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January 31, 2008 ©Homer
Kizer Commentary — From the
Margins
“Let’s
Play the Prophecy Game” ___________ Hananiah the son of Azzur, the
prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of
the priests and all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years
I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house,
which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to
Babylon, declares the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of
Babylon.” Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to
Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were
standing in the house of the Lord, and the prophet Jeremiah said,
“… The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times
prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great
kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that
prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the
prophet.” (Jer 28:1-9) ___________ The
end of the age is near: a person can smell it in the winds of change. So as
American industries downsize, sending good jobs overseas, the time to retrain
is here—and the need for prophets is greater now than it has been for the
past two millennia, for disaster and turmoil loom on every horizon. The good news is that anyone can be a prophet
… the rules of The Prophecy Game
are simple: a person who would be a prophet qualifies by simply saying,
“I have a word of knowledge from the Lord.” If this word of
knowledge is about a specific nation or about war between specific nations, the
person only has to make sure that he or she doesn’t set any dates for
this new God-driven crusade against Islam, or against the decadence of Western
cultures, or against the However, since the Body of Christ, crucified with
Christ, died on the cross as the physical body of the Lord died, God’s need
for prophets has been small, but for that rare person called by God into an office
he did not seek, being a prophet will mean poverty, persecution, and
theological marginalization. Luckily for the vocation, God calls far fewer into
the office of prophet than there now are prophets actively engaged in
proclaiming the oracles of God. The prophet Jeremiah notes that from old, prophets
did not declare good news—good news needs no herald—but announced
the evil that God would bring upon a nation because of the nation’s
idolatry and lawlessness. The
Prophecy Game would be a bad joke
if there were not now so many identifying themselves as prophets of God, with
even more to make the claim once the seven endtime years of tribulation begin.
Each has a message, a special revelation, knowledge of who the man of perdition
is, of who the beast is, of what the mark of the beast is (with some consensus
that it will be an implanted computer chip), of who the great Whore of Babylon
is, of which nations are the ten horns on the head of Rome, of which Islamic
nations will be the king of the South—and there is agreement among them
that the fourth beast of Daniel chapter seven is Rome or the Roman Church, with
the little horn that speaks blasphemies against God being the last Pope. The many false prophets of today bet their lives
that God won’t remember that He hasn’t called them to be prophets.
Each bets that God will back up the words the person speaks in the name of the Lord. All have need for
contributions. Some have a thin little book, or several skinny little books to
sell. Some have stapled booklets and slick magazines to give away. One even has
a silver communion set to sell so that the disciple can take the sacraments
whenever he or she has a mind to. And every one of these “prophets”
is sensitive about being called false for such labeling is bad for business. You have seen them, heard them, maybe even have a
few cassette tapes by one of these prophets explaining how the EEC will bring
nuclear destruction upon the United States because of the lawlessness of this
“Christian” nation; explaining how God will send Americans into
physical captivity from which Christ will liberate this northern house of
Israel that will, when Christ returns, enter the holy land on a highway that
stretches from Assyria (Germany, of course) to Egypt; explaining why the temple
must again be built at Jerusalem before Christ can return … if only God
understood Scripture as well as each of these prophets understand Scripture, America
could be saved. But alas, since the days of old, false prophets
have been with There are characteristics common to all false
prophets, and it is by these characteristics that false prophets can be
identified. A horn on the head of the king of The endtime Note well: the prince [sar] of the Biblical prophecies are ultimately about what
happens in the heavenly realm and in heavenly Jesus said that disciples are not to be alarmed by
war and rumors of wars in this world (Matt 24:6), for these things must take
place but they are not signs of the end of the age or of Jesus’ return
… no physical event, whether a natural disaster or a holy war fought with
Muslim fundamentalists, is a sign of the end of the age. The event that
determines the end of the age occurs in the heavenly realm, and pertains to the
war fought between the demonic kings of When the kingdom of this world is given to the Son
of Man, the fourth beast or king of Daniel chapter seven is dealt a deadly wound
and has his body taken to be burned (Dan 7:11-12). When this beast is again
seen in Revelation chapter 13, the deadly wound has healed and the whole earth
marveled. This king is like the old dragon, Satan the devil, in that from his
mouth—as with the dragon and the false prophet—came an unclean
spirit (three spirits, one from each) that was like a frog in that these
unclean spirits inhabit two realms as frogs (amphibians) dwell in two worlds.
The spirits are demons (Rev 16:13-14). The beasts of Daniel chapter seven are
demonic kings that command demons who go aboard, performing miracles, to
deceive the kings of this world. The beast, the false prophet, the dragon are
not nations or leagues of nations in this world. They are not of this physical
realm. But that has never stopped the many prophets of endtime
Israel—each with a word of knowledge taken directly from an uninspired
history book—from declaring that the last Roman pontiff will be a demon,
or at least will command demons. What can be said? Unemployed or maybe you have a
Christian school that is just not getting off the ground—play The Prophecy Game and take your chances.
Ignore that Jesus told His disciples not to be alarmed about wars and rumors of
wars, or by any physical disasters that occur in this world. Advertise,
instead, the number of books you have read about The Illuminati. Slap a Ron
Paul bumper sticker on your car. Seek tax exempt status for your home
(after all, a house church meets in your living room). Just remember, the
Apostle Paul said that if you ask for money, for tithes and donations, you are
false, a deceitful workman disguised as a minister of Christ but you are truly
a minister of Satan so try to keep your hands in your own pockets … if
you try to reach into my pockets, you’ll find that they are
empty—and that I’ll slap you down hard. * "Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved." * * * * * [ Current Commentary ] [ Archived Commentaries ] [ Home ] |