With all the preachers claiming to have prophetic powers or some sort of special anointing, how can we tell who is real and who is faking it? Deuteronomy 18:21 and 22 states, " And if you say in your hearts, 'How are we to be certain that the word does not come from the Lord?' When a prophet makes a statement in the name of the Lord, if what he says does not take place and his words do not come true, then his word is not the word of the Lord: the words of the prophet were said in the pride of his heart, and you are to have no fear of him." Oh, how I wish I had known this in the seventies. I would never fallen for a false prophet and teacher in a house church if I knew this test of a prophet. I wrote of my naivety in my upcoming memoir, How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. This excerpt shows how easily I was fooled by a man I call Brother Herald and his assistant, Sister Roberta.
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Once I returned to Edmonton after summer vacation ended, I resumed attending Thee Church. "That's a cool painting," I said to Sister Roberta as I strolled into the sanctuary. On the wall above the baptismal tank, someone had painted a crude landscape consisting of a river in the foreground and steep green hills rising behind it.
"Brother Herald had a vision," Sister Roberta crowed. "He saw the place in the Nahanni valley where the City of Refuge will be. The plaster swirls on the walls matched what he saw exactly so we painted in the colours."
I stared at the wall, amazed that the brush strokes of the plaster lined up perfectly with his vision. It must be from God for it to work out so well, I marveled. I'm glad I'm part of such a spiritually-advanced congregation.
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God willing, I'll have How I Was Razed published later this year. Please check my previous books at the Bruce Atchison's books link.
Ah, my mother fell for a preacher who turned out to be a convict and a child molester (myself being the child). The very next morning after he touched me, he did a foot washing of his little congregation. I wanted to beat the hell out of him. I was 14 and knew suddenly what a false prophet was and it has been a lesson of great value. Only his was more of a cult of personality. Supposedly, he was teaching along Southern Baptist doctrine. I still remember his sermons. I still remember all he warning signs that went ignored and unheeded.
ReplyDeleteI am Eastern Orthodox now. More Catholic than the Pope, as we joke.