IN the Old Testament Scriptures we find the prophetic office, as exercised by men, frequently referred to and constantly prominent in the history of the children of Israel and of the Jews in Jerusalem and Judah. Gracious and mighty prophets there were who, being anointed from on high with the Spirit of the Lord, instructed the people of their day in the mind and will of God for their spiritual, moral and eternal profit. They also, as divinely influenced and guided, spoke of future blessings and judgments which were to be expected from the hand of God; their authority always being, “Thus saith the Lord.” Jeremiah himself was a prophet we ought to greatly value and admire. His lot, in Jerusalem and Judah, was cast mostly during an evil and sad day. The backslidings of the people from God’s Word and Law, were many. Jeremiah, not merely a weeping prophet but a lonely one, warned them from the Lord of threatened judgments because of their wickedness. But the prophet had the added grief and trial of knowing that there were false prophets going out and in among the people; and the people loved to have it so.
This self-same situation obtains today in our own midst as a land. Our backslidings are with us; there is a remnant who fear the Lord and follow the Lamb and also cry and sigh for the abominations done in the land; and of false prophets, there are not a few. The false prophets today have, in many cases, assumed the Office of the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ; and following a Scriptural and calm examination of the doctrines, teachings and practices of such, it may be asserted that they are well and properly described in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah.
They prophesy lies (Jeremiah, xiv. 14), when the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah is said to have no application to the promised Messiah; when the Virgin birth and divinity of the Lord Jesus are denied; when the death of Christ is interpreted as other than a sacrificial and an atoning death for the remission of the sins of many; when plausible and unscriptural teaching is given to deceive sinners into thinking they are the spiritual children of God; when men and women, irrespective of creed or character, are prayed into “heaven” (not the heaven of the Bible) at funeral services; and when the truths regarding the Fall, the New Birth and Everlasting Punishment are relegated to the background—and so on. They speak a vision of their own hearts, and not out of the mouth of the Lord,
(Jeremiah xxvi. 16). They speak what their own human and carnal wisdom dictates as being proper and profitable for men to believe and live by, in view of death and eternity and what the Lord has spoken by means of His inspired and infallible Word is a subsidiary matter, yea! non-essential to these false prophets. “Thus it is written,” is not their standard. They speak lies in the name of the Lord, (Jeremiah xiv. 14). What a solemn charge against them! And what a terrible sin on their part! The false prophet is one who, of course, professes to be a prophet of the Lord and to speak His Word faithfully. Yet they employ the name of the Lord, they claim to be servants of Christ Jesus and profess to be guided by the Spirit of Truth, and all this to speak lies to their fellow sinners. The Lord will vindicate the honour of His Holy Name by dealing with these prophets in His anger, in His own way and time. We may protest but the Lord will judge. They make the people to trust in a lie, (Jeremiah xxviii. 15). There are thousands upon thousands of poor, ignorant sinners, among all classes of society, who have imbibed the lies of false prophets today, from pulpit and platform, and believe a lie and rest upon a lie. Many, still unconverted, thus assume that God is their Father, that they are in the Kingdom of God and that the heaven of true Christians is to be their habitation after death, whereas they are on the broad way to hell. What an account false prophets will have to give the Lord Jesus Christ, when He will come personally to judge the world in righteousness, at last!
Such prophets are a present judgment upon the generation. May the Most High raise up godfearing and divinely commissioned men to preach and teach the whole counsel of God and the Gospel of Christ Jesus, that many sinners be brought by the Holy Spirit to receive the truth in the love of it, unto their salvation.