{"id":486,"date":"2014-12-03T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=486"},"modified":"2014-11-16T00:16:32","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T00:16:32","slug":"matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 7:15-23; A Tree and Its Fruit (Cross-Reference Comparisons)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking against the threat of false prophets in Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus makes this statement, \u201cBy their fruit you will recognize them.\u201d So what kind of \u201cfruit\u201d is supposed to tip us off to the presence of false prophets in our midst?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Jeremiah 14:14 offers help\u2014it\u2019s a passage where God himself describes five activities of false prophets. Let\u2019s break down that verse into bullet points to help us see it more clearly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Then the Lord said to me, \u201cThe prophets are <strong>prophesying lies<\/strong> in my name<\/em>. <em>I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them\u2026<\/em><\/li>\n<li>\u201c<em>They are prophesying to you <strong>false visions<\/strong><\/em>\u2026<\/li>\n<li>\u201c\u2026<strong><em>divinations<\/em><\/strong>\u2026<\/li>\n<li>\u201c\u2026<strong><em>idolatries<\/em><\/strong>\u2026<\/li>\n<li>\u201c\u2026<em>and the <strong>delusions of their own minds<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With Jeremiah 14:14 in view, we can make the following assumptions: 1. Anyone who presents untruth as God\u2019s truth (i.e., \u201cprophesying lies in my name\u201d) should be considered a false prophet. This would apply to preachers and teachers who distort or disavow the Bible\u2019s teachings in order to accommodate their own preferences or current societal norms. 2. Likewise, claiming to have new, personal revelation of God\u2019s plans that conflicts or contradicts God\u2019s truth in Scripture (i.e. \u201cprophesying false visions\u201d) would be considered \u201cbad fruit\u201d from a false prophet.<\/p>\n<p>3. People who attempt to predict the future by supernatural means, even misusing Scripture to support their predictions (such as when preachers predict the date of Christ\u2019s return) would be guilty of \u201cfalse divinations\u201d\u2014and that\u2019s bad fruit which is evidence of a false prophet. 4. Also, teachers who allow any other thing\u2014such as piety, money, prestige, other prophets, social concerns, and so on\u2014to be placed in higher authority than Christ himself (i.e., \u201cidolatries\u201d) would be guilty of producing bad fruit.<\/p>\n<p>5. Last but not least, church leaders who begin to invent new standards of truth and behavior for themselves, who assume that their ideas somehow supersede the truth of Scripture, or that they are somehow not subject to the same standards as other Christians, are guilty of prophesying \u201cthe delusions of their own minds.\u201d That\u2019s bad fruit, and is more evidence of a false prophet.<\/p>\n<p>Now the question arises: Do you follow any church leaders who are producing this kind of bad fruit? If so, what will you do about it?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[BKB, 145]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking against the threat of false prophets in Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus makes this statement, \u201cBy their fruit you will recognize them.\u201d So what kind of \u201cfruit\u201d is supposed to tip us off to the presence of false prophets in our midst? Perhaps Jeremiah 14:14 offers help\u2014it\u2019s a passage where God himself describes five activities of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[208,207,210],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cross-referencecomparisons","category-matthew","tag-false-prophets","tag-fruit","tag-jeremiah"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 7:15-23; A Tree and Its Fruit (Cross-Reference Comparisons) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 7:15-23; A Tree and Its Fruit (Cross-Reference Comparisons) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Speaking against the threat of false prophets in Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus makes this statement, \u201cBy their fruit you will recognize them.\u201d So what kind of \u201cfruit\u201d is supposed to tip us off to the presence of false prophets in our midst? 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Perhaps Jeremiah 14:14 offers help\u2014it\u2019s a passage where God himself describes five activities of&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-12-03T12:00:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-11-16T00:16:32+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons.html","name":"Matthew 7:15-23; A Tree and Its Fruit (Cross-Reference Comparisons) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-03T12:00:43+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-16T00:16:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-715-23-a-tree-and-its-fruit-cross-reference-comparisons.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 7:15-23; A Tree and Its Fruit (Cross-Reference Comparisons)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}