Was Isaiah a False Prophet?
I've noticed one all-too-common sacred cow in evangelical circles, and even some charismatics (but not as much) and it's the idea that if someone prophesies 99 things accurately that come to pass, but they say one thing that fails, they are a false prophet.
How come if a teacher or pastor shares and preaches like 10 correct doctrines, but is mistaken about one thing, he's not a "false pastor" or "false teacher"? Why the weird over-emphasis on correction in just prophets? Or if a healing evangelist holds crusades and hundreds get healed, but not every individual in the building gets out of their wheelchair, we label him a false teacher or healer, but if an evangelist preaches to thousands and only 2% get saved and respond to the altar call, we call that a successful event? (Any number of salvations makes a work successful, I just wish to poke fun at the double standards.
) I noticed something in Scripture the other day while reading Isaiah.
It really rocked my world and made me say out loud "OH! How come I never thought of that when people say [fill in the blank] to me about healing or prophesying?!" It's found in chapter 38 of Isaiah.
I may sound like I'm trying to weave two different topics or blog entries together in one, and forgive me if it's a little disjointed as a result.
But look closely at verse 1: In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death.
And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.
" Isaiah comes to the king, and tells him a "Thus says the Lord.
" We charismatics use that as slang a lot to indicate someone is telling us something that will happen in our lives.
Isaiah tells Hezekiah something WILL happen.
Period.
And Scripture doesn't record more, so anything more about that conversation or encounter is pure speculation because we don't have more details.
But I notice, what was NOT included here, were any options.
Isaiah didn't tell him he "might die IF...
" but told him "you shall die, you shall not recover.
" At least as far was what we have recorded here in Scripture.
In verse 5, the Lord speaks to Isaiah again and tells him something to say to Hezekiah, which demonstrates a very common way of operating in the prophetic--hearing God tell you something to repeat to someone for their benefit and encouragement.
God "changed his mind", based on Hezekiah's repentance and humbling himself before the Lord.
Hezekiah goes on to live another 15 years as a result of the Lord's mercy and hearing his tears.
However, does this second prophetic statement from Isaiah nullify his first? If Isaiah prophesied one thing, and then something different, does that mean he's contradicting himself? Does that mean he's a false prophet because the first thing didn't come to pass? Of course not, but I've heard time and time again that there is no room for change--or dare I say even human error--when someone is speaking prophetically.
If this sacred cow were true, not only would Isaiah be a false prophet, but so would Jonah--because these two men both delivered bad news to people, and the people involved repented (without being told it were an option in order to avert the edict) and in Jonah's case, what he spoke never had a follow-up to cancel the previous word! People seek the mercy of God in situations like that all the time, and God is merciful, is He not? And to change gears and look at this from a healing perspective; this man Hezekiah was going to die, and death was at the door.
The Lord healed him when he asked it of Him, and added 15 years to his life.
I've heard people discount any miracles of dead-raisings or reports of it, not because of lack of credibility of the report, or openness to the possibility it could happen--but because of the verse in Hebrews 9:27 that says it is appointed once to die and then after that comes the judgment.
I wonder how they explain this incident in Scripture? By the way, I don't have a problem with Calvinists, I have a problem with "hyper-Sovereignty" teaching that would say something like "God knew he would repent, so he had Isaiah say what he did, in order to motivate the king to repent, because He was going to heal him all along, and intended his lifespan to be that extra 15 years anyway".
Maybe God did, I don't pretend to be sophisticated enough to wrap my brain around this kind of stuff, but it sounds mostly like just posturing and explaining in order to uphold the doctrine of predestination (predestination the way it's taught anyway) when something comes up in Scripture to make that subject more difficult to understand, or dare I say, if a Scripture contradicts the teaching.
But I digress.
I personally don't subscribe to the form of Calvinism that basically teaches things like all of history is mapped out and we walk through it as God planned no matter what choices we make.
I believe, especially after looking at passages where persons or entire nations repent and avert judgment, that clearly history and future occurrences are not as airtight as some would claim, or else God would be a liar when He tells His prophets to proclaim things that wind up not happening, and God cannot lie.
There are conditions to a lot of things.
There are a lot of "how comes" and 'what ifs" regarding the Sovereignty of God if the way most Christians teach it is correct.
But I'm getting a little side-tracked.
Back to the healing thing I wanted to look at.
I'm not well-studied enough on this to know if this is true or not, but someone once told me, and I'm trying my hardest not to misquote them, but it was that stupid--that God letting Hezekiah live another 15 years was a mistake, because during that extra chunk of his life, he became the father of Manasseh, who then became king after his father, and was the worst king in Israel's history, shed more blood than any other, gave who knows how many babies to Molech, etc...
The historical account that that did happen under Manasseh's reign is true, but most people forget the massive repentance and reformation in his later life--but my point is, the data may be correct, but that is a pathetic interpretation of the ways of the Lord.
I asked this person--it was like three or four years ago, so I vaguely remember details, but I'm sure my response was something like--'you mean to tell me, God makes mistakes and you and I know better than Him what He should have done?' This person spoke some more without really answering, and waxed eloquent so as to not have to admit that their assumption is a false attribute of God, but yet was necessary for their point of view.
My brain hurts thinking about all this stuff like if God should have healed Hezekiah or not, because doing so inadvertently caused massive bloodshed under the reign of the king that reigned after him.
Good grief! Are Christians so pessimistic and negative, that it's impossible to concede the idea God maybe is FOR us, and that PEOPLE make poor decisions and He unhashes his plan "around" human free will? I'm not going there with this entry, it's too all over the place as it is.
But, to tie this all up somehow so we can call it a blog entry: There are several people in Scripture who proclaimed things that never came to pass, and are not false prophets for it.
And, God is good, and heals whether we think it was right of Him or not.
How come if a teacher or pastor shares and preaches like 10 correct doctrines, but is mistaken about one thing, he's not a "false pastor" or "false teacher"? Why the weird over-emphasis on correction in just prophets? Or if a healing evangelist holds crusades and hundreds get healed, but not every individual in the building gets out of their wheelchair, we label him a false teacher or healer, but if an evangelist preaches to thousands and only 2% get saved and respond to the altar call, we call that a successful event? (Any number of salvations makes a work successful, I just wish to poke fun at the double standards.
) I noticed something in Scripture the other day while reading Isaiah.
It really rocked my world and made me say out loud "OH! How come I never thought of that when people say [fill in the blank] to me about healing or prophesying?!" It's found in chapter 38 of Isaiah.
I may sound like I'm trying to weave two different topics or blog entries together in one, and forgive me if it's a little disjointed as a result.
But look closely at verse 1: In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death.
And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.
" Isaiah comes to the king, and tells him a "Thus says the Lord.
" We charismatics use that as slang a lot to indicate someone is telling us something that will happen in our lives.
Isaiah tells Hezekiah something WILL happen.
Period.
And Scripture doesn't record more, so anything more about that conversation or encounter is pure speculation because we don't have more details.
But I notice, what was NOT included here, were any options.
Isaiah didn't tell him he "might die IF...
" but told him "you shall die, you shall not recover.
" At least as far was what we have recorded here in Scripture.
In verse 5, the Lord speaks to Isaiah again and tells him something to say to Hezekiah, which demonstrates a very common way of operating in the prophetic--hearing God tell you something to repeat to someone for their benefit and encouragement.
God "changed his mind", based on Hezekiah's repentance and humbling himself before the Lord.
Hezekiah goes on to live another 15 years as a result of the Lord's mercy and hearing his tears.
However, does this second prophetic statement from Isaiah nullify his first? If Isaiah prophesied one thing, and then something different, does that mean he's contradicting himself? Does that mean he's a false prophet because the first thing didn't come to pass? Of course not, but I've heard time and time again that there is no room for change--or dare I say even human error--when someone is speaking prophetically.
If this sacred cow were true, not only would Isaiah be a false prophet, but so would Jonah--because these two men both delivered bad news to people, and the people involved repented (without being told it were an option in order to avert the edict) and in Jonah's case, what he spoke never had a follow-up to cancel the previous word! People seek the mercy of God in situations like that all the time, and God is merciful, is He not? And to change gears and look at this from a healing perspective; this man Hezekiah was going to die, and death was at the door.
The Lord healed him when he asked it of Him, and added 15 years to his life.
I've heard people discount any miracles of dead-raisings or reports of it, not because of lack of credibility of the report, or openness to the possibility it could happen--but because of the verse in Hebrews 9:27 that says it is appointed once to die and then after that comes the judgment.
I wonder how they explain this incident in Scripture? By the way, I don't have a problem with Calvinists, I have a problem with "hyper-Sovereignty" teaching that would say something like "God knew he would repent, so he had Isaiah say what he did, in order to motivate the king to repent, because He was going to heal him all along, and intended his lifespan to be that extra 15 years anyway".
Maybe God did, I don't pretend to be sophisticated enough to wrap my brain around this kind of stuff, but it sounds mostly like just posturing and explaining in order to uphold the doctrine of predestination (predestination the way it's taught anyway) when something comes up in Scripture to make that subject more difficult to understand, or dare I say, if a Scripture contradicts the teaching.
But I digress.
I personally don't subscribe to the form of Calvinism that basically teaches things like all of history is mapped out and we walk through it as God planned no matter what choices we make.
I believe, especially after looking at passages where persons or entire nations repent and avert judgment, that clearly history and future occurrences are not as airtight as some would claim, or else God would be a liar when He tells His prophets to proclaim things that wind up not happening, and God cannot lie.
There are conditions to a lot of things.
There are a lot of "how comes" and 'what ifs" regarding the Sovereignty of God if the way most Christians teach it is correct.
But I'm getting a little side-tracked.
Back to the healing thing I wanted to look at.
I'm not well-studied enough on this to know if this is true or not, but someone once told me, and I'm trying my hardest not to misquote them, but it was that stupid--that God letting Hezekiah live another 15 years was a mistake, because during that extra chunk of his life, he became the father of Manasseh, who then became king after his father, and was the worst king in Israel's history, shed more blood than any other, gave who knows how many babies to Molech, etc...
The historical account that that did happen under Manasseh's reign is true, but most people forget the massive repentance and reformation in his later life--but my point is, the data may be correct, but that is a pathetic interpretation of the ways of the Lord.
I asked this person--it was like three or four years ago, so I vaguely remember details, but I'm sure my response was something like--'you mean to tell me, God makes mistakes and you and I know better than Him what He should have done?' This person spoke some more without really answering, and waxed eloquent so as to not have to admit that their assumption is a false attribute of God, but yet was necessary for their point of view.
My brain hurts thinking about all this stuff like if God should have healed Hezekiah or not, because doing so inadvertently caused massive bloodshed under the reign of the king that reigned after him.
Good grief! Are Christians so pessimistic and negative, that it's impossible to concede the idea God maybe is FOR us, and that PEOPLE make poor decisions and He unhashes his plan "around" human free will? I'm not going there with this entry, it's too all over the place as it is.
But, to tie this all up somehow so we can call it a blog entry: There are several people in Scripture who proclaimed things that never came to pass, and are not false prophets for it.
And, God is good, and heals whether we think it was right of Him or not.
Source...