PROPHECY IS NOT ABOUT PREDICTING THE FUTURE
Contrary to conventional thinking, the purpose of a prophet is not to predict the future. True prophets do indeed give warning of judgment for people who do not repent of the sin of religion, and they create a picture what life will be like if they do not repent  But these prophecies are all designed to train people in personal righteousness today. They are not matters to ponder or worry about for some unknown future time.

We see the opposite of this here and now, personal application of prophecy in Charismatic Christianity where so-called, modern day prophets are imagined to hear from God about current conditions (i.e. words of knowledge and words of wisdom) that apply to individuals, churches, and coming events that affect select people in the past or in the future. In some super-religious circles these kinds of prophecies are highly regarded even though they are so broad and general that their validity can never be proven by observation. Nevertheless, prophecy is big business in the world of Charismatic and Pentecostal religion where many books, videos, ministries and conferences devoted to prophecy attract eager followers who willingly finance religious organizations with donations.

Beyond these commercial, exhibitionist examples of prophecy, there is a prevailing sense that whatever Biblical prophets had to say applied only to their contemporaries or to people who will live in some unknown, future time when prophecy will be fulfilled. For lack of understanding about God’s view of time and how he uses natural things to represent spiritual truth, and for lack of the ability to interpret scripture symbolically instead of literally, no one applies prophetic warnings to themselves in present time. Thus, it is impossible to find preaching — in either Judaism or Christianity —  that interprets Biblical prophecy in terms of the two major themes of all prophetic books: destroying nations and tearing down idols and high places.

It is fair to say, therefore, that Biblical prophets are grossly misunderstood. Most people think they know that the job of a prophet is to foretell the future, but this notion is another example  where we would say that “the greater the agreement, the greater the error in understanding.” Just because people agree on the function of a prophet does not guarantee that they are right in their understanding.

Despite the lack of a right understanding of the prophetic role, it is good to review what the conventional wisdom reports about prophets and prophecy. Therefore, we suggest the following resources:

STUDY TIP: We do not recommend these or any of thousands of resources about prophets available in a wide variety of formats for reliable instruction about God’s view of a prophet. They are only useful for a review of the worldly understanding of a prophet.

We do not recommend them as resources for New Covenant disciples because they approach the topic of prophets and prophecy from an Old/First Covenant perspective (i.e. they all interpret prophets and prophecy with whatever literal understanding they gain from scripture combined with common, cultural understandings).

Resources in the above list do not interpret prophets and prophecy from the symbolic/spiritual (i.e. New Covenant) perspective because all these resources (both Jewish and Christian) are written by Old/First Covenant religionists who base their writings and ministries on literal interpretations of the Bible.

Even though these and other religious writings do not accurately report about prophets and prophecy from a New Covenant perspective, we do not want to ignore or despise what the law (i.e. written word) says about prophets and prophecy because God has said that he uses Old/First Covenant law, including teachers of the law, to accomplish his redemptive purposes. Nor do we want to deny God’s wisdom in allowing false prophets to express their Old/First Covenant heresies to Old/First Covenant religionists who ignorantly solicit such teaching from them. It is all about God’s plan to lead people out of religion to faith by placing a stumbling block before them.