"......and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth FALSELY......saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace" (Jer 6:13).
FALSE POSITIVES
The recent Covid-19 pandemic has popularized and transformed our language with buzz words and phrases such as "social distancing," "the new normal," "contact tracing," and many others, but the one that I want to focus on, is the "false positive," a phrase that we have used before, but has become very popular during the pandemic.
According to the "Gateway Pundit," "After December 31, 2021, the CDC will withdraw the emergency use authorization of the PCR test for COVID-19 testing. The CDC finally admitted the test does not differentiate between the flu and COVID virus."
"Via the CDC website: In preparation for this change, CDC recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have been using the CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay select and begin their transition to another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test. CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses."
So, we have learned that after two years that one of the popular Covid tests that was used was not able to differentiate between the flu and the Covid virus. In other words, it was giving out "false positives." That means that the results of the test would be positive, that the person was infected by Covid-19, but in reality, they didn't have it, but instead had a cold or the flu. So, the positive results of the Covid test were wrong. It was a False Positive.
FALSE POSITIVES DURING JEREMIAH'S DAY
When I heard all of this, it reminded me of Jeremiah where the Prophet condemns Judah for their sins and unfaithfulness towards God. Jeremiah warns of the destruction that would be poured out on Judah. He writes about God’s holy anger. A lot of the wickedness that angered God was the constant worship of false idols and gods, and the sacrifices they were burning to them.
Judah's King Zedekiah who did not heed Jeremiah's warning throws him into prison, but nevertheless, Jeremiah warned that the King would fall into the hands of the King of Babylon. Jeremiah records the events of the fall of Jerusalem as many other prophets had announced in the past, and Babylon indeed laid siege to Jerusalem and the land of Judah. This completed the exile of both kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom which fell in 722 B.C., and now the Southern Kingdom in 586 B.C. Because of the preaching of Jeremiah and God's other prophets, the people of Judah were terrified, especially as the Babylonians grew more powerful.
However, there were also false prophets and wicked priests in the land of Judah. They tried to calm the people by saying everything will be all right. They prophesied that God was not going to send any judgments, so there was no need to have fear. They further comforted them by telling them that God would send peace, not war. So, the people continued in sin, being deceived by the priests and the prophets. Everything will be fine. There will be peace.
But, God told Jeremiah, "For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. 14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace" (Jer 6:13, 14). The false prophets were saying, "Peace, peace." But, God said, "There is no peace."
Can you imagine these people thinking everything is going to be okay, life is going to go on as usual. They thought they were at peace with God. They were taking comfort in something that was not reality. Everything will be normal again. Maybe it would be a "new normal," but they began to feel very positive about their lives. But, that was a "False Positive." They thought they were at peace with God, but in reality, there was no peace. Judgment is on it's way.
In 586 B.C., the Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem, and the city fell two and a half years later. The walls were broken down and the Temple was burned and destroyed. Judah was exiled and taken into captivity to serve Babylon for seventy years. The people's initial fears and nightmares became true.
Just consider how much damage the false prophets did in that day, lying to the people. Why did they lie? Well, two reasons I can think of. First of all, they were "given to covetousness," mentioned in verse 13, and secondly, their heart was full of deceit. That is not a good combination, a deceitful heart full of greed.
"Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the DECEIT of their heart" (Jer 14:14). So, it is clear that the prophets were for profits, and they would lie in order to fulfill their lust.
So, why do religious leaders today lie and teach false doctrines to deceive the people? For the same reason. They have a deceitful heart, and out of covetousness, they do it for profit.
FALSE POSITIVES FOR SALVATION
Yes, there are also false prophets and false teachers today and they are doing just as much damage today as they did in Jeremiah's day, dishing out False Positives. Everyone feels positive about things, but it's a false positive. Things are not as the people believe. They have been deceived, especially spiritually.
The Lord Jesus warned " Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" (Matt 7:15). Yes, today these false prophets, preachers and false teachers speak so smoothly, and they act like and appear like God's sheep, but Jesus said, they are ravening wolves. They may teach that salvation is by the death of Jesus on the cross for your sins, but they also teach that you have to be baptized, join the church, and live right to go to heaven. For salvation, it's always Jesus plus something you do to add to it.
