True Prophets vs. False Prophets
The difference between a True Prophet and a False Prophet can be clarified in the very simple fact that, the True Prophet is one who has received his prophetic vocation directly from Almighty God in a vision or by hearing God’s Word in a Divine commissioning, and on the other hand the False Prophet is one who is self-appointed, and does not serve God but is attached to a cultic pagan religion or temple. The True Prophet has ecstatic revelations and visions sent to them by God, and the False Prophet conjures up his own ecstatic visions through magic or by substance abuse which can lead them to self-induced ecstatic hallucinations. The False Prophet is one who leads people to worship idols, the so-called gods they fashioned out of stone with their own hands. The most prominent False Prophets were the demon worshipers of the Baal cult in the land of Canaan. “The pagan Canaanites who inhabited the land until the Exodus and Conquest were never entirely expelled from the promised land and they continued to make and worship their fertility gods, Baal and Asherah, especially in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. As works of art, the idols must have impressed many Israelites; the accent on fertility in Canaanite religion must also have seemed attractive, both because the Canaanite gods promised prosperity and because their worship included ritualized sex.”(The Old Testament: John S. Custer; pg. 94)
Needless to say, many Israelites participated in this type of worship. On the other hand, the True Prophet is a Holy Messenger chosen and sent by God to preach the Word of God which is the storyline of Salvation. The distinct and exact Words of Almighty God are spoken through the mouth of the True Prophet, the Divine Words which pervade all historical issues, time, and space. When God chooses His True Prophets He fills them with His DivineRuah, from the Hebrew, which means that God fills and breathes into the prophet His Divine Spirit. This Spirit of God falls upon the Prophet and empowers him to pass this same Spirit to the people. When the Spirit and breath of God fall upon a person, it affects a complete emotional, psychological, and spiritual change in that person. In this change, the person is transformed into a new person with a new mission, and they are possessed by the Divine Ruah of God to proclaim His Divine Will and to exclaim that the God of Israel is the Lord of the universe and has created all things. “A prophet possessed by God will suddenly appear and give prophetic oracles. Nothing of what he says will be his own, for he is truly under the control of divine inspiration and has no power of apprehension when he speaks, but serves as the channel for the insistent words of Another’s (God’s) prompting. For prophets are the interpreters of God, Who makes full uses of their organs to set forth what He wills.” “His organs of speech, mouth, and tongue, are wholly in the employ of Another (God)... Who beats on the chords with the skill of a master hand and makes them instruments of sweet music, laden with every harmony.” (The Prophets: Abraham j. Heschel, pg. 429)
To provide a concrete example between a True Prophet and a False Prophet I will use the example of the contest of the prophets found in 1kings 18:21-40, which the battle between the one True Prophet Elijah and the four hundred and fifty False Prophets of Baal, which occurred at Mount Carmel. Elijah like all the other Prophets was called upon by God at a time of crisis when the people of Israel were convinced that worshipping the foreign fertility god Baal would somehow increase their crops and wealth. The True Prophet relentlessly preached that the Lord was the only true God of Israel and that worshipping the true God would lead the people to a good harvest because it is from God that all good gifts flow. This Holy Prophet is in league with God because Elijah is calling the people back to the Covenant with Almighty God. This is in great contrast to the Canaanite prophets of Baal for they used magic to trick people into worshipping idols for they were demon-possessed, and not possessed by the Spirit of God as Elijah.
In the contest of the Prophets, Elijah first confronts the people in verse twenty one telling the people to choose their loyalty either to the True God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or the false idol god Baal. When the people give him no answer, he challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest, which is to sacrifice a bull but not by lighting it on fire upon the altar, but by simply placing it upon the altar and calling and praying to their god to set it ablaze, which Elijah himself would do after them by calling upon the Lord God to set ablaze his offering. The False Prophet began their pagan ritual of limping around their altar they constructed and they cried out to their god Baal but he did not answer. So, the false prophets, after receiving no answer from their idol god, offered some of themselves in human sacrifice by cutting themselves with swords according to their custom, and they allowed their blood to be offered to the idol and cried louder but still received no answer from Baal. The response to this frenzy by the True Prophet Elijah was in the form of mockery and then a prayer to the God to consume his offering after he ordered the priests of Baal to soak it with water three times. The True Prophet Elijah prayed; “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these at thy word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that thou, O Lord, art God, and that thou hast turned their hearts back.” (RSV 1Kings 18: 36-37) This prayer of the Prophet Elijah was heard by Almighty God and He completely consumed the sacrificed bull, the altar built by Elijah, the wood, and the water. Then all the people were struck to the heart and knew that the Lord the God of Israel was the only true God and the false prophets of Baal were put to death. (New Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old Testament; Daniel Durken, pg. 541.)
The false cultic prophets like those of Baal in the above example were centered as self-proclaimed prophets in a school of prophets in the nation of Canaan. They, with the support of their king, used magic and elaborate sacrificial rituals to worship the idols of Baal in their temples and to lead the people of Israel astray tricking them into worshipping their stone made gods with the promise of fruitful crops. But as we have seen, the True Prophet of Almighty God Elijah was able to show the people who the True God was and the school of the prophets of Baal was destroyed. When corruption arises in the history of ancient Israel God always sends one of His True Prophets to bring the people back to their covenantal relationship with Him. There can only be one True Prophet at any given time because the Divine Spirit or Ruah of Almighty God is resting upon him, and this Divine Spirit is then extended from the Prophet to all the people. This sharing of the Spirit of God ultimately leads the people back to upright living according to God’s Law which is their rule life and the Covenant of Salvation.
