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There is a small group in Britain that goes by the acronym SPI-B. It sounds like some rogue government agency from a Mission Impossible movie and even fits this profile as some allege SPI-B helped the British government implement covert strategies that would deliberately manipulate and magnify people’s fear of COVID.

Hi my name is Dean Smith and before I talk about SPI-B, I want to first discuss Romans 8:15, where the Apostle Paul makes a curious statement about fear, when he writes:

‘Do not receive a spirit, that makes us a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship.’

The Greek word for fear in this verse is ‘phobos’, from which we get our English word phobia and describes a ‘terror or dread at the anticipation of harm.’ This word is describing an emotional state far beyond worry or anxiety.

And in the initial part of this verse, Paul makes two important points.

First he writes that we can receive a spirit of fear, which also implies we can reject it.

But this also suggests that a spirit of fear can come from an outside source. But Paul adds for this to happen we must first receive it. We must embrace it. We have to believe it, in order for it to have power.

Now it could have a demonic source, but in this instance I believe Paul is more likely talking about something else a mindset, a way of thinking.

Our minds can be overwhelmed by a spirit of fear.

The second thing we notice is that Paul states this spirit of fear wants to enslave you.

It wants to make you a prisoner.

It wants to be our master. It wants to own us. It wants to dominate all aspects of your life from your family to work.

And I am concerned that in light of recent events that many of us are unknowingly serving a new master — the fear of COVID.

I say unknowingly because some of us may not even be fully aware of the extent of our fear.

I know of a single Christian woman who is so terrified of COVID, she has problems sleeping at night. Even though, she is alone, completely safe in her home, COVID is still pursuing her late into the night. And how many people have I seen driving alone in their car with their masks on. Now maybe they just forgot to take it off, but I see it all the time.

Though we instinctively blame the arrival of COVID for this fear, there may be more to it than that.

In early April 2021, there was a disturbing article published in the Daily Mail, Britain’s largest newspaper, entitled, “The Convert Tactics’ used to scare Britons on staying home.”

The article reported that the British government used a committee called SAGE made up of epidemiologists, bureaucrats and other researchers, to help manage the government’s response to COVID, including the strict lockdowns that were imposed in the country.

But according to the article, SAGE did more than that, it also recommended psychological behavioural tactics to induce such terror and fear of COVID that people would willingly comply with the lockdowns.

Of course, the government denies it did this. But let’s continue.

According to the Daily Mail, there was a smaller group that was part of SAGE, called SPI-B (an acronym for the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour) that was providing advice on how the government could psychologically influence people’s behaviour during the pandemic.

In March 2020, SPI-B presented a paper expressing concerns that the British people weren’t terrified by COVID, particularly the young and healthy who are not vulnerable to the virus.

So using experts in psychological and sociological fields familiar with behavioural modification, SPI-B recommended tactics to create a nation-wide fear that would terrorize people into complying with the lockdowns.

The Daily Mail reports what SPI-B said writing:

‘The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging. To be effective this must also empower people by making clear the actions they can take to reduce the threat.’

The document, seen by the Telegraph, allegedly then gave 14 options for improving compliance including ‘use media to increase sense of personal threat’, which they said would be highly effective but runs the risk of ‘negative’ side effects. 

Notice how SPI-B recommended using “hard hitting emotional messaging’ and the “media to increase the sense of personal threat.”

As information came to light about these tactics, psychologists and others accused the government of using “covert psychological strategies” to terrify people into submitting to the lockdowns. The psychologists noted that these tactics fell “below the level of awareness.”

In other words, they were covert and people were not even aware that the were being manipulated and controlled as the government employed specialized behavioural messaging to create “a state of heightened anxiety.”

Even members of SAGE subsequently came forward stating that they knew the British people were being subjected to “a psychological experiment without being told what is happening.”

Incredibly, this sounds like a disturbing plot out of some dystopian movie.

Of course, the British government denied doing this or have I mentioned that already.

Perhaps not coincidentally, stories started appearing in the media of how young people were dying from COVID. Bereaving parents were telling their heartbreaking stories of how their children had been taken by COVID.

These are very sad stories, but it is important that we keep them in perspective. I remember reading an article on CNN describing the death of a 20-year-old man from COVID. This is very rare and you had to read to the tenth paragraph to find out he had very serious underlying medical issues that made him extremely vulnerable to the virus.

How many people, though, make it to the tenth paragraph?

An article about the Canadian province of British Columbia revealed that nearly two-thirds of their COVID deaths are from nursing homes. And how many of the remaining third were over the age of 70 and living at home.

Though this is again heartbreaking for the families involved, we need to keep this in perspective.

Other tactics included exaggerating the projected death counts from COVID. At one point, the British government ominously warned of 4,000 deaths a day from COVID if people did not comply with the lockdown. Those in charge knew these nightmarish projections were the absolutely worst case scenarios and would never take place. They were also claiming that hospitals and ICUs would be overrun.

According to the Daily Mail, in November 2020, a member of SAGE, expressed regret over ‘frightening’ people with those statistics.

As the British people were subjected to these behavioural modification tactics, it had a negative psychological impact on people as they developed an irrational fear of COVID.

Critics noted that this heightened sense of terror resulted in people becoming “to frightened to attend hospital.”

People with severe medical conditions such as heart issues, and cancer, were so terrified of COVID, they were too scared to even go to the hospital or even to their doctors to seek help.

But it was not just Britain. In July last year, USA Today was reporting that about a third of Americans were missing cancer screenings because they were too terrified of COVID to seek medical attention.

As similar tactics were employed around the world, this is exactly what the Apostle Paul was warning about — don’t receive a spirit of fear.

And perhaps one of the best indicators of the effectiveness of these covert tactics, are the polls that expose how terrified people are of COVID that has been transformed in our minds into a far larger monster than it actually is.

In an article entitled, “Unjustified fears’ published in a major Canadian newspaper, the National Post, columnist Tristin Hopper discussed several polls that revealed how people believe COVID is far more dangerous than it actually is.

A Dutch survey revealed that people believe COVID is as dangerous as ebola that has a 50% mortality rate. Depending on your age COVID’s survival rate ranges from 99.5% to 99.99%.

A French survey showed that people believed one in six people who caught COVID died. If this was the case, then over one million people would have died of COVID in that country instead of the 107,000 who actually did.

In America, another survey revealed that people believed 40% of the COVID deaths involved people under the age of 55. In fact, it is only 7.3%, and showed their fear of COVID was six times larger than it actually once.

