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1 and 2 Thessalonians

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of 1 and 2 Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1–3)
    20 Activities
  2. Lesson Two
    Christ's Return (1 Thessalonians 4–5)
    22 Activities
  3. Lesson Three
    The Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 1–2)
    19 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  4. Lesson Four
    Work (2 Thessalonians 3)
    17 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  5. Lesson Five
    Author and Audience (Review 1 and 2 Thessalonians)
    17 Activities
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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Grab your Workbook Journal!

[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

The problem of discerning the difference between the missions and ministries of true and false prophets continued into the post-apostolic age. The Didache, the earliest non-biblical church order or treatise, dating to the first century AD, provides a detailed guide for discerning true prophets from false ones. 

11:1 Welcome the teacher when he comes to instruct you in all that has been said.

 

11:2 But if he turns and trains you in another tradition to the destruction of this teaching, do not listen. If he teaches so as to increase righteousness and the knowledge of the Lord, receive him as the Lord.

 

11:5 But he must not remain more than one day, or two, if there’s a need. If he stays three days, he is a false prophet.

 

11:6 And when the apostle goes away, let him take nothing but bread to last him until his next night of lodging. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet.

 

11:8 But not everyone who speaks in the Spirit is a prophet; only he is a prophet who has the ways of the Lord about him. By their ways will the false prophet and the prophet be known.

 

11:10 And any prophet who teaches the truth, but does not do what he teaches, is a false prophet.

 

11:12 But whoever says in the Spirit, “Give me money,” or something else like this, you must not listen to him. But if he tells you to give for the sake of others who are in need, let no one judge him.

Didache quoted from: Tony Jones, “The Didache,” Paracletepress.com, accessed May 13, 2018.

  1. How were early Christians instructed to discern true prophets from false ones? What signs were given as indicators of both true and false prophets?