False Prophets, Cults, and Demonic Deceptions, Part 1

Part 1

Tim Moore: Addressing this timely and timeless exhortation is the topic of our conversation today. So, we’ve entitled this episode of Christ in Prophecy, False Prophets, Cults, and Demonic Deceptions. As we dive into this urgent subject, we’ve invited a subject matter expert to join us today, J.B. Hixson is the pastor of Plum Creek Chapel in Sedalia, Colorado, and the founder of Not By Works Ministries. He is a prolific author with books including “The Spirit of the Antichrist” and “The Spirit of the False Prophet.” JB, thank you for joining us today.

J.B. Hixson: Hey, it’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Tim Moore: Well, tell us a little bit about Not by Works Ministries, which is the head of all that you’ve produced and, how you share your message of not only encouragement but truth with the world.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah. You bet. So Not by Works Ministry our theme verse is Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” We’ve been around since 1999. Our passion is the clarity, accuracy, and urgency of the Gospel. And the last ten years or so we’ve really zoomed right in on that urgency part, because things are definitely coming together in these great last days of deception.

Tim Moore: Well, they really are. And we’re going to do this. We’re going to put a bottom-line up front for those who are watching. How can a Christian who wants to inoculate themselves from the fiery darts of the devil, tried to stand off all the deception that’s in the world? Well, obviously it starts with the Word of God, you got to know the truth to be able to recognize, deception for sure. The Word of God is sharp and powerful, it separates that within us which longs for the spirit from that which longs for the flesh. So, it definitely kind of gives us that true north. But I think there are a lot of practical things, having that foundation with the Word of God that we can do, one of which is turn off the TV. Stop listening to the news, there’s so much misinformation and disinformation out there. Thomas Jefferson famously said, you know, back in the founding of our country, “Those who don’t read the newspapers know more than those who do.”

Nathan Jones: Well, J.B., a US Secret Serviceman, in order to learn what false currency looks like, studies the real currency, and I think we can relay that to Christianity as well. Christians need to look to the truth to understand falsehood. What would you recommend to Christian how they can be more discerning?

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, I think that’s a great analogy. And, you know, I’ve talked about it in my latest book, “Spirit of the False Prophet,” how to interpret the news. And we’ve been doing this so long that, you know, I can just pick up on something that just doesn’t seem right. And you go, I think there’s more to the story than that. But I think as believers are just now waking up, and a lot of them are, a lot’s happened over the last four years, as we know, that has really awakened a lot of people. I think it’s just a matter of discernment. First John 4:1 says, test the spirits. And, how do we do that? I think we run everything through the grit of Scripture, you know, this is the only standard for our beliefs, attitudes and practices. And then you begin to pick up on things that that seem to deviate, even if it’s more subtle.

Tim Moore: You know, I love what Paul had to say in Acts 17 about the Bereans, back to your point, he said that they were more noble minded because they tested everything against the Scriptures. Even as Paul is sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they were testing it against what the Word of God that was already recorded said, the Word of God being the Old Testament that they had. And the Gospel itself agreed with the Old Testament. And Paul lauded their caution in accepting a word, even from him.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we know from Paul’s writings in 1 & 2 Timothy that things are going to get worse and worse, and people are going to give heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. And so there really is an upsurge right now, as I’ve talked about in my last three books of spiritual warfare, great deception, as you said, Jesus warned four times in that Olivet Discourse be not deceived. It’s going to reach unprecedented heights. And it’s more important forever that Christians stay plugged into the Word of God.

Nathan Jones: Absolutely. J.B. I love your “Spirit of False Prophet,” it was an excellent book. All the different cults, all the way up to the ultimate false prophet. We can go back to Deuteronomy 18:21, and I love this test that the Lord has Moses give to people. He says, “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” So, we have this test in the Bible to be able to discern false prophets. And maybe you can lay out like you did in your book, some of the false prophets found in the Bible.

J.B. Hixson: Oh yeah, we could go back to, one of my favorite stories, which I talk about in the book, is the encounter between Jehoshaphat and Ahab. Ahab in the northern kingdom, Jehoshaphat in the southern kingdom. And it’s kind of a humorous story, really, it reads almost like a Hollywood script in a way, because here’s, you know, Jehoshaphat, a godly king trying to serve the Lord. Ahab is, not a godly king, obviously, he’s the poster child for that. And he’s wanting to make a decision. He’s already predetermined what he wants to do. So, he gets these 400 yes men, these false prophets to okay it, and Jehoshaphat says, well, what about Micaiah? He was a godly prophet. And, you know, the text says something to the effect of, you know, Ahab did not want to talk to Micaiah because he hates me, you know, he doesn’t like me. And, so anyway, it just unfolds, and of course, Micaiah tells the truth, which separates him from the 400 false prophets. And that’s what we need today, is more people willing to stand for the truth. But, you got all kinds of false prophets, in the book of Acts, you see them running up against these people that were using, lies just for power, for money, for influence. And nothing’s changed in the last 2,000 years.

