Have you ever heard a preacher or teacher who did not refer
to Balaam as a prophet? I’ve been in church for over 60
years and I haven’t. He has always been referred to, as
late as last week, as a “backslidden” prophet,
seduced by money and prestige. But do you know that the Bible
never refers to him as a prophet? Not even once? His
reputation, according to Balak, King of Moab, was that of a
“diviner”. Color that “fortune teller”.
“For I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he
whom thou cursest is cursed.” (Num 22:6 KJV) That was
Balak’s description of Balaam’s prophetic ministry.
Sound familiar? We have them today that have such reputations:
Jean Dixon, telephone “diviners”, tarot card readers.
The Book of Amos is included in the canonical section of
the Bible referred to as “the minor prophets”, called
thus because of the size of their books not the size of their
message. And how many times have you heard it said that Amos was
not a prophet? Truly he, himself, says “I was no prophet,
neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a
gatherer of sycamore fruit.” (Amos 7:14) One might surmise
that Amos was, therefore, not a prophet…except that in
Verse 15 he receives his call (“and the Lord said unto me,
‘Go, prophesy…’”).
In short, there are people in the Bible who prophesied but
were not called by God a “prophet”; there are people
in the Bible who never prophesied (in the sense of foretelling
something to happen) but are called by God a
“prophet”; there are people who did prophesy and were
called by God a “prophet”; and there are those who
God classifies as or clearly are “false prophets”.
How are they distinguished? It’s pretty easy in the
written scriptures – you just follow their career as
recorded by the Holy Spirit. But what about those we read or
hear on the radio or in person or see on TV? How do we know the
difference where they’re concerned?
A moment should be taken here to clarify how we are using
the word “prophet”. It is true, as any Biblical
scholar will tell you, that the word as used in the scripture can
mean either one who foretells, as in one who tells the
future, or one who forthtells, as in one who proclaims the
Word of God. Both meanings of the word are true but for the
purpose of this study we are going to concentrate on the former.
Why? Is it of any practical value to the Christian today
to know which of the personalities in the bible were truly
prophets and who were not? We’re going to see if we can
determine the marks or characteristics that identify the true
prophet – the one God called to be a foreteller.
Only then can God’s people escape possible delusion and
spiritual shipwreck. Because there are those out there today who
call themselves “prophets” and gain tremendous
followings. Are they for real? Does God consider them
“prophets”? They have the message but do they have
the call? Some probably do and some probably don’t but how
do you know?
Remember, we are not talking here about
“preachers” – “prophets” in the
sense of forthtelling. Most of them believe they were
called of God to proclaim His Word and that is a true prophetic
mission. But there are also those who may be called to
forthtell but take it upon themselves to foretell.
These are the ones who cause many a Christian to end up
shipwrecked on the rocks of disillusion and bitterness. We need
to know how to tell them apart from the real ones.
And there is another danger that we hope to avoid by this
study. There are those who are used of God in certain
supernatural ways from time to time – the manifestations of
the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit as listed by Paul in 1
Corinthians 13. Too many times a person who manifests one of the
more spectacular gifts - healings, miracles, prophecy, etc
– is looked upon by other Christians as a
“prophet” in the Biblical sense. They are pestered
for “a word from the Lord” or personal
guidance.
Sadly there are those who make an entire ministry and whole denominations out of the practice of "personal prophecy". It is, of course, a fact that God will from time to time use the ministry gift of prophecy to provide individual guidance. Not only is that comparatively rare, however, it is also restricted to very special circumstances. To make it an "on demand" activity is not only a misuse of the gift, it is an abomination as much as fortune-telling and palm reading. What is the difference between dialing a "900" number for a "reading" and dialing a radio show for a "word from the Lord"? If the truth were known, the first instance probably produces more true "prophecies" than the second.