An appalling horrible thing has taken place in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it like this. But what will you do with it at the end of it? Jeremiah 53:30-31 CSB
We see many false prophets these days. We see many people flocking to their churches and their revivals. We see many people being “saved” in these congregations. This brings up the question, if someone is following a false prophet and they make a profession of faith and are baptized are they truly saved?
God addresses this through Jeremiah in our Scripture passage today. Recently a revival came to our area. People were flocking to it and thousands have been “saved”. The problem is if you simply google this guy, you will find some disturbing things about him and his ministry. He also has an association with a guy who has some disturbing issues as well.
We have to be very careful because I truly believe we are in the end times. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 4:3 that the time will come when people will reject sound teaching. They will go to so-called preachers who tell them what they want to hear. They want to hear that their sin is okay. They want to hear that God will just overlook their sin, it’s not a problem. They want to hear that God does not need to be feared because He’s a loving God and could never show wrath.
In other words, they want to hear a bunch of lies. This is why false prophets have become so popular. Name it and claim it preachers are those that tell us we can speak good things and bring them into our lives. They tell us we can be gods ourselves. Be very careful. The Bible tells us many times that we should not be deceived.
If we are truly saved, we want to be closer to God. This means we will devote time to Bible study and prayer daily. This means we will want to learn as much as we can about God by studying His word. This means we will pray for wisdom and discernment. Through this prayer and Bible study, we will be able to discern God’s will for our lives. We will be able to spot these false teachers.
So, we go back to what about these people who follow false teachers. Well, way back in Jeremiah’s day, the people had become so sinful and unrepentant that God was about to bring about the Babylonian captivity. God had had enough of their disobedience. If you read all of Chapter 5, you see that God is about to let them know just how unhappy He is with them.
God describes this false teaching and false prophesying as a horrible thing. He also describes the people loving it as a horrible thing. But He tells them it will end and what will they do then? God’s word will endure, but these false teaching will come to an end, and it won’t be pretty.
As Christians, we are responsible for studying God’s word. We are responsible for being in constant communication with Him. We are responsible for being able to discern the good from the bad. Here in Jeremiah, God is saying that because the Israelites had failed to do so, they too were guilty before God just as the false priests and prophets were.
As mature Christians, we must recognize the “baby” Christians and mentor them. As baby Christians, we should realize that we are in a period of learning, not yet ready for leading.
Be very careful in these last days that you are not led astray. We are told in 1 John 4:1 that many false prophets have gone out into the world. We must not believe every spirit but test them to see if they are from God.
When we are truly saved, we are from God and have conquered these false prophets because the One who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Be careful who you follow.
Put God first and trust in Him with all your heart. Don’t trust in your own understanding and He will make your crooked paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Have a great day!