Tim Moore: I love the fact that when Micaiah the prophet, who was true to the living God, came, there’s sarcasm contained right there in that account in Numbers, excuse me, in 1 Kings 22, because he first gives a false report, which is what Ahab wants to hear. And Ahab even says, “Okay, come on, tell me the truth.”

J.B. Hixson: Yeah.

Tim Moore: Because the Lord allowed the prophet to use sarcasm to make a dramatic point, but the truth was that Ahab would be defeated, and indeed he was. Ahab didn’t like that word of prophecy he had Micaiah locked away. And Micaiah said, “If you return in safety, then my word was false, but you will not return in safety.” And sure enough, that happened. I love the story of Balaam, when Balack look for another false prophet to declare a word of cursing on Israel. But the Lord did not allow that to happen. There have always been people who have sought to perpetuate a lie. In our day and age, that seems to be rampant. I love, I think one of your references was to a person living in a third, I mean, in the, the former Communist bloc who said we have an advantage over the West because we knew that our newspapers were full of lies. We knew that the government was full of lies, and so we didn’t believe it. You in the West are misled to think that the newspapers are giving you the truth, and even your own government is sometimes giving you the truth, and oftentimes they’re not.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, I mean, it’s so multi-layered. Also, you’ve got just bad people doing bad things, just the depravity of man. People are going to lie and cheat and steal. But there’s also a demonic component to it. I mean, there is a real cosmic battle between God and Satan that is spilling over, the closer we get to the Lord’s return into the realm of time, space, and matter that we can see. And I think, today, more than ever, there is this fog of deception that most people don’t even know, is there. You know, like you said, even Ahab recognized, you know, look, this guy’s just telling me what I want to hear. Most people today, deception has gotten so much worse, which is, what, 2,800 years later, roughly, that most people have no idea they’re being lied to.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, self-deception seems to be the deception, the flavor of the day.

J.B. Hixson: Which is the worst kind of deception, self-deception.

Nathan Jones: And in the New Testament, we see that there’s two groups that kind of rose up. I mean, as soon as the Gospel went out, Satan started trying to mix it up, and it was the Judaizers and the Gnostics. Could you tell us the difference between the two?

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, so the Judaizers, they first come up in Paul’s first epistle, Galatians. He had visited Galatia on his first missionary journey, that region of southern Galatia, Lystra, Derbe, Iconium, and had a great harvest of souls. The Gospel went forth, people believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who had died and rose again for their sins. And no sooner had Paul and Barnabas left than these false teachers, the Judaizers come in and say, well, it’s not just faith, you know, you need to keep the law, you need to be circumcised; they added, works, to it. And of course, Paul had some harsh words to say about them. And then the Gnostics were more into just mystical, spiritual, the sense of we’re better than you because we have this special insight.

Nathan Jones: The hidden knowledge.

J.B. Hixson: The hidden knowledge, exactly. And so, that came along a little bit later, second half of the first century, but, yeah, no shortage of it. And that’s why, John, I believe John wrote his epistles shortly before Revelation at the end of the first century. You know, he warns many false prophets have come into the world and you need to be aware of them.

Tim Moore: Well, we know, as you already referenced, Paul warned Timothy that the spirit explicitly says and revealed that in the latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. And so today we’ve seen a multiplicity of deceitful spirits. We’ve seen people who are either from their own sin nature, lying and perpetrating lies, and others who are being, conduits of really a demonic deception. And so, you mentioned in the New Testament, some of the lies that were already beginning to infiltrate the church. There were individuals like Demetrius in Acts chapter 19, like Bar-Jesus in Acts chapter 13, and others who were trying to steer even the church away. So today, we know that false prophets are multiplying around us. We can point to people like Sun Myung Moon, or to David Koresh, or Jim Jones, or even Kim Jung Un, who decides that he is a god and his whole nation in North Korea should worship him. So what is this spirit of a false prophet that is still evident in those who are either deceivers or conduits of demonic deception?