Warning! That is not the Gospel. The Gospel is not Jesus plus, but Jesus period! He did all the work necessary for our salvation, and we just except what He did for us by grace through faith. Otherwise, you are trusting in Jesus plus yourself to get you to heaven, and my friend, that will not work. You have been deceived by your false preachers and teachers and all you have is a False Positive. You think you are going one way, but in reality, you're going the opposite way. It seems all Positive to you, but in the end, you will be in shock to find out it's not the way you thought. Just like with the people in Jeremiah's day.
Hey, you won't be alone. There will be many others that will be deceived. Jesus said, "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive MANY" (Mat 13:22). So, just because you look around and see many others saying "PEACE, PEACE," that doesn't mean everything is right because how can so many people be wrong? Did you not read awhile ago, the whole city of Jerusalem, and the whole land of Judah thought the same thing, "Peace, Peace." But, they were so wrong. God said, "There is no peace!" And, friend, if you are believing in these false gospels of a work's salvation, doing the best you can, and so on, then you don't have peace with God, even though they have convinced you that you are doing everything that God wants you to do to make it to heaven. FALSE POSITIVE! They've deceived you. And, why do they do it? Greed. Covetousness.
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And MANY shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through COVETOUSNESS shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not" (2Pet 2:1).
So, why do they teach and preach a false gospel? Because of "covetousness." Hungry for power, influence, popularity, and yes, money. They do it with "feigned" or false, artificial words (deception). They make "merchandise of you." You are like a piece of goods to them, a means to their gain, and they will lie to you to get it.
And, believe me, they are so slick and as smooth as butter with their words and their manner. "For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mr 13:22). They are so conniving and skilled, that they can come close to even deceiving saved people, but as the verse says, that's not possible.
Listen, a saved person might get caught up in false teaching, even a false gospel as were the Galatians, but when put to the test, they will believe the truth of God's Word, as did the Galatians. Paul said he was in doubt of them for they were saying you had to also be circumcised to be saved. Jesus wasn't enough. He had to have your help in saving you. So, Paul asked them, how did you get saved, "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Gal 3:2). Was it Jesus plus, or Jesus period?
I ask you the same question, friend. When you first got saved, was it by the hearing of faith in Jesus Christ, or was it by your good works? It can't be Jesus plus Circumcision, or Jesus plus Baptism, or Jesus plus your good works to get you to heaven. If you mix and add these things to Christ, then Christ shall profit you nothing (Gal 5:2).
If you add to Christ, then God removes Christ from the offer, and you are left alone with your good works, believing in a False Positive. I don't care how positive you feel about it, it's a false positive. "Christ shall profit you nothing." "Nothing" is a Negative, not a Positive. In God's eyes you are left alone to try and get yourself to heaven, even though you think Christ is going to get you there along with all your good works.
Listen, this is not hard stuff here. You have just been deceived by your false prophets, preachers, and teachers. Your thinking is not right. Because you are listening to these false teachers, you think you have Christ, but you don't. "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Gal. 5:4). If you are trusting in Christ plus your law-keeping good works, then "Christ is become of no effect unto you." You are fallen away from the grace of God that is only available to you through trusting 100% in the Lord Jesus and His work on the cross to get you to heaven.
Listen! Let me be clear. Your good works have nothing to do with your salvation. None! After you are saved, then we are to do good works. But, good works have nothing to do with saving us or keeping us saved. Good works are the result of salvation, not a means to it. And, again, you don't do good works to keep saved, that is also false teaching. If God saves you by Grace alone in Christ, then God can keep you saved by Grace alone through Christ.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast" (Eph 2:8,9).
FALSE POSITIVES FOR THE CHURCH
I'm not going to spend much time here. I've written several articles on the mess the church is in today. You can read them on my blog at "churchtruth.org". I just want to point out that most people today believe the church is a building or an organization, but if you read the Bible you will see that this is not true.
The are millions of people going to church in America and they feel all warm and fuzzy believing they are pleasing the Lord, but they will later be surprised to see that most of what they believed about the church was wrong. They really, really believed it was right because their false pastors and false teachers said it was right. Positive stuff here, but again, it was a False Positive. Sounded so right, but it was all wrong. They tithed and believed with all their hearts that they were pleasing God by tithing, but shocked to find out that it didn't. They will also be shocked to find out that the position of the Pastor was wrong. Church names and titles, wrong. Denominations, wrong, not of God. Most all the traditions, and practices of the church that they practiced were wrong. Negative! Sorry, but it's true. They thought it was all positive. It just seemed so right. But, it was a false positive.
