The Penalty For False Prophecy

One of the more overlooked capital offenses of Deuteronomy is making false predictions in the name of God, a sin that goes beyond ordinary lies to others about comparatively minor matters into outright delusion.  Even one false prophecy proclaimed by someone is an offense against reason and truth, but there are professing Christians who, from time to time, discuss someone else's supposedly "prophetic dreams" or extra-Biblical predictions of specific eschatological events as if there was even a possibility of them being Biblically sound.  Perhaps if they understood the prescribed penalty for a counterfeit or ignorant prophecy on God's behalf, they would be far more hesitant to consider these predictions in a positive light.

The Biblical reaction to someone who makes a false prediction of an event they specifically claim God told them would happen, whether about eschatological matters or something far more trivial, is quite simple: execute them.  Deuteronomy 18:20-22 outlines the only kind of evidence that would support a claim that someone predicts the future on God's behalf.  If the prediction is accurate, the prophet may certainly have only been correct by accident or because the prophecy originated somewhere other than from God, but a prediction that does not occur cannot be from God.

Making a prediction in the name of other deities automatically merits execution whether or not the claim is true, as Deuteronomy 18:20 mentions.  Speaking in Yahweh's name based on assumptions or deceit is the conditional offense.  Of course it is logically possible for a divine being to grant someone either special information about future events that is otherwise inaccessible or the ability to see into the future themselves (even though a person with genuine foresight is still epistemologically unable to prove to himself or herself that they have it given the nature of human limitations), but it would be relatively easy to show whether there is evidence that such a prophecy is true or false.

If professing Christians realized this, how many miscellaneous people would make claims that God revealed extra-Biblical information through a dream, emotional reactions, or "the Holy Spirit," as if it is possible to even confirm the presence of the Holy Spirit as it is?  How many asinine assertions about eschatological circumstances the Bible never even mentions would be avoided?  It is likely that many of the casual comments about God's alleged personal revelations would cease.  No Christian who cares about their life and their worldview would insist that such nonsense be tolerated.

God is clearly said to not take people who fallaciously or deceptively ascribe messages to him that he did not send lightly.  Those who are genuinely committed to Biblical Christianity would not make random, assumed claims of private knowledge about the future from God in the first place, with or without the threat of death, but Deuteronomy 18:20 would probably bother people who sincerely but irrationally believe that they have somehow gained predictive powers of this type from God.  The Bible does not oppose all prophecies that are said to come from God--but many claims about the future from various Christians have nothing to do with reason or the Bible, elevating non sequiturs over Biblical commands.