In an interview with the National Post, Arvis Lavranos an ER doctor from Canada stated:

“Unjustified fears of COVID are very, very real. It’s almost maddening trying to change the public perception.”

In other words, though the world is returning to normal, people have been so terrorized by government, health officials and the media they are still enslaved to their fear of Covid.

We need to respect COVID, but we should not be terrorized by it.

In a recent Ted Talks, David Eberhard, a leading Swedish psychiatrist warned that people need to overcome the fear that has overtaken society because of COVID.

He told his audience:

“If you are afraid, you will be very easy to control.”

Like Paul said we become a slave to fear.

Eberhard went on to explain that even though the death rate from COVID is only 0.2%, because we are being inundated daily by the media of people dying of COIVD, many believe that anyone who catches COVID will die.

He says many countries have been over come with what he calls National Panic Syndrome. A spirit of fear has rested on whole countries.

We need to overcome our fear and start living our lives.

Eberhard went on to say:

“Whatever you do, remember that life is not about living the longest, but the best. If you live in fear and isolation, there is no point in living. Don’t lock yourself in and don’t let others do it to you.

So what is the answer? The Apostle Paul says first we must not receive the spirt of fear and then secondly we must understand our identity in Christ.

He says we must put embrace the spirit of sonship.

But noticed how Paul words this, he says that you have already received the spirit of sonship, that is the past tense.

When you became a Christian you were adopted into the Kingdom of God.

It involves an identity shift and we need to start believing and living like we are a child of God and coheirs with Christ.

Reject fear, embrace Christ.

READ: The ‘covert tactics’ used to scare Britons into staying at home: How SAGE document called for increase in ‘perceived threat’ of Covid using ‘hard hitting emotional messages’ AND Unjustified fears: When COVID anxiety stops making sense AND: Psychiatrist urges people not to live in fear of COVID: ‘If you are afraid you will be very easy to control’ AND People ‘afraid to go to doctors’: A third of Americans miss cancer screenings, survey suggests

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to talk about some interesting advice the Apostle Paul gave about 2,000 years ago, and how it affects our amygdala.

Researchers the University of Miami recently reported on their study that concludes holding resentments and negativity in your mind can affect your mental and psychological well being.

The researchers came to this conclusion after studying the impact that negative emotions have on our amygdala which is an almond shaped structure located on either side of our cerebrum.

At least one of its roles involves handling our memory and emotions, such as anger, aggressiveness, fear and anxiety.

The researchers discovered that the longer a person holds onto negative emotions in their amygdala, the more this negativity impacts their well being.

The researchers came to this conclusion after studying 52 volunteers.

First they had the people answer a series of questions that covered their current emotional state and as well past and ongoing stressful issues.

The volunteers were then asked to rank 180 photos — 60 that displayed negative situations, 60 that displayed positive situations and 60 that were neutral.

As they were doing this, the researchers conducted fMRI scans of their brains to track blood flow that indicated what parts of their brains were being used and for how long.

The researchers discovered that those who allowed negative emotions to linger longer in their minds as the looked at the negative images had a more negative outlook on life than those who didn’t.

Those who got rid of these negative emotions and memories quicker not only reported having healthier and happier lives at the time, but researchers noted they were reporting the same thing when they were followed up with at a later date.

While many studies have looked at the impact that intense negative emotions can have on people, literally impacting their physical health, there have not been studies looking at the impact of lingering negative emotions.

Speaking on behalf of the researchers, lead author Nikki Puccetti said:

“One way to think about it is the longer your brain holds on to a negative event, the unhappier you report being.”

In other words, holding onto the negativity of one situation, spills over into other events in your life, making them appear worse than they actually are. Simply, it distorts our reality.

Life is full of good and bad. It can be very stressful at times and horrible things can be thrown at us.

We can’t stop this from happening but it is vital that we handle life’s stresses properly.

In Ephesians 4:26, Paul gives us a bit advice. In the first part of the verse, he starts off by saying:

Be angry and sin not.

As humans, we come with a full package of emotions and anger is simply a normal human response. It is not a sin to get angry. Many Christians may find it hard to believe, but it not a sin to get angry.

We know from the Gospels that at times even Jesus got angry.

Jesus was angry when the pharisees criticized the Lord for healing a man with a withered hand on the sabbath (Mark 3:4-5). Earlier, Jesus had told the pharisees that the Sabbath was made for the benefit of man, but the pharisees had so twisted the law, that man was now serving the Sabbath which is why they opposed the healing.

Then later the Lord created a whip and drove the money changers and those selling sacrificial animals out of the temple, because of their corruption that was taking advantage of the people seeking forgiveness through Temple sacrifices.

Jesus was not smiling and wishing everyone a wonderful day as He did this.

Sometimes anger is warranted, even justified.

But then after telling us that anger is not a sin, the Apostle Paul continues in verse 26 adding this huge qualifier.

He warns:

“Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.”

In other words, there comes a point when we must deal with the anger and stop dwelling on whatever caused it.

We have to quit thinking about it.

And it needs to happen sooner than later.

Sometimes, we get angry because things go wrong. We spill our food. Our car gets a flat tire or breaks down. We break something.

These are things we can’t change. But we stop brooding about them and move on.

But there are also times, when people are the source of our anger. People can offend us. They take advantage of us. Betray us.

They can make us angry.

But things are different when it comes to people.

Before we can move on, we first need to forgive.

Through out the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly taught about forgiving those who offend us and even forgiving our enemies who take our cloak by offering them our shirt.

Though we have every right to be angry, when it happens the Apostle Paul says don’t go to bed angry. In other words, we need to forgive, and we need to forgive quickly.

And I believe the writer of Hebrews offers a clue on what happens when we go to bed angry. We begin to internalize what was up to that point an external event.

When we don’t quickly forgive, this unresolved anger sits as a seed in our heart and slowly begins to grow. The writer of Hebrews describes describes the end result, a root of bitterness.

He writes:

15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; Hebrews 12:15

We need to quickly deal with our anger because it can sprout a root of bitterness and when that happens it takes on a life of its own. At times, I have wondered if we go to sleep angry that our subconscious serves as a seed bed stimulating the growth.

As that root grows deeper into our heart, we no longer need external events to spark our anger, because it now springs from a root of bitterness inside us.

Many years ago, my wife and I had a newly married Christian couple over to our home for a visit. To this day, I can’t recall what we were talking about, but suddenly, in the midst of what had been a pleasant conversation, the husband inexplicably exploded in rage.