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, so it goes all the way back to the Garden, obviously, that’s where it began, Satan wants to be God. You know, he got kicked out of Heaven, Isaiah 14 as he wanted to be God, he set his sights on earth, and he’s been trying to be the substitute god ever since. And that, of course, will reach a climax in the Tribulation as you guys know very well when the false christ essentially demands that everybody worship him. But it’s not just these false religions. You just mentioned, and that I talk about in the book, it’s also within the so-called evangelical church. I mean, we’re seeing otherwise good churches fall away, and teach false doctrines and become woke and, and fall in line with this liberal culture. I really believe we’re looking at maybe 5 or 10% of churches in our culture today that still hold firm to the Word of God that have not fallen prey to some of this deception. So it’s hitting you coming and going for sure.

Nathan Jones: The remnant church, we’re calling them now. It’s interesting that when the apostles ask those questions that we asked in the beginning: What are the signs leading up to your coming? Jesus in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, immediately of the first ten, He pointed out false prophets, false teachers, false christs. Why do you think the Lord led with that sign?

J.B. Hixson: Because I think He knows that all the false prophets throughout all of history are going to coalesce around the False Prophet capital “F” capital “P” that’s going to be the second in command during, the seven year Tribulation, working at the behest of the Antichrist, together they’re working at the behest of Satan, the unholy trinity. And, you know, that’s what I get into in the “Spirit of the False Prophet.” And by the way, if folks want to just get a glimpse of that, they can go to spiritofthefalseprophet.org and we list the preface and the tables of contents. But I think Jesus was speaking about that time just prior to His return. And so, he knows that deception is going to reach unprecedented heights during that time. And so, He was warning that look false prophets are going to be everywhere, be on guard. Because Israel was deceived the first coming, and he doesn’t want them to make the same mistake the second time.

Tim Moore: I think you gave a great example in your book. It’s actually in your introduction, but it was like a light bulb moment for me, you think, how can the world be deceived by someone like this? And you use the analogy in the 1930s, Adolf Hitler was a little “a” antichrist. He was opposed to the Jewish people. He was actually opposed to the true church we know. He put people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer in jail and had Christians persecuted because they would stand firm on the Word of God. But Hitler had a Goebbels who was the master of deception. He was the minister of propaganda, that’s what they called it, and he perpetuated a lie in service of his master, Adolf Hitler. And so that is a perfect analogy to the false prophet role in the end times. And my question would be, why do people tolerate, let alone embrace that? And yet we know from the Word of God this has always been true. Jeremiah, this is another point you make, Jeremiah 5:30-31 says, “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so.” We like to have our ears tickled as humans, and if we’re not grounded in the Word of God, we actually embrace the falsehood.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, yeah it’s amazing. You know, one of the things that I talk about in this book, and the reason I decided to focus on the false prophet, is that although there’s comparatively less info in the Bible about the false prophet as compared to the Antichrist, there’s still quite a bit and he does play a key role. And what I discovered is that throughout human history, behind every world dictator, there’s always a henchman, a second in command, and that’s who the false prophet is. But as he rolls out his agenda, you know, he’s going to continue to force people to worship the Antichrist, to obey the Antichrist, to take the Mark of the Beast. And, you know, you mentioned Goebbels, you know he said, “The more we do to you, the less you seem to think we’re doing it.” You know, it’s just deception to the highest degree. And he is I think the quintessential, false prophet that gives us a foreshadowing of the ultimate false prophet.

Nathan Jones: Yeah. What did he also say about if you tell a lie, a big lie often enough people will believe it.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: It’s interesting. You know, when I read your book, I read the intro and I was like, wow, this is really good. And then you revealed, oh, I used an AI to write it.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: And I realize I had been deceived in a book about deception.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: So AI is increasingly going to become a component of deception in this day and age.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, that’s the reason I did that. The first few paragraphs of the introduction I collaborated with an AI, gave it a prompt, and then I had to clean it up a little bit and refine it a little bit. But then I tell you, hey, the last few paragraphs that you just read were a collaboration with AI. And it’s exactly like you said, I want people to see how easy it is to be deceived and you don’t know it.

Nathan Jones: You got me.

