Fake Prophets (from the Herescope)
Part 1: The White Lab Coats
“…FAKE prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.” (Mark 13:22)
Exhibit A: Synonyms for fake
ψευδοπροφήτης pseudoprophḗtēs, from G5571 and G4396; a spurious prophet, i.e. pretended foreteller or religious impostor:—false prophet.[1]
By Sarah H. Leslie
It was the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer who tipped us off about FAKE prophets over fifty years ago. He identified the rise of a FAKE science that would be enhanced by technology and spun by media. He warned that their FAKE facts could be deadly.
“But wait:
Can we really trust the government of a scientist merely because he wears a white coat?
Can we actually believe that such people will not manipulate just because they are scientists?”
~Dr. Francis Schaeffer[1]
“Modern Man the Manipulator”
FAKE science narratives are what Scripture calls “science falsely so-called” (1 Timothy 6:20). Many science myths have now become part and parcel of our modern society. Concurrently there is much scientific fact that is being squelched. Thus many believers are having difficulty sorting out TRUTH from ERROR. This “sorting out” process is known as DISCERNMENT.
It is obvious: The future is open to manipulation. Who will do the manipulating? Will it be the new elite on the side of an Establishment totalitarianism or the Left Wing elite? Whichever side wins–or whoever achieves political or cultural power in the future–will have at his disposal manipulations that no totalitarian ruler in the past has ever had. None of these are only future; they all exist today waiting to be used by the coming manipulators.(p. 91)
Dr. Schaeffer grimly anticipated a time when there would be an aggressive propagation of fake science that would establish an alternative worldview. It would set itself in opposition not only to Christianity but also to freedom itself. He identified key “manipulators” of the truth “who change the TRUTH of God into a LIE” (Romans 1:25). He saw ominous signs of an arising scientific and technocratic elite who would aggressively alter law, history, religion, art, media, and technology in order to put themselves in power.
That day has now come upon us.
The Original FAKE Science
Schaeffer classified the original fake science as evolution, i.e., Darwinism. Darwinism was really the first big experiment — not a true science experiment, but rather a grandiose psycho-social-spiritual experiment in altering man’s perception of God’s true reality. As a result, much science has been flawed for the past several centuries. Darwinian science gave birth to faulty geology (pun intended) about earth’s true age, Noah’s actual flood and current (and end time) seismic events.[2] Evolutionary biology gave rise to tinkering with DNA.
Note well: This is a non-objective, sociological science. Conclusions are determined by the way a scientist wants the result to turn out sociologically. It is a science which will manipulate society by the manipulations of scientific ‘fact.’ I do not believe that man without absolutes… will continue to maintain a high sense of objectivity. On one side, I think science will increasingly become only technology. On the other side, it will become sociological science and be a tool of manipulation in the hands of the manipulators.(p. 92)
He presciently warned about a day when the science establishment elites would be tempted to seize power:
Beware, therefore, of the movement to give the scientific community the right to rule. They are not neutral in the old concept of scientific objectivity. Objectivity is a myth that will not hold simply because these men have no basis for it. Keep in mind that to these men morals are only a set of averages. Here, then, is a present form of manipulation which we can expect to get greater as one or the other elite takes more power–and especially if the Establishment elite takes over.(p. 92)[emphasis added]
A DEADLY Science Narrative
The first global science experiment to reduce the world’s population was abortion. The public was fed the LIE by the Establishment Media and certain segments of the medical scientific community that an unborn baby is merely a piece of tissue. Many believed this fake science narrative.
Personal Testimony: In 1984 I was a right to life leader. A brave young college student volunteered to take a specimen of my pregnant urine into the local Planned Parenthood clinic so she could investigate them. She wanted to know what options they would give her when the urine sample tested positive for pregnancy. She was given a photocopied line drawing of a uterus with squiggly lines depicting the contents. No baby, no embryo, only black and white lines. The abortion industry wasn’t going to tell her the truth about fetal development. They made more money by persuading her to undergo the surgical procedure.
A year later I organized a local television showing of Dr. Bernard Nathanson’s film The Silent Scream which filmed an actual abortion via ultrasound. Dr. Nathanson was an atheist at the time. He told us he had personally been responsible for over 72,000 abortions. This new technology persuaded him that the very babies he had once killed could be saved. He believed in the potential of man’s reason, and he decided to employ ultrasound technology to show the accurate fact that a baby was being dismembered by suction. Once enlightened by this incontrovertible evidence, Dr Nathanson assumed that rational scientists, medical personnel, politicians, the courts and the public would be appalled at the obvious destruction of human life and seek to save it.