It wasn’t just a small spark, it was an outright caustic explosion that shocked all of us, including his wife.

After his rage subsided, I asked what was going on.

Why was he so angry?

He sheepishly looked at me and said he didn’t know. And I believe he was being completely truthful. He didn’t know why, because his outburst made no sense.

But something deep inside him had sparked his rage.

Since his anger overwhelmingly exceeded the incident, this indicated it was not about what was happening at the moment, it was springing from a root of bitterness inside him.

This root of bitterness was tainting everything he heard and saw, making it much worse than it actually was.

This root of bitterness was distorting his reality and he was seeing offences that didn’t even exist.

Fifth century Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo wrote:

“Resentment is like drinking a poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

It is warning to all of us, don’t let the sun go down on your anger.
Don’t let negativity linger in your mind.

Deal with it quickly.

Forgive quickly.

READ: Holding on to negative emotions can have a lasting impact on your well-being

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to discuss the tensions in the Christian community over acts of civil disobedience. Are there times when believers should disobey governments?

Christians have different opinions on this and these were exposed in an incident that recently took place at a rural church in Alberta, Canada on Sunday, April 11, 2021.

Over the past several months, GraceLife Church has been defying the Alberta government’s COVID lock down order by exceeding the 15% limit put on church attendance.

This led to the church’s pastor, James Coates, being jailed for 35 days, even though the charges he faced only involved potential fines.

But that all changed when the RCMP asked Coates to voluntarily sign an undertaking that he would no longer attend services at the church. When he refused, the RCMP refused to let Coates go.

Coates’s lawyer with the Justice Center eventually negotiated Coates release on March 22 after getting the undertaking removed.

But as GraceLife continued holding services, including a packed out Easter service, things were about to take a dramatic change the following week, when the RCMP raided the church in the early morning on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, set up a two layered barricade around the church preventing people from attending services.

As news spread about the blockade that you would only expect to see under a communist regime, plans were made for a protest at the church the following Sunday.

Suspecting that something was in the works for Sunday, the RCMP sent several police cars to block the entrance to the church’s rural property.

When people showed up for the protest, they had to abandon their cars on the main road and march to the church. There are images of one group being led by a man carrying an eight-foot cross.

The protest crowd, estimated to be upwards of 400 people, was made up largely of believers from across Alberta. Some had driven several hours to be there.

Only a handful of members of GraceLife church were at the Sunday morning protest, because most were attending an underground service held at a secret location as the church continued holding services despite being locked out of its building.

Though GraceLife broadcast the service on YouTube, members of the congregation were blurred out, so health officials could not target them. Only the faces of Pastor Coates who delivered the sermon and the two worship leaders were not blurred out.

Meanwhile, as others gathered at GraceLife’s property to protest the barricade, they began to singing hymns and praying. Several in the crowd were exhorting people not to get violent.

But what happened next became a dividing line on the issue of civil disobedience.

Several began dismantling a small section of the fence surrounding the church building. They didn’t destroy the fencing they simply dismantled it and put it to the side.

In an article in the Edmonton Journal, Dylan Short described what happened next writing:

“Some of the attendees tore down sections of the fence as the RCMP rushed to stop them. As the fence was being taken down, some chanted ‘leave the fence’ and ‘Jesus would not take down the fence.’ Police later replaced the fence while some in attendance assisted.”

Yes, some felt they could take down the fence, while others believed this was going to far and were chanting “leave the fence” and “Jesus would not take down the fence.”

When the RCMP called in reinforcements to restore the fence, some of the protestors even helped police put it back up.

While, they were obviously fine protesting this infringement of people’s rights, some drew a line at dismantling a barrier set up by the RCMP.

So where do you fall on this?

There are several instances in the Bible of people practicing civil disobedience. Though their actions were clearly a violation of the law of that time, they were not violent.

When the Egyptian Pharaoh ordered the Israeli midwives to kill the male babies as they were being born, they disobeyed the government order and refused to do this.

Now most understood this was right, because murder is morally wrong, even if the government legalizes it.

In the book of Daniel, we see two more instances of civil disobedience of a slightly different nature.

When the Babylonian King ordered everyone to bow before a massive idol he had installed, three Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused.

The three men did not believe they should be compelled to worship another god. The three were sentenced to death by burning, but were spared when an angel appeared in the midst of the furnace and saved them.

Daniel was caught in a similar situation when a law was passed that for 30 days no one was allowed to pray to any god other than the King of Babylon.

Now, Daniel could have easily obeyed this edict by not praying at all during the month-long ban. Instead, he prayed to Jehovah as he typically did each day. He was caught and sentenced to death by being torn apart by lions.

But again an angel was dispatched to protect Daniel from attack.

So, there are instances when God approves of civil disobedience confirmed by angels being dispatched to protect people when they broke human law.

But this needs to be balanced by two strong admonitions by the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter who exhort us to obey those in authority because they have been appointed by God.

Peter writes:

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. (1 Peter 2:13-14)

The Roman emperor at this time was none other than Nero. He was one of Rome’s most ruthless emperors, who blamed Christians for Rome’s Great fire in 64 AD.

According to ancient Roman historians, he did this because many suspected Nero had deliberately set the fire, so Nero targeted the Christians in order to shift the blame on them.

Nero’s horrific persecution of Christian included dipping Christians in oil and setting them on fire and using them as torchers to light his gardens. Some even wondered if Peter was referring to this when he spoke of fiery trials in I Peter 4:12.

So, if Peter and Paul exhorted believers to obey human authority under Nero, how much more should we obey human authority in a modern democracy.

But I chose Peter’s admonition because of an interesting incident that took place in the book of Acts involving the apostle.

In Acts 5, the apostles were arrested because they had been preaching the gospel in the portico, a covered area beside the Jewish Temple. Hundreds were embracing Jesus as the Jewish Messiah as the Holy Spirit moved in power with miracles.

We are explicitly told that they, including Peter, were thrown into the city’s main Roman jail.

As they sat in prison, God dispatched an angel during the night who broke the apostle out of prison, and told them to return to preaching the gospel.

The apostles were then seized again the next day and dragged before the Jewish court and were ordered to stop preaching Jesus.

Since God had broken them out of jail, Peter understood that they were subject to a higher law and responded we must “obey God rather than men.”

And an angel broke Peter out of Roman jail a second time after King Herod had ordered him arrested in Acts 12.

So, how do we balance Peter’s two jailbreaks with his admonition to obey human authority?

