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? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Matthew 7:15-17 KJV.
The bible is very clear that men claiming to be spiritual leaders will come in and try to deceive the brethren. In Revelation chapter 2, we are shown that the church of Ephesus was commended for testing those which say they were apostles and found them liars. What's sad is when the church fails to test the spirit of a spiritual leader. As time goes they become excepted by name and when they are finally identified as false, many of the brethren will overlook their error and defend them.
Many times I have quoted statements of spiritual leaders that indicated them as false teachers and nearly every time someone will defend them by saying "Where did you get that quote?" Or "Did you actually hear them say that?" While it is important to be accurate and not defame one another we live in a time where technology can be of great benefit.
The following clips should wake us up to the fact that we are not doing our job in exposing false prophets. But not to make it all negative, the ending clips should be an encouragement to those that love the word of God to know that there are those who will not compromise by the fear of man, but will stand on the word of God.
The first 3 clips are of Pastor Rick Warren of saddleback church in California. While this man is well known in America as the author of the books "The Purpose Driven Church and the Purpose Driven Life." And has thousands of pastors across our nation following his example as a seeker friendly church, I think we can conclude by the word of God that this man is a false prophet.
The first clip you are about to see is Rick Warren talking to a secular audience.
The second clip is where he is being interviewed about his view points concerning homosexuality. Notice that the authority pastor warren gives is not the word of God, but himself.
The next clip shows his defense of Homosexuality, where he admits he is not Anti-gay.
The sad part is that he apologizes to his "Gay Friends". What does the Bible say our true friends should be?
Our next clip is on Joel "Smiley" Osteen, who has the largest church in America. This clip shows him denying the true gospel, by saying "I don't know."
The last four clips is an example of how men of God should be when given an opportunity to defend the word of God. May you be encouraged, but beware of false teachings.
In Christ, Steve Graves
