Contrary to popular belief, a prophet is NOT somebody who predicts the future!

Biblically, a "prophet" is simpley someone who speaks for God. Here's a defition from the popluar "Dictionary.com" website: 2 defintion of prophet "Speaking for God" mightalso include predicting the future, but only in the sense that the prophet is simply speaking what God has revealed to him. The prophet himself (or herself) is not predicting the future: he is merely passing on what God told him. Much like a spokesman for a company or politician speaks on behalf of a higher authority.

Thus, a preacher in a church who is preaching from the Bible faithfully, is a "prophet" in the true sense of the word: he is "speaking on behalf of God".

Therefore a "false prophet" is someone who does NOT speak for God, even though he is pretending to do so. A false prophet might preach a distorted message from the Bible by taking small sections of text out of their original context, and using that to support his false message. This is a classical sign of a false prophet: a preacher whose sermons are peppered with several very short extracts from different parts of the Bible, where those texts are not actually related to each other, and don't belong together. The false prophet just puts them together to create a message that is not actually in the Bible at all!

Another type of false prophet does, in fact, try to predict the future based on his own ideas, not on any "revelation" from God, yet he claims that it really is a message from God. For example, in reccent years there have been several such false prophets predicting exact dates for the end of the world, and widely reported in the press and on social media. Those dates have come and gone, and the world is still here, so thos people clearly are "fals prophets".

In fact, the Bible itself gives many warnings about false prophets. It even provides a clear definition: Matthew 24:23-26 “If anyone tells you then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Over here!’ do not believe it! 24 False messiahs[a] and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 Take note: I have told you in advance. 26 So if they tell you, ‘Look, He’s in the wilderness!’ don’t go out; ‘Look, He’s in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. Galatians 1:7 6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news[c] about the Messiah. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him![d] 9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him! Acts 20:29–30 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 And men will rise up from your own number with deviant doctrines to lure the disciples into following them. Ezek. 13:1–7 In fact, the Bible contains many warnings about such false prophets, such as this one in the book of Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 13:1-7: The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish[a] prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord. Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. Even though the Lord has not sent them, they say, “The Lord declares,” and expect him to fulfill their words. Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, “The Lord declares,” though I have not spoken?

A true prophet is one why really does speak for God: He has been give a message by God to pass on to others. There are many prophets in the Bible, including the same man who wrote the verses quoted above: Ezekiel. Other people who are called prophets in the Bible are: Moses, Daniel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Joel, Jonah and many others. The sign of a true prophet is that the things he prophecies actually do come true, and also that he warns people to worship only the one true, real God.

Obviously, the best way to test if a prophet is a true prophet is to check what happened with his prophecies! (Deuteronomy 18:21-22) If all of his prophecies came true, then he is a true prophet of God. If even one single prophecy that he made failed to happen the way he said it would, then he is NOT a prophet.

One single failure is cause for disqualifying that person as a prophet. That clearly includes modern-day "prophets" such as Edgar Cayce, Joseph Smith, Ellen G. White, Charles Taze Russell, Sun Myung Moon, Herbert W. Armstrong, Ron L. Hubbard, and many, many others, including those 'end of the world' prophets mentioned above. All of these can be clasified as false prophets, since they made predictions about the future, that failed to happen.

On the other hand, Biblical prophecy is invariable fulfilled perfectly, exactly as predicted. So far, there is 100% fulfillment. Many prophecies have not yet been fulfilled simply because the time has not yet come for that to happpen. But since all prophecies that are supposed to be fulfilled, really have been, it is safe to assume that the rest of them will also be fulfilled, when the time comes. Those "unfulfilled" prophecies are generally referred to as "end times" prophecies.

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