Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: gilham@csl.sri.com (Fred Gilham) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: False prophets Message-ID: Date: 30 Aug 90 04:27:38 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 17 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu The moderator writes: [I'm not sure why you find it odd to think of testing a prophet's words. Both the OT and NT refer to the possibility of false prophets, and talk about testing them. See e.g. Deut 8:20ff and I John 4:1ff. --clh] Yes, but, in the Old Testament at least, you only got one strike. The penalty for making a false prediction, and thus being a false prophet, was death. The point is that if a prophet makes mistakes, he is discredited completely, and should not be considered to be a real prophet. -- Fred Gilham gilham@csl.sri.com The emotional quality of what we moderns call our thought produces an extreme violence of conviction combined with extreme incoherence in our arguments. --Jacques Ellul