Today’s Prophets

The Old Testament mentions at least 39 named prophets of the Lord,[1] as well as many unnamed prophets of the Lord.[2] Not all of these prophets predicted future events. What they all had in common is that they spoke for the Lord, delivering God’s messages to his people.

And that is what a prophet is—a person who speaks for God—unless of course the prophet is a false prophet. A false prophet is a person who only pretends to speak for the  Lord.

How are we to tell the true prophets from the false?

If the prophet is predicting future events, then Deuteronomy 18:22 tells us that we will know the prophet is false if their prediction does not come true—that is, if what they predict doesn’t happen as predicted. But what about prophets who are not predicting future events?

When I was a baby Christian, I was told that the test for a prophet is whether what they say is consistent with the word of God, for a true prophet will not contradict the word of God.[3] And that is true as far as it goes. For example, if someone denies that Jesus is the Christ or that he came in the flesh, was crucified, and was raised from death, then that is a false prophet.[4] But sometimes it’s not so easy to tell if the word of God is actually being contradicted, either because the Bible is silent or because its meaning is subject to more than one interpretation.[5] And of course, not everyone who quotes scripture is a true prophet, for Satan can quote scripture, too.[6]

 Jesus gave us what I consider to be a much better test:

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.[7]

“You will know them by their fruits.” What fruits? If we are talking about good fruits, Jesus surely has in mind the types of behavior Paul describes as “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

James says something similar in James 3:17-18:

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

These were character traits that Jesus exhibited. People who claim to speak for God and display these character traits are likely to be true prophets. The false prophets are those whose character displays bad fruits, what Paul calls “deeds of the flesh”:

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. . . .[8]

We can surely also include greed in that list, for “the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”[9]

So one of the best ways to judge whether someone is truly speaking for God is to look at how they are living their life. If they are displaying the fruit of the Spirit, and preaching Christ resurrected, then they are likely a true prophet. In other words, the more they display the character traits Jesus exhibited, the more likely they are to be a true prophet. But if their life exhibits greed or other deeds of the flesh, then they are surely a false prophet.

[1]. Abraham, Moses, Miriam (prophetess), Eldad and Medad,  Deborah (prophetess ), Samuel, Saul (king), Gad, Nathan, Ahijah the Shilonite, Jehu the son of Hanani, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah the son of Imlah, Jonah the son of Amittai, Isaiah the son of Amoz, Huldah (prophetess), Shemaiah, Iddo, Azariah, Hanani the seer, Micaiah the son of Imlah, Oded, Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, Haggai, Zechariah the son of Iddo, Ezekiel the son of Buzi, Daniel, Hosea the son of Beeri, Amos, Micah of Moresheth, Habakkuk, Zephaniah son of Cushi, Malachi, Joel the son of Pethuel, Obadiah, Jonah the son of Amittai, Nahum the Elkoshite

[2]. For example: Unnamed prophet in Judges 6:7-10, the group of prophets in 1 Samuel 10, two unnamed prophets in 1 Kings 13, the unnamed prophet in 1 Kings 20:13, 20:22, the unnamed prophet in 1 Kings 20:35-42, and the unnamed prophet in 2 Chronicles 25:15-16

[3]. See, for example, Galatians 1:6-10.

[4]. See, for example, 1 John 4:1-6.

[5]. For example, the Bible says nothing about abortion, and Christians have different opinions about it. Similarly, Christians differ about what the church’s attitude should be regarding homosexuality.

[6]. See Matthew 4:5-6  and Luke 4:9-11.

[7]. Matthew 7:15-20

[8]. Galatians 5:19-21

[9]. 1 Timothy 6:10