Prophetic Standards

A funny thing happened on my way to the computer today. I came across a website of “prophets” statement of faith and it’s titled “Prophetic Standards”. You can read about it in the following link.

 Prophetic Standards Statement

As most of us know 2020 was a devastating year for the TV evangelical “prophets”. They all missed COVID 19, the presidential election, the national upheaval and riots and looting and Antifa and BLM and Proud Boys, the world’s economies shut down, and just the overall year of 2020  has been talked about all across the nation and the world as a disastrous year. Well apparently more people were paying attention to the false prophets than we realize. They feel threatened or something because they have released a statement of faith for all the charlatans to sign. This is their way of excusing themselves while redefining what a false prophet is in a vague enough way that people who never read the Bible won’t know the difference. As if it matters to people who follow these charlatans. Just take a look at some of their declarations. This one for example…

“WE AGREE that Scripture instructs us not to despise prophecies but to examine prophetic utterances carefully and to hold fast to that which is good (1 Thes. 5:19-21). This also means that we should cultivate honor and respect for true prophetic ministries rather than an attitude of skepticism or scorn.”

When I saw Kenneth Copeland declare Covid 19 was “Dog Gone!” on March 29 2020 I despised that stupid “prophecy” with a passion. I don’t know how many of you watched his You Tube clips but he had several and they were so ridiculous and so demonic. That’s not what Paul the Apostle was talking about in 1 Thessalonians 5 anyway. Prophesy is for our benefit, to cause us to repent, NOT to tell us how the next election will go or how to stop a corona virus. Look at 2 Peter1:19-21. The prophecy we are not to despise is the written word which has been confirmed and did not come by the will of men and is the light that shines in the darkness. As Paul said in 1 Thess 5, “Test all things”.  We are to avoid false prophets and are warned they can deceive the very elect. The only way to know who they are is to look to the scriptures and test them. Hebrews 1:1-2 tells us God no longer uses prophets and God NEVER used charlatans like today’s false prophets. These modern ones do not even understand what “Prophecy” is anyway. A prophet’s job was to do the will of God, and not be a fortune teller or a magician or trickster. When God sent out a prophet His word didn’t return empty.

Isaiah 55:11---"So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

Deut. 18:20-22 “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

1 John 4:1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Those three verses tell us how easy it is to know a false prophet from the true prophets even if God still used prophets, which according to Hebrews 1:1-2 He doesn’t. With a few simple Bible verses in context we can see the need for a “Prophetic Statement” and to be signed by “prophets” is ridiculous and only false prophets would need such a thing to cover their tracks. Take a look at this one…

“WE REJECT the notion that a contemporary prophetic word is on the same level of inspiration or authority as Scripture or that God always speaks inerrantly through prophets today, since the Bible says we only know in part and prophesy in part (1 Cor. 13:9). It is the written Word alone that can lay claim to being “the Word of God” (2 Tim. 3:16); prophecies, at best, are “a word from the Lord,” to be tested by the Word of God.”

Do you see that? They Reject the notion that God speaks to them inerrantly as modern prophets! Then misapply 1 Corinthians 13:9 to claim it’s because they “know” in part. That’s not what that verse says at all! But even if it was applied correctly, God ALWAYS speaks inerrantly, He never lies or speaks in error or “misspeaks”. If God told a prophet one sentence, it would be true! These “prophetic standards” these charlatans have come up with are nothing but foolishness and they are blaming God for them making bad predictions and prophesying falsely in the name of God. Under the Old Law, they would have been put to death.

.It is true when they claim only the written word is the “Word of God”. And they continue to make false prophecies then claim God doesn’t always speak to them inerrantly!? See folks, these people are to be shunned after they are exposed for what they are.

Here’s a piece from “Christianity Today” concerning this matter. I come across this article after an online acquaintance told me about the new “standards” website and so I started doing reading to find out more about why they did this.

Christian Leaders Issue Prophetic Standards Statement Following Controversial Prophecies About Recent Elections : Church : Christianity Daily

I found it ironic how some of the more outspoken “prophets” can’t even agree on a set of standards for themselves. Such as Cindy Jacobs and Kenneth Copeland, who made an absolute disgrace of himself in 2020. They refuse to sign this set of standards even though it is way more forgiving than God’s Standards. God commanded the children of Israel to stone false prophets to death. God even said IF a prophet speaks a thing and it comes true yet then preaches to the people to follow other gods, to put them to death. I always remember this. A broken watch is right twice a day. A false prophet can make a true prediction from time to time. A Prophet of God didn’t “predict” anything, He spoke for God. These modern “prophets” admit they make “predictions”. And they claim by their new standards when they get one wrong an apology to their audience is due. Ya think!? No, an apology doesn’t cut it. If anyone lies and says “The Lord says” and the Lord did not say, don’t apologize to a crowd, humble yourself before God and beg His forgiveness and repent of that wickedness and tell the audience you lied and repent before them. Tell the audience “God did not say such and such”.

As I said 2020 has been devastating to the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements, but has been a great year for God’s retribution on their false prophets. His final judgment is yet to come but it seemed like, to me anyway, that 2020 was a year of God’s providence exposing these heretics like Kenneth Copeland and Kat Kur

What we should want from God’s Prophets is what they have already given to us in the word inspired by the God the Holy Spirit. When these charlatans use 1 Corinthians 13 to claim ”We know in part” means they can be wrong sometimes is simply foolishness. Let me provide a scriptural example.

Acts 2:38-39 the Apostle Peter inspired by God and filled with the Holy Spirit said; “Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.” 

That first recorded sermon by Peter after the Holy Spirit came is prophecy. It is “in part” of the entirety and yet it is true and will not fail. Those words will not return to God empty. When the Jews asked in verse 37 “What shall we do?” that question didn’t just appear out of nowhere and didn’t come in a dream or an imagination. Peter had just preached a gospel of Christ sermon to them and how they needed to be forgiven for what they had done. Did Peter preach to them the newness of life? Did he remind them they were being saved by grace through faith in God and they were to abandon the Levitical Priesthood and now they had one Priest from the tribe of Judah and He was their only advocate to the Father and how they could now approach the throne without an intermediary? No, that would come but that would come and they would learn the Lord’s Supper and how Jesus is our Passover and learn they are now the Temple of God. Lots of things were coming to them later, but they first learned their salvation was through Jesus Christ. Remember what Paul said to the Corinthians concerning the gospel by which they stand? in 1 Cor 15:3-4?  “For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures;”

Is that the entirety of the gospel? No, it’s what Paul said “What I delivered to you first”!  If that was the entirety then why would Paul warn them in this first letter of all the things they had against them such as allowing an adulterer to carry on in fellowship with them? Christ died for our sins and was raised again on the third day is the foundation of our faith. On that confession Jesus said He would build His Church.  Mark 16:18. God adds to the Church those who are being saved. Acts 2:47. The book of Hebrews tells us to In Hebrews 5:12 on into chapter 6 the writer rebukes them for not growing and learning. He tells them they should by now be teachers yet they were stuck on the first principles of repentance and baptism, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment to come. The writer added “Therefore Let us move on”.

 So we see, the “prophets” who came up with and signed this “Prophetic Standards” statement have the Biblical discernment of a sack of rocks. They deceitfully use one verse to excuse themselves for failing miserably in their “predictions” and actually blame God. But as I said, God’s prophets didn’t predict, they Spoke what God told them to speak.