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Who is a Prophet?

by James Pyles

Almost a month ago, I wrote an article for this website called Who is a Rabbi?. My primary motivation was that there seemed to be so many "rabbis" in the Messianic movement. I was concerned as to the validity of these individuals claiming this title (and thus the qualifications that go along with it). Even a casual search of the Internet regarding our movement (and some forms of Christianity) will reveal the names of modern people who also claim the title of "Prophet". There has been a certain amount of discussion about whether there are modern-day prophets at all and if they do (or don't) exist, how do we tell?

As with all theological questions, the best place to look for the answers in is the Bible. In this case the Torah provides two definitions:

Deuteronomy 18:18: I will establish a prophet for them from among their brethern, like you (Moses), and I will place My words in his mouth; He shall speak to them everything that I will command him.

Deuteronomy 18:20 But the prophet who willfully shall speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of the gods of others...that prophet shall die.

That's rather black and white. In the two above examples, the Almighty is speaking to Moses (who was among other things, a prophet). A prophet then is somebody who the Almighty gives some information and tells the prophet to repeat that information to (in this case) the Children of Israel. Referencing the second quote from Deuteronomy, a "false prophet" is either a person who says they are repeating the Word of G-d when G-d never told them to do so or someone who says that "other gods" have told them to repeat their words. That's fine and dandy, but since no one else besides the prophet can hear the Almighty speaking to them, how do we know if the prophet is telling the truth?

Deuteronomy 13:2-6: If there should stand up in your midst a prophet or a dreamer of a dream, and he shall produce to you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes about, of which he spoke to you saying, "Let us follow gods of others that you did not know and we shall worship them!"...do not harken to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of a dream, for HaShem your G-d is testing you to know whether you love HaShem your G-d, with all your heart and all your soul. HaShem your G-d shall you follow and Him shall you fear; His commandments shall you observe and to His voice shall you hearken; Him you shall serve and to Him you shall cleave. And that prophet and that dreamer of a dream shall be put to death, for he has spoken perversion against HaShem your G-d...

So although even a false prophet can produce "a sign or a wonder" (a supernatural event), you can tell they are not speaking as a prophet of the Almighty when they either tell you to follow the "gods of others" or when the prophet encourages you to not obey the commandments of the Almighty. I interpret this more generally to mean that the prophet is false when he or she tells you something that is not consistent with the Bible. That means one way you can tell if a prophet is speaking the truth is if what he is speaking is consistent with the Word of G-d. There is another test however:

Deuteronomy 18:21-22: When you say in your heart, "How can we know the word that HaShem has not spoken?" If the prophet will speak in the name of HaShem and that thing will not occur and not come about...that is the word that HaShem has not spoken; with willfulness has the prophet spoken it, you should not fear him.

In other words, let's say I tell you, "In the year 2007, this, that, and the other thing will happen. I know because G-d told me so". Now 2007 comes and goes and "this", "that", and the "other thing" don't occur. That makes me a false prophet. Now let's say I get lucky and "guess" that "this" will occur and it does, even though "that" and "the other thing" don't occur. Am I still a false prophet? Maybe my receptors were just out of alignment for "that" and "the other thing" but managed to receive the word of G-d about "this".

My response to that argument is a polite "baloney". None of the prophets in the Tanakh had bad reception. They heard and repeated everything the Almighty told them to say. They didn't have good and bad days when they heard G-d better or worse than others. A true prophet of G-d is either 100% right about what G-d tells him or is not a prophet of G-d at all.

A few months back, I read a news story about a popular evangelical pastor who has been "prophecying" in the name of G-d for many years. He was reflecting on the predictions he'd made for the year 2006 and somewhat humorously remarked that he seemed to have about a 50% accuracy rate. It didn't seem to bother him at all that about half of his "G-d given" predictions didn't occur. I won't mention his name but you've probably already guessed it.

The reason all of this is vital for us as Torah-submissive believers to understand is that our movement is replete with people who call themselves prophets. These are "known names" in the Messianic movement. That is, people who write books, publish articles and otherwise spread their teachings to the national and worldwide Messianic community. If we simply take their word for what they say G-d has told them without questioning or investigating, we can easily be lead to the modern day equivalent of "serving the gods of others". In fact, the Apostolic scriptures also speak of this very thing:

Acts 17:10-11: But as soon as night fell, the brothers sent Sh'aul (Paul) and Sila (Silas) to Berea. As soon as they arrived, they went to the synagogue. Now the people here were of nobler character than the ones in Thessalonica; they eagerly welcomed the message, checking the Tanakh (Old Testament or Scriptures) every day to see if the things Sha'ul was saying were true. Many of them (diaspora Jews) came to faith, as did a number of prominent Greek women and not a few Greek men.

I don't think Paul resented not being taken at his word by the Bereans and in fact commended them for checking what he said against the Word of the Almighty. As is quoted on this site's main page, "All Scripture is inspired by G-d and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness..." from 2 Timothy 3:16. I take all this to mean that if there is a discrepancy between what a prophet says and what the Bible says, believe the Bible.

Some of you reading this article may be asking yourself "But what about parts of the Bible I don't understand? How do I know if the prophet is being truthful when I can't interpret those parts just by reading them?" There's no easy answer for that one. I believe there are parts of the Bible we won't understand without much study and a mature faith. Perhaps there are passages in the Bible that we will never understand before the Messiah returns. However, there is a clue:

2 Timothy 2:15: Study to show yourself to G-d as someone worthy of His approval, as a worker with no reason to be ashamed; one who is straightforwardly dealing with the Word of truth

Some translations say "Do all you can do to show yourself..." rather than "study" but it all comes back to "the Word of truth". G-d didn't present us with an undecipherable puzzle when He gave us the Bible. He didn't play "hide and seek" with the Word. He wants us to understand what His Word says and what it means in our lives. It is true that G-d has equipped gifted teachers in our communities to help us in our study of the Word so we don't have to rely just on our own judgment. Any time I teach (and I don't claim to be a "gifted" teacher), I'd better be ready to point to where any of my teachings have a Biblical foundation and I welcome the comments of the people in my faith community. We study together so we can all gain a better understanding of the Word, not my individual interpretation of it.

The next time you encounter a person who either says they are a prophet or says they've received some sort of special revelation from the Almighty, act like a Berean and look it up in the Bible. That's where the truth is.

By the way, if someone asks you why we don't stone false prophets in America (or where ever you live) today, there are several answers. In Biblical times, when a false prophet was discovered, they were not summarily stoned by an unruly mob. They were detained and brought before the Sanhedrin. An investigation was conducted and witnesses were questioned. It was only after all the evidence was weighed and the Sanhedrin ruled that the person in question was indeed a false prophet that the death sentence was issued. The primary witness or witnesses were the first to throw the stones at the condemned person. Remember, these laws were established by the Almighty Himself as part of the ancient Israeli penal system which was incorporated in their constitution (which is the Torah itself).

I live in America which is not under that constitution. The Sanhedrin does not exist and this isn't Israel. I'm not lobbing rocks at anyone without proper authority and that legal authority (a court directly established by the Almighty) doesn't exist currently...in Israel or any place else. Perhaps those laws will be re-established after the Messiah returns but I'm not willing to render a hard and fast opinion on it. Just don't go casting stones on your own authority, even when you read Deuteronomy 18:20. We don't have the system originally established by the Almighty in order to carry out the sentence. That's why studying all of the Bible is important. One verse taken out of context and not weighed against the Bible as a whole can result in a ghastly mistake...or fuel to feed a false prophet's "fire".

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