Techno-Media & FAKE Science
He also pinpointed the lurking dangers of computer technology. He understood computers well enough to grasp the ultimate deadly ramifications if this technology would one day be wielded by a power elite:
the computer itself is dangerous. The computer has entered into a new age: It can watch you. The great eye can be upon you–recording every single thing you do from your birth to your death….(p. 98) [emphasis added]
The existence of the computer and the control it puts into the hands of those in power steps up the power of each of the forms of modern manipulation in the hands of the manipulators.(p. 99)
Could Schaeffer have foreseen the advent of social media, in which corporate tech marketers would profit from collecting and selling intimate human psycho-social data for the purpose of altering mankind’s beliefs, values, ethics, morals, opinions and behaviors? Could he have predicted the rise of deepfakes, where truth is nearly impossible to distinguish from lie?
the Establishment elite or the New Left elite might really [take] over power…. No totalitarian government, including Hitler’s and Stalin’s, has ever had these forms of manipulation.(p. 97)
A DEADLY Tunnel Vision
Schaeffer noted that under controlled regimes science is purposefully skewed and manipulated in order to reach conclusions that bolster its own power base. The science “manipulators” that Dr. Schaeffer warned in 1970 then were already abandoning the rational Scientific Method based on knowledge and reason. He stated his belief that “I am convinced that science, as we have known it with a commitment to objectivity, cannot continue now that this philosophy is gone.” (p. 91)
Why did Schaeffer focus so much attention on the loss of scientific objectivity? Objective science has traditionally recognized and acknowledged that it is not the truth, but it seeks to establish facts. It will posit a thesis and then test that thesis with various hypotheses. If it changes its opinion it doesn’t lie. It simply acknowledges that more information has come in. Wherever freedom of inquiry flourishes rational science will continually re-examine, re-test and re-evaluate facts that come in that either support or challenge the thesis.
Consider Exhibit D above, which depicts Tunnel Vision. If we look at this graph in terms of science, the middle darkest orange area would represent scientific fact. The near-, mid- and far-peripheral vision fields would be areas for further investigation, experimentation and analysis. As facts come in, the scientific fact in the middle would be enhanced with additional information, either pro or con, to bolster its case. A good scientist will often look far afield in order to locate additional data.
If scientific inquiry is stifled the peripheral research maybe not funded and scholarly papers might not be published. In a healthy free society, the scientist can seek to continue his line of inquiry, solicit additional funding, or pursue more research. In an open scholarly climate, the scientific and medical researchers will freely engage in peer review, analysis, discussion and debate. Further research and study will be pursued.
Exhibit E: Tunnel Vision
How does scientific Tunnel Vision affect the populace? Look at Exhibit E above. Consider what might happen to this person if the lighter green Central Field line of sight is all he sees? He is only cognizant of a limited field of facts. Quite literally if his Peripheral Vision is cut off he may injure himself. Obviously, this is dangerous. What would happen if the peripheral fields of scientific research were cut off from his view? What if the only line of knowledge was a narrow segment of limited facts? What could happen to the person if key peripheral facts were deleted? The science would be faulty. It would lack key data points. This, too, could be dangerous.
Now consider what might happen if the Central Field of focus is shifted up or down. What if the facts became skewed towards one Peripheral side or another? In this way people could be deceived. They may think that they are seeing a Central Field of facts, but what they are really seeing is Peripheral Vision, which is a distortion. So if the public only sees a skewed field of focus, they are not seeing true facts. They might be seeing fake science. They might even be fooled into thinking this fake field is the truth.
And this is precisely what Schaeffer was warning about. He said that the time would come when this sort of manipulation would be done deliberately, and it could be life-threatening. He was suspicious that science “manipulators” could utilize both technology and media to control man’s line of vision. Facts could be distorted, deleted or denied. New pseudo-facts could replace them. So anything people assumed to be truth or fact, may not be. It might be faked to gird up an agenda.
Personal Testimony: I grew up in a home where my father yelled at the television every night. It was the height of the Vietnam War (the same era Schaeffer wrote his book, circa 1970). Dad didn’t believe what the newscasters were telling him. He realized he was being spoonfed certain stories with evocative visual images. He was no dummy. He was a WWII veteran and understood that the stories that came out of war were embellished to spin a narrative that suited the politicians. It was Dad who first told me about media-induced tunnel vision. He chose not to be manipulated. So he argued out loud with the news pundits every night. Many times in my life I have thanked God that He gave me a father who boldly asked questions and wasn’t gullible. Dad exercised discernment.
Evolutionary/Revolutionary Science
The fact is that postmodern science itself has become an evolving narrative. As such it is open to continual adjustments and alterations which are not necessarily grounded in fact nor solid research. This is intentionally a “paradigm shift.” It is the spiritualization of science. It is the politicization of science.
The philosophy of the paradigm shift is quite significant. The concept originated with Thomas Kuhn in his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press). Kuhn, a scientist in academia, broke ground by applying Hegelian dialectics and existential thought to the field of science. He proposed that science itself is evolving and has no absolutes. Kuhn described science as a series of rocky shifts throughout history, created by a crisis when the old scientific model encounters new information that doesn’t fit. When enough new information is accumulated, a “revolution” would occur and a new scientific paradigm would emerge; e.g. Newtonian science gave way to Einstein’s theories.
