T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
144
April, 1940
for this, and the coining generation, if the Bible were accepted as being what it. is in truth, the very Word of God without mixture of error. Let the dreamers dream and tell their dreams. But he that has God’s Word, let him speak that Word faithfully. It is like a fire which consumes all that is contrary to truth, and It is like a hammer that breaks in pieces all that is against the true God. III. T heir J udgment (30-32) The devotional reading attached to this lesson should be consulted care fully. Ezekiel plainly speaks of the end of all false prophets and of the judg ment awaiting those who turn from the Word of God. God is against all the false prophets, either of yesterday or of today, and they shall surely meet the judgment that God has declared awaits them (cf. Deut. 18:20; Jer. 14:14, 15). God is against all that speak from their own thoughts, and who claim It is God who speaks. God does not speak anywhere today except through His Word, the Bible; and the man who claims to have a message from God, and at the same time denies what is written in the Bible, may be known at once as a false prophet, no matter what so-called human appeal his words may have. God is against those who prophesy lying dreams and thereby cause the people to err by their vain boasting. Great swelling words of man’s wisdom never can take the place of the clear and simple Word of God. But we are so wholly ruined by the Fall that we are more ready to give ear to error than to truth. Yet there is protection from false prophets for all who desire it; that protection is to be found in dili gent comparison of what is heard with what the Bible teaches. Points and Problems 1. It is an encouraging sign that the Lesson Committee has dared to give us a lesson on the subject of “False Prophets.” It is one of the fallacies of modern thought that “religion” is a good thing, without inquiring too closely into what kind of religion it may be. But the Word of God makes it very clear that the children of the Lord must discriminate in such matters and must not hesitate to brand as false all reli gion, together with its prophets, which fails to conform with the truth as it is revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ. Such an attitude may not be popular, but it is a Christian duty, taught in the New Testament as sternly as in the Old. Speaking of the doctrine of Christ, the Apostle John writes, “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doc trine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed: For he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 10, 11).
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2 . “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran” (Jer. 23:21). To be “sent” of God is the surest mark of the true prophet. It is not enough that men should be willing to go. They must be sent, divinely sent. Our Lord, who was the perfect pattern of all the true serv ants of God, laid great stress upon the fact that He was sent of the Father in His mission to a lost world. Over and over, especially in the Gospel of John, He claims to be sent of the Father. “I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me” (John 8:42). The church of today does not need merely more ministers. What she does need is more who are sent of. God. All other prophets are false. 3. “Prophets of the deceit of their own heart” (v. 26). It is a popular proverb among men to say, “To thine own self be true.” But this is not the mark of the prophets of God. The true minister of the Lord is not the origina tor of his own message. Here again our Lord Jesus is the perfect Example. “For I have not spoken of myself,” He declares; “but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak” (John 12:49). 4. “ The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream” (v. 28). We have here a plea for honesty on the part of those who claim to be prophets. If the prophet has dreamed a dream out of his own heart, and if he wants to make it known, then he should tell it for what it really is—a dream. But let him beware of proclaiming his own opinions as the Word of the Lord. The modern' pulpit needs nothing so much as a great baptism of honesty. If men wish to preach the visions of their own heart, and if others wish to listen to them, that is their privilege. It is bad enough to preach untruth, but to preach a lie and call it the message of God is the very acme of degradation. , Now comes a wise editor and re marks: “A century ago the attitude to ward the pagan religions was that they were all false, while Christianity alone was true. Now this classification o f ‘true and false’ is being given up by all careful students of religion, because the Golden Text Illustration 1 T hessalonians 5:21
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BLACKBOARD LESSON
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