In the readings for King’s book one and two, false prophets were harshly persecuted for denying that the Lord was the one and only true God. Because of the severity of the punishments given to the false prophets, the audience is able to see why St. Athanasius stresses the importance of praying away the false fortune tellers and prophets.
In chapters 31-35, St. Athanasius provides several different scenarios where the devil may attempt to lead those with weakened faith towards false beliefs and away from God’s good graces. At some point, the audience may see this repetition of the same lesson redundant, but after reading Kings, it is easy to see why this is such an important lesson. In Kings book one verse 18:40, Elijah slays all the false prophets of Baal after proving that their god was not a real god, and they were spreading false words that attempted to steer followers away from the Lord. The manner in which the prophets were slain was very harsh and revealing of God’s vengeance. Therefore, in chapter 32 when St. Athanasius stresses the importance of praying away false fortune tellers, the audience can understand why he chooses to expand so widely on the idea of only believing God as the holder of the future. When I first read the chapter, I immediately thought of a weatherman and was confused on why St. Athanasius would so harshly speak against those who attempted to know the weather in the future. However, when using the information from King’s book one, it is obvious why this would be such an important lesson.
Another example of false prophets being persecuted is in Kings book one verse 20:36. In this verse, the man refused to spite the son of the prophets in the name of the Lord. Therefore, the man was slain by a lion. This cruelty seems very unnecessary to me because the man was asked to smite someone, and refusing almost seemed like the better option. However, this is only a lesson that is told in order to illustrate how followers of the Lord must obey His orders, no matter what, because God has His followers best intentions in mind, even if it may not seem like it at first. We see this reflected in St. Athanasius’ writings in chapter 40. Instead of listening to Satan’s temptations, especially in a time of weakness, St. Athanasius chose to pray and follow the word of God, and every time Satan would leave out of fear of the word of God. This story of his own personal struggle portrays the lessons taught in Kings and further explains God’s intentions.
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