40 Important Bible Verses About False Prophets

False Prophets are prophets that pretend to have spiritual gifts from God. They go about deceiving people in different ways. Sometimes false prophets are difficult to recognize because they disguise and carry themselves like they are genuine. As Christians, it is crucial we have the gift of discernment because it will serve as a guard to us in our Christian journey and adventure. The number of false prophets is increasing rapidly in these last days and we need to equip our spiritual sights to be able to recognize them when they come our way with their deceptive nature and lying tongues. In this article, we will be writing down some important Bible verses that will help us to identify false prophets when we see them.

In this modern times, false prophets have easily gained access to people through many means, especially through the cyber world. They pop up in our feeds and stories, prophesying with the name of the Lord, whereas they prophesy according to their own thoughts, sights and emotions. They say things to please the hearts of people, not according to how God have spoken in the Bible. They can be seen turning the scripture to deceive people for their own selfish interest. When we are rooted in the word of God, we can easily identify pseudoprophets when we see them. During the ministry of Jesus on earth, he had the gift of discernment.

SEE ALSO: 40 Bible Verses About Reading The Bible

What Does The Bible Say About False Prophets?

Jesus teaching us about signs of the last days, he expressly warned us about false teachers that will come to us in sheep clothing, he told us to beware of them.{Matthew 7:15}.

The book of Mark 13:4-6 says “And Jesus answering them began to say, take heed lest any man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. This scriptures narrates the teachings of Jesus to his disciples. They asked Jesus to tell them about the signs of the last days, he answered them and said, they should be vigilant that many false prophets will come in his name and shall deceive many in the last days”.

Also Apostle John speaking to us in the book of  1 John 4:1. He said “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world”. This passage emphasizes on the necessity of possessing the spirit of discernment. The gift will help us to unmask false prophets. Here are some Bible verses that speak on false prophets and how to watch for them;

Bible Verses About False Prophets

1. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. – Matthew 7:15
2. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. – 2 Peter 2:1
3. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. – 1 John 4:1
4. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. – 2 Corinthians 11:13
5. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! – Galatians 1:8
6. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. – Matthew 24:24
7. The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. – 1 Timothy 4:1
8. I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. – 2 John 1:7
9. I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. – Romans 16:17
10. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. – Jude 1:4
11. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. – Acts 20:29-30
12. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. – Colossians 2:8
13. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. – 1 Timothy 6:3-5
14. If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, ‘Let us follow other gods’ (gods you have not known) and let us worship them, you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. – Deuteronomy 13:1-3
15. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘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
16. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. – Matthew 24:11
17. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. – 2 Peter 2:2
18. As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. – 1 Timothy 1:3-4
19. For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. – Titus 1:10-11
20. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. – Philippians 3:2
21. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. – 2 Timothy 4:3-4
22. While evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. – 2 Timothy 3:13
23. Then the Lord said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. – Jeremiah 14:14

Punishment for false teachers in the Bible

1. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. – Ezekiel 13:9
2. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. – Mark 13:22
3. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us. – Micah 3:11
4. On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. – Zechariah 13:4
5. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. – Revelation 2:2
6. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. – Deuteronomy 18:20-22
7. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. – Romans 16:18
8. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. – Luke 6:26
9. And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! – Mark 7:6-9
10. And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. – Ezekiel 22:28
11. An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes? – Jeremiah 5:30-31
12. And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. – Matthew 24:4-5
13. To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. – Isaiah 8:20
14. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. – Acts 13:6
15. Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading. – Lamentations 2:14
16. And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. – Revelation 13:14
17. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. – Revelation 2:20