When Jesus was on earth the Devil approached him quoting Scripture in order to tempt and entrap him. It is no wonder then that the apostate angel would be behind the effort to use the Scriptures against Jehovah’s people today in order to mislead them. One of the most cunning and effective uses of Scripture against us by Satan’s agents is the charge that we are false prophets. This accusation is based upon passages of Law found in Deuteronomy, chapters 13 & 18, which say in part: “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has spoken?” The answer being: “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.”
Here’s the way the con game works: After quoting the above verse, the apostate then cites a long list of failed Watchtower interpretations of prophecy with the intention of leading his victim to draw the conclusion that the Watchtower fits the criteria of a false prophet as set out in the Law of Moses.
Overlooking the obvious hypocrisy of those who would, in imitation of the Devil, deny Jehovah’s word while at the same time citing its authority for their own purposes, the most glaring flaw in this reasoning is that it applies to a time when God directly inspired men to serve as prophets and spokesmen. Today, the answer to the question, “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has spoken?” can be easily answered by simply consulting the Bible. According to our faith that is indeed the word that Jehovah has spoken. However, the Law does apply in principle evidenced by the fact that even Christians are advised to “test the inspired expressions to see whether they originate with God, because many false prophets have gone forth into the world.”
The above-cited verse certainly indicates that Christians would also have to deal with false prophets in their very midst the same as the Hebrews did. But, the method for detecting the false prophet is somewhat different. John goes on to explain how to test the validity of those who claim to speak for God, saying: “You gain the knowledge of the inspired expression from God by this: Every inspired expression that confesses Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh originates with God, but every inspired expression that does not confess Jesus does not originate with God.”
So, the criterion for testing the prophets is different for Christians. John’s letter says nothing about the disappointments and false expectations of Christians as being the determining factor in testing the so-called “inspired expressions.” If that were the case then the apostles were false prophets themselves because they had many erroneous ideas about when Christ was going to set up his kingdom. Similar to our own 1975 fiasco, and other similar embarrassments and goofs, the apostles even spread a rumor among the brothers that Jesus would return before John died. Apparently that false expectation was not corrected until the last surviving apostle wrote his gospel toward the end of the apostolic era. (John 21:23) However, if we applied the same satanic reasoning of apostates to the apostles of Christ, the apostles would also be branded as false prophets.
According to the criteria laid down by the apostle, the real test is not whether Christians have misunderstood chronology or misapplied, as-of-yet, unsealed prophecies, but whether those who claim to speak the truth acknowledge Jesus as having come in the flesh.
By any method of testing, Jehovah’s Witnesses readily acknowledge Jesus as having come in the flesh. In fact, Christendom’s Trinity doctrine cleverly denies Jesus as being a mere flesh and blood mortal. That’s because the doctrine makes him out to be a super human incarnation of God. At any rate, if the enemy wishes to use the Scriptures to condemn us as false prophets, the well-versed and reasoning mind has a sound and ready defense against such sophistry.
/ You Know