by Gun Lap
Was Herbert Armstrong a false prophet when he predicted Jesus Christ would return within five to ten years (Military Service and War 1967, p. 54), that communism would take over India and engulf “the yellow races” (1975 in Prophecy, p. 10, 1956), or that a world dictator was about to appear (first copy of The Plain Truth)? Or, as Armstrong apologists say, were his prophecies merely delayed?
How long can a prophecy be delayed and still be from God? What does the bible say about this? Forget what your church teaches for a moment—what does the bible say? It might come as as surprise, but the bible does address this issue!
When Paul spoke of the return of Christ in his time (I Thess 4:17), was he merely “off in his timing” as many ministers preach? Were the prophecies of Jesus predicting his second coming (Matt 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) delayed 2000 years? Does this make Jesus a false prophet?
If any of these men were off in their timing, do they deserve the death penalty for being false prophets? The frank bible answer will come as a shock to any Christian brave enough to face it. If you are a Christian, brace yourself, and read on.
Deut 18:20-22 says if a prophet arises and if his words do not come to pass, he must die! God actually commanded the death. One cannot carry out a death sentence on someone who has aleady died of natural causes, so, obviously, the death sentence must be carried out while the prophet is still alive. If the prophet dies of natural causes that command has not been kept. This must be considered seriously. It was a serious sin to disobey a command to execute a false prophet.
“When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, IF THE THING FOLLOW NOT, NOR COME TO PASS, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptiously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” (Deut 18:22.). Note that it says explicity (in v. 21) that this is how they were to “know” that the words of the false prophet were not from God. They did not have to guess, wonder, or wait indefinitely to find out if the words were from God. They could know. Then.
What was the penalty for the prophet?
“But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak … even THAT PROPHET SHALL DIE.” (v. 20).
Notice the command: the false prophet must die. It’s not talking about letting him die of natural causes!
Now let’s suppose I were a false prophet. I could prophesy in the name of the Lord that lead will turn into gold. My followers might load up on lead, then wait for lead to turn into gold. And wait. And wait. How long should they wait? Eventually I die of old age. Was it a failed prophecy? I never set a date for the prophecy to be fulfilled, so my followers could be waiting forever. How will they know it was a false prophecy? How long should they hold onto their lead?
If they accept the “prophecy did not fail, it was just delayed” excuse they could be waiting forever. By that standard, one could come up with millions of prophecies which can never be disproven no matter how long we wait.
But God said you can KNOW that the words of the false prophet were not from God (v. 21). If we wait and wait forever, we will NEVER know. But God said we can KNOW if the word was from him, by whether it comes to pass.
Clearly, there must be an upper time limit on how long we must wait before we can know, and it must be before the death of the false prophet from natural causes.
“And if you say in your heart, How shall we KNOW the word which the Lord has NOT spoken?” (v. 21).
This is not talking about knowing a true prophet by words which DO come to pass. It is talking about knowing a FALSE prophet by words which do NOT come to pass. It does not say here that we should just keep waiting indefinitely because we can never know. It says we can KNOW.
God commanded that if a prophet arises and if his words do not come to pass, he must be put to death. Once again, this sentence was to be carried out while the prophet was still alive—in the prophet’s own lifetime. It would have been pointless for God to order the death of the false prophet otherwise.
Though we don’t kill false prophets today, the instructions on how to 
detect a false prophet are still applicable today.
To my knowledge, the bible does not say how many years to wait, but it does effectivly put an upper time limit on the prophecy. If the prophet dies of natural causes, we waited too long because God COMMANDED that he be executed, which means he must be executed before he dies of natural causes. So the maximum time we must wait is some time less than the life time of the prophet.
In other words, if the prophet dies before his prophesy comes to pass, he was a false prophet, and should have been executed!
Did Herbert Armstrong die before his prophecies came to pass? Yes! He was a false prophet. Did Paul die before his prophecies came to pass? Yes! He was a false prophet. Did Jesus die before his prophecies came to pass? Yes! Another false prophet.
But many readers will object: “the bible is full of prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled.” That is true. But according to Deuteronomy, every one of them was uttered by a false prophet. Either Deuteronomy is false, or many bible prophets who came later are false. We can’t have it both ways.
This is just more proof that the bible is a collection of contradictions that were not inspired by God. Bible scholars and ministers make a living confusing the issues. They try to jump through hoops to explain away such contradictions in the bible. This is nothing more than self-serving self-delusion and lies. If they can’t dazzle us with brilliance, they try to baffle us with nonsense. Don’t believe their nonsense.
