, I tend to go easy on ordinary believers who have made minimal progress in reading and studying the Bible for themselves, because (a) it's hard, and (b) it's not entirely their fault. The real fault lies with thousands of ministers who have graduated from Bible colleges and seminaries that have quietly morphed into Satan's nesting grounds. Many of these institutions have become weakened, watered-down diploma mills that crank out legions of ill-prepared "ministers" who have been taught that Scripture isn't infallible, along with such a smorgasbord of errant views of what the Bible teaches that it leaves them ill-equipped to rightly divide the menu at Wendy's, much less the Word of truth.

As a result, Satan has successfully weakened and watered down the messages preached at a tragically large percentage of churches today. In many, it's 30 minutes of PowerPoint pablum with life applications, have a great week, and see you at the potluck Wednesday night. So, good luck finding a church near you that preaches about the Rapture and the seven-year Tribulation that follows it. As a matter of fact, good luck finding a church that preaches Christ and Him crucified for the remission of sin.

Or for that matter, a church where the word "sin" is even mentioned.

Naturally, there are a few secondary details here and there regarding the end-time scenario that scripturally knowledgeable individuals may view differently, but that doesn't prevent them from agreeing on the broad strokes of what Scripture clearly teaches will go down in the end times. And the reason for that is compellingly simple:

The overall picture of prophetic events, especially in the end times, doesn't depend on the subtle nuances of a single word or phrase in a single passage. That picture is as robust as anything found in God's Word. It doesn't collapse or fall to pieces at the mercy of a questionable interpretation of a lone word or phrase in a single passage, much to the chagrin of deceived individuals who wish to throw it out and replace it with fleshly, unscriptural fairy tales. Not only is most of the supporting Scripture reasonably clear and straightforward for each piece of the picture, but all these mutually supportive pieces fit together perfectly into a glorious display of a sovereign God's grace and mercy for His own and judgment and retribution for His enemies. In other words:

It is a picture of the coming of
God's kingdom and His will being
done on earth as it is in heaven.

Ring any bells? If not, see Matthew 6:9–13.

The long and the short of it

God's overall prophetic plan is grand and comprehensive—it is highly involved and operates on many interwoven levels. So, it is probably best to take this in stages: the long and the short of it, so to speak. First, let's get the overall picture—the general structure that end-time events fit into. This can be helpful, because when people understand the bigger aspects of the overall plan, they struggle less with the smaller details because things make more sense—the smaller pieces fit more readily into the prophetic tapestry.

So, let's first consider some of the elements of the overall prophetic structure, and then we'll hunker down and look more closely at some of the details of the period of interest, which is the next few years—perhaps the next decade or so. In other words, the period that has already begun and that includes the Rapture, the Tribulation, and the Second Coming of Christ at its climax.

So here's the long of it—some of the broader strokes of the prophetic picture. It's not comprehensive, but it'll help. And neither are Scripture references in this and the next section exhaustive—but they're at least a starting point.

After the Jews rejected the Messiah God promised to send them (Deut. 18:15–19; Mic. 5:2; Isa. 7:14) and the message of salvation through faith in His perfect work of atonement (Rom. 3:25), God placed the Jewish people under judgment (Luke 19:41–44). He had the Romans destroy the Jews' Second Temple in AD 70 (Matt. 24:1–2), and caused them to be driven from their land and scattered all over the world (Luke 21:24). But in 1948 the nation of Israel was reformed as His people were regathered into their biblical homeland (Ezek. 36:1–15), albeit in unbelief in their Messiah (Ezek. 36:20–24). But things are going to change due to God's intervention to save Israel from an overwhelming attack by a coalition of nations led by Russia (Ezek. 38–39). Israel will re-establish their relationship with God and later a remnant will come to faith in Christ during the Tribulation (Zech. 13:9).