My family and I have met in our home with a couple other families to remember Christ and His death for us. We sing, pray, read Scripture, but it's all about the Lord. After church, we have a fellowship meal. We are very happy and feel so blessed to meet only in His Name this way. We don't have a name for ourselves or for the church. We just meet in Jesus Name. But, you know what? Our relatives and friends say we are not a church (even though most churches mentioned in the New Testament met in homes). Some even say we're an occult because we meet this way. Well, it doesn't upset us because we are very Positive about it because we do exactly what we see in the New Testament. We don't follow Old Testament doctrine for the church, because there were no churches in the Old Testament. If you want to find how to practice church order, then you need to look in the New Testament where there were churches, and find how they practiced. The rules and guidelines are there.
Why such a change today, where people are so easily persuaded by the false church system? They reject church truths from the New Testament and turn to the business-like corporate church mess we see today. Why do they do that? Why do they follow church traditions and commandments of men rather than the Scriptures? Because, the way they meet is something that is concrete, something they can see.
Let me ask you something. Why did the Israelites want a golden calf to lead them out of the land of Egypt? Because it was something that was concrete, something visible that they could see. They couldn't see God, and they hadn't seen Moses in 40 days, but they could see the Golden Calf that represented the gods. And, we all know how that turned out.
Same with people today. They don't want to meet in Jesus Name alone in a very simple way, maybe in someone's home. No, they want something more concrete. Something you can see, such as an ornate religious church building with a steeple, stained glass windows, an altar, etc. They want to be well known, having a name for their church, advertising it to the community. Yes, they can't see the Lord, and nobody can see them meeting in someone's home. They want to be seen and they want the church to be something that they and everyone else can see.
Same with salvation. Just believing by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, who can see that? Trusting in Christ is not enough for them. They have to see you being baptized, joining the church, and becoming a regular member following their practices of tithing, putting money in the offering plate, attending all the meetings, giving testimonies, and etc. If they don't see that, then they won't think you are really saved. Church and church practices has to be something they can see, something more concrete than just faith and following God's Word.
Now, I agree that true faith will produce good works and a desire to follow the Scriptures, but when you actually follow the New Testament for living the Christian life, that is not going to line up with their views of being a Christian or how you practice as a church. And, I am pretty positive about that.
TEST THE SPIRITS
So, how do you get true peace concerning salvation, the church, and anything else that is spiritual? The Bible tells us how. Test them. How do we test them? "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1John 4:1).
At the beginning of this, when speaking of false positives for the Covid test where, the CDC withdrew it's support, they recommended using other tests, tests that would be more accurate. Well, this is what we do with spiritual things, except we do have a test that is 100% accurate if administered correctly, the Scriptures. We must test everything by the Word of God to see if is so. This is what the Bereans did in Paul's time.
"And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:10).
These Bereans tested the spirits by the Scriptures whether it was true or not. Hey, they even tested Paul and Silas. They didn't just give them a pass because of who they were. They checked them out with the Scriptures. So, we must do the same thing. It doesn't matter how well liked the speaker is, how educated he is, or how many books he has written. What he says must be checked out with the Scriptures. That's how you test the spirits.
By the way, what does it mean to test the spirits? John said, "Believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God." It says "test the spirits." If I wrote this I would probably say, "test what is being said." But, God seems to be indicating that when someone is saying something false, it is not only what is being said is false, but the person is false also. That's why they are called false prophets and false teachers.
Listen, this is different from a saved person saying something untrue either by mistake or by not understanding fully what they are saying. How can you know the difference whether it's a real believer or not? Give them a test. Give the truth from the Word, and see how they respond. When confronted with the truth from God's Word, a saved person will see their error and correct what they said. However, a false teacher will not do that. They will stick with what they said, get angry, and argue with you.
You see, it is not only what has been spoken that is wrong. The person can be wrong too. Something is wrong with that person to say such a thing, and the Bible seems to indicate that it is a wrong spirit behind the person. Notice carefully that the verse said, "Try the spirits whether they are of God. It didn't say try their speech or even try the person. It said try the spirits. I believe this indicates that the real problem with false teaching is what spirit is influencing the speaker. Is it the Holy Spirit or some other spirit? "Try the spirits whether they are of God."
