This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:16)
If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you. (Exodus 13:1-5)
But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?”
If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)
Yesterday’s Reflection column in the paper focused on the first passage above. was about false prophets and prophets. False prophets, the writer said, tell us what we want to hear. Real prophets tell us the truth, even when we don’t want to hear it. And with regard to the pandemic, she says that God has given medical people a better understanding of the pandemic than He has given us and that we should listen to them as prophets when they say that we must wait for the vaccine in order to be safe while the false prophets (or our own hearts) because the message we want to hear is that we can live as we want.
She was correct, as far as she goes. False prophets do tend to tickle the ears of their hearers, telling us what we want to hear. But what do we want to hear in the case of the pandemic? Some people want to hear, “Live as you please.” Others want to hear “A vaccine is coming! A vaccine is coming!” What none of us wants to hear is that so far, there has never been a vaccine for humans for a coronavirus, and since there doesn’t seem to be even a short term immunity from coronaviruses (consider the “Common Cold” as an example,) it’s not likely that a useful vaccine will be forthcoming any time soon, and therefore, we have to figure something else out.
But what the author doesn’t address is what we find in Exodus and Deuteronomy about false prophets. The passage in Exodus tells us that any prophet who leads us to follow other gods should be stoned to death. The passage in Deuteronomy tells us that any prophet whose words don’t come to pass should be stoned to death for presuming to speak in God’s name when God has not spoken
The author claims that those who tell us we must wait for the vaccine are prophets. The first question, then, should be “What god (or gods) do these prophets call us to follow? Yes, of course, God has given some people great skills in the areas of science and medicine. I’m not suggesting we should eschew medicine and science and “just have faith.” There is a definite place for medicine. But are those skilled in medicine prophets? And if they are prophets, do they call us to follow God, or do they call us to have faith in science and medicine, in their models, or in them? If it’s not to follow God, should we not stone them as false prophets? And if their prophecies do not come true (as many haven’t,) should we stone them as false prophets?
Would they even claim to be speaking on God’s behalf? Fortunately for them, they don’t tend to. But that’s what a prophet does. They might not recognize that they’re speaking prophetically. But. anyone can state truth. That doesn’t make one a prophet. Many people speak unpopular truths. That does not make them prophets.
For this pastor to proclaim not just one medical person, but every medical person who presents a message with which she agrees to be a prophet, makes it reasonable to conclude that the pastor in question is a false prophet. It does not matter whether or not the things the doctors and scientists are correct. What she said is not – not according to the Word of the Lord.
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