Proverbs 14:7

Notice that God commands the death penalty here. Now, I am not advocating stoning your local mega-church pastor—let me be clear on that. God has not given the church the same civil authority that He gave to the physical nation, and He certainly has not given that authority to church members. But the death penalty here shows that God is deadly serious, not just about which God is promoted, but also whether the message lines up with the way in which God commands us to walk.

Proverbs 14:7 tells us what we can do in such a case—it says, “Go from the presence of a foolish man, when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge.”

Biblically, a fool is not someone of low human intelligence, but someone who makes ungodly choices. A man could be wicked smart, as they say, but if he walks contrary to God’s way, God classifies him as a fool. So, Proverbs 14 says to leave the presence of a fool when we perceive he does not have true knowledge. When we add in God’s prescription that a false prophet be put to death, even though we don’t carry that out, we can reckon that prophet as dead to us. There is no point in paying him any heed.