Murder is killing of the innocent. False teachers are not innocent. [emoji14]lain: Too bad you side with the false teachers not God.
"Too bad." :chz4brnz: ~ Seth Brundle, The Fly
And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD "your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee [Deut. 13:5].
Notice that any false prophet who attempted to take the people into some false cult or false religion was to be stoned to death. Does that sound extreme? Does that sound severe? Such a false prophet is like a cancer, and a cancer must be cut out as soon as possible—I know that from personal experience. God here is the Great Physician and He says the cancer must be cut out from among His people.
This reveals the mind of God concerning false prophets who lead the people to false gods and false religion. I can remember when I was a boy that the reading of the Bible in the schoolroom was a normal procedure. I don’t think it was particularly meaningful to me at that time, yet I understood it was the Word of God and that impressed me. Today we have let the unbeliever come in, the cults, and those who oppose Christianity and the Bible, and they have taken over so that Bible reading and prayer are no longer permitted in public schools.
God laid down these rules to prevent this from happening in Israel. If one appeared in Israel who was attempting to take God’s people away from the worship of God, that person was to be put to death.
Some soft–hearted and soft–headed folk will say this is too extreme. God understood how terrible it would be if false prophets were permitted to multiply and to lead Israel into idolatry. History reveals that Israel did not obey God and they did permit this to happen. If you want to know how bad it was for God’s people in that day, read the story of Ahab and Jezebel who plunged God’s people into idolatry. This brought the judgment of God upon them so that eventually the northern kingdom was carried into captivity. That is how serious it is." McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Law (Deuteronomy) (electronic ed., Vol. 9, pp. 90–91). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.