How does one determine whether or not someone is a false prophet?

Answer 1

The tests for a prophet are these:

(1) Do their predictions come true (Jer. 28:9)?

(2) Does the prophet have a divine commission (Jer.29:9)?

(3) Are the prophecies consistent with Scripture (2 Peter 1:20-21, Rev. 22:18-19)?

(4) Do the people benefit spiritually from the prophet's ministry (Jer. 23:13, 14, 32, 1 Peter 4:11)?

Hebrew has no word for false prophet. All are simply prophets. Yet some do not obey God. They are false. Jeremiah 14:14 describes them: The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.

Prophets generally shared several key experiences and characteristics.

(1) A call from God.

(2) A word from God. This came through many means-direct declarations, visions, dreams, or an appearance of God.

(3) Prophets were primarily spokespersons who called His people to obedience by appealing to Israel's past and future.

(4) Symbolic acts. These served as dramatic living parables (Isa. 20:1-3, Ezek. 4:1-3, Jer. 19:10-11, Hos. 2:1-13).

(5) Miracles confirmed their message (Ex. 4:1-9, 1 Kings 17, 2 Kings 5, Isa. 38:6).

(6) Writing God's Word (Isa. 8:1, Ezek. 43:11).

(7) Ministry to their people. Prophets were to test God's peoples' lives (Jer. 6:27).

(8) Ecstatic experiences. These confirmed God's presence and empowered the prophet.

Answer 2

Question them if they can perform a miracle like when prophet Muhammad was told to cut the moon in half to prove that he is a prophet, he did it using a knife, now when people go to the moon , they can hear the voices of people praying exactly where prophet Muhammad had cut the moon.

Answer 3

A real prophet tells you what you wanted to hear, and a false prophet says something you do not want to hear.

In The Bible, real prophets supported the view that was eventually successful, and false prophets backed the losers. For example, when Jeremiah spoke in support of Babylon, Hananiah the prophet, to the dismay of the crowd and of Jeremiah, removed the yoke that Jeremiah had symbolically placed on his own neck. Breaking the yoke, Hananiah prophesied that God would likewise "break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years" (Jeremiah 28:11). As it happened, Jeremiah was right to fear Babylon and call for peace with the Babylonians. Had Hananiah been right, and Babylon gone into decline, then Hananiah would have been recorded as the real prophet, and Jeremiah as the false prophet.

Answer 4

1) If a prophet speaks in the name of idolatry, he/she is known to be false (Deuteronomy ch.13).
2) If a prophet's short-term prediction is not fulfilled, he is false (Deuteronomy ch.18).

3) If a prophet commands to remove one of the Torah's commands from the scope of Jewish observances, he is false (Talmud, Megillah 2b).

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