How May We Know?

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 15, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 11.

THERE are prophets false and true. The ages have rung with their messages, and they are still in evidence.

The true prophets have been among the few; the false among the many. God's faithful messengers have ever met the false who endeavor to render ineffective their work, and unsettle souls. Elijah met them, Jeremiah and Ezekiel met them. How may we discern the false from the true?

1. By their fruits. Said our Lord: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. . . . Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Matt. 7: 15-20. Do their teachings lead to humility, to devotion to God, to love of souls, to prayer, to obedience, to the Word of God? Such fruit is good, and will endure. But if the teaching lead to the word of men, to faith in the human instead of in God, to faithlessness and carelessness in God's service, to the exaltation of men instead of Christ, to a false peace instead of an earnest seeking of God, the prophet is not God's messenger.

2. By God's Law. Is the teaching of the prophet in harmony with God's law?—Then it is well. If not, it is false. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8: 20. If a prophet predict some remarkable thing, and it come to pass, yet if his teachings lead away to false gods, or to error, he must not be followed. See Deut. 13: 1-4.

Our Lord teaches the same thing in His test of false prophets, a portion of which we have quoted. Continuing from Matt. 7: 20, He says: "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven." God's will is His holy law. Ps. 40: 7, 8. Our Lord continues: "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy name cast out demons, and by Thy name do many mighty works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity [or who break His law]." This obedience to God's law is the prime test of the genuine. The claim of the prophet or church or messenger, the mighty signs or miracles which may be wrought, are not evidences of a true prophet. Loyalty to God, obedience to His government, fidelity to His message, are God's credentials of His messengers.

God can not pour out His Spirit in its fulness without this test. There is no way by which man can test a spirit save by a true standard. An imperfect square can not be tested or corrected by itself or by another imperfect square. We do not rightly correct one imperfect timepiece by another.

3. Jesus declared that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd. John 10: 4, 16. Preeminently the voice of God (and the Father and Son are one. John 10: 30) is His holy law uttered by His own voice from Sinai, out of such glory as earth never saw before or since. Deut. 5: 22. Those who know that voice have God's law written in the heart by His Holy Spirit; and the law on the tables of stone will witness to the law written on the heart by the Spirit of God. Rom. 3: 21.

Heeding the test, God's children need never be drawn away by the teachings of false prophets. Ignoring God's law, and the soul is left to the vague uncertainties of human reasonings, impressions, imaginations.