You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? The diagnostic test for false prophets is not their claims, their doctrine, or their impressive presentations but their fruits — the outcomes of their influence, the character of their lives, the communities they produce. The botanical impossibility of grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles is the basis for the diagnostic principle: the fruit is reliable evidence of the tree's nature. James 3:12 makes the same point: neither can a salt pond produce fresh water. The fruit is not the occasional exceptional moment but the consistent pattern of what the tree produces.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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