False Prophets / False Teachers

(the Ravenous Wolves)

When Jesus talked about false prophets as being ravenous wolves, surely being God Himself, as Second Person of the Holy Trinity, He must have had in mind the whole of human history, past, present and future. He sternly warns us against the deception of false prophets (teachers) who come in the guise of sheep but in reality are ravenous wolves. And Jesus adds: “You will be able to tell them by their fruits….A sound true cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit” (Mt. 7:15). The characteristic deception by the devil is this, he even makes unauthorized use of personalities identified with the Church in order to pretend credibility and be able to recruit members. That has been our experience of past history in various parts of the Philippines and the world, and because of the anger and hatred being infused in opposing groups, we know it has caused loss of countless lives here in the Philippines, or even in other parts of the world, just because it follows the line of class struggle, whereas Jesus teaches us to love and reconcile with our neighbor. “If you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering” (Mt. 5:23-25).

Not only that, the infiltration of Marxist thought connected to class struggle has occasioned even the loss of many religious vocations, because the ideas happened to be on the wrong track. They keep on angrily parading justice but have forgotten the very source of justice – God’s word: “Man’s anger does not fulfill God’s justice” (Jas. 1:20). Is that the reaction of our one and only Savior, the true lamb who takes away our sins by offering His life on the cross? False prophets constantly utter justice, but the results will tell whether they only meant, not true justice, but a parody of justice. You don’t have to go too far in studying or analyzing the fruits of such wrong teachings or ideas, to Russia and Germany where millions died, even to Spain where the victims of the civil war (around 1936) reached countless thousands and are buried in that famed site called “Valle de los Caidos” (the Valley of the Fallen Ones) in Madrid, Spain. Think of our own history in the Philippines in the 1980+ encounters and troubles. Remember history, or you will keep on repeating the past errors, mistakes and false ideas.

Check for yourself then. How right Jesus was. “What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22). The ravenous wolves, check for yourself, under a guise of harmless lambs, are disrespectful, angry, impatient, hateful, unhappy, and temperamental, as part of what you may observe. But then what if violence ensues, as it did in the past. You cannot, even with so much compensation, pay for the inestimable value of one life. So was it said by B. Franklin: “There never was a good war or a bad peace.”