These men are also false prophets themselves because they are perpetuating those false prophecies, telling people, contrary to Deuteronomy, to wait indefinitely until the prophecies are fulfilled. They try to scare people with the fear of lost salvation, or death, or suffering for those who disregard their prophecies. But Deuteronomy commands us not to fear such men.
“When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptiously: THOU SHALT NOT BE AFRAID OF HIM.” (Deuteronomy 18:22.).
Sadly, many lack courage. Proverbs 29:25 says, “Fear of man will prove to be a snare…” Revelation 21:8 says “But the cowardly … their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”
How many chances should we give the prophet whose words do not come to pass?
“But the prophet which shall presume to speak A WORD in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak … even THAT PROPHET SHALL DIE.” (v. 20). I.e. just one “word”.
“… if THE thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is THE thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet has spoken IT presumptiously …” (Deuteronomy 18:22.). Just ONE thing. One chance. One failed (“delayed”) prophecy—that’s it!
Do not fear your ministers. Reject fear. And reject false prophets and the “prophecy was just delayed” excuse.
The old “3 to 5 years” or whatever short-term time frame is used is like a carrot on a stick kept dangling in front of a donkey. So many aging donkeys, so many slightly different rotting carrots…
“Though we don’t kill false prophets today”
In a sense we do and we can: We do by exposing cult leaders like Roderick Meredith who’s been at it for 60 years — we tell the truth and make certain there is no question he is a false prophet; we can by stop giving them money — those who have been paying ‘tithes’ can stop and let the false prophet starve to death.
The other issue is that the instant the false prophet changes the time frame, that’s it: They’ve exposed themselves. They don’t have to die of natural causes to ascertain that their prophecies have failed: We know that when they set dates — even in a general way — and those dates pass, they are false prophets.
We know that Herbert Armstrong was a false prophet by what he wrote in “1975 in Prophecy” in 1956. It wasn’t just the date of 1975, although that was fairly explicit — it was also the decree that those who were reading the booklet would see a man become the Beast — you know, like Tito. When people and places cease to exists without the prophecies being fulfilled about them, the man who made the predictions is a false prophet. When prophesied events become absolute impossible to fulfill, ever — that’s the time that we know the prognosticator is a false prophet.
Then again, when someone speaks for God, such as signing the prophecies “in Jesus’ Name” and the predictions are stupid and ridiculous, we know that the ‘prophet’ didn’t get his stuff from God — he just made it up. When that is the case, as it often is, the ‘prophet’ is using God’s Name in vain and is a false prophet. We a lot of this kind of stuff come from David Pack and Gerald Flurry. They make predictions they claim are from God, but they don’t even remotely follow Scripture.
The real problem is that the people want to believe their false prophet because to admit that he’s wrong completely eliminates any credibility they have and they have to admit that they are delusional. This is too painful for those who have invested too heavily in the man and the prophecies: They need someone who can show themselves confident without question so they can believe that their lives will have meaning and that they are important.
Unfortunately, the leader does not care and the only thing that matters to him is being on top. The 99% are irrelevant except to provide what the 1% wants and think he needs. If a member gets in trouble, the leaders don’t care unless it impacts public opinion that weakens their position. The leaders are quite willing to betray their followers. Don’t believe it? Just remember what Herbert Armstrong said about starting all over with his ‘8 Japanese sons’. It would have been amusing to see him try.
Those who have been lied to as an object of the wiles of the false prophet are just so much fodder. It’s not possible to be friends with them because if they would betray God to spout things He never said, you can be sure that you yourself are imminently disposable.
It take a narcissistic supply that keeps these asshats in business. So lets blame the membership also. They enable these jerks…..and make them wealthy at the same time.
The last straw so far as the Armstrong apocalypse is concerned involves the Olivet discourse and the hypothetical relationship between the parable of the fig tree and the rebirth of Israel as a nation, a nation which in fact would need to exist in order for the prophecies of Revelation to have any basis in fact whatsoever.
We’ve collected much evidence over the past 40 years since the great disappointment (actually I was not the least little bit disappointed) of 1972-75. That evidence constitutes proof to any reasonable standard, that HWA was a false prophet. However, Generation X will have the final definitive proof when they watch the baby boomers born around 1948 pass as a generation. And, that’s spotting HWA one. His original contention was that since the WW II generation was in its prime in 1948, that that was the generation which would not pass before all things be fulfilled. And, they largely have, as has the ol’ false prophet himself.
