The
following quotes are taken from evilbible.com:
"Kill
False Prophets - "If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and
mother, shall say to him, 'You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in
the name of the Lord.' When he prophesies, his parents, father and
mother, shall thrust him through." (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)
"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. Serve only the LORD your God and fear him alone.
Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. The false
prophets or dreamers who try to lead you astray must be put to death, for they
encourage rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of slavery
in the land of Egypt. Since they try to keep you from following the LORD
your God, you must execute them to remove the evil from among you." (Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NLT)
"'But any
prophet who claims to give a message from another god or who falsely claims to
speak for me must die.' You may wonder, 'How will we know whether the
prophecy is from the LORD or not?' If the prophet predicts something in
the LORD's name and it does not happen, the LORD did not give the message.
That prophet has spoken on his own and need not be feared."
(Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NLT)
The question asked here is: Why was
capital punishment prescribed for false prophets? The severity of the punishment was because of
the severity of the crime. To encourage
idolatry (Deuteronomy 13:1-5) or to tell lies in God's name (Zechariah 13:3)
was to show utter contempt for God, and was in essence to commit treason.
As stated before, idolatry is a very
serious sin that God does not take lightly.
He is the Lord and Creator of the universe, and desires that people only
worship him. He warned the Israelites
against idol worship on numerous occasions (see Exodus 20:3-6, 23; 23:13, 23-24; 34:17; Leviticus 19:4; 26:1;
Deuteronomy 4:15-28; 5:7; 6:14-15; 8:19; 12:31; 17:2-7; 27:15; 29:17-18). In the instance described in Deuteronomy 13, someone who claimed to be a prophet would try to lead the people astray
to worship idols or foreign deities.
This was open rebellion against God.
This is why God commanded that the person be executed; otherwise the
entire nation would be persuaded to rebel against God and show contempt for the
one who freed them from perpetual slavery in Egypt.
A true prophet was a person who was
sent to directly communicate God's message to the people. False prophets often took advantage of people
that they lied to in order to gain advancement and/or wealth for themselves. It is a very dangerous thing to presume to
speak for God, or to tell lies in God's name (Jeremiah chapter 28). To do so is not only haughty, but breaks
God's commandments against idolatry and lying (Exodus 20:3-6, 16; Proverbs
6:16-19). It also could lead to others
straying away from God and rebelling against him. This is why false prophets were ordered to be
executed.
Again, it is
important to note that capital punishment commands such as these were given
specifically to the nation of Israel during the time period and culture of the
Ancient Near East. All of Scripture,
both Old and New Testament, condemns idolatry and false prophecy; however, the
capital punishments prescribed do not apply in our time period and culture
(Romans 6:14; Galatians 3:24-26).
