Can a true prophet give a wrong prophecy? A look at Agabus
It’s not disputed that there are times when a charismatic Christian will give a word of “prophecy” that turns out to be wrong.
Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, has said that a 65 percent accuracy rate for prophecy is pretty good.
Benny Hinn proclaimed that Fidel Castro would die in the 1990s, the homosexual community in America would be destroyed by fire before 1995, and that a major earthquake would devastate the East Coast before the year 2000.
Take this video, which shows a woman “prophesying” over a pastor. Remarkably, and courageously, the pastor immediately warns the people not to be deceived by her “false message.”
The woman does not take kindly to that, and goes on to speak against this pastor – effectively debunking her own prophecy!
So we know there are false prophecies. Does that mean those who give them are false prophets?
False prophets in the Bible
First, let’s establish from Scripture that there is such a thing as false prophets. Jesus warns of them (Matthew 7:15, 24:11, 24). Peter warns of them (2 Peter 2:1). John warns of them (1 John 4:1). Paul and Barnabas encountered one in Acts 13 who was then struck blind. Jesus said those who He will condemn to hell will include some who prophesied in His name (Matthew 7:22).
The question, then, is what makes someone a false prophet? Today’s charismatics believe it takes a lot more than, say, a 35 percent whiff rate.
The answer, of course, as with all answers, must come from Scripture. Let’s turn to Deuteronomy 18:20-22:
“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. 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.”
In that passage we see the standard of judgment: One strike and you’re out. And we see how seriously God takes a false prophecy: condemnation.
Prophecy in the New Testament
But that’s the Old Testament. Did the bar change in the New Testament?
There’s no text that says it did. (What else in the Bible went from the death penalty to no big deal?) But defenders of a lower standard point to the story of Agabus and claim he was a genuine prophet who got a prophecy wrong.
Agabus is first mentioned as a prophet in Acts 11:28, but it’s in chapter 21 where we see the prophecy in question. In verse 11, Agabus binds his own hands and feet with Paul’s belt, and says, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
However, the subsequent account of the uproar in Jerusalem doesn’t say Paul was bound until the Romans get to him in verse 33. So, some say, Agabus got a detail wrong: It wasn’t the Jews who bound Paul, but the Romans.
One prominent charismatic who has put forth this line of thought is Kris Vallotton, of the hugely popular Bethel Church in Redding, California. This video examines that claim.
The exegesis of the passage in that video explains how nothing Agabus said was disproved. According to verse 30, Paul was seized and dragged out of the temple by the Jews; the Greek verbs suggest Paul could have been immobilized in a way that fits the definition of “bind” in verse 11. More clearly, Paul himself takes down this theory in Acts 28:17, where he says he was “delivered as a prisoner” into the hands of the Romans. He was already a prisoner, held against his will, when the Romans took him. Agabus was right.
There is therefore no Biblical reason to believe God has changed His standard of what disqualifies a prophet. If you give a false prophecy, you’re a false prophet.
A made-up doctrine
The charismatic movement cannot accept that standard, or else it would collapse, for it would show that God is not in much of it (as if all its other unbiblical teachings and practices didn’t already do that). And so they must rationalize and invent doctrine to support their practice.
Does it really need to be said that basing beliefs on experience rather than Scripture is extremely dangerous? That’s how we got Mormonism – a religion founded on visions and personal revelations. That’s why there will be those who prophesy in the name of Jesus going to hell.
And that’s why, as instructed in Scripture, we must not heed those who get anything wrong when claiming to speak God’s words. They’re not. Why would anyone want to receive from such people when we have the verified, eternal, infallible and sufficient word of God in the Bible, which thoroughly equips us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17) and is the more sure prophetic word (2 Peter 1:19)?
Also see this article, which refutes three arguments in favor of a different New Testament standard for prophecy.
