Warning: False Prophets in Pulpits this Christmas

Many preachers today seem to know our anxieties, worries, and depression. When they speak, it is as if they know what we’re going through. We hang on their every word with bated breath, for it seems that the “secrets of our hearts are disclosed” (1 Cor 14:24-25). However, many of these preachers describe our hearts only to lead them inward. They tell us how to avoid anxiety, worry, and depression. They give us tips and tricks designed to improve our lives and make us feel better. This Christmas, they will say things like this: “Jesus became a baby to show Himself as vulnerable. He loves you so much He’s willing to risk you rejecting Him.” Or, they’ll even go so far as to say His love is so “great” that “God broke the law for love,” as if God’s only goal is to make you feel loved, even if it means breaking His law. These speakers know you need love, and they say things—using Bible verses—that speak to your wounded heart. They speak in such a way that even those who aren’t Christians are uplifted by the message. But is this how the Bible describes the words of the prophets, the men charged to bring God’s word to us?

Prophecy, when it truly occurs, doesn’t make people who don’t truly love Christ feel better. Rather, it brings about conviction. Paul says, “If all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed” (1 Cor 14:24). What is the result of this? Not that the man feels better about himself and his seasonal depression lifts, but that “he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that ‘surely, God is among you’” (1 Cor 14:24-15).

Many speakers today portray God in a lesser light in order to tickle the ears of their listeners. God has never and will never break His own perfect Law, which is sweeter than the honeycomb (Ps 19:10, 119:103). God’s goal this Christmas is not merely to help you avoid anxiety and depression. If it were, unbelievers could hear these messages and feel better without ever giving their lives to Christ. That is precisely what will happen this Christmas.

I once spoke with a man who was listening to a popular preacher to get help with his anxiety. The preacher seemed to know everything the man was going through. The man consumed the preacher’s sermons like a panting deer drinking water. When I asked the man what he had learned, he said that he needed to get rid of his pride so that he wouldn’t be anxious anymore. The preacher taught him that his anxiety was a result of pride. Therefore, the motivation for humility was the removal of anxiety. Surely, we are all sheep, and we have poor motives for the things we do. But is this prophecy? If a message this Christmas tells us about Christian things, like humility, in order to teach us how to feel better in our daily lives, is that the result of prophecy Paul spoke of? This man didn’t “fall on his face and worship God.” He asked for the removal of his pride so that he wouldn’t be so anxious at work. Humility was the means to getting what he wanted, not the means of worshipping God. Atheists can be quite humble.

This Christmas, there will be many false prophets speaking about Christ as if His mission was to improve our lives. They will almost supernaturally tell us our thoughts and feelings as if God were speaking through them. They will make beautiful presentations with caring instructions designed to provide our feelings with a sense of elevation. But this is not prophecy. It is false prophecy. True prophecy produces the worship of God as it brings the conviction of sin. This Christmas, do not settle for platitudes and self-help that work as well on Psychology Today as they do on a church livestream. Rather, seek the true words of God that show us Christ, who is more glorious than the whole world. Christmas isn’t about elevating our mood; it’s about exalting Christ, the savior of all mankind from whom and through whom and to whom all things exist (Rom 11:36). If the preacher this Christmas only makes you feel better about yourself, he isn’t speaking God’s word. If, on the other hand, the Spirit uses his words to fill your heart with deep love for Christ, you are hearing true prophecy. When this happens in true churches this Christmas, let us fall on our faces and worship God for it.  

-Rob Golding