Keeping the Prophets In Perspective

It's high time we knocked the prophets down a few rungs.

Not in the sense that the prophets of God held themselves in such high regard that they need to gain a sense of humility, but rather from our own personal ideologies. We need to reassess the modern church's artificial escalation of the prophets of the Bible and gain a more accurate picture of their contribution to God's master plan.

At the heart of the matter, more so than your typical incorrectly held understanding by the biblically challenged parishioners who make up the majority of the body of Christ, is the desire of some to seize the inflated spiritual status that will undoubtedly accompany self-proclamation as one who has the gift of prophecy among modern day churchgoers.

Adding to the confusion is the apostle Paul's commentary on the various spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:28-31

28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. 29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? 30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? 31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts

Paul's hierarchy of spiritual gifts does lend to the idea that a prophet has a certain status of authority and/or clout within the body of Christ since prophets are listed as being second only to apostles. However, Paul's hierarchy was not talking about positions or roles within the church, rather to the spiritual gifts that are distributed among those roles and positions at all levels of authority within the church.

In other words, a first century deacon who had the gift of prophecy was still under the authority of the church elders and the apostles, etc.

It doesn't help that sometimes there are instances where ancient words are translated to say "apostle" or "prophet" when clearly the word isn't specifically referring to one of the twelve apostles or a major prophet like Isaiah or John for example. It's obvious from the context that the "apostle" or "prophet" is not meant to be held in the same regard at all as the twelve or a prophet whose writings made their way into the inerrant Word of God.

Of course, just like any other scripture in the Bible, our understanding of them must be weighed and measured against the Word of God as a whole to ensure sound doctrine.

In that light, it's easy to see that based on the criteria in Acts 1:21-22 that any word "apostle" in the scriptures not referring specifically to a member of the twelve apostles can't have the same meaning as the instances where it does specifically refer to a member of the twelve. (Although, that doesn't keep some hucksters from taking on the title of apostle despite that fact that they could never meet the Acts chapter 1 criteria)

The same is true for the term "prophet". It doesn't have a static definition in terms of position of authority, and people who don't meet the criteria fraudulently lay claim to the title.

What is a prophet?

A prophet is someone who speaks or writes down the words given to them by God. We have to keep that definition extremely simple because that technically is the only attribute that is true about all the prophets mentioned in the Bible. The similarities pretty much end there. Because the following list of facts about biblical prophets is also true:

1. Not all prophets are equal.

2. Not all prophets held positions of authority or leadership roles.

3. Not all prophets even knew they were prophets when they were prophesying.

4. Not all prophets were devout worshipers of God.

Alright, let's parse this out.

Not all prophets are equal

This statement is confirmed simply by the fact that we use the terms major and minor prophets when referring to the authors of the last 17 books of the Old Testament.

There is also clearly a distinction between Elijah and all other prophets of his day. In fact, Elijah's ministry was such that other prophets prophesied about another prophet coming in the future that would be like Elijah, of which John the Baptist was the fulfillment. Jesus has high praise for John the Baptist in Matthew 11:9-11

9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written,‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You,Who will prepare Your way before You.’11 Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

The clincher though is found in Exodus 12, where God rebukes Miriam and Aaron for challenging Moses. Ironically, they claimed their prophet status made them equal with Moses and God put them in their place in versus 5-8.

5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, 6 He said,“Hear now My words:If there is a prophet among you,I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision.I shall speak with him in a dream.7 “Not so, with My servant Moses,He is faithful in all My household;8 With him I speak mouth to mouth,Even openly, and not in dark sayings,And he beholds the form of the Lord.Why then were you not afraidTo speak against My servant, against Moses?”

Here, God makes it quite clear that not all prophets are made equal.

Not all prophets held positions of authority or leadership roles.

While there is no shortage of prophets that also had positions of authority and leadership in the assembly of God, there is also no shortage of prophets who not only had no positions of authority, but those in authority and/or the congregation of their peers persecuted and killed them.