Tim Moore: I thought that was a beautiful technique and it drew me in. But I realized in hindsight, J.B., that that passage did not have the same spirit because it had not been informed by the Holy Spirit, just the rest of your book. And so I also was, amazed at just the technology and the capability. You know, just recently as we’re taping this and people will continue to see deception. But as you watch some of the hearings that take place in Washington, I’ve watched recently as the House was doing a hearing with Robert Hur who was the prosecutor who considered whether or not President Biden had violated the law by keeping classified documents and sharing them. And over and over again, the lie that was perpetuated by some who were questioning him, and he’d say, “No, that’s not what my report said.” But they kept repeating the same thing, knowing that the sound bite on the news would be their lie instead of his denial of the lie. And so we are susceptible to the same deception that was rampant in Nazi Germany, was rampant in the Old Testament, and has been rampant throughout human history.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah. You know, Tim and Nathan, one of the reasons I believe we’re getting closer and closer to the return of the Lord, one of the big signs of the times is that they don’t even try to hide the lies anymore. And in fact, when the lies are exposed, they double down. You know, they don’t even apologize or feel like they’ve been caught at something. They just double down. We’ve seen that with, for example, the climate change hoax. I mean, I remember back in 2012, one of my books, I talked about that and exposed the Copenhagen emails and documents that seemed to expose the whole thing as a made up fraud. And I thought, well, this will be the end of that. No, they just double down and even in spite of the evidence, just continue to lie, lie, lie. And sadly, there’s always an audience for that. Deception is getting easier.

Nathan Jones: They choose to believe the lie.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: Well, since we’re living in a time of deception, help us understand how we can be discerning. How can we tell what a false prophet is? How can we expose them?

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, it just really does take discernment. But it’s the kind of discernment that every believer has who knows the Lord, because we have the indwelling Holy Spirit and we have the Word of God. And between the two, as we get to know the Word of God, the more we know the truth, the more we will recognize, well, first of all, the more we know God’s Word, the more we’ll know God.

Nathan Jones: Because the Bible teaches us that false prophets, false teachers have certain characteristics. Maybe list some of those characteristics.

Tim Moore: So yeah if we go 2 Peter 2, it’s a great list there in that chapter of the rise of false prophets and what we can look at. So some of the things I’ll just start off and kind of spark the conversation, they make false predictions, just as you read earlier. They say things that do not come true. And so clearly as the Lord has indicated, if somebody makes a prediction, that’s why Nathan and I are very careful not to make wild predictions because—

Nathan Jones: Or any.

Tim Moore: –we don’t claim. Or any. Because we don’t claim to be prophets. We just reveal the truth of the Word of God. Thus, sayeth the Lord. But we don’t try to prophesy the future because we’ll be wrong more than we’re right, and that would label us as a false prophet.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, I think another one that they do, and I this comes to my mind because I’m working on a message for a conference here coming up on Thyatira, the church in Revelation 2. And I think one of the signs of the age is that people are not only, welcoming, not only following false prophets, but they’re welcoming them into the church. In other words, people have a hard time, taking a stand. And so, you know, as Peter talked about, they come in secretly, obviously, some of the clear doctrinal things that they deny, like deny the deity of Christ, they blaspheme. They’re greedy, they’re always looking for money. But I think one of the things that’s really telling is that the church today just welcomes them. They’re afraid to take a stand. They don’t want to hurt, somebody’s feelings. And they think the simplest thing is to just, or the loving thing, that’s what you hear today is just to accept them. But it’s never the loving thing to do to perpetuate a lie.

Tim Moore: It’s not. And, you know, some of them I listed off, the Moonies and David Koresh and Jim Jones, some of them claim to be christ, and that is the mark of a false prophet. Some of them actually do miraculous signs and wonders. We had a viewer that recently wrote us and said she had friends who were following a prophet. And our response was: Following a prophet? Oh yes, he does miraculous signs. And we immediately said, now just a minute, we believe that there are miracles that still take place, but there’s a lot of falsehood in folks who try to claim that they are doing miraculous deeds. The Bible says the false prophet will accomplish deeds that are apparently miraculous. But the go to bottom line is the false prophet and all these other false prophets will deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ and will lead people away from the true and living God.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, most of the famous false religions of our day were started with a demonic lie. You think of the angels, the fallen angels involved in the start of Islam, of Mormonism, of Jehovah’s Witnesses. You know, they get their so-called revelation from a false angel, a demon, and, so, yeah, it’s, it’s amazing how easily people, can be, can be duped today. And it all goes back to Satan, who’s a liar. Jesus said in John 8:44, “He was a liar from the beginning. Everything he speaks is a lie.”

Nathan Jones: Most people don’t know that Muhammad was illiterate. He didn’t write the Koran, he would get into these ecstatic utterances. He’d be shaking, and he’d do either automatic writing on bones or piece of parchment, or surround himself by what would be called imams to write down what he said. And there were rants, and he was possessed, clearly.

