Every year many sincere people support and follow false prophets. Sometimes they follow them to their death. This should never occur to real disciples of Jesus. They should know the testimony of Jesus, His life and the Commandments of God. If they do, they will hear His words and follow Him and not man.

How do we know a false prophet?

True prophets are correct ALL the time they don’t just have a good record. Many ministers point out when they were right and ignore their mistakes. These men aren’t prophets that God is using to warn people.

God condemns the guessers for bringing reproach on His people. Some of these men have been associated with the Church of God and others with every other Christian organization or denomination. This isn’t surprising since the Apostle Paul said some false prophets will rise up from among you. John said they went out from us.

What if I only knew when a false prophet had been correct. You can still decided if this is a true prophet or not.

The prophet, if he is true, will be telling you to keep the Commandments of God - not deny them and instead accept the rights of man or the tolerance of other gods (which do nothing to stop pride and covetousness and therefore will always fail).

Being able to see the moral standard is a great step to not being deceived but there are some more principles with respect to the Testimony of Jesus.

The testimony of Jesus is not that He was God as a man but that he was sent to be a man - to know temptation and to overcome all things- as a sacrifice, and to become a suitable High Priest. Jesus wasn’t role playing as a man, He became void of his eternal nature and became a real a man, knowing temptation and pain.

The Father sent Jesus, His Son, to be a man and to be the Saviour of mankind. This Jesus then died on a cross and was dead (knowing nothing like a deep sleep) for 3 days and 3 nights until everyone was assured he was dead. Then he arose as the first fruits from the dead, the First born from the dead to rise and sit at the right hand of God as His Son. Jesus who alone has immortality. (read 1 Tim 6:16, which was written years after Steven died and many other Christians yet Jesus is still the only one who is immortal until the time described in 1 Cor 15, Hebrews 11:39-40, Rev 11:17-18)

A true prophet will believe the Father sent His Son to be a fleshly man like us, so that he might be a fitting Saviour and that this Jesus is now the King of Kings, sitting at the right hand of God and is His only Begotten Son.

The Commandments and the Testimony must agree but there will still be obvious signs in attitude. Only Moses and Jesus are Delivers, no other prophet requires you to follow them. The other prophets tell you to follow Jesus. They tell sinners to repent. They are not sent to gather the righteous to follow them. True prophets do not need your support to do the work God empowered them to do.

This does not do away with the concept of tithes or offerings but the prophets didn’t need them. The offerings were to create an attitude of thankfulness to God for what a person has received and they were to be used to support those who serve you and those in need, particularly in the church. Surprisingly the prophets didn’t seem to need funds to fulfill their service. They wanted sinners to repent and follow God. The two witnesses are even more special in that God empowered them in signs and wonders not through an abundance of disciples.

None of the prophets were concerned about you IF you followed God. If you didn’t recognize Jeremiah as a prophet he wouldn’t have cared, as long as you worshipped God in truth. If you don’t recognize a prophet of God you don’t need to worry. Jesus knows who you are. He is your Deliverer and He will bring you safely to His Kingdom. No one else will be given that authority.

Love the Testimony of Jesus, seek to do His will by keeping the Commandments of God and all else is irrelevant in the long run. You will also learn discernment to see His spirit and the antichrist’s in the world around you.

As for me and my house we will follow Christ.
 

Note: There are hundreds or thousands of church organizations who use "Church of God" in there organizational names. Some have similar doctrines and some are completely heretical. We are responsible for what occurs under the name of the "Church of God International" only.

One Church of God preacher who is NOT ASSOCIATED with the CGI has been on a number of media outlets proclaiming the great tribulation and that he is one of the two witnesses.

Whether the tribulation comes about shortly or not the CGI does not believe this preacher is one of the two witnesses for the following reasons:

1. He professes to be sent to the Church of God - those he considers are God’s elect, and not to those in need of repentance.

2. He claims he knows he is one of the witnesses because of his understanding of the Bible and not because God has spoken to him in dreams or visions that he is convicted of.

3. He has stated the sin of the Jews is keeping the Pashal meal on the wrong night (he is incorrect on this point). The most important sin of the Jews is that they deny the prophet like Moses, Jesus, who brought them a New Covenant with a promise of eternal life. This testimony they deny.

4. He has focused on Sabbath keeping as the means of salvation and at times completely ignored Christ as being required for salvation. This point makes a mockery of many people who keep the Sabbath. (The Sabbath represents creation and the future rest God has in store for man through Jesus.) We do not keep it for salvation. Salvation comes through Jesus alone but once we receive His grace our desire is to sin no longer so we keep the Sabbath, just as we would be truthful and moral. Our works don’t save us they demonstrate our faith.

5. He has stated that he does not believe that Jesus pre-existed the virgin birth in contradiction to John 1, Hebrews 1 and Micah 5:2.