I believe Peter’s statement is simply an admonition that Christians can’t disobey human authority on a whim or excuse that we are subject to a higher authority. We still need to pay our taxes, obey traffic lights and speed limits.

But there are times when God’s law is higher.

So how does a fence around a church fit into all of this?

Some believers felt they could tear it down, while others did not. And what about the church’s decision to hold a service at a secret location potentially violating the government’s lockdown order?

Certainly, these are a matter of conscience.

And, what about the suggestion by some of the protestors, that Jesus would not dismantle the fence.

Well, I can’t speak for Christ on this. I am not sure, but I do remember that time, when Christ charged through the temple overturning the money changer tables, releasing the doves and driving away the sacrificial animals.

I will finish with this.

The Justice Centre, a legal non-profit defending liberty and freedom in Canada is representing GraceLife church in its legal fight with the government. It is also defending Jame Coates who is slated to go to trial on May 3, 2021.

The Justice Centre is arguing that under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms that Canadians have the legal right to religion and assembly and the government cannot set aside these important freedoms on a whim. It must have a valid reason.

Justice Center lawyers have even asked several times for Alberta’s health authorities to provide the scientific and medical evidence that a lockdown is an effective way to handle the COVID. To this point the government has either been unwilling to provide the information or simply has none.

However, the Justice Centre just reported that the Judge overseeing the case granted the Alberta government’s request that it will not have to defend the constitutionality of Alberta’s lock down during Coates’ trial that he contravened the province’s Public Health Act. The constitutionality of the lockdown will be dealt with at a later trial.

According to recent stats, Alberta has a population of 4.4 million and just over 2,000 have sadly died of COVID. But this represents only .045% of the population and over half of them were over 80. Though this is heartbreaking for the families involved, does it warrant depriving healthy people of their fundamental rights and freedoms. Does government have the right to quarantinee the healthy?

My goal in this podcast is not say who is right or wrong or wrong on the barricade issue, but simply to suggest that the Bible does allow for non violent civil disobedience.

To what extent is a matter of conscience. But it may be an issue we need to resolve in our hearts, sooner than later.

READ: Protesters gather at GraceLife Church on first Sunday after closure AND Court Grants Alberta’s Request To Forbid Jailed Pastor From Challenging Health Order During Trial AND Court permits Government to avoid producing Dr. Hinshaw’s evidence on lockdowns at May 3 trial of Pastor James Coates

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to hopefully answer the burning question that has puzzled many for years, why did Jesus volunteer to pay the temple tax.

Nobody in their right mind volunteers to pay a tax, but Jesus did.

What makes this payment even odder is that Jesus was in a constant conflict with the Jewish Leadership. We also have the Apostle John’s statement that Jesus’ body was the Temple of God, because it contained the very presence of God, which the temple did not have because the Ark of the Covenant disappeared about 600 years earlier.

Jesus also prophesied the total destruction of the Temple that took place in 70 AD, yet in this story found in Matthew chapter 17, Jesus agreed to pay the temple tax that helped fund the operations of the temple.

The Jewish priests connected with Herod’s temple had instituted a voluntary tax for the temple of a half shekel for each male over the age of 20. It was collected annually during one of the three pilgrimage festivals when people journeyed to Jerusalem — Passover, Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles.

The Priests patterned it after similar taxes paid in the Old Testament. Moses instituted a half shekel sanctuary tax to help fund the tabernacle (Exodus 30:12-13). However, this tax was only collected when Israel performed a national census.

There was also a one-third shekel tax instituted annually for the temple in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 10:32; Ezra 6:8). But this was a voluntary contribution. They didn’t have to pay it.

So, the Jewish priests merged these two ideas together — taking the half-shekel tax amount from Exodus and combining it with the annual payment in Ezra.

The Temple tax was not enforceable under Roman law, so they couldn’t make it compulsory. However, the priests considered it a sin if you didn’t pay it.

Call it a temple guilt tax, if you want. But there was pressure to pay.

Archaeologists recently announced that they have found a rare Tyrian shekel coin from this period that was minted in Tyre, now modern Lebanon that was used to pay the Temple tax. It was found in Old Jerusalem, near the Tower of David.

Even though this rare coin had an image of the Phoenician god Baal also called Beelzebub, it was the coin, that the priests demanded as payment because it was made of 94% silver, compared to the Roman equivalent that had only 80% silver. The Tyrian shekel weighed four drachmas.

As strange as it sounds, there is even a voluntary temple tax being collected today, even though there is no temple in Jerusalem.

It was started in 1997 and initially people purchased a commemorative half-shekel with no real monetary value that has since been changed to a medallion.

To this point, they have collected over $200,000 and since there is no temple, the money is used to train priests and manufacture the utensils that they hope to use in a future third Jewish temple.

But as we read the story in Matthew 17, the first thing we notice is that the incident took place in Capernaum.

Since Matthew also mentions in chapter 8, that Peter had a home in Capernaum, many suspect that temple tax collectors were probably going door to door to collect the tax.

When they approached Peter, the tax collectors asked if Jesus paid the Temple tax, we read:

24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

25 “Yes, he does,” he replied. (Matthew 17:24-25)

Under pressure and in typical Peter fashion, the Apostle blurted out “yes” without thinking and consulting with Christ.

Jesus was probably smiling as He watched Peter sweat under the interrogation. After the tax collectors left, Jesus asked Peter if the children of the Kings paid taxes.

Peter responded with a resounding no.

And of course, because of their position in the temple, the priests had also exempted themselves from having to pay the temple tax.

Jesus responded that neither He nor his disciples needed pay the temple tax because they are the children of God and the temple was their Father’s house, so as sons they were exempt.

Yet despite this, Jesus agreed to pay this voluntary temple tax so not to cause offense.

We read:

“But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.” (Matthew 17:27 NIV)

The reference to four drachmas suggests this coin was the Tyrian shekel mentioned earlier.

But there was something odd about Jesus’ statement of not wanting to cause offense because Jesus would show up later at the Temple, turn over the money changer tables, open the cages freeing the doves and drive away the sacrificial animals that were on sale at the temple (Matthew 21:12-17).

Would these money changers and sellers have been offended by Christ’s action?

Obviously yes.

So, Jesus was not concerned about offending people, but apparently something was different about this situation with the Temple tax collectors that demanded a different response.

I believe Jesus paid the tax, because Peter had already given his word that Jesus would pay it and the Lord did not want to cause offense by breaking this commitment given by Peter.

However, Jesus told Peter to go fishing and to open the mouth of the first fish he caught because he would find a silver four drachma coin that would pay the Temple tax for both Christ and Peter.