We are currently nearing the end of the Church Age, or the Age of Grace, a period that began on the day of Pentecost 50 days after the Resurrection (Acts 2:1–4) and during which God is putting together a body of people who hear the message of the gospel, respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and believe in faith in the finished work of atonement Christ accomplished on our behalf for the forgiveness of sin. Not only that, but we believe in faith, without having seen so much as a wisp of the tangible, physical evidence that the Jews had paraded before them in spades two thousand years ago prior to rejecting their Messiah and having Him crucified (John 20:29).

The next major prophetic event on the agenda is the Rapture, which will end the Age of Grace by removing the Church—the temple of the Holy Spirit—from the earth (1 Thess. 4:16–17; 1 Cor. 6:19) prior to the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation (1 Thess. 5:9). The Holy Spirit will not actually leave (as erroneously claimed by some with opposing views), but when He withdraws His temple from the earth at the Rapture, this will effectively draw to a close His current ministry of restraining Satan's activity on the earth (2 Thess. 2:7). This will usher in a time of unparalleled deception, complete with lying signs and wonders (2 Thess. 2:8–12).

The Tribulation is the 70th and final "week" or seven-year period promised to Israel in Daniel 9:24–27 (the 69th week ended when Christ entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey on Palm Sunday and was hailed by crowds of common people as the Messiah), and it will officially begin with the confirmation of a treaty between Israel and the surrounding Muslim nations (Dan. 9:27a). Its purposes are to (a) purge Israel and bring forth a remnant of Jews who will finally embrace their true Messiah (Deut. 30:1–2), and (b) judge the nations of the world who have persecuted His people Israel and rejected the grace and mercy that He expressed to the world through Christ (Rev. 14:14–19). During the second half of this seven-year period, the world will be under the rule of a satanically indwelt dictator known as the Antichrist (Dan. 9:27b). His religious sidekick the False Prophet will compel the world to worship the Antichrist as God on pain of death and to take his mark in order to participate in the global economic system that will be implemented (Rev. 13:15–17).

At the climax of the Tribulation, the Jewish remnant will have their backs against the wall and will call upon God to save them, and save them He will (Hos. 5:15). Christ will physically return to the earth, slay Israel's enemies by the word of His mouth, cast the Antichrist and the False Prophet into the lake of fire, lock Satan up in the abyss, gather the believing Jewish remnant into Israel, and establish His 1,000-year kingdom on the earth—the Millennial Kingdom (Matt. 24:29–31; Rev. 19–20). This will begin with a judgment of living Tribulation survivors, who will either be granted or denied entrance into said kingdom based on their actions and faithful testimony (or the lack thereof) during the Tribulation (Matt. 25:31–46). And please note that these people are not part of the Church, who will return with Christ at the Second Coming and who will assist in ruling the Gentile nations of the world during the Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 5:10; 1 Cor. 6:2).

After 1,000 years of living in peace under the rule of Christ Himself in a world that has been restored to its pre-curse condition, Satan will be released for a short time and will gather legions of unbelievers from all the nations of the world who have been born during the Millennial Kingdom to mount one final rebellion against God. God will crush this rebellion, cast Satan into the lake of fire for eternity, and then all the unrighteous dead of all ages will be resurrected to stand before God at the Great White Throne Judgment. They will be judged by the Righteous Judge, found guilty as charged of sin, and then be cast into the lake of fire along with Satan, where they will join the Antichrist and the False Prophet for eternity (Rev. 20).

Then the Church's new eternal home, an enormous palatial dwelling known as the New Jerusalem, will descend from heaven and remain near the earth, and God will create a new heavens and a new earth so that Israel can continue to enjoy her promised earthly kingdom under the rule of the Messiah forever (Rev. 21). Note that some commentators believe the New Jerusalem will descend to the earth at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom (which is fine by me).

Whew...OK, but most of today's prophets aren't so much focused on the overall framework, but on what is going to happen in the relatively near future. They typically tantalize their listeners by speaking as if certain aspects of their prophecies were already being initiated behind the scenes and their fulfillments were liable to burst onto the world stage any time.

