In the past few months, I have received a few questions concerning what the Church of the Nazarene believes about prophecy, especially if prophets exist nowadays. The Manual doesn’t give an “official” position. It is a question with which people in various circles wrestle, especially concerning the types of self-proclaimed prophets we see today and their prophecies about end-times.
Here is the response I provided to those inquiring.
You ask an interesting question, and one that would warrant different answers depending upon how you define “prophet” and “prophecy.” I am going to answer your question by looking at how prophets and prophecies are viewed in the Bible.
A prophet is someone who speaks for God.
Biblical prophecies come in many forms – instruction, advice, exhortation, to the people of Israel collectively or to the leaders, yet their purpose is for the recipient to return to righteousness/faithfulness, or to point out the results of apostasy.
Prophecy is not the same as a prediction. Often prophecy is confused with predictive prophecy, but prediction is only a piece of prophecy. Prophets used Israel’s past, present, and occasionally the future to encourage Israel to return to or stay in faithfulness to God.
Israel’s history was used to remember how Israel was faithful or unfaithful and the consequences. The present - (e.g. you’re oppressing the poor) was used to point out current actions of unfaithfulness and a call to return to just living. Occasionally, insights into the future are part of prophecies. However, only about 10% of all biblical prophecies are predictive. Within that 10%, most are conditional (if you will repent [turn around]..., then I will...). There are very few predictive prophesies which are unconditional (such as “you’ve broken the covenant, but I will keep it.”).
If people listen to the warnings given by the prophets, the threats don’t have to be carried out. But that doesn’t mean they are no longer predictive prophecies. They achieved their intended purpose. (The purpose is for the people to repent, not to carry out the threat or tell the future.)
In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul encourages the recipients of his letter to strive for the gift of prophecy in order to build up the body of believers. “Those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” (1 Cor. 14:3, NRSV).
Christians, then, are encouraged to be prophets – to speak against the evils of the world and to build up the Body of Christ – the Church.
Prophecies and prophets can exist today, but often these terms are misunderstood, so we need to beware of false prophets.
In the Old Testament, people did not have easy-access to the Scriptures. People would go to priests and prophets to help them make big life decisions. Today we have access to the Scriptures. Most people own at least one Bible. We need to learn how to discern God’s direction from his Word.
God has revealed himself through the inspired scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and most clearly in the incarnation of Jesus. Additionally, we have 2,000 years of Christian tradition. Any prophet today should not be contradicting or saying anything which goes against what Christians believe or manipulating the Christian message for personal gain. Any so-called prophet who focuses on predictions of doom and gloom is not being true to the heart of biblical prophecy – the nature to transform and redeem, not to condemn.
I hope this has given you a good biblical foundation for understanding prophecy.
Sincerely,
Rev. Jonathan Phillips, M.Div.
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