Jeremiah 23:26
How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
The inquiry how long this deceit shall remain exposes that those who claim prophetic office can offer the fabrications of their own self-deceived hearts as if they were communications from God. Such counterfeit revelations need not look crude or obviously false, for they can resemble authentic revelation so closely as to be difficult to distinguish at first sight. Part of their deceptive power lies in mingling genuine truth with error, so that the portion of truth gives credibility to the error joined with it. They may likewise join words of rebuke with flattering promises, using the severity to appear faithful while the flattery wins favor and disarms caution. Despite these plausible appearances, their effect is to turn hearers aside into wrong ways and to entangle them as in a snare.