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Welcome to the for the gospel podcast, where we're all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Costi Hinn, and on today's episode, I want to talk to you about prophecy, the New Testament gift, the office of prophet, and what that all entails and what it doesn't entail. We get asked a lot of questions here at For the Gospel, about prophecy, and about prophets. There is a lot of people around the world who claim to be prophets. There are schools that will train people to be prophets, uh, even just naming their school, the School of Prophets, uh, as Bethel does under the leadership there of Chris Valaton, who's kind of their lead prophet, and Bill Johnson being their lead apostle. These are important questions for us to have answers because you're going to get asked about this. And the more social media and the online world spreads messaging of all kinds, good and bad, there could be confusion with people that are in your circles. And so I want to define this first. To be a prophet or to be one who is able to prophesy, you would need to fit the description of what the Bible said a prophet was and prophets would do. The God-given ability and office of prophet is shown to us in 1 Corinthians 12 28 and in Ephesians 4 11. Both of those passages laying out the New Testament gift and office of prophecy and prophet. That involved communicating direct revelation from God to people. That's in short what prophecy is. You are being given revelation from God, and then you prophesy. Like some gifts, such as miracles, your prophets were also seen throughout the Old Testament, and they were expected to be a hundred percent accurate in their words, or else they would be labeled a false prophet. There was no middle, no nuances, no, hey, I kind of missed that one. I'm sorry. In the New Testament, prophets are held to the same standard. Nothing changes except one thing. Falsely prophesying does not lead to death as it did in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 18, verses 15 to 22, very important passage that you should keep on your radar. God essentially says to his people, you don't need to fear anybody who says that they're a prophet. When they prophesy something, it doesn't come true. They did not speak for me, they are not my prophet or my representative, do not fear them. But then there was another layer to that in which a false prophet would be put to death. Well, in the New Covenant, that's not something that was common practice. In the age of grace, false prophets were to be dealt with a different way. So how? Well, Paul the Apostle gives us a lot of clarity. In Romans chapter 16, verses 17 and 18, he doesn't say to kill those who are teaching things that are contrary or being false teachers or false prophets. He says to mark them. So now there's a different approach. You call them out. In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 18, you don't fear them, you don't listen, and then they get killed. In the New Testament, obviously you don't fear them, you don't listen to them at all, but we mark them, we point them out. And there are false prophets and deceitful workers. Paul makes it really clear to the church at Corinth that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and his false apostles, his false workers are going to present themselves as servants of righteousness. They're just like their father, the devil, who is the father of lies, and they spew lies, and there is not truth. There is no model in the New Testament, contrary to what many claim is prophecy or the office of prophet today, for anybody to be inaccurate with their prophecies or to say something is going to happen, or thus say it the Lord, and then it doesn't come to pass. There is no New Testament prophecy that is a loose word from the Lord, