Satan's 'Nigerian' E-mail Scam
You have probably heard about Nigerian e-mail scams.They usually look something like this: You get an e-mail that claims to be written by a prince or some other rich guy. He informs you that you have been chosen to receive a vast sum of money. All you have to do to get the money is reply with your your personal bank account details.It never ceases to amaze me that people fall for such blatantly fraudulent schemes. They actually think that a prince, sitting in a gold palace somewhere, handpicked them to be the recipient of their fortune.Little do they know that their "prince" is actually a con artist sitting in a run-down Internet cafe, halfway around the world.Well, maybe you are too smart to fall for an e-mail scam. But you should know that Satan is running his own, much subtler, version of the same scam.Messages--false teachings--that are purported to be from God are being sent out from church pulpits throughout the world. Yet the real source of those teachings is not God, but Satan and his demons.You've Been WarnedIt is important for you to realize that evil spirits send their messages through people--and not just any people. They send them through people who profess to speak for God.This is nothing new. Consider the false prophets who falsely predicted peace in the name of Yahweh (Jeremiah 23:9-40) in the Old Testament.And, in the New Testament, the apostle John warned the early Christians to watch out for many false prophets who were acting as mouthpieces for demonic spirits.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)
Even Jesus Himself warned about many false prophets who would arise and deceive many people (Matthew 24:11). Jesus said false these prophets would disguise themselves with sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15)--that is to say, they would make themselves appear to belong to Him.We'll talk about how to detect false prophets in future posts. But given the repeated warnings in the Bible (and there's many more references I could list!), why do you think we don't hear much about looking out for false prophets in the church today?