BE FORTIFIED prt 1

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" (Matthew 7:15-16). 

The Bible makes it clear in many places that one of the things believers would have to contend with, particularly as we near the end of times is the rise of false prophets and fake pastors. The Lord Jesus Christ said it, warning that there would even be "false Christs" (Matthew 24:11, 24). Paul said it (2 Corinthians 11:13) and added that there would also be "false brethren" (Galatians 2:4). Peter warned us (2 Peter 2:1). And then, of course, apostle John warned us, urging us not to believe every spirit, but to "try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). 

Christ's instruction that we should beware and John's admonition that we should try the spirits put the responsibility of escaping the traps of the false prophets, fake pastors and false brethren squarely on the shoulders of each individual believer. In other words, it is up to you whether you will be deceived or not. The simple import of this is that a Christian cannot be misled without his permission. It is your responsibility to beware. When Jesus said you shall know them by their fruits, it means you can know the fake from the genuine. It also means that it is your duty to acquire the necessary information that will help you discern between true servants of God and the false ones. To be well informed is to be well fortified. But when you fail to adequately equip yourself in the word of God, you have unwittingly given permission to impostors to mislead you. 

Unfortunately, today's crop of church folks are not labouring to acquire adequate scriptural and spiritual information that will help them stand against the burgeoning company of false prophets of the last days. These days, too many believers are not studying to show themselves approved before God. Too many church people are not doing the needful to let the word of God dwell in them richly. And so, we have too many in the church who just swallow hook, line and sinker what they hear from the pulpits, irrespective of whether those things align with the word of God or not. If you observe carefully, you will notice that "my pastor said" is more popular than "the Bible says" among church folks today. That is not good for us because it will render us defenseless against the false prophets and our pastors' human errors which will always be a possibility among mortals. 

Wanted in this hour is the Berean church where believers would always take it upon themselves to check and reconfirm in the Scriptures whatever is heard from the pulpit (Acts 17:11). If the Bereans did that for Paul, a man of exceptional spiritual capacity, sagacity and revelation, I do not know any man of God in this or any other generation whose teachings or utterances should not be properly scrutinised under the infallible light of the Scriptures. Paul was the man whom God used to pen half of the New Testament. He wrote more books in the Bible than any other person. If the Bereans had the audacity to check out if Paul's teaching passed the test of Scriptural balance, today's believers should even be more emboldened to check out men who are preaching from Paul's writings.