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, GIVING HEED TO SEDUCING SPIRITS, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;" (1Tim 4:1,2). This is very clear that false prophets/preachers and false teachers are being influenced by "seducing spirits" in order to spread their "doctrines of devils."
And friend, if you believe in a works-based salvation, then you have been deceived by a "doctrine of the demons." So, you need to realize that when you hear something you know is false, then test it. Correct the person with Scripture and if they do not heed, then realize you are dealing with a person under the influence of demons.
So, whenever you hear someone say that in order to be saved you must accept Christ, be baptized, and do good works to make it to heaven, then you are dealing with evil spirits. If it's a Christian fallen into error, then rebuke them and show them the truth, and they should agree with the truth if they are saved. This was the case with Paul and the Galatians who had strayed from the Gospel and accepted a false gospel. But, if it's a hypocrite ("speaking lies in hypocrisy), know that you are dealing with a lost person. Rebuke them and move on, realizing that you cannot help them.
The Corinthians were a great example of true Christians who fell into sins of the flesh and into doctrinal errors, but when they were rebuked by Paul, they changed their thinking and got things right. Paul put them to the test, and because they responded in the right way to the test, Paul knew they were real Christians.
"For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things" (2Cor 2:9). The word "proof" means test. The New King James Version and the Darby Version both translate it, "That I might put you to the "test," whether you are obedient in all things.
Paul tested them by the Word of God, and these Corinthians gave "proof" that they were true believers by changing their conduct because they agreed with Paul. Changing their minds meant they repented in what they were doing. They agreed with Paul, and they changed their ways. Paul said to them, "Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner..." (2Cor 7:9). Paul rebuked them of their sins in the first letter to them, which caused them to repent. Paul heard about it later through Titus that they had changed their thinking, felt sorrow, and then changed their conduct. Wow! This proves these Corinthians were true Christians. They passed the test.
Now, what if they had rejected Paul's rebukes? "Who are you to correct us? Why don't you mind your own business? We believe we are right, so just leave us alone." That would not be a good sign that they were true believers. That would not be good "proof" of passing the test, but rather indicate they have failed the test. They may be positive that they are real Christians, but it's a False Positive.
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1John 4:1).
CLOSING
Now, I know with the Covid test that a "false positive" means bad news. That means the test is positive that you have the disease. I always thought that was ironic in a way. The word "positive" usually means something good, but in this case it's bad news. It's the same with any other kind of a test for a disease. It just means the test is positive. But, can you imagine someone who gets that positive result that they have a disease, and how that impacts their life? And, then to find out that it was a false positive. Now, the person is upset even more. Yes, pleased that they don't have the disease, but upset because what they were put through for no reason, because the test was flawed.
But, speaking of salvation and church practice, the term "false positive" is a little different, because it's something that people are actually thinking about that is positive in their lives, such as being on their way to heaven, and then to later find out they aren't. When tested by the Scripture, the results are negative to them, because they didn't do what the Scripture said to do to be saved. So, they were taking comfort and trusting in something that was not real. They were very positive in their thinking, thinking they were saved and on their way to heaven, but it wasn't true. Their positive thinking was all wrong. It was a false positive.
I just wanted us to see how that all these people believing in a false salvation and in the false church system really believe they are so right in what they believe. They take comfort in something that is not real. They feel very positive about it, but it's a false positive. False assurance.
For salvation, they trust in the concrete things they do, things they can see, and everyone else can see, rather than trusting in Christ alone. By their own works of righteousness, they give themselves hope and security, not knowing that in reality, it's all a fantasy. They are told they have peace with God very much like the people of Jeremiah's day.
In Jeremiah's day, they said, "Peace, peace," but there was no peace. God's judgement fell upon them anyways and it will be the same in today's time on each person that does not receive Christ according to the Gospel. People must learn that true peace in this world will only come by the Lord Jesus Christ according to God's Word. This applies to salvation, church practice, and for living the Christian life.
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Rom 5:1).
Friend, if you have trusted Christ and been justified by faith alone in Him, then you can truly say, "Peace, Peace," and God will say "There is Peace!" So, rejoice, because that is the true peace that only comes through Christ, knowing that you did exactly what the Scriptures said. And, that's a True Positive.
In Jesus Name,
James B. Sparks
jb5sparks@aol.com
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