I wish there was some way of easily recognizing false prophets, you know, like a requirement where a shirt with the label, “FALSE PROPHET,” on their shirts. Unfortunately, it is not that easy.

Nonetheless, there are some things we can do that make it somewhat simpler. May I write a quick word on history here, perhaps something you already know.

From about 300 AD and for centuries after, the Catholic Church taught that the common man should not read the Bible. There reason sounds logical. They said the Bible was to complex and difficult to read. II Timothy 2:15 says “Study the Word to show yourself approved.”

This is one of the primary way of finding a false profit, or at least a false teacher. They will discourage you, even forbid you to read the Bible. This, of course, is completely opposite to the above package and it cannot be argued, at all. The teaching by the Catholic Church was clearly wrong. Anytime that anyone or any organization says something different, or as in this case, opposite, they are teachings are false and the Bible specifically says not to believe them, at all.

Then, of course, if you don’t read the Bible, how do you know this? I mean, don’t take my word for it. Please read it yourself. I don’t ever, ever want you to take my word for anything Biblical. For this reason, I will try to cite the chapter and verse so you can actually read it from your Bible.

At any rate, going back to the history lesson. In 1440, the printing press was invented, which was a major problem for the Catholic Church. The fact is, they were teaching many things that were contrary to the Bible, some very major.

This was revealed by another big event in history. This time, it came from a Catholic Priest by the name of Martin Luther. So much was the Catholic Church, that is by the pope, they tried to have him killed.

These two things alone, broke the hold on the people that church had on most of the people in Europe. They were teaching that people could buy the souls of ancestors out of purgatory and into heaven. Not so. The word purgatory does not even occur in the Bible. With the Bible being in print, people were discovering it and that the church told the lie in an effort to bolster the treasures of the church, and by church, at this time I mean Catholic Church.

Moreover, Martin Luther started quoting the Bible for one and all, causing the protestant revolution. To be sure, there were churches other than Catholic before Martin Luther, but they generally had to hide. Because the Catholic Church tried to destroy them.

Now, people were going all over Europe saying things like, “By faith you are saved, not of yourselves, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2 8-9). Moreover, people were reading it for themselves from the Bible. They could see it for themselves and they Catholic Church’s lock on being the sole interpreter of the Bible fell to pieces.

What I have said hear, in a round about way, if the person or organization teaches something to contrary of the Bible, he is a false prophet, or at least a false teacher.

Now, how do you know if what they say, agrees with what is in the Bible? That’s easy. Read the Bible. Learn it forward, backward and inside out. That way, the instant someone says something that is contrary to the Bible, you’ll know.

You might ask, are there false teachers? Guess what. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up in your own copy of the Bible. You can look it up in the concordance. Or… if you like, just look up false prophet on the internet. You will find dozens of verses and they will be quoted in maybe 4 or 5 translations.

By the way, if you do look it up on the internet, there is no reason for me to go farther. You can easily read for days on what the internet has to say about it.

Nonetheless, might I suggest, start reading the Bible. I did and I read very slow and I hate reading. None the less I read it 8 times, not to brag but to show, if I can, you can and you should. You should read it, if for no other reason than knowing who is teaching the truth and who is trying to distribute a lie.

Oh. By the way. I gave up believing what the Catholics are teaching a long, long time ago.