By collecting the tax payment in such an extraordinary way, Jesus reinforced that this was not a tax they were obligated to pay. If so, there would have been enough money to pay the Temple tax for all the disciples.

And this would not be the last time that a fish was attracted to something bright and shiny.

In 2019, Britain’s Sun Newspaper had a cute story of how Christopher Eggington and his now fiancé Sandra Bidgood from Wragby, England were out fishing.

As they were cleaning the two fish they kept, Christopher found an engagement ring inside the one he was working on, that the fish had previously swallowed.

He had been planning to ask his girlfriend to marry him but kept chickening out, but finding the ring gave him the courage to go for it.

He passed the fish on to his girlfriend to finish off and when she squealed after seeing the ring, Christopher turned and proposed and after a thorough cleaning, they even used it or the official engagement.

But this story about the fish and the coin tells us something else about our relationship with Christ. Even though Peter had gotten himself into a pickle because of his own impetuous, Jesus was prepared to bail the apostle out of his trouble.

We are all going to make mistakes, and it is important for us to understand that God will not abandon us when we do. God is for us and with us in the good times and the bad even when we blow it.

READ: Rare coin from Second Temple era discovered in Jerusalem’s Old City AND Tyrian shekel AND Half-Shekel Tithe for Building Temple Reinstated by Sanhedrin After 2,000 Years AND Christopher Eggington’s catch was off the scale when he discovered a hidden gem | Intro/Outro by Ian Smith

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Hi my name is Dean Smith and in the podcast I want to discuss a statement that Roman Catholic author, philosopher and theologian, G. K. Chesterton, made that I believe is a key to success.

You may not know Chesterton who died in 1936, but you may have watched a popular British TV series, Father Brown, about a Catholic priest turned detective, that was based on 53 short stories written by Chesterton.

But in his book “What’s Wrong With the World”, Chesterton took a more serious look at life when he wrote:

“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”

Yes, he actually said if something is worth doing, it is worth doing poorly. It is worth doing imperfectly.

And when you think of it, that statement is quite profound, because it suggests that if God wants you to do something, then you should just start doing it. If is worth doing, then according to Chesterton it is worth doing badly.

Perhaps another way of expressing this is by saying in order to succeed you must first be willing to fail.

There is another modern proverb that hints of this same idea, it states that The perfect is the enemy of good.

You see, many of us are driven by the need for perfectionism, that Mirriam Webster Dictionary defines as a “disposition to regard anything short of perfect as unacceptable.

What drives this inner need for perfectionism is the idea that people value themselves based on how well they do and how much they accomplish. Our worth as a person is wrapped up in what we do. If we fail at something, then we are a failure.

If something we do is less than perfect, then shame on you.

We personalize it. We let our mistakes and failures define us.

But giving ourselves permission to do something badly can be very freeing.

And this idea of being willing to do things badly was behind one of Christ’s parables, when the Lord suggested doing something badly is better than not doing it at all.

Found in Matthew 25:14-30, it involved a master who was going on a long journey and gave three of his servants talents to invest while the master was gone. One was given five talents, the second two talents and the last one talent.

While the first two men went out and doubled the master’s investment, the third man simply buried his one talent in the dirt and waited until his master’s return.

And when the master returned and called for an accounting, he praised the two men who doubled their investments. But when the last servant dug out the talent that he buried and returned it the master, he was outraged.

He asked the servant why he didn’t at the very least deposit the talent in the bank, so the master could have collected the interest. When it comes to investing, putting your money in a bank had the lowest rate of return.

In other words, when it comes to investing putting your talent in a bank was doing it badly.

But doing it badly was better than burying your talent in the ground and doing nothing at all, which is what the servant did.

And when we looked at the servant’s response, we see that he was emotionally controlled by his fear of failure. He told the master:

24 ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ He was fearful of failing. (Matthew 25:24-25)

• He was scared of failure.
• He was terrified of making a mistake. .
• He was fearful of what others would think.
• His greatest fear was doing it badly.

But, the man’s only true enemy was his fear. His investments may have doubled like the other two, but he would never know because fear dominated his life.

So rather than risk being judged by how he may or may not have failed, the servant chose to avoid this potential embarrassment by doing nothing. In his flawed thinking doing nothing was better than the possibility of doing it badly.

God has a plan for your life. The Lord has things for you to do.

Maybe, the Holy Spirit has been asking you to talk to someone about Jesus. Maybe God wants you to start a small Bible study. Maybe, God wants you to start a blog. Maybe, God wants you to start an online video ministry.

But you are procrastinating, finding excuse after excuse not to do it, driven by this inner fear of “What if I do it badly?”

One way of dealing with this issue is to simply accepting the fact that at times you are going to make mistakes. Everyone has moments of failure. Everyone does things badly.

The Bible does not cover up the failures of our Bible heroes. It tells us about Abraham’s unbelief and son Ishmael. It tells us about Moses’ anger when he killed a guard. It tells about King David’s adultery and how he arranged the murder of his mistress’ husband. It tells us that Peter denied Christ. It tells that the Apostle Paul participated in the murder of Stephen.

I believe God exposed their dirty laundry to show us that mistakes and failures are a part of life. You will not be perfect, but that is not an excuse to do nothing.

Successful people don’t allow their failures to define who they are and because they give themselves the freedom to do things badly, they are also giving themselves the potential to succeed. In the process, they are also giving themselves permission to learn from their mistakes and get better.

So, I am asking you to do the same. Give yourself permission to do things badly, because it may be your first timid step to accomplishing the purpose that God has for your life.

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Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to deal with a trending issue among Charismatics: Does a false prophecy mean a person is a false prophet?

I am doing this because of the dozens of rash prophecies given over the past several months predicting that Donald Trump would win re-election as the President of the United States in Nov 2020. They were wrong. All wrong. Horribly wrong. And this included prophecies being delivered by some major Charismatic ministries.

As soon as it became apparent that these prophecies were wrong, several Christians immediately began labeling these individuals as “false prophets.”

Here is a sampling of a few headlines I found after a brief internet search:

• List of false prophets who prophesied Trump would win
• False prophets exposed

Then there was an article that compared these false prophets to the plagues of Egypt:

It read:

• The plague of false prophets over American election.

And the writer of this next article really made sure we got it right by working the word false twice into his headline writing:

• A compendium of false Trump prophecies by false prophets

And these false prophecies even caught the attention of the New York Times who had an article asking a more basic question:

• Christian prophets are on the rise, what happens when they are wrong.

And this is a very good question. What happens when these prophecies involving several major leaders in the Charismatic movement are wrong?

Now many who gave these false prophecies have since repented and admitted they were wrong. But others have not and some are even predicting that God would miraculously restore Donald Trump to the presidency even after President Biden’s inauguration

But are they false prophets as suggested by several Christian writers?

Now many of the Christian leaders labelling them as false prophets are cessationists. This means, that they believe the spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues, prophecy and the ministries of the prophets and apostles ended with the apostolic age nearly 2,000 years ago.

Even if a person gave an accurate prophecy, they would still be considered a false prophet, simply because they don’t believe the prophetic ministry is for today.

Now I am not going to get into a big discussion on whether or not the spiritual gifts are for today, other than quoting part of Peter’s speech on the Day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples and they poured out into the streets of Jerusalem speaking in tongues.

Talking about this demonstration of Holy Spirit power, Peter said:

And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

He says not only would the people in crowd receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, so would their children and as well, and this is the key, “all” those who are far off.

So while predictably we have the cessationists labelling the people who gave the Trump prophecies as false prophets, several in the Charismatic movement are also doing the same.

Now I completely understand the frustration and anger, because the people giving these false words have caused a lot of damage to the church and brought a spirit of mockery upon Christians around the world.

But does uttering a false prophecy automatically make a person a false prophet?

Well to find out, let’s take a closer look at a passage from the book of Deuteronomy which is often cited as a proof text that a person who delivers a false prophecy is in fact a false prophet under the Old Testament law and should be stoned:

But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.” (Deuteronomy 18:20 NIV)

In the following verses, Moses goes on to define a presumptious prophecy as one that does not come to pass.

But as we read this verse it states that anyone who gives a false prophecy OR, big emphasis on the word OR, or who speaks in the name of another god should be put to death.

So at first glance, it suggests that individuals who give false prophecies that don’t come to pass are to be treated the same way as people who prophesy in the name of other gods.

Both are false prophets and should be put to death.

But everything hinges on the translation of the Hebrew word “wa’w” which is translated “or” in this popular version.

And we need to focus on this Hebrew word, because it can also be translated as “and” or “together with. ” In fact, this is wa’s primary meaning and “or” is its secondary meaning.

And if we translate the Hebrew word Wa as “and” instead of as “or” it means that giving a false prophecy on its own was not enough to have a person declared a false prophet, it had to be combined with prophesying in the name of others gods.

And this is confirmed in verse 22, when we read:

22 When the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you are not to be afraid of him.

In this verse, Moses is referring to just the first problem speaking presumptuously or giving a false prophecy. But notice how Moses ever referred to the person as a prophet (not a false prophet), but added if his word doesn’t come to pass you don’t have to be afraid of him.

Now it would be a bit meaningless to give that kind of warning if the person had already been declared a false prophet.

And the tense of the verb “don’t be afraid’ adds an interesting twist. It is in the imperfect tense, which gives it a continuing sense, in other words we are to continue not being afraid of this individual.

But what this tells us is that Old Testament prophets had to be 100% accurate. One mistake and they were done.

The prophet was essentially demoted.

They were no longer considered to hold the office of the prophet. But they still could be functioning with the New Testament equivalent of the gift of prophecy which is what I believe many of those had who were part of the company or sons of the prophets mentioned in 1 Samuel 19; 2 Kings 9).

These companies of prophets were often associated with major prophets such as Samuel and Elijah. But they were not functioning in the office of the prophet.

At times in Israel’s history, these individuals with a gift of prophecy promoted themselves to the office of a prophet.

It happened in Jeremiah’s day, when the prophet Jeremiah warned Judah not to resist King Nebuchadnezzar when he invaded Judah. God was judging Judah and Jeremiah said it would go better for everyone if the country just gave up.

But, there were several others prophesying that Judah needed to fight the Babylonians. They needed to stand up to Babylon and God would delver them.

These were members of the company of prophets.

They had a huge following because this is what people wanted to hear and in fact, the King of Judah took their advice and chose to fight Babylon.

And just as Jeremiah predicted, Babylon breached Jerusalem’s walls, destroyed the temple and hauled tens of thousands of Jewish people into captivity.

These false prophecies had serious negative consequence for Judah, while it did not mean they were false prophets, it did mean that God had not appointed them to the office of the prophet. They had promoted themselves.

This may also apply to people who prophesied Donald Trump would win reelection. Now it is possible they have a gift of prophecy, but after making such a serious mistake on the national stage, we need to ask if they have stepped beyond their calling.

In Deuteronomy, Moses say we are not to fear those giving false prophecies and in Jeremiah 23:26, the prophet said:

“Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
    they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds,
    not from the mouth of the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:16)

Essentially, these people are speaking their own imaginations and desires instead of the Word of the Lord.

The issue is simply this, there is a difference between those who function in the office of the prophet and those with the gift of prophecy in calling, authority and accuracy.

And, we will know the difference by the fruit of their ministry.

Intro and Outro: Ian Smith

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Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to discuss my theory that our prayers can change the past. And also share a story from World War II, that seems to suggest they can.

Over the years, I have talked about some strange passages in the Bible, but certainly a statement that Jesus made in the Gospel of Matthew has to be at the top of the list when it comes to bizarre verses.

It’s when Jesus said:

18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18 NASV)

The verse says that whatever we bind and loose on earth now, shall have been previously bound and loosed in heaven. The last part is in the past tense.

This statement is so bizarre that some Bible versions, like the NIV, remove the past tense and has the verse read whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and then add a footnote noting stating it’s in the past tense, because that is how the verse actually reads.

In other words, Jesus is implying that our prayers and declarations not only impact the future, they can also change the past.

And I recently came across a miraculous story from World War II, that may help understand this process.

But first we need to understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is not governed by time as we know it.

The Apostle Peter offers this strange explanation of time from God’s perspective:

8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. (2 Peter 3:8 NASV)

Since a day is like a thousand years to God, and a thousand years is also like one day, this verse is telling us that God exists in a timeless dimension where the present, past and future are all merged together as one.

There is no timeline going from the past to the future as we see it unfolding on earth. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the past, present and future all exist at the same time.

And I am not going to pretend that I completely understand this, but I recently came across an interesting story from World War II, that may be connected to Jesus’ strange statement.

In an interview with Dr. Steve Greene on his Greenelines podcast, author Peggy Joyce Ruth shared a story on the importance of praying scripture, in this instance Psalm 91.

Psalm 91 is a powerful declaration of God’s ability to protect us during times of trouble. You are probably already familiar with parts of it:

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High    
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,    
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare    
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,    
and under his wings you will find refuge;    
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

But if we are understanding correctly what Jesus is saying in Matthew, when we pray for God’s provision and protection on earth, we may have the ability to impact the past in the Kingdom of Heaven.

And in her interview with Dr. Greene, Peggy Ruth shared this story from World War II of how the crew of an American bomber was spared after their plane ran out of gas and was forced to land on a Japanese occupied island in the Pacific Ocean.

As the bomber started running low on fuel, the crew immediately turned to their Chaplin who had been preaching on Psalm 91, and told him to start praying what he believed. The Chaplin did, and he began to pray Psalm 91 asking for God’s divine protection.

According to Ruth, the first miracle took place when they were able to land their bomber on an island beach without the Japanese even noticing it.

But they still had a problem. How were they to get off the island? This led to their second miracle.

Stranded on the island, the Chaplin and the crew continued praying Psalm 91.

A few hours later, in the middle of the night, they heard a grinding and crashing along the beach and when they checked out what was going on, they discovered a barge full of high octane fuel.

They were able to use their manual gas refuelling system to refill their bomber’s tanks and take off.

Of course, when the crew returned to base and reported what happened, everyone was a bit skeptical about the story. But then it was later discovered that the captain of an American ship transporting aviation fuel through submarine infested waters had ordered the crew to put the gasoline onto barges to make the ship less vulnerable to a fiery explosion if it was hit by a torpedo.

And, apparently one of those barges broke free. The ship was about 600 miles away from the island where the crew had been forced to land their bomber, and that barge of aviation fuel washed up on their beach was an answer to their prayer.

But here is the key: The answer to the crew’s prayer had already started its journey to the island weeks before they had been forced to land.

So, am I suggesting that when they started praying about their dire situation, God who is not controlled by time, went into the past and prepared a barge of gas to land on their beach?

Well, that may be one possible interpretation of what Jesus meant when the Lord said:

“Whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven”

But as I mentioned earlier, this is a just a working theory explaining one of Jesus’ more unusual statements in the Gospels.

READ: The Prayer That Delivered a World War II Miracle—and More

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to discuss one of the more puzzling stories in Gospels and perhaps even offer a bit of an explanation of the secret message that Jesus was trying to pass on.

It involves the time that Jesus cursed a fig tree, killing it, because it bore no fruit. Oh, yeah, before I forget, grab a sandwich, you’ll need it.

It is a strange story, but there may be more to it than we realize. And in this podcast I want to discuss the hidden meaning in the dead fig tree incident.

In Matthew 21:18-22, we read that Jesus and His disciples were walking down a dusty old road just outside Jerusalem when they encountered a fig tree by the side of the road. Jesus approached the tree looking for figs to eat, but there were none, so Christ cursed the tree.

The next day as they were returning to Jerusalem by the same route, the disciples saw that the tree had died. Christ gave the amazed disciples a brief teaching on faith, and they continued their journey.

But Mark’s account of the incident adds a couple of intriguing tidbits. First he notes that the tree had withered and died from the root up meaning there was absolutely no chance of regrowth from a still live root.

And secondly, Mark adds this tantalizing fact that it was not the time of year that a fig tree produced fruit, a fact both Jesus and the disciples were fully aware of it.

So while the teaching on faith tells how Jesus killed the fig tree, it doesn’t explain why Christ killed it.

Why would Jesus kill a fig tree for not producing figs out of season?

Well, to figure that out we need to apply what is referred to as “Sandwich theory” of Bible interpretation.

Occasionally, the Gospel writers would be discussing an issue and then suddenly plop in a seemingly unrelated story. Once they told the story, they then immediately continued with their original discussion.

According to the sandwich theory, when this happens the unrelated story is very much about what was being discussed before and after, even though it may not seem related.

Like a sandwich, where you have bread on top and the bottom, it is the all important filler in the middle that is the core of the sandwich. So based on the sandwich theory what was the dead fig tree incident really about?

Well just prior to the fig tree incident in Matthew 21:12-17, Jesus had cleansed the temple when the Lord turned over the money changers tables and the benches of those selling doves and then used a whip to drive the out the people selling sacrificial animals.

When the Jews brought their animals to be sacrificed at the Temple, they were first inspected by the priests who invariably found flaws. But fortunately wouldn’t you know it, they had previously inspected, unblemished animals for sale at the temple, at a premium price of course.

And since the unclean Roman currency often had images of the emperors or Roman gods on them, the Jews couldn’t use them to buy sacrificial animals with. But fortunately, the priests also had money changes on hand to exchange that filthy Roman currency often made of real silver with a Temple money made of cheap metal.

I think you are getting the drift. It was a racket and Jesus was outraged at the corruption He saw taking place in God’s temple. This is why the Lord referred to it as a ‘den of robbers.’

After cleansing the Temple, Jesus and the disciples left Jerusalem to spend the night in Bethany which led to the dead Fig Tree incident.

Then immediately following in Matthew 21:23, we read that Jesus and the disciples had returned to the Temple, where the priests and elders confronted Christ over what the Lord had done the previous day cleansing the temple.

So according to the sandwich theory, by being squeezed between two stories about the Temple, Matthew is telling us that the fig tree is about the temple as well.

So, based on that theory, here is my interpretation. Jesus had approached the Temple expecting it to be bearing fruit, there was no out of season for the Temple and because there was no fruit the Lord cursed it, so it would die.

And Mark adds this telling statement about what Jesus said to this tree:

14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. (Mark 11:14)

Then in his Gospel, the apostle John adds one more detail on the confrontation that took place between Jesus and the priests over the cleansing of the Temple:

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. (John 2:18-21 ESV)

The Jewish Temple had two main functions. First it housed the Ark of the Covenant on which the very presence of God rested. However, the Ark disappeared after the first temple was destroyed in 586 BC and Herod’s temple, the one that Jesus visited, not contain the Ark or the presence of God.

The second major function of the temple was to perform animal sacrifices which Herod’s temple was still doing at a premium price of course.

When Jesus told the priests that His body was the Temple of God, the Lord did this because His body now contained the very presence of God that was missing from Herod’s temple. And with the addition of Christ’s upcoming sacrificial death there would no longer be a need for animal sacrifices.

Essentially, the Temple would soon be officially obsolete.

After Christ’s resurrection we are told that the church became the ‘body of Christ, and the church and believers are now the temple of God because they now house the very presence of God.

