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Deut. 13 is the first “prophet test” given in the Bible that I know of; it says that even if a claimed prophet accurately predicts something, if that prophet tells people to worship some god other than Jehovah, that person is a false prophet. LDSs say that Elohim is a different and separate God from Jehovah, and that we are to worship Elohim and not Jehovah/Jesus. Also, the God that JS proclaimed at the end of his life is not the God of the Bible, so he passes the test of a false prophet and fails the test of a true one. That alone should be enough to reliably mark JS as a false prophet, but there is more.

The next “prophet test” is Deut. 18 which is part of a large context, and that context is important. Moses reminds the Israelites of their time at Mt. Sinai, when God spoke to them audibly, and they were so terrified that they begged God to stop, and to speak to them only through Moses. God agreed. The problem then arises, if God speaks to a prophet without others hearing, how can the people know that the claimed prophet is actually hearing from God and not just making it up? In Deut. 18 we are told that the true prophet will accurately predict the future, and that these accurate predictions, made in the name of YHWH, will come to pass. We are also told that if a prophet makes a prediction that fails to come to pass, that person is a false prophet and not to be heeded. Again, JS made numerous false predictions (there are even false predictions in the BOM! — such as that when the BOM “came forth”, that the Lamanites would by and large believe), so again JS passes the test of a false prophet and fails the test of a true prophet. These two things together are two witnesses that condemn JS as a false prophet, but there are even more.

Isaiah 7, and many other places in the OT, have the prophets giving “the Word of the Lord”, with the prophet doing the speaking, but he is charged with giving God’s message exactly, without adding to or subtracting from it, so that he can be said to be speaking for God. V10 puts it even more bluntly, saying, “the LORD spake again unto Ahaz” — i.e., that this was God speaking, even though it was through Isaiah’s mouth. This chapter also has God (via Isaiah) telling Ahaz that he can pick any sign he wishes, as proof of the fulfillment of God’s future promise, and you can read more about that here.

Moving into the NT, Jesus similarly warns people of false prophets masquerading as true ones (wolves in sheep’s clothing). This means that false prophets can appear at first to be true prophets, but that it takes discernment, and looking closely at the person, to see if he’s true or false. Obviously, the same OT tests would apply, and Jesus also says to look at the fruit borne. What “fruit” did JS bear? Well, he was a sexual predator, not to put too fine a point on it, even taking the wives of other men, something which is roundly condemned in both the OT & the NT, as well as a liar who backdated his claims of priesthood (see also here), etc.

Biblical examples of true vs false prophets

  • 1 Kings 13 — God sends a prophet from Judah to Jeroboam to tell him how wrong he was, and the prophet prophesies that a man named Josiah, from the house of David, will one day kill and burn the false priests on the altar that Jeroboam had set up. “And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out“, and this happened at that time — a short-term fulfillment proving the truth of the long-term prophecy and of the prophet.
  • 1 Kings 21 contains the story of Ahab’s murder of an innocent man which leads to God prophesying that the kingdom will be taken from his family line; Ahab repents, so God softens the punishment a bit — but it’s important to note that the pronouncement of the change occurs before the predicted event would have occurred (or failed), while false prophets typically wait until after the event fails, then they come up with a post-hoc explanation for the failure.
  • 1 Kings 22 has Micaiah predicting that Ahab will be killed in battle; Ahab is angry and throws him into prison, with instructions that he is to be fed only bread and water until Ahab comes back in peace. Micaiah says that if he comes back at all, then God hasn’t spoken by him.
  • Jeremiah 23 contains a great deal of invective against the false prophets who claim to have a prophecy from God, but are lying. This is a good chapter to keep in mind when talking with LDSs or anyone else about false prophets and false prophecies.
  • Jeremiah 27 gives a specific prophecy that the false prophets in Judah make, namely, that the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had already taken from the Temple would soon be restored. Jeremiah’s prophecy from God is that not only will this not happen, but that whatever Nebuchadnezzar had previously left behind would be likewise carried away in the near future, and that they will stay there until the Jews return at the end of the 70 years. [This is also mentioned in the last chapter of 2 Chronicles, with the fulfillment of their return being spoken of in Ezra 1.] Jeremiah also issues a challenge to the false prophets in the midst of this, by saying that if they’re really the true prophets, they should just pray to God to have the Temple vessels returned and it should happen. Since it didn’t happen, that would be an indication to the people then living that they were not true prophets. 
  • Jeremiah 29 not only has God through Jeremiah predicting many things that would shortly happen, as evidence of Jeremiah being a true prophet and the others being false, but it also is replete with language excoriating the false prophets in the harshest tones.
  • Jeremiah 44 says that God would punish the people of Judah in Egypt, destroying them and leaving only a remnant to return to Judah, and as a sign of this being true, he said that the Pharaoh would be given into the hand of his enemies like Zedekiah was given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. This is important to highlight because in this, we see Deut. 18’s “true/false prophet test” played out, with the prophet predicting some far-off event, and also predicting a near event as confirmation — as something that would happen relatively quickly, so the people could see the fulfillment of the near event and know that the far event would also happen.
  • Ezek. 13 may have the most concentrated denunciation of false prophets in the entire Bible, with verse after verse after verse excoriating false prophets who “prophesy out of their own hearts“, with God saying, “Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing“, and “they have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, ‘The LORD saith’: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word,” among other things. The false prophets and their prophecies are likened to building a wall with shoddy materials, which will certainly fall ere long.
  • Jesus Himself invoked this formula when He forgave the paralyzed man’s sins, then as proof that they were indeed forgiven, told him to rise up and walk.

See also my past posts on false prophets / false prophecies here:

The Bible also speaks favorably of “signs” (which I think are usually what we would call “miracles” in our day) which show that the person who is claiming to speak for God is a true prophet. I guess we could think of it as a sort of “mini-prediction” in line with Deut. 18, with the prophet proclaiming healing or otherwise showing he has the power of God (to heal the lame, blind, deaf, or dumb, or raise the dead, etc.), saying and showing it immediately thereafter. The gospels are full of these things, but they also occur in the OT.

Here is another excellent article on this topic, bringing up even more angles that I hadn’t thought of in writing the above.

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