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, it was demonic.

Nathan Jones: And the foundation of Islam is demonic possession.

Tim Moore: J.B., we’ve talked a lot about your book today. You have others, we’re going to talk about in a moment or another time, but we focus today on “Spirit of the False Prophet.” So how could our viewers get in touch with your ministry Not By Works? How could they get a copy of this wonderful book and all of your other materials?

J.B. Hixson: Yeah, the easiest way is through notbyworks.org that’s our main website. We’ve got a very robust online store where you can look at all of our books and DVDs and other resources. If you want to go directly to the “Spirit of the False Prophet,” just go to spiritofthefalseprophet.org. But we’d love to hear from you. We have a newsletter you can sign up for, and, you can reach us at our 1-800 number there. But yeah, notbyworks.org.

Closing

Nathan Jones: Whether you just want to just guard yourself against deception, or whether you want to warn your own friends and family and speak truth into the lives of people you love, please visit our website and consider ordering bundle #904. While supplies last, and at the special price of $30, that includes shipping and handling, it contains Warren Smith’s insightful book, “The Titanic and Today’s Church,” along with four classic Lamb & Lion DVDs: “The New Age Movement,” with David Reagan and Warren Smith, “World Religions,” and “The Dangers of the Cults,” with Dr. Reagan and Ron Carlson, and “Catholicism vs. Evangelism Christianity,” with David Reagan and Mike Gendron.

Tim Moore: The May/June edition of our “Lamplighter Magazine” also focused on the diabolical scheme of the devil to condemn people to eternal darkness. You can receive the electronic version of our magazine for free by visiting our website, or you can order the print edition for only $25. Order soon and while copies last, we will be sure to send you the May/June edition.

We cannot close out this episode without making two observations. The greatest deception is self-deception, meaning that all of us are prone to some form of deception, and it is often hard to realize when our own hearts have embraced deception. And number two, some of the greatest deceivers in our society do not present themselves as overtly religious, instead, they indoctrinate people to elevate tolerance over truth, luring them into groupthink instead of resolute faith and progressivism over tested and proven policies.

Nathan Jones: Even within many churches, Christians are straying off the straight and narrow path. And that is why Jude wrote in his epistle, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, (the Gospel,) I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all, handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turned the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny our Master and Lord Jesus Christ.”

Tim Moore: Deception is a heavy topic, but one that is absolutely critical for us to address. We’ve purposely scheduled this discussion now as America is in turmoil over an election and susceptible to so much deception.

Nathan Jones: Well, like Ezekiel and other prophets, Christians have been called to sound the alarm when the people of God are going astray. Tragically, the Lord told Ezekiel that his message would go unheeded. Our society might not listen to us either, but like him, we will be held accountable for the people’s condemnation if we do not serve as a faithful watchman.

Tim Moore: We’re grateful to J.B. Hixson, who has long served as a faithful watchman, and a modern-day Ezekiel. We’re also grateful that the Lord has raised up other prophetic voices and inspired other ministries to serve as watchman in our own day and age. Our calling here at Lamb & Lion Ministries is to proclaim the soon return of Jesus Christ. But even as we do, we endeavor to encourage Christians to stand firm in the faith. And we urge unbelievers to flee from the wrath to come and into the loving arms of our Savior.

Nathan Jones: Between those two options, salvation and damnation, there are repeated calls in Scripture to transform our minds, and guard our hearts, and our churches and reject the devil’s deceptions. Just as Paul had to call out Peter at one point, sometimes that involves holding one another accountable for staying true to our upward calling in Jesus Christ.

Tim Moore: Until Jesus breaks from the heavens or calls us home, Nathan and I will welcome the sharpening God provides through fellow faithful followers of Christ. And we will keep speaking the truth in love so that by all means, we can encourage you to grow up in all aspects into Him who is our head, even Christ, and that as many as possible will be saved. Concurrent with this series of Christ and Prophecy programs, the May/June edition of our “Lamplighter Magazine” has also focused on false prophets, cults, and demonic deceptions. If you’d like to receive our acclaimed magazine, just call the number on the screen or visit our online store. You can download all our magazines from our website for free, or you can subscribe to the print edition for only $25 domestically. And while supplies last, we’ll make sure you get a copy of our current edition addressing false prophets, cults, and demonic deceptions. We’ll be back next week with another episode of Christ in Prophecy. For now, we pray that you will avoid deception by keeping your eyes on our great God and Savior, our soon returning King Jesus Christ. Godspeed.

End of Program