Kuhn paralleled scientific revolution to political revolution, and noted that in “both political and scientific development the sense of malfunction that can lead to crisis is a prerequisite to revolution” (p. 91). In other words, it is necessary to create a crisis first before the paradigm can be shifted. Kuhn then makes the remarkable statement that the use of force may be necessary to shift to the new paradigm: “…the parties to a revolutionary conflict must finally resort to the techniques of mass persuasion often including force” (p. 92) .
Kuhn speaks about this paradigm shift in terms of a religious conversion. First, he remarks that a “mental transformation” is insufficient. “Rather we must look for indirect and behavioral evidence that the scientist with a new paradigm sees differently from the way he had seen before” (p. 114)… Kuhn advised that before a group can communicate fully, they must “experience the conversion that we have been calling a paradigm” (p. 149). This conversion is seen as a “transfer of allegiance” from one paradigm to another (p. 150).
This 1999 book warns about the methods of manipulation[4]
Beware of FAKE Prophets
The science “manipulators” that Dr Schaeffer predicted are now openly functioning as fake prophets promulgating fake facts. We have arrived at a new era in a planned attempt to technologically alter man.[5] A vast new array of enhanced tools for deception are arising rapidly. As we have pointed out from historical examples above, fake science can be deadly.[6]
We are witnessing the rise of the reign of fake prophets and they are not friendly, nor open-minded, nor do they tolerate biblical Truth. This calls for radical discernment on the part of Christians who follow Jesus Christ. Why? Because it appears that the next phase of Schaeffer’s predicted Establishment Elite’s marketing program intends to rely heavily upon psycho-spiritual manipulation. It will use rewards for compliance and rely upon penalties such as fear, pressure, coercion, threats and intimidation, and worse.
Many years ago I helped people get out of cults and the occult whose minds had succumbed to brainwashing. It begins with isolation, fear, intimidation, multiple sensory deprivations and there is continual indoctrination. (Notice how similar this description is to the past year and a half of life on earth.) One of the telling features of a cult member is that they are forbidden to think outside the box. In other words, they have an induced Tunnel Vision that prohibits them from knowing anything outside of of the narrative. Hence their truncated view of reality is not only skewed, but their faith may be missing key Gospel truths.
This is why Scripture warns repeatedly to not be deceived, to be awake and alert, and to ask for wisdom (James 1:5). Many Christians do not rely upon God’s Spirit to give them wisdom about life choices and decision, but rather they rely on worldly media or entities in authority. But Jesus specifically warned:
“Beware of fake prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
The change agents and their methods have brought us to the point where the brainwashing has reached a critical level, which is a necessary ingredient as we read the prophetical future in Scripture –
2 Thessalonians 2:10-11
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:It is amazing to me how many evangelical churches and leaders fell prey to this method of manipulation, not realizing it had its origination in the kingdom of Satan, as he prepared for the greatest attempt of deception in world history – convincing people, including the Jews, that the anti-Christ is the real Christ.[9]
Discern the FAKE
Here is a stern warning about gradualism. The entire fake science paradigm is built upon the slippery sands of evolutionary thinking. It is founded upon the false dialectics of Truth plus Error equals New Truth. Examine what you have been told is a scientific fact to see if it may have been deliberately manipulated. Has your field of vision been purposefully skewed? Have you made decisions or reached judgments based on truncated information? Has your line of vision to discern the truth/facts been sharply skewed? Have key facts been eviscerated? Are there vital data that have been deleted?
If we think that it is hard to discern the fake now, Jesus’s warning in Mark 13:22 is even more serious. He stated that fake prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders so potent, so believable, so counterfeit that if it were possible it could deceive even the elect. We now live in a time of incredible technological and scientific capabilities to create fakes. There is a vast potential for sophisticated deceptions.
“If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed.”
One thing is now certain. It is very difficult to ascertain accurate factual information. Another thing is now certain. The voices of those who are attempting to provide truthful information are being shuttered. A third thing is now certain. The kings of technology are operating as a global state overseeing all of the nations and peoples of the world, and they control the flow of information.
Finally, if you know the WORD of the GOSPEL of salvation in Jesus Christ is the TRUTH you must speak it out now while it is yet possible to do so:
“in Whom also after that, ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise”
(Ephesians 1:13)
“Thus saith the LORD; STAND in the court of the LORD’S house, and SPEAK unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’S house, ALL THE WORDS that I command thee to SPEAK unto them; diminish not a word.”
(Jeremiah 26:2)
Endnotes:
9. Email from Leon Good, 7/16/21.
Editor’s Note: Many of the topics on this blog since 2005 have had to do with methods of manipulation, fake science and false theology. We have warned mostly about the evangelical part of the church, which is now quite worldly, even apostate. Below are links to two series that may help you to discern the times:
“For we cannot but SPEAK”:
