False Prophets

"Therefore their speech shows them to be false prophets. While they claim to speak in the name of the Lord, their predictions neither come true nor tend to magnify Jehovah's name. According to the divine rule they prove to be false...If these prophecies have not been fulfilled, and if all possibility of fulfillment is past, then these prophets are proven false."

"If he is a false prophet, his prophecy will fail to come to pass"

"The difference between a true and a false prophet is that the one is speaking the word of the Lord and the other is speaking his own dreams and guesses"

"The true prophet of God today will be telling forth what the Bible teaches, and those things that the Bible tells us are soon to come to pass. He will not be sounding forth man-made theories or guesses, either his own or those of others"

"This text proves again that those men who foretell things out of harmony with the Bible statements are false prophets. In 1914-1918 these same three classes told the whole world that the great World War would end all wars and make the world safe for democracy; and that the young men who died on the field of battle would die sacrificial deaths as did Jesus and would go to heaven. Their prophecies did not come true. Therefore they are false prophets; and the people should no longer trust them as safe guides."

"'Sometime between April 15 and 23, 1957, Armageddon will sweep the world! Millions of persons will perish in its flames and the land will be scorched.' So prophesied a certain California pastor, Mihran Ask, in January, 1957. Such false prophets tend to put the subject of Armageddon in disrepute."

"True, there have been those in times past who predicted an 'end of the world,' even announcing a specific date...The 'end' did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?...Missing from such people were God's truths and the evidence that he was guiding and using them."

"However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. And in case you should say in you heart: 'How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?' when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him."

"The three essentials for establishing the credentials of the true prophet, as given through Moses, were: the true prophet would speak in Jehovah's name; the things foretold would come to pass (Deut. 18:20-22); and his prophesying must promote true worship, being in harmony with God's revealed word and commandments. (Deut. 13:1-4)"

"Jehovah, the God of the true prophets, will put all false prophets to shame either by not fulfilling the false prediction of such self-assuming prophets or by having His own prophecies fulfilled in a way opposite to that predicted by the false prophets. False prophets will try to hide their reason for feeling shame by denying who they really are."

"Jehovah's Witnesses, in their eagerness for Jesus' second coming, have suggested dates that turned out to be incorrect. Because of this, some have called them false prophets. Never in these instances, however, did they presume to originate predictions 'in the name of Jehovah.' Never did they say, 'These are the words of Jehovah.' The Watchtower, the official journal of Jehovah's Witnesses, has said: 'We have not the gift of prophecy.' (January 1883, page 425) 'Nor would we have our writings reverenced or regarded as infallible." (December 15, 1896, page 306)

TheWatchtower has also said that the fact that some have Jehovah's spirit 'does not mean those now serving as Jehovah's Witnesses are inspired. It does not mean that the writings in this magazine The Watchtower are inspired and infallible and without mistakes. (May 15, 1947, page 157) 'The Watchtower does not claim to be inspired in its utterances, nor is it dogmatic.' (August 15, 1950 page 263) 'The brothers preparing these publications are not infallible. Their writings are not inspired as are those of Paul and the other Bible writers. (2 Tim. 3:16) And so, at times, it has been necessary, as understanding became clearer, to correct views. (Prov. 4:18)' --February 15, 1981, page 19."