Beware false prophets

THE article “Nigerian Prophet TB Joshua gets Hillary prediction wrong”, DD November 10 refers.

In one of his plays, Major Barbara, the celebrated Irish playwright and Fabian socialist George Bernard Shaw, makes the argument that poor people have large souls while rich ones have smaller souls. That poor people believe a lot while rich ones believe less.

Poor people, the majority of world citizens, should very much strive to resist the povertyinduced inclination to be gullible.

I am not surprised by TB Joshua’s false prophecy. The self-enriching and conspicuously consuming modern prophets are clearly made of different stuff from the large-souled and stoical biblical prophets of the Hebrew bible and the Holy Spiritimbued ones of the Christian Church who sought nothing in this world except the serving of God and redemption of the lost people.

St Paul unambiguously asserts that no true prophet is capable of uttering a mistaken or false prophecy.

If a person believes that he is a prophet he should take care never to make a wrong or false prophecy. Chanced prophecies have a dire potential to cause people to lose the fear of God.

Perhaps, due to his scholarship but definitely due to his sagacity, St Paul, whenever teaching or writing his Epistles, distinguished what was God’s word or command from his personal opinion.

Lending dignity to one’s wishes and predictions by propagating them as emanations from God is abominable. TB Joshua is not alone in this behavior of trumpeting false prophecies. — Malcolm MZ Dyani, Duncan Village

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