And a short time later, in Mark 13:1-4 and Matthew 24:1-2, Jesus prophesied the destruction of Herod’s temple, that was obliterated by the Romans in 70 AD.

Is it possible that the secret message in the dead fig tree incident is simply this: The days of the Temple are over and there will not be a third Jewish temple in Jerusalem because according to the Apostle Paul, the day is coming when Israel will embrace Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

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“Believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” (2 Chronicles 20:20 NKJV)

Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast I want to talk about a verse in 2 Chronicles 20:20, that reads, “Believe His prophets, and you will prosper” and how this verse was misused by people prophesying that Donald Trump would win a second term as US president.

In my previous podcast, I spoke of the dozens of prophecies that have been given over the past few months, declaring that Donald Trump would win re-election.

But when that didn’t happen and Trump lost on Nov 3, 2020, many of them doubled down stating that the election result would be overturned before Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan 20, 2021. And when that didn’t happen, some tripled down stating that God will somehow miraculously return Trump to the presidential office in either February or March.

For the record, I don’t believe this is going to happen, which means I believe these are all false prophecies.

Now I don’t believe giving an inaccurate prophecy necessarily makes a person a false prophet. I know some are referring to them as false prophets. Because the Bible differentiates between a person who speaks presumptuously and one who is deliberately trying to lead people astray.

But along with their prophetic words about former President Donald Trump, many of these individuals also cited that verse from 2 Chronicles telling us that we need to believe the prophets, implying that we need to believe their prophecies.

I actually watched one person state that God is keeping a list of everyone who did not believe her prophecies and others.

Well, she can add me to her list, because God doesn’t have one, as I don’t believe the US 2020 federal election will be overturned.

Nevertheless, these warning about believing God’s prophets had an impact. During the past few months, people believed they were somehow failing God if they struggled to believe these Trump prophecies, particularly after Trump lost the Nov 3 election.

I know of one person who said she wanted to pray for Trump’s victory, but every time she tried, she sensed a block. And then felt horribly guilty because she couldn’t pray for these prophecies to come to pass.

But when these individuals cite 2 Chronicles 20:20, telling us that God want us to believe their Trump prophecies, I feel this verse is being horribly misused.

Before I discuss the verse in 2 Chronicles, we need to understand a fundamental principle that governs many in today’s prophetic movement. Most believe that New Testament prophets can make a mistake or prophesy inaccurately and still be considered a prophet.

Back in 2018, a popular prophetic website released a video of a prophetic word of how the Republican Party would sweep the Senate and the House of Representatives in the 2018 US mid-term election.

Of course that didn’t happen so the website re-interviewed the prophet about his very public, but failed prophecy. To his credit, he agreed and admitted he had been wrong, but then added he felt his timing was off and believed the prophecy was intended for 2020, which again didn’t happen.

But at the end of the interview, the host told the young man to just “keep on prophesying,” even though he had made a major prophetic blunder on the national stage.

Why did the host do that?

I believe it was due to a fundamental belief that New Testament prophets are allowed to make false prophecies. And the young man did continue prophesying, predicting Trump would also be re-elected in 2020.

But things were very different for the Old Testament prophets. In 1 Samuel 3:19, we read that the Lord was with Samuel and God let none of his prophecies “fall to the ground.” In other words, all of Samuel’s prophecies came to pass.

And this is where the conflict begins with the verse in 2 Chronicles 20.
The backstory of this passage involves a warning King Jehoshaphat received that Moab, Ammon and Meunites were planning to attack Judah.

Jehoshaphat immediately turned to prayer and a prophet by the name of Jahaziel delivered a prophetic word that the upcoming battle was God’s, not Judah’s (2 Chronicles 20:14-15).

In response to Jahaziel’s prophetic word, Jehoshaphat told Judah to “Believe the prophets, and you will prosper,” and the next day the king sent his praise and worshippers into the conflict ahead of the army.

In the battle that followed, Judah’s army never lifted a sword as the Lord sent ambushments against the three enemy nations, who ended up fighting each other.

But does this verse apply to today’s prophets?

I don’t believe it does.

The prophets in the Old Testament had an incredible burden to bear. They had to be 100% correct, 100% of the time. They could not make a single mistake. One inaccurate prophecy, and they were done (Deuteronomy 18:22) and if the Jews thought they were intentionally leading people astray, they were labelled false prophets and stoned.

There were huge risks associated with being a prophet in the Old Testament. You didn’t enter this ministry lightly. It was serious business.

With every prophetic word he delivered, Jahaziel’s ministry and reputation was on the line. He was only as good as his last prophecy. But he had a proven track record and learned how to separate his own personal opinions and feelings from God’s prophetic voice.

This is why King Jehoshaphat trusted him.

And this is also why I have a problem with modern prophets citing this verse while believing they can make mistakes. They are not being held to the same standard as Jahaziel, but are claiming the same authority and anointing.

When they cite this verse, they are using his reputation as a 100% accurate prophet to prop up their prophetic ministry. They are hijacking Jahaziel’s accuracy and claiming it as their own.

God’s word tells us to believe the prophets. But this verse does not tell us to believe false prophecies, nor is it telling us to believe the false prophets. Nor is referring to prophets who are right seven times out of 10, because there would always be a lingering doubt on whether their latest prophetic word was accurate or not.

Perhaps, what we see unfolding today in the prophetic movement will bring a much-needed reform and added clarity to who are true prophets.

There is a difference between the office of a prophet and a person with the gift of prophecy, both in accuracy, calling and authority.

More in this series:

Disturbing reaction to Jeremiah Johnson’s apology on Trump prophecy

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In this podcast, I discuss the dozens of prophecies that came out in 2020 and earlier that Donald Trump would be reelected as President of the United States in Nov., 2020.

These prophecies were false as Joe Biden was inaugurated as President on Jan 20, 2021. Though, they were wrong, several of the people giving these prophecies doubled and tripled down stating that despite his electoral loss, Trump would be reinstated as President of America even after Biden’s inauguration on Jan 20, 2021.

I don’t believe this will happen meaning these prophecies were wrong.

But not all the people who gave these prophecies doubled down, many are now apologizing, retracting their prophecies and admitting they were wrong. But there was a massive backlash to Johnson’s retraction, and I believe the anger directed against him explains in part how we got into this mess in the first place.

For the full podcast notes: READ: Disturbing reaction to Jeremiah Johnson’s apology on Trump prophecy — Intro and Outro: Ian Smith