FALSE PROPHETS IN MALAWI

By: Peter Qeko Jere

The current political situation in Malawi is closely linked to OT false propheticism. Reading through the line one see a lot of issues that could have been easily avoided if only current Malawian Prophets (church leaders) were true to themselves and our politicians. In this brief article, I want to show that false prophets in Malawi in the names of Revelands, Pastors, Apostles, Bishops and Evangelists continue to play a key role in the downfall of Malawi’s politicians. I will argue my case firstly by acknowledging the presence of both false and true prophets in Malawi today. Secondly I will show the behaviour of false prophets as opposed to true prophets. Finally I will show the damage false prophets can cause in the social political lives of not only ordinary people but politicians as well.

To begin with, biblical history shows that God did not only appoint Kings but also prophets to go alone with them as they lead the people. Prophets were there to communicate God’s mind to the king and not their own thoughts. These prophets categorically were divided into two; true and false prophets. Some of the true Prophets in the bible includes; Nathan who worked with King David (2 Sam 12), Isaiah who prophesied during the reign of following Kings of Judah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1); Jeremiah who prophesied during the time of the following kings, Josiah, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (Jer 1: 1-3); Ahijah who prophesied during King Jeroboam (1 Kings 14), Elijah who prophesied against King Ahab (1 King 17, 18, 19, 21). False Prophets included Zedekiah son of Kenaanah who prophesied during the time of King Ahab and Jehoshaphat to mention but a few.

The bible reveals the characteristics and manners of a false prophet and how you can know them. Jeremiah (23:16-17) says that they speak vision of their hearts and not from the Lord. In doing this, they speak lies in the name of God where they falsely convince people that what they are saying is the word from the Lord while in actual sense, they speak their mind. Jeremiah (23:13-14) also says that these prophets many times cause many people to err and walk in lies. Ezekiel (13:22) asserts that these false prophets strengthen the hand of the wicked by lying to them in the name of God. Also it is important to say that these Prophets prophecies according to what their victims want to hear. They many times speak so as to make their victim happy while down their hearts they knows that they are telling lies. Finally these false prophets are like chameleon where they change colour and follows where the wind is blowing at that particular time for their own economic gains and not to speak the truth of the word of God.

Applying this to Malawi, there are some things that we need to know: firstly is that there are false prophets who are out there working so much hard to propagate lies from the devil and messing up people’s lives. Many have fallen victim of these wicked act of terror from these prophets because to them what matters more is to propagate lies for their own economic gain. By and large, Malawians have fallen victims of these prophets.

Secondly is that in Malawi we have many instances where some politicians and ordinary people have been misled by lies from these false prophets. For instance, for more than 30 years of Dr. Banda dictatorial rule, Prophets existed and continuously lied and never said the truth.
During the ten years of Bakili Muluzi’s reign, we had a bunch false prophets who continuously prophesied lies for their own economic gains. They went about to propagate wicked propaganda in the name of God that Malawians wanted Muluzi to rule the country through third and open terms bid. Such wicked and false prophets economically benefited from the Muluzi administration and could manufacture every kind of lie in the name of God. These false prophets are not able to read the signs of the times for a particular regime. In this regard, while patriotic citizens of the land were all saying no to third terms, some few confused prophets in the name of church leaders were behind the Muluzi third term bid.