50 Characteristics of Pseudoprophetes

---

Scripture quotations are form the ESV unless specified otherwise.

1. False prophets speak super-spiritual language to deceive and manipulate people (Lamentations 2:14).
2. False prophets promise peace when it suits their interest and war when it suits their interest (Micah 3:5).
3. False prophets oblige people with positive sentiments (Micah 3:11). Such feel-good messages tell lies by telling the truth, confirming that plausible lies do exist. This is just one of their “disgraceful, underhanded ways” of “cunning” (2 Cor. 4:2). 
4. False prophets neglect the weightier matters of Scripture (Mt. 23:23).
5. False prophets dress in sheep’s clothing to hide the fact that they are wolves (Mt. 7:15). This is the same pattern of Satan, that vulgar imposter, who disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14f).
6. False prophets specialize in smooth talk and flattery to deceive the naïve (Jer. 23:14; Rom. 16:18).
7. False prophets speak falsehoods, catering to the outer man to delude the inner man (Micah 2:11).
8. False prophets do not blush when they commit abominations (Jeremiah 8:11-12)
9. False prophets foppishly “do all their deeds to be seen by others” (Mt. 23:5).
10. False prophets lead people to worship idols rather than worship Christ (Zech. 13:2)
11. False prophets are “filthy dreamers” (Jude 8 – KJV) prattling about new revelations from God with no more notes in their song than the Midwestern Dickcissel.
12. False prophets “defile the flesh” (Jude 8 – KJV) and regularly commit corporeal sins (2 Peter 2:10-17).
13. False prophets obstreperously “reject authority” (Jude 8) within God’s hierarchy. This includes the rejection of the authority of Scripture, the church, and “the glorious ones” (Jude 8).
14. False prophets “speak evil of those things which they know not” (Jude 10), thus restraining knowledge to the province of their beastly will.
15. False prophets follow the sin of Cain and elevate their ideas above God’s ideas (Jude 11).
16. False prophets are like Balaam and obstruct the narrow path (Jude 11).
17. False prophets are like Korah and revolt against God’s precepts (Jude 11).
18. False prophets “are spots in your feasts of charity” (Jude 12 – KJV), meaning, they corrupt the good works of the church by their fidelity to howling deceptions.
19. False prophets “feast with you,” (Jude 12 – KJV) that is, they eat at the Lord’s Table like everyone else, blending in, and acting normal while they harden their heart (Mt. 23:25f).
20. False prophets feed “themselves without fear,” (Jude 12 – KJV) rather than feed the flock. In other words, they serve themselves rather than the church.
21. False prophets are “clouds without water” (Jude 12), promising to nourish the crop, but only blowing hard without a drop of rain.
22. False prophets are “carried about of winds” (Jude 12 – KJV), blown and tossed like immature ragweed (Eph. 4:14), frequently changing their opinions without firm foundations.
23. False prophets are like “late autumn trees without fruit” (Jude 12), which means, you can’t just evaluate the content of their teaching. You must also evaluate the fruit of their teaching. If a teacher is twice dead and pulled up at the root, then run away (Jude 12).
24. False prophets are like “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame” (Jude 13 – KJV). That is, just like a great sea storm stirs up the water and brings all the sediments to the top, so too do the false prophets create waves that stir up moral filth.  
25. False prophets are like “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 13 – KJV). Just like a shooting star passes quickly and disappears into the night, so too are false prophets destined for darkness.
26. False prophets are “murmurers” (Jude 16 – KJV) who gripe about God rather than serving and stewarding the divine gifts.
27. False prophets are “complainers” (Jude 16 – KJV) who can’t contain the discontentment in their hearts.
28. False prophets “walk after their own lusts” (Jude 16 – KJV), failing to exercise self-control over their desires.
29. False prophets “speaketh great swelling words” (Jude 16 – KJV) of self-congratulation (2 Cor. 10:12) and vainglorious exaggeration (2 Peter 2:18).
30. False prophets “show favoritism to gain advantage” (Jude 16), exploiting people as pawns in their game (2 Peter 2:3).
31. False prophets, in wonderful irony, eventually fall on the slippery path they devise (Jer. 23:12; Neh. 4:4; Mt. 23:34-39).
32. False prophets develop heavy burdens for people to follow (Mt. 23:4).
33. False prophets are numerous, as are their followers (Mt. 24:11; 1 Jn. 4:1).
34. False prophets reject the miracles of piety, preferring to “arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect” (Mk. 13:22).
35. False prophets teach for shameful gain (Jer. 6:13; Titus 1:11).
36. False prophets dismiss the Apostle Paul and say his teaching doesn’t matter (2 Cor. 10:10).
37. False prophets do not “confess that Jesus is from God” (1 John 4:3) but they pretend to have apostolic authority (2 Thess. 2:2).
38. False prophets “tamper with God’s word” (2 Cor. 4:2) and “bring in damnable heresies” (2 Peter 2:1 – KJV) that contradict the faith “once for all delivered to the Saints” (Jude 3).
39. False prophets deny “the Lord that bought them” (2 Peter 2:1 – KJV). They not only impose false Christology on the imagination but fail to submit to the Lordship of Christ.
40. False prophets gather fervent followers (2 Peter 2:2) because lots of people have itching ears (2 Tim. 4:3).
41. False prophets continue living as rancorous prodigies of sacrilege even when they see other false prophets judged (2 Peter 2:3-10).
42. False prophets promise a system of freedom but give a system of slavery (2 Peter 2:19). These promises are often framed with lofty rhetoric (2 Cor. 10:5).
43. False prophets may have walked rightly for a time before turning to the gloom of utter darkness (2 Peter 2:17, 20-22).
44. False prophets tend toward adultery (Jer. 23:14).
45. False prophets love the stage and being seen by people (Mt. 23:5-7).
46. False prophets accompany the beast (Rev. 13; 16:13; 19:20; 20:10) and are used by rulers to destroy the house of God (1 Kings 18:20).
47. False prophets deal falsely (Gen. 3:1-7; Jer. 6:13) and incite people to hide from God (Gen. 3:8).
48. False prophets provoke people to persevere in evil-doing (Jer. 23:14).
49. False prophets don’t perform the works they ask others to perform (Mt. 23:4).
50. False prophets will eat the bitter food and drink the poisoned water God has prepared for them (Jer. 23:15).

Read another article on a similar subject

Christian Dilettantes