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Prophets
What
Are Prophets in the Bible?
Do
Prophets Still Exist Today?
A
prophet receives messages from God, mainly concerning events that will take
place in the future, and conveys them to a certain group of people or singular
person, whom God intends to hear the delivered message. In some ways, a prophet
is an advocate or mediator between God and a group of people.
Hope
Bolinger
No one
can leaf through Scripture without encountering a prophet in the Old and New
Testament. From Ezekiel to John the Baptist, these messengers of God appear in
just about every part of the Bible.
Why do
they play such an important role? What role exactly do they play?
And do
they still exist in the world today, or did they cease to play a part after the
New Testament?
What is a
prophet?
Christians
vary in their characterizations of a prophet. This article will abide by this
definition:
A prophet
receives messages from God, mainly concerning events that will take place in
the future, and conveys them to a certain group of people or singular person,
whom God intends to hear the delivered message.
In some
ways, a prophet is an advocate or mediator between God and a group of people.
Old
Testament Prophets
God
doesn’t always speak directly to only one group of people. For instance, God
gave the prophet Jonah a message for the Assyrians, an enemy of Israel at the
time (Jonah 4:6-9).
The
prophet Daniel carried a dispatch for the Babylonians about their imminent
demise via the hand of the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5:25-28).
However,
sometimes God uses prophets to speak to His own people.
For
instance, God commanded the prophet Jeremiah to speak against Israel’s
idolatrous ways, and if they heeded the warning, He would let them stay in
their land (Jeremiah 7).
Why did
we need prophets?
Why would
people need this messenger in the first place?
A number
of reasons can necessitate a prophet.
1. Prophets increased credibility of the Scriptures.
First, a
prophet can give veracity to the Scriptures. If, for instance, someone
prophesied about a Messiah who would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and
hundreds of years later it happened, this would bolster the truth of Scripture.
The odds
of a prophecy coming true hundreds of years after the prediction would be so
small, that it’s fulfillment would increase belief in God rather than belief
that it happened by chance.
2. Prophets represented time for repentance.
Second, a
prophet gives a group of people a chance to turn back to God. Usually, God
places a buffer of time (a prophet) between immoral actions of a group of
people and consequences which follow.
Take, for
instance, the Jeremiah example listed above. God gave the Israelites time to
turn from their wicked ways — via a prophetic message — before He would enact a
just, yet severe future punishment.
3. Prophets delivered God’s word to sinful people.
Third,
before Christ came, a prophet provided an arbitration between God and His
people. Because sin had divided a Holy God from sinful people, a prophet served
as a sort of bridge to convey God’s word to a group in need of hearing that
message.
Do prophets
still exist today?
This
brings up quite a few questions which have sparked theological debate, mainly,
asking:
(1) Do the gifts of prophecy still exist?
(2) And why would we need a mediator when Jesus is the Mediator?
Before we
answer both of these, we do need to keep in mind Scripture warns against many
false prophets in the age to come (Matthew 7:15).
These “wolves
in sheep’s clothing” will turn followers away from God. Christians
must exercise extreme caution when handling this subject.
Some say
it existed in the early church because those followers did not have the full
canonical Bible, so the prophecy served as a cushion when they didn’t have the
whole Scripture to rely on.
Therefore,
many theologians believe prophecy ceased after we had the complete word of God.
After all, Revelation does warn against adding anything to Scripture (Revelation 22:18-19).
If we
have the complete word of God, why would we need prophets to add to it?
It may
seem extreme to say all prophecy has ceased in today’s day and age.
The
author of this article has encountered Christians who appeared to prophecy in
front of her.
Although
the author of this article does believe in some sense prophecy does exist
today, she does acknowledge many Christians do not believe this to be the case.
Either
way, we need to turn to Scripture as the ultimate source of God’s word and use
the Bible to analyze any prophecy we might hear.
The
litmus test of true prophecy is if it aligns with what Scripture says.
If it
contradicts what God declares in the Bible, do not pay any attention to the
words of the so-called “prophecy.”
If it
lines up with Scripture 100 percent, pray for discernment about what God is
trying to say for your life.
Hope Bolinger is a literary agent
at C.Y.L.E. and a recent graduate of Taylor University's professional writing
program. More than 350 of her works have been featured in various publications
ranging from Writer's Digest to Keys for Kids. She has worked for various publishing
companies, magazines, newspapers, and literary agencies and has edited the work
of authors such as Jerry B. Jenkins and Michelle Medlock Adams. Her column
"Hope's Hacks," tips and tricks to avoid writer's block, reaches
3,000+ readers weekly and is featured monthly on Cyle Young's blog, which
receives 63,000+ monthly hits. Her modern-day Daniel, “Blaze,”
(Illuminate YA) just released, and they just contracted the sequel. Find out
more about her here.
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