False Prophets

False Prophets

As I've told you all before I am trying to study the Bible. I would consider myself no genius, but fairly intelligent.

However, I am having a hard time understanding what some of it means and I want to get it right. So please forgive me if the questions I ask seem like "duh" ones.

Ok. In Matthew 7:15- 20: Watch out for false profphets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit, is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

What does this mean? I have been sitting here for a long time trying to figure this out. How do we know them by the fruit they bear? What fruit is the Lord referring to?

Also Matthew 7:6 Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. if you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. Your thoughts on this also would be appreciated.

Thanks:read-bible:
 
this is my take on it:

in Mathew 17:15-20, the fruit mentioned there is most probably the disciples (or followers) of that false prophet. if the followers do not do the things of God, do not believe in the things of God, and are not bearing fruit themselves, then they are bad fruit.
or that fruit can also mean the teachings of that false prophet. any teaching not aligned with Scripture is wrong, so if the prophets teachings are not aligned with Scripture or are not biblically supported, then they are bad fruit. eating bad fruit will corrupt your stomach. likewise, listening to unsound teaching will corrupt your spiritual stomach

Mathew 7:6 also can deal with several different things (this is mostly the pattern for most of Scripture):
when you are a Man or Woman of God, you are capable of loosening things on Heaven to people on earth (by virtue of the authority given to us by Jesus), so if you think of a person and say to God "Lord, I release favor on that man" then the Lord will surely release favor on that man, even if that man is saved or not. if you go to a house and say to God, "Lord, I release my peace on this house" then your peace will surely be released on that house, even if the people there are not worthy (Scripture tells us to only release our peace on people who are worthy). so as Christians, we should be able to discern which people are worthy of our blessings or not, because we can release blessings on a person without realizing that that person is actually a criminal, and then before we know it, that criminal may have already used his blessings to do bad deeds.. you get what I'm saying?

it can also mean revelations. Jesus did not reveal the deep things of God to His followers, He only revealed it to his apostles. likewise, let us be careful of the revelations we receive, when you see a prophetic vision or hear an audible voice, don't be so eager to tell it to just anybody, because they may just 'trample it under their feet" and render it useless...

___
those two passages you mentioned, as with most of the Word of God, can be applied to many different things, and the explanations I mentioned are just scratching the surface, so I leave it up to you to discover the other things.

may God reveal more of Himself to you
 
As I've told you all before I am trying to study the Bible. I would consider myself no genius, but fairly intelligent.

However, I am having a hard time understanding what some of it means and I want to get it right. So please forgive me if the questions I ask seem like "duh" ones.

Ok. In Matthew 7:15- 20: Watch out for false profphets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit, is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

What does this mean? I have been sitting here for a long time trying to figure this out. How do we know them by the fruit they bear? What fruit is the Lord referring to?

Also Matthew 7:6 Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. if you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. Your thoughts on this also would be appreciated.

Thanks
:read-bible:

Matthew 7:15-20 is a passage we tend to ignore, I think, in the present generation. When we consider how Jesus lived on this earth, we can get a good sense of the "real" as opposed to the false man or woman of God.

In the natural world, wolves would love to sneak in among the sheep and devour whatever they will without being discovered. That's a lot easier than chasing down a meal. Plus there is no sharing the catch.

False prophets do exist in our time. Many voices claim to be sent from God when they are only using religion and emotional appeals to fill their bank accounts. Too many "Christian" organizations have powerful "money machines" in the form of mailing lists and appeal letters designed to pull the heart strings of well-meaning religious (Christian or not) people, to collect a lot of money. Consider the cost of mailing to 500,000 households, and think about just how much money must be collected to pay the cost of the mailing alone. There must be a nice profit in order to keep the machines going. It must work. I get lots of these mailing each month.

The fruit on the tree is the product of a person's life. How does one of these false prophets actually live? How do they spend the money they make? How do they spend their time, when not doing what they do for a living? Are they even Christian at all? Or are they merely successful wolves, working the sheep over to get a comfortable living?

Jesus lived at or below the income and social level of the people He ministered to. I know of ministers today who live very reasonably, not lavishly. And there are other so-called men and women of God who preach to needy people and yet never sacrifice anything to help even a few. Good fruit and bad fruit.

Throwing pearls to swine or giving sacred things to dogs is a good picture of how we should conduct ourselves before the world. There is a time and place to take a stand as a witness for Jesus Christ. In some ways, of course, every opportunity should be taken to "let our light shine," but we do not need to pretend that our workplace is a church (unless it is a church).

As believers in the world, we are, as one guy said (I don't remember who) as one beggar telling all the other beggars where to find food. I think my best witness in front of many of the people I come into contact with is to be a happy human, or at least to be a real human among other humans. The less I put on a show, the better.

The more real and honest I can be, the better. That way, when I speak of Christ, they may be able to see something real, and not something merely religious or traditional. I do not expect haters of God to want what I have. But if anyone shows a little hunger, I can then offer what I have — which is Christ.

Jim
 
Matthew 7:15-20 is a passage we tend to ignore, I think, in the present generation. When we consider how Jesus lived on this earth, we can get a good sense of the "real" as opposed to the false man or woman of God.

In the natural world, wolves would love to sneak in among the sheep and devour whatever they will without being discovered. That's a lot easier than chasing down a meal. Plus there is no sharing the catch.

False prophets do exist in our time. Many voices claim to be sent from God when they are only using religion and emotional appeals to fill their bank accounts. Too many "Christian" organizations have powerful "money machines" in the form of mailing lists and appeal letters designed to pull the heart strings of well-meaning religious (Christian or not) people, to collect a lot of money. Consider the cost of mailing to 500,000 households, and think about just how much money must be collected to pay the cost of the mailing along. There must be a nice profit in order to keep the machines going. It must work. I get lots of these mailing each month.

The fruit on the tree is the product of a person's life. How does one of these false prophets actually live? How do they spend the money they make? How do they spend their time, when not doing what they do for a living? Are they even Christian at all? Or are they merely successful wolves, working the sheep over to get a comfortable living?

Jesus lived at or below the income and social level of the people He ministered to. I know of ministers today who live very reasonably, not lavishly. And there are other so-called men and women of God who preach to needy people and yet never sacrifice anything to help even a few. Good fruit and bad fruit.

Throwing pearls to swine or giving sacred things to dogs is a good picture of how we should conduct ourselves before the world. There is a time and place to take a stand as a witness for Jesus Christ. In some ways, of course, every opportunity should be taken to "let our light shine," but we do not need to pretend that our workplace is a church (unless it is a church).

As believers in the world, we are, as one guy said (I don't remember who) as one beggar telling all the other beggars where to find food. I think my best witness in front of many of the people I come into contact with is to be a happy human, or at least to be a real human among other humans. The less I put on a show, the better.

The more real and honest I can be, the better. That way, when I speak of Christ, they may be able to see something real, and not something merely religious or traditional. I do not expect haters of God to want what I have. But if anyone shows a little hunger, I can then offer what I have — which is Christ.

Jim

Thanks so much for this response Jim, it made perfect sense to me.

Blessings, Cheri
 
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