For every Samuel who had authority over the entire Israelite nation, there is a Jeremiah thrown into a cistern. King David had the throne whereas the throne of the Northern kingdom sought to kill Elijah. Isaiah was sawed in two, Ezekiel was mocked. No two prophets were alike. This idea that being a prophet somehow bestows on one a Moses-like status among the people of God is not biblical.

A prophet speaks the word of God. Period. There is no claim on leadership that accompanies the gift of prophecy, and the only authority that exists, resides with the originator of the words and not in the lips that spoke them.

Not all prophets even knew they were prophets when they were prophesying.

The Psalmist David is the most obvious example of this fact. He sits down to write a song of praise to the Sovereign of the universe and the Holy Spirit inspires a blow by blow detailed description of the crucifixion from the first person perspective of the Messiah on the cross a millennium before it comes to pass. Psalm 22 is not the only psalm of David that has prophecy about some aspect of the life or the ministry of Christ.

An even better example, however, is when a villain speaks a prophecy unbeknownst to himself or anyone else in the room. In John 11:49-51, the high priest Caiaphas unwittingly spoke this prophecy about Jesus.

49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation.

Now you might be able to argue that David knew he was a prophet when he wrote the Psalms but there is no way you can make that argument for Caiaphas, the man who led the effort to kill the Messiah.

In the end, God uses people to speak His words sometimes without their even knowing.

Not all prophets were devout worshipers of God.

When it comes to claims on leadership roles in the body of Christ there really is no dis qualifier quite as robust as being a pagan. (Cue some modern denominations being triggered by that last sentence)

Although he wasn't a pagan, Caiaphas gets the distinct honor of being exhibit A in the "prophets who weren't devout worshipers of God" category.

The crown for that category, however, goes to Balaam son of Beor. In Numbers chapters 22-24, Balak, king of Moab hires Balaam, a prophet of renown from Mesopotamia, to lay a curse on the people of Israel because they were afraid that the Israelites would lay waste to them like they did to some neighboring cities and kings whose people were "rephaim" or giants (really tall people).

It is theorized that Balaam was a pagan prophet, most likely due to the fact that he had a "fee for divination" and ultimately acted treacherously to the people of Israel despite having blessed them at God's command.

Pagan or not, there is no question from the text that Balaam not only had direct communication with God but he spoke oracles of blessing over the people of Israel under the direction of God Almighty, much to the dismay of Balak.

A major key element to the story of Balaam is the journey to Moab to meet with Balak. Three times the donkey he was riding on saw an angel of the Lord on the road with a drawn sword and took evasive maneuvers, (one of those times, crushing Balaam's foot against a wall). Each time Balaam proceeded to beat his donkey in response. After the third beating the Bible says "...the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey" and caused her to speak.

Like the donkey, Balaam was merely a beast of burden when it came to prophecy. As he states later upon meeting with Balak when he says "The word that God puts in my mouth, that I shall speak"

Ultimately Balaam would earn his ill-gotten fee to trip up the Israelites by, instead of cursing them, instructing the Moabites and Midianites to seduce the men of Israel with the beautiful women of Midian and Moab and entice them into worshiping their false gods.

Balaam's council proved to be effective in causing damage to the Israelite community but he never made it back to Mesopotamia with his riches.

In the end, the story of Balaam teaches us that prophets, like Balaam's donkey, are merely beasts of burden and God can speak through those who don't worship Him just as easily as those who do.

In Conclusion

It's clear that the modern church has an unnecessarily inflated view of the prophets of old and/or the gift of prophecy. This incorrect perception has opened the door for deceptive people to self-proclaim the gift of prophecy (many times fraudulently) and escalate their role within the body of Christ and cause some real damage to the reputation of the city on a hill.

Others have tried to use that same inflated view of the prophets and gift of prophecy to teach false doctrines that do not stand up to plainly stated and abundantly clear teachings in the Bible such as who can and can not have certain leadership roles in the church.

Those chosen by God to lead His church may or may not have been given the gift of prophecy and those with the gift of prophecy may or may not also be chosen to lead God's church. There is no default leadership role implied for those whose mouth God opens.

Self-appointed prophets or even those with the actual gift of prophecy have no more claim to a leadership role in the body of Christ than Balaam's donkey does apart from the ordination of God Himself.