Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I stumbled across a scripture that I've been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration linked to a passage from Matthew 24. It's one of Jesus'\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I stumbled across a scripture that I've been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration linked to a passage from Matthew 24. It's one of Jesus'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mercy Not Sacrifice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-11T22:08:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-11T22:09:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/447\/2014\/09\/bible-beater.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"303\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Morgan Guyton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Morgan Guyton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/\",\"name\":\"Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-11T22:08:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-11T22:09:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/32bff953b247bf1885d0323f969d801d\"},\"description\":\"I stumbled across a scripture that I've been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration linked to a passage from Matthew 24. It's one of Jesus'\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/\",\"name\":\"Mercy Not Sacrifice\",\"description\":\"The blog of Morgan Guyton\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/32bff953b247bf1885d0323f969d801d\",\"name\":\"Morgan Guyton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc7edabc6e70bd443d33eab0f05ce8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc7edabc6e70bd443d33eab0f05ce8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Morgan Guyton\"},\"description\":\"I\u2019m the director of the NOLA Wesley Foundation, which is the United Methodist campus ministry at Tulane and Loyola University in New Orleans, LA. My first book How Jesus Saves the World from Us: 12 Antidotes To Toxic Christianity was released by Westminister John Knox in 2016.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/author\/mguyton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)","description":"I stumbled across a scripture that I've been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration linked to a passage from Matthew 24. It's one of Jesus'","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)","og_description":"I stumbled across a scripture that I've been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration linked to a passage from Matthew 24. It's one of Jesus'","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/","og_site_name":"Mercy Not Sacrifice","article_published_time":"2016-08-11T22:08:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-08-11T22:09:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":405,"height":303,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/447\/2014\/09\/bible-beater.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Morgan Guyton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Morgan Guyton","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/","name":"Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-08-11T22:08:19+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-11T22:09:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/32bff953b247bf1885d0323f969d801d"},"description":"I stumbled across a scripture that I've been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration linked to a passage from Matthew 24. It's one of Jesus'","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/","name":"Mercy Not Sacrifice","description":"The blog of Morgan Guyton","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/32bff953b247bf1885d0323f969d801d","name":"Morgan Guyton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc7edabc6e70bd443d33eab0f05ce8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc7edabc6e70bd443d33eab0f05ce8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Morgan Guyton"},"description":"I\u2019m the director of the NOLA Wesley Foundation, which is the United Methodist campus ministry at Tulane and Loyola University in New Orleans, LA. My first book How Jesus Saves the World from Us: 12 Antidotes To Toxic Christianity was released by Westminister John Knox in 2016.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/author\/mguyton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1934"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":14339,"date":"2016-08-11T17:08:19","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T22:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/?p=14339"},"modified":"2016-08-11T17:09:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T22:09:05","slug":"who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2016\/08\/11\/who-are-the-false-prophets-matthew-2411-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"bible$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I stumbled across a scripture that I\u2019ve been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration<\/a> linked to a passage from Matthew 24. It\u2019s one of Jesus\u2019 apocalyptic discourses and it had a very fascinating thing to say about false prophets. Here are two verses: \u201cAnd many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.<\/span>^{\u00a0<\/sup>And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold\u201d (Matthew 24:11-12). How do we know who is a false prophet? They make our love grow cold.<\/span><\/p>\n}

There\u2019s more than one way to make peoples\u2019 love grow cold. In this passage, it attributes the cold-heartedness to an \u201cincrease of lawlessness.\u201d I took a look at the Greek because I was dissatisfied with the word \u201clawlessness.\u201d People who have power are the ones who make the rules and decide how the rules of the past will be interpreted. So anyone who says the rules are unjust can be labeled \u201clawless.\u201d\u00a0Civil disobedience was \u201clawless,\u201d but it certainly wasn\u2019t the lawlessness that Jesus is talking about here, because it didn\u2019t make the protesters\u2019 love grow cold. It\u2019s true that most\u00a0lawbreakers aren\u2019t doing so to fight for justice but simply out of selfish motives. But I think we need a more precise word for what Jesus is describing.<\/p>\n

The word in Greek is anomia. Nomos\u00a0<\/em>means law.\u00a0So \u201clawlessness\u201d isn\u2019t a bad translation. But in order to make a distinction between the perfection of divine natural law and our fallible human laws, I think \u201cdisharmony\u201d is a better translation. People who are disharmonious because they\u2019re out of sync with God\u2019s love are going to see their love grow cold. You can follow all the written rules in the Bible and still be disharmonious if your moral legalism is a source of spiritual pride. Jesus spends Matthew 23 skewering the rule-following religious elites of his day for being \u201clike whitewashed tombs\u201d who \u201ctithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we are in harmony with the Holy Spirit, it will be evident by the warmth of our love. To be in harmony with the Holy Spirit requires being surrendered to God. We should not think that this surrender happens once. It\u2019s a daily renewal of intentional trust. There are so many wrenches that Satan tries to throw in the way of that trust. There\u2019s so much anxiety and anger and idolatry that takes my heart hostage and keeps me from being a vessel of God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n

A false prophet is someone who fills us with these idols and distractions that destroy our inner harmony with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes this takes the form of hate. Other times it takes the form of a lukewarm gospel. The test is in the fruit. When people are cold-hearted and unloving, they are under the spell of a false prophet. It doesn\u2019t matter whether they follow all the rules of the Bible or check the right box on every progressive social justice issue. If your love is cold, you are under spiritual captivity in some way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got many false prophets in my life. I\u2019ve probably been a false prophet at times. Now we do need to be clear that people who fill you with rage because they tell you a difficult truth are not false prophets. The disharmony lies in whatever ideologies or worldly idols prevent us from responding to everything with Christlike love. If the predominant order of things is disharmonious, then disruption is required to restore God\u2019s harmony.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the test is this. Am I speaking truth in such a way that it hardens the hearts of people who agree with me? If someone accepts my teaching, will they become less loving as a result? These are important questions to contemplate for any of us who are called to speak prophetically in the church.<\/p>\n

Check out my book How Jesus Saves the World From Us on Amazon!<\/a><\/p>\n

Subscribe to our podcast Crackers and Grape Juice!<\/a><\/p>\n

Like my author page on Facebook!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"