By Todd Paetznick, May 16, 2024

What effect does buying a forgery have on the value of the real thing?  

I worked in New York City many years ago.  In lower Manhattan, Chinatown was and still is an area where knock-off products can be bought on the street.  Whether it is a replica of a high-end famous-name handbag, designer clothing, or a luxury watch, it can be bought on the street for a small fraction of the price of the real thing.  I once bought a fake luxury watch that looked just like the real one my boss wore.

On the surface, my watch appeared identical to my boss’ watch.  Even when we looked at both simultaneously, it was difficult to tell which one was real and which was fake.  An expert would notice subtle clues that set the genuine item apart from the fake, but most people could not tell them apart unless they were compared side-by-side.  The second hand’s movement and the overall weight were the most noticeable differences.  The second hand on the Swiss-made watch had a smooth, continuous movement, whereas my fake watch noticeably jumped from one second to the next, typical of a quartz movement.  The weight difference between the watches was also significantly different.  The genuine Swiss watch was noticeably heavier because it was made with a higher grade of stainless steel and real gold.  The process of comparing the watches side-by-side allowed us to differentiate between the one that was real and the fake one.  

This brings us back to the question of the fake watch’s impact on the value of the real one.  Was the value of the real Swiss-made watch worth thousands of dollars more than the fake?  

Spiritual Fakery

The apostle Paul had to wrestle with false teachers and false prophets in the churches he planted.  New Christian converts were challenged by people coming to their town, claiming to have a message from God but with a secret agenda of personal profit.  These charlatans sought to take advantage of the spiritual ignorance of people who did not know better.  Rather than directly addressing each instance of deception, Paul taught the people in his church plants how to handle the uncertainty they encountered.  Like the comparison of real and fake watches, side-by-side comparisons of messages from God would reveal what was true and what was fake.

“Do not quench the Spirit, do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil.” (1Thessalonians 5:19-22 NASB20) 

  Paul was concerned about false prophecies and their effect on the people in the church of Thessalonica.  He did not want the people to reject prophecy because they could not be certain of its origin.  He also did not want people to blindly accept whatever someone said because it seemed to be good.  Paul wanted the people in the churches to examine everything to determine whether the prophecy was from God or was made up by someone for their personal benefit.

Prophecies were messages from God, sometimes foretelling the future and other times forth-telling, explaining the written word of God.  But how could the people in the church know whether the message was genuinely from God or whether it was fake?  Paul advised the people to test a prophetic message against the scriptures they knew to be authentic.  In effect, the Thessalonians would need to do a side-by-side comparison of this newly received prophecy with the known and accepted word of God.  Through the comparison, experts in the scriptures would catch subtle differences, but there would also likely be a deception that becomes obvious to everyone compared to the real thing.  Was the new message consistent with scripture and apostolic teaching?  Was there an obvious difference?  The discernment process helped the people determine what was real.  As with most struggles, there is a side benefit of the process, which results in people coming to revere God, His wisdom, and His ways and grow in their faith.

Economically, the value of the real thing should be lessened by credible fakes.  And false teaching and false prophecy seemingly take away from the value of genuine words from God.  Flooding a market with lots of fake merchandise increases the supply, which, according to economic theory, lowers the cost that people are willing to pay to acquire the merchandise.  Forgeries should drive down the value of the real thing.  But do they?  Through a side-by-side comparison, the value and worth of the genuine item become clear, and its value increases!  Identified false prophecies increase the value of the genuine word of God.  God is glorified!