Imitators and counterfeiters have always plagued the true Word and
way of God. For this reason the Lord established a clear set of tests a
person had to pass in order to be received as a true spokesman for God.
There are four main passages in the Old Testament that deal with the
subject of false prophets: (1) Deuteronomy 13:1-18; (2) Deuteronomy
18:9-22; (3) Jeremiah 23:9-40; and (4) Ezekiel 12:21–14:11.
In examining these four passages and many others, Scripture pre-
sents at least seven marks of a true prophet. While all of these marks
may not have been present in every prophet, certainly some prophets
had each one. However, for any follower of God who really wanted to
know who was true and who was false, there would have been no ques-
tion about a prophet’s authenticity.
The Seven Distinguishing Marks of a True Prophet
1. The true prophet never used divination, sorcery, or astrology (Deut.
18:9-14; Mic. 3:7; Ezek. 12:24). The source of the prophet’s message
was God himself (2 Pet. 1:20-21).
2. The true prophet never tailored his or her message to cater to the
cravings or desires of the people (Jer. 8:11; 28:8; Ezek. 13:10). The false
prophets, or “pillow prophets,” as some describe them, spoke a mes-
sage that would bring them popularity and money. They were the
Fortune 500 prophets, the religious opportunists (Mic. 3:5-6, 11). The
true prophet spoke God’s unadulterated message regardless of
personal loss, shame, and even physical harm.
3. The true prophet maintained personal integrity and character (Isa.
28:7; Jer. 23:11; Hos. 9:7-9; Mic. 3:5, 11; Zeph. 3:4). Jesus said that true
and false prophets would be known by their fruit—that is, by what
they did and said (Matt. 7:15-20).
4. The true prophet was willing to suffer for the sake of his message
(1 Kings 22:27-28; Jer. 38:4-13; Ezek. 3:4-8).
5. The true prophet announced a message that was consistent with the
law and with the messages of other true prophets (Jer. 26:17-19). The
message never contradicted nor disagreed with any previous revela-
tion of truth but confirmed and built upon that body of truth (Deut.
13:1-3).
6. The true prophet, when predicting future events, had a 100 percent
success rate (Deut. 18:21-22). Unlike modern psychics, any success
rate short of perfect was not good enough! If the alleged prophet was
not 100 percent accurate, the people were to take him outside the
city and stone him to death (Deut. 18:20).
7. The true prophet sometimes had his or her message authenticated
by the performance of a miracle or miracles (see Exod. 5–12). This test
was not conclusive evidence, however, because false prophets also
produced miracles on occasion (Exod. 7:10-12; 8:5-7; Mark 13:22;
2 Thess. 2:9). Therefore, Moses gave a further aspect to this test in
Deuteronomy 13:1-3:
Suppose there are prophets among you, or those who have dreams
about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the
predicted signs or miracles take place. If the prophets then say,
“Come, let us worship the gods of foreign nations,” do not listen to
them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you love him with all
your heart and soul.
The true test was the content of the message, not the miracles. The
true prophet spoke only in the name of the Lord and called people to