So, the next thing I want to do is sharpen our focus and go into a bit more detail about what we can expect to see happen in the next few years (whether the Church is still here or not). This is the short of it, and note that these are things that fit neatly into the framework we've already looked at: They're not odd men out, or things that have to be squeezed in through brute force. That's the point: It all fits into one clear, prophetic picture.

One key indicator that we are very near the Rapture and the Tribulation is the formation of a coalition of nations led by Russia along with Iran and Turkey that will gather for a sudden, overwhelming attack on Israel (Ezek. 38–39). It is not difficult to see the elements of this coming together as we speak, and it will be motivated by a keen interest in Israel's huge deposits of oil and natural gas that were only discovered a few years ago (Ezek. 38:10–13). The Rapture must almost certainly precede this attack because one of this attack's fundamental purposes is to bring God's people back into a relationship with Him in preparation to meet their Messiah later. It is clear that God focuses His active attention on Israel and the Church separately throughout Scripture.

The Tribulation will be launched with the confirmation of the treaty of Daniel 9:27, which will divide Israel as per the two-state solution and create a temporary false peace between Israel and her Muslim enemies. It will also most likely clear the way for Israel to rebuild the Third Temple, since Daniel 9:27 makes it clear that the sacrifice at the temple will be stopped at the midpoint of the Tribulation. And if it's stopped, then we can logically conclude that it started. And if it started, then we can logically conclude that there is a physical temple for it to be started in—and the Jews are as ready as they can possibly be to start building it.

The judgments of the Tribulation come in three rounds: the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls. The seal judgments are outlined in Revelation 6, and paint a grim picture of suffering, death, and destruction that has mankind convinced that what they are experiencing is divine wrath (Rev. 6:16–17). The seals come in the first half of the Tribulation, and also in the first half we see a huge evangelistic outreach by the 144,000 Jewish apostle Pauls that God seals and sends out to preach the gospel to the post-Rapture world (Rev. 7:1–8). Legions of Gentiles become believers (aka Tribulation saints), and many are slain by being beheaded (Rev. 7:9–17). In the second half, the believing remnant of Israel will be protected by God in the wilderness, some say in Petra in Jordan (Rev. 12:13–17). Also mixed in with the seals are diseases and famines that will kill millions. And straight up: It is my personal opinion that the growing horrors of the mRNA vaccines are just the beginning of something that will come to fruition as part of the fourth seal judgment (Rev. 6:7–8).

In Revelation 2–3, Jesus gives the apostle John seven messages for seven actual assemblies that existed in what is today Turkey. Although they applied to real, historical congregations in the first century, these seven messages, in the order Jesus gave them, form a summary prophetic outline of the history of the entire Church Age. The sixth of those messages was for the assembly at Philadelphia, and in Revelation 3:8–13 this assembly is promised point blank to be kept "from the hour of temptation, which shall come on all the world, to try them that dwell on the earth." That's the Rapture preceding the Tribulation, and they are promised by Christ Himself to be removed in order to keep them from that time of judgment.

But notice in verse 8 Jesus says "you have a little strength." And it means exactly what it says. Notice Jesus didn't say "You are mighty warriors and overcomers who are exploding with the power to overcome absolutely anything." In other words, the clear suggestion is that the Church will get weaker as we get closer to the Rapture and subsequent Tribulation—not stronger. Although Satan and his demons are still being restrained by the presence of the temple of the Holy Spirit on earth in the form of the Church, our influence is weakening and Satan's forces are burgeoning, ready to explode the moment the Church—Satan's last barricade—is taken out of the way and God allows him hold sway for a short time. And a hard, honest look at the condition of the Church today is enough to confirm what Scripture says.