BB
I’ve been watching Star Trek reruns and by coincidence a Voyager episode in which a Klingon leader was trying to force-fit a current situation into being the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy.
When a current news story doesn’t ballpark a specific prophetic verse, Matthew 24 is a good catch-all.
Unfortunately, Scripture is unhelpful. While it does say that the false prophet shall be put to death, the method of execution is woefully inadequate and there are no obvious guidelines.
Should the false prophet be stoned to death? This is the most widely used capital punishment under Old Covenant rules. However, using fire to burn a person to death is used in a number of specific instances, so it could be that the false prophet could be torched.
Even this is spectacularly unhelpful. If fire is to be employed, should the false prophet be thrown into a volcano, thrown into a furnace or (our personal favorite) burned at the stake?
No, the Bible is woefully incomplete.
You’d think that it would be better written with more explicit instructions.
Or maybe…
The false prophet is to be given a choice! Maybe the false prophet can choose which method of being burned alive works best for him! Perhaps this choice will make the false prophet feel empowered.
What do you think?
As proto-Judaism became more cosmopolitan, and ventured into parts of the Roman Empire, extreme punishment gave way to a form of excommunication. The choice given was to stay in the community and face punishment for certain infringements, or be shunned.
In Paul’s case, he decided to take the punishment (beatings) rather than be subjected to the Jewish form of the “no contact” rule.
I’m convinced that the apocalypse has no place in Christianity in our times, due to 1) the propensity to misuse it as a coercive, radical behavioral modification tool, and 2) the inherent inaccuracy of the timeline and specific meanings and applications thereof to specific nations and groups.
The best way for Christians to treat it is to acknowledge that there are prophecies in the Bible which may or may not occur, and they may or may not apply to our times. In other words, it’s not dissimilar to the eventuality of each of our own personal deaths. We can’t know the hows, whens, and whys.
As a civilization, we’ve become accustomed to living with existential threats, so a
Scriptural apocalypse no longer has the impact which it once did. Both political parties and various other groups use fear motivation to secure their power. Best to just factor in these things as distant possibilities, and live one’s life the best one can. If worst case scenario ever were to happen, it would be so massive as to defy preparation.
BB
“Best to just factor in these things as distant possibilities, and live one’s life the best one can. If worst case scenario ever were to happen, it would be so massive as to defy preparation.”
Let’s see how many people on the East coast have prepared for the shit storm to hit.
There will be stories no doubt how people didn’t think they needed this or that, or that the hurricane was going to be this bad. Keep in mind that this is real and not out of some book written thousands of years ago. Of course we will hear from Herbs fellow false prophets that god is pissed about this or that. They never talk about god when the going goes well.
The COGs will, at best, prophesy in hindsight, and they don’t always get that correct.
Let’s see someone make a correct call on the next election, considering its likely significance. But, especially if Hillary wins, there will be a chorus of backwards-looking prophets, quoting Isa. 3:12. Mark Armstrong could make another alteration to his “Prophetic Accuracy” booklet, as in 2003 GTA said he thought that a fitting demise for the USA would be a female president.
When hurricane Matthew makes landfall, it’s likely a few COGseers will give reasons for why it hit where it did – just like they “predicted” Katrina hitting New Orleans…
The reason for hurricane Matthew is to screw up ACoG Feast sites — a fitting tribute to the state of relationship that they have with their ‘creator’.
In the 1960s HWA reported that the feast site at Jekyll Island was saved from destruction by a miracle. I forget the year and the hurricane name, but it may have been forecast to go along the east coast – which isn’t unusual. Instead, it made landfall in Cuba and changed direction. Thousands were killed, but not at Jekyll Island.
Dave Pack claimed Sandy was headed straight for Wadsworth, and “made a sudden right-hand turn”. That isn’t quite what the NWS charts showed…
“The COGs will, at best, prophesy in hindsight, and they don’t always get that correct.”
That’s it, in a nutshell. False prophets through and through. If the October surprise is a nuclear weapon going off in Aleppo, meaning only if Assad and his regime has a chance of survival, does that make me a True Prophet? Then again, maybe Mosul instead? If that happens, China will then annex North Korea in the worst of ways. Who could stop them? Now scripture told me none of this. But isn’t that what HWA did? He just co-opted headlines and intelligence reports for his own benefit. Did any of the true prophets in the Bible ever benefit from their predictions? Wasn’t it the false prophets who always had a better standard of living?
Excellent caption for Herb’s picture: “Pull my finger!”
BB