The False Prophet is not like the mistaken scientist or misguided philosopher---just a person in error.
The False Prophet is either a deceiving imposter or a self-deceived victim of his own pathology.
Any who would identify themselves as "prophet" is laying claim to a special agency of communication beyond the powers of mere mortal man.
What credentials must such a person obtain? What makes them special above all others. Are they in contact with the Supreme Being or in league with Satanic powers? Have they special knowledge of nature?
For non-believers, any such claim is misleading superstitious nonsense which appeals only to the gullible.
For believers, it comes down to hearing a variation on the following:
THINGS ARE BAD. THEY ARE GETTING WORSE. THIS IS A SIGN THAT......X.....IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.
No person employed as seer, soothsayer or prophet ever went broke predicting calamity or extreme conditions in the immediate future!
The False Prophet counts on the usual amount of chaos and upheaval somewhere in the world such as bad weather, earthquakes, disease, wars and rampant fears. He must only take care never to be TOO SPECIFIC to escape detection as bullshit artist.
The best way to get caught lying is to be too specific. Consequently, the famous prophets of history couched their warnings and predictions in some sort of gibberish which relied on interpretation to allow them wiggle room just in case nothing happened.
The Oracle of Delphi and Nostradamus are two such examples. So guarded and non-specific were the pronouncements of these self-styled seers that only in retrospect were true believers able to read into the quatrains some semblance of correspondence with actual events. Always AFTER THE FACT.
Perhaps the most famous prophecy of all, the second coming of Christ is the best example.
The usual "signs" are given which always seem to be happening such as wars, rumors of wars, eating and drinking, marrying, etc. But, further, tricky parallels are assigned which grant portentious "meanings". Caution is admonished that "no man deceive you". Enough non-information is assembled in the New Testament so that this prophecy ALWAYS APPEARS TO BE COMING TRUE for any decade and any generation!
Only the prophet who is so stupid and caught up in his own pathology would fall victim to being TOO SPECIFIC and thus identifying himself clearly as "FALSE PROPHET" when the specific event does not happen when predicted.
Another thing...
Christian prophets call what they do "prophecy" and claim God is the originator of their message. The further call what anybody else does as "divination" and mark it as being from evil and Satanic sources.
In the marketplace of superstition, there is always a keen interest on things being predicted and on a fierce competition between liars trying to corner the market.
In our own time we have astrologists, trance channelers, religious soothsayers and necromancers all claiming special and significant inside knowledge otherwise unobtainable.
Wherever a prophet sets up shop, money changes hands and the gullible's thirst for miraculous foreknowlege is titillated for cash.
Yet, it is all so easy to fake (unless you are too specific).
The true believer tries hard to find a match between what is said and what takes place from day to day.
Any bad weather, a downturn in the economy. a sudden war or natural disaster will immediately FIT THE PATTERN and trigger an emotional state of True Believe and fear.
Yet, the world continues as it always has. The prophets are always general enough not to be caught being wrong. That is, the smart ones.
The really stupid ones publish permanent records of their specific claims in advance which never goes away as proof they were wrong.
It is no explanation to fall back on being merely human and error prone for the false prophet! When a man speaks on behalf of God and nothing happens he is identifying himself as taking god's name, reputation and veracity in vain. It is the identifying mark of the FALSE PROPHET to be wrong! Otherwise, every sort of liar, deciever and miscreant would simply say, "I'm only human!" when their prophecy failed.
The fool who is greedy for foreknowledge cannot accept any warning of forebearance. "Nobody knows the day and the hour" will be ignored by saying, "Well, the scripture didn't say anything about the month or the year"
The Watchtower Society has a long and provable history written in their own publications. This history of making claims in Jehovah's name which never come true identifies them as consistent liars.
This is why old publications disappear into the mists of time and reprints of Watchtower articles often contain omissions and revisions.
This is why "new light" is necessary as a "reset button" when events prove them liars.
This is why questions from members which get too specific about such matters as 1925 and 1975 are swept away and minimized and mark the questioner as a potential trouble source.
THE FALSE PROPHET is merely human and prone to error, of course, but they are willfully so in their misrepresentation of their message as OTHER THAN HUMAN in source.
They cannot have it both ways.
Otherwise they are saying, in effect:
"Believe me all the time when I tell you things. When I'm dead wrong I'm only human and if I'm right---you see! I'm a true prophet after all."
A stopped clock can be right twice a day. But, Jehovah's Witnesses don't even have that statistic to back them up!