As soon as the Rapture occurs, Satan will be empowered and unrestrained in ways the likes of which modern man has never witnessed. He knows His time is short (Rev. 12:12), and so he will go into overdrive in his manipulation of key world figures to usher in the global government, global economic system, and global religion that his man the Antichrist will step up and take control of (and the groundwork for all three is rapidly being laid as we speak).

Note that God is going to allow Satan to have his kingdom for the last half of the Tribulation. In fact, He's even going to help him out by sending a strong delusion around the midpoint of the Tribulation to cause the Jews who have rejected the truth of the gospel to be deluded into accepting a Gentile Antichrist as their Messiah (2 Thess. 2:8–12). Note that nothing Satan does during the Tribulation is a testament to his power—it is a testament to God's perfect justice and supreme authority. But why God would do that? Think of it this way: By allowing Satan to hold sway and reach the pinnacle of his power, God's final, eternal judgment of him will be that much more exquisitely justified and will more fittingly glorify an omnipotent, sovereign God.

As we get into the Tribulation, it won't be too awfully long until the dictates of the global religion will include capital punishment for anyone who stubbornly remains in the throes of the dark, negative energy associated with archaic, outmoded belief systems (i.e. biblical Christianity) that have been demonized as a serious hindrance to man's spiritual ascension process, and thus represent an existential threat to all of mankind. So, as the Tribulation gets rolling, new believers will soon become wanted criminals who will be beheaded if captured. And huge numbers of them will (Rev. 7:9–17).

During the time remaining until the Rapture, believers in America will continue to be painted with the right-wing, anti-vax, MAGA-extremist paint brush, and they will be increasingly marginalized, persecuted, and blamed for the ills of society by the liberal left, with the full support of the all-powerful mainstream media—and this is waxing worse NOW (2 Tim. 3:12–13). You think this is suddenly going to stop and reverse course? Really? Why?

When the trumpet sounds at the Rapture, that trumpet will also signal the death knell for America as we know it. And faster than you can say "alien disclosure," the world will be scrambling to establish the kingdom of the Antichrist with a now crippled and compliant United States in tow.

OK, I think I'll stop there. I just pegged my Tribometer.

My point is that there's no room in this end-time scenario for things getting back to "normal." It doesn't fit. I see no place where America rights its ship and gets conservative voices back in charge of things again in order to fix the damage done by the liberal left and their Cardboard Cutout in Chief. There's nothing in sight about putting things back the way they were just a few years ago, with a strong, patriotic president busy making America great again.

Granted, there may be a few minor victories along the way. The Republicans will probably take the House in the midterms. More damning evidence of the 2020 election fraud may be revealed, further vindicating Trump. Big Pharma's number one shill Dr. Fauci will crawl into the woodwork. But overall, it will not be enough to stem the tide of the darkness that is rapidly taking control of this fallen world that we are about ready to depart from, thanks be to God.

Scripturally speaking, it appears we've passed the point of no return. There is no biblical reason whatsoever to expect things to stop, turn around, and go back to the way they were. On the contrary. It's clear that it's time for us to trust God, believe His Word, and suck it up for the gun lap.

It's on. It's happening. End-time prophecy is being fulfilled as we speak, and at this point there is no stopping it.

Glorify His name...and get ready for takeoff!

But there is a problem that many good people are grappling with today, and that includes many in the Church. And I'll just come right out and say it:

The things that I have just described
are not the things they want to hear.

Many good people today want to hear that things are going to get better—that things are going to return to the way they were BC (Before Coronavirus). They want to hear that no more dangerous, ineffective vaccines will be required to keep their jobs and feed their families. They want to hear that teachers will be arrested—not applauded—for surreptitiously exposing their innocent young children to sexual perversion. They want to hear that the next election will be guaranteed to be fair. They want to hear that the fraud that scarred the last election will be exposed and that those responsible will be held accountable, instead of seeing it perpetually denied, dismissed, and ignored.

And I know that many good folks see Trump running for president in 2024 as a beacon shining from a hill that gives them a ray hope for the future. You got that right—MAGAA: Make America Great Again Again. Bottom line:

They want to see things put right,
and they by gosh want to see it now.

Enter today's prophets.

A ≠ B

The Babylonians took the first group of Jewish elite captive in 606 BC, a group that included the young prophet Daniel and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, probably better known by their Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. A few years later in 597 BC the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem and took King Jehoiakim and a larger group of Jews captive back to Babylon. They also took a number of sacred implements from the temple, and needless to say the Jews were terribly distressed at these developments.

The prophet Jeremiah prophesied that the Babylonians would take Israel into captivity for 70 years as a judgment for their sin (Jeremiah 25:11), but when Nebuchadnezzar took this larger group of exiles, the prophecies really began to fly—some true, some false. One such prominent false prophet was Hananiah (not Daniel's pal), who prophesied that the exiles would be returned within two years, along with the implements from the temple.

Hananiah and others like him became popular, well-to-do prophets, and their words brought fleeting comfort and false hope to a people who were greatly dismayed at what was happening, especially after the subsequent fall of Jerusalem and their full-scale exile to Babylon in 586 BC. Jeremiah prophesied to the people that the captivity would last the full 70 years, so they should settle in and prepare to live their lives accordingly. He told them they were under God's judgment and not to listen to the false prophets who were lying to them, because their lies would only bring them more pain and suffering.

The point is that God's hand was moving in judgment, and the false prophets merely told the people what they wanted to hear to make them feel better—their words gave them false hope and served to endear them to the people. Many were captivated with what these false prophets told them, and scorned and ridiculed Jeremiah, the Weeping Prophet.

Jeremiah boldly declared the LORD's message to the people, and later during their captivity in Babylon he prophesied a message of hope to them, telling them their captivity would come to an end and that the LORD would return them to their homeland—which he did in 537 BC, precisely when Jeremiah had told them He would.

The reason I mention this is to underscore something that is, has always been, and will always be true about false prophets:

False prophets have a strong tendency
to tell people what they desperately
want to hear during times of trouble.

They prophesy messages of hope and comfort in times when hope and comfort are commodities that are hard to come by. Their prophecies spread golden rays of sunshine when the dark clouds come rolling in.

And it doesn't seem to matter that such scarcity of hope and comfort and all the dark clouds are indications that God is carrying out His revealed will and sovereign purposes during the time period in question.

Surprise...nothing has changed. I see no need to quote any of these modern prophets extensively, because I have spent enough time perusing what they are saying to see some common threads shine through quite clearly. And I (or anyone who reads a lot of this material) can summarize the thrust of the vast majority of their prophecies in two lines:

The bad guys are going to fall and fail.
The good guys are going to rise and prevail.

Ta-da...that's the message. And such things are either happening now, are in the process of happening behind the scenes, or will happen very soon.

"So hang on! Don't lose hope! It's all going to be OK because God is going to fix everything! God is going to undo all the damage that has been done to our country and to the world! Just wait and see...it's already happening! Check it out—all my prophecies are being confirmed, trust me!"

One thing that characterizes most of these prophecies is the fact that they are almost invariably nonfalsifiable. In other words, they are things that no one can logically prove to be absolutely false. They tend to speak in generalities that might kinda sorta happen or be true (eventually), but it's difficult to pin them down and prove they didn't happen or aren't true. If it appears one of their prophecies didn't happen, then it just hasn't been fulfilled yet. It's easy to massage their prophecies into being "confirmed," but it's often impossible to shoot them down and refute them absolutely. That's the whole idea.

On the other hand, biblical prophecies tend to be falsifiable: They either happened exactly as written or they didn't—and they did. And prophecies concerning Jesus are as good an example as any. Here's a quick taste:

• The Messiah will be a descendant of King David (2 Sam. 7:12–16).

Either He was or He wasn't...and He was (Matt. 1:1–16; Luke 3:23–38).

• The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2).

Either He was or He wasn't...and He was (Matt. 2:1).

• The Messiah will make lepers clean, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the dead live, and will proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to the poor (Isa. 26:19; 29:18; 35:5–6; 61:1).

Either He did or He didn't...and He did (Matt. 8–9).

• The Messiah will be crucified (Ps. 22:16).

Either He was or He wasn't...and He was (Matt. 27:32–35).

• The Messiah will be resurrected (Ps. 16:10).

Either he was or He wasn't...and He was (Matt. 28:1–10).

Multiplied by several hundred. Every single prophecy regarding Christ's genealogy, birth, life, ministry, miracles, death, and resurrection was utterly falsifiable, yet every last one was fulfilled to the letter. That is typically the nature of Bible prophecy. Why would it be otherwise? God alone knows all events for all time, and one of the purposes of prophecy is to remove all doubt in the minds of fallen men that His Word is truth.

As we saw in the example of Jeremiah and the Babylonians, however, when Old Testament prophets prophesied about troubling events that would befall the people of Israel, they were naturally things that the people didn't want to hear—things intended to get His stiff-necked people to repent of their sinful, rebellious ways and return to Him. In other words:

When God's prophets prophesied
bad things to Israel, there was
invariably a valid reason for it.

This is why biblical prophets so often spoke things the people were loath to listen to. In most cases they told them what God was trying to get through their thick heads and thicker hearts, and to repent and obey Him. When Israel was living in obedience to God and in accordance to His laws, there just wasn't the same pressing need for God to speak to them through prophets—He was too busy blessing them!

We've got something they didn't have: It's important to note that in Old Testament days, it was more challenging to distinguish true prophecy from false prophecy for the simple reason that they had very little of God's written Word to go by. They typically had to just wait and see if a prophet's words came to pass. Over time, however, the words of the true prophets became the written Word of God. As a result, today we have the advantage of having the totality of God's message to man at our disposal. We can check what someone says against the infallible written Word of God, and see if it conforms to it or runs counter to it in any way.

So, if God were going to speak to the Church today through prophets, do you think He would have them spout a bunch of stuff that runs against the grain of His written Word and that's simply intended to make us feel good, satisfy our sense of what is good and right, and restore our peace of mind—regardless of His stated prophetic plans?

Consider: God has already given us a pretty good idea of what He is going to do in the end times—we have touched on a few of the highlights in this article. And some of these things are indeed troubling, as Satan's influence in the world surges until he ultimately enjoys his moment in the sun before God's thundering judgment falls on him and all his bad guys.

God's Word tells us that in the end times, things are going to get worse. Surprise! That's exactly what we see happening. But God has also told us in His Word that He is going to remove us from the time and place of the judgment and devastation that is about to fall on those who dwell on the earth.

The point I'm getting at is this:

The surest way to see that today's
prophets do not speak for God is to
compare what they say with what God
has already spoken to us in His Word:

God's Word says A.
Today's prophets say B.

And A ≠ B. Case closed. But like I said: In order to see this, you have to know what God has already said in His Word...and there's the rub.

Oh, and don't look now, but the argument about whether or not the biblical gift of prophecy still exists is irrelevant to the current conversation. Why?

Because even if it does still exist,
these "prophets" sure ain't got it.

But So-and-so's prophecy came true! OK, listen to me very carefully:

I. Don't. Care. Why? Because. It. Doesn't. Matter.

Some people have this notion that if a self-proclaimed prophet makes a prediction and it comes true, that automatically proves they are a true prophet of God...as if that status depended on their scorecard alone.

But it is soo not that simple. If someone today prophesies things that run counter to what God has revealed in His Word (which is precisely what self-proclaimed prophets do today), then we already know they aren't speaking for God and so it doesn't matter if something they say occurs. That's the entire point. Generally, they either prophesy something that was likely to happen anyway, that they were pretty sure was coming by keeping up with the news, or their fan club massages vague prophecies to make them appear to have been "fulfilled." And I've slogged through enough of this stuff to be satisfied that all of the above occur on a routine basis.

So, not to wag the old bony finger or anything, but there are some good people who need to spend less time listening to self-proclaimed prophets and more time listening to the Author of Scripture.

What else do you need to know?

When we see what is happening in the world today, instead of flocking to so-called prophets to reassure us that everything is going to be OK and put back in order—that the bad guys are going to fall and fail and the good guys are going to rise and prevail, we should be praising and glorifying God. We should be shouting "Hallelujah!" We should be shouting...

"Yeah!! THY KINGDOM COME!!
That's what I'm talkin' about!!"

The Rapture is key: I won't get into it here and now, but I feel compelled to point out one blindingly obvious truth. One of the reasons so many groups in the Church today have radically different views of what lies ahead for the world and for the Church (views that often line up splendidly with what today's so-called prophets are saying) is because of one key thing:

Doctrinal error in regard to the pre-trib Rapture.

Satan has successfully generated the massive underbrush of error in regard to the Rapture that has overtaken the Church like kudzu along an Alabama back road. In large swaths of the Church today, the words "pre-trib Rapture" have become radioactive. But understand that minus the pre-trib Rapture, much of what the Bible clearly teaches about the end times doesn't make a lick of sense, and so people have to get creative to make the pieces fit—and that's exactly what they do:

• It's the Church that's being gathered "after the tribulation of those days" in Matthew 24:29–31.

• The Church has replaced Israel, whose rebirth as a nation is a historical anomaly that has no scriptural or prophetic significance whatsoever.

• The Tribulation saints in Revelation 7 are really the Church.

• The Church's job is to go out and spit shine the world so Christ can return to rule it some fine day.

• The Church gets raptured at the Second Coming, grabs their robes, does a U-turn, and comes right back down to earth with Christ.

(Heavy sigh...) And it just goes downhill from there.

Point blank: The pre-trib Rapture is not a minor detail we can "agree to disagree" on. Oh no. It is essential to a proper understanding of the end-time scenario, and when it is removed everything implodes into a circus of scriptural error and the opinions of men. Those who jettison it rob the Church of its blessed, purifying hope—they help weaken the Church (as foretold by Christ in Rev. 3:8). Every other view of the Rapture has fatal flaws that require a major rewiring of Scripture that invariably blossoms into a major species of doctrinal error: Replacement theology, Dominion theology, Kingdom Now theology, Universalism, and the list goes on.

Q. Well, why is it that so many in the Church attack it so viciously?

A. Oh my, what an excellent question. OK, ask yourself the following:

After what I just said above, does it or does it not make sense to you that Satan would work so hard and so long to influence a host of people to help turn the pre-trib Rapture into arguably the most ridiculed and reviled doctrine in the history of the Church—especially in modern times, as it draws near and thus matters the most? Think hard.

As we have seen, many of the bad things we see occurring are part and parcel of God's end-time plan, so why would He send prophets to say things to reassure us that He's going to return things to the way they were to make us feel better and satisfy our natural desire to see the bad guys punished, the good guys win, and things put right? (Please note that the bad guys will be punished, the good guys will win, and things will be put right—just not in the manner these prophets are imagining.) But there lies another clue:

Most of what today's prophets tell us
is enormously satisfying to our flesh.

It's almost always exactly what our natural man wants to hear—but it's almost never exactly what God has already revealed to us in His Word.

So, at the end of the day, my question for people who insist on listening to today's "prophets" who invariably prophesy what the natural man wants to hear—that the bad guys are going to fall and fail, and the good guys are going to rise and prevail—boils down to the following:

God has already told us in His written Word what
we can expect to see happening in the end times,
and that the Church will escape the worst of it.

These things are happening now, they're getting
worse, and the Rapture is drawing excitingly close.

I'm sorry...but what else do you need to know?

Greg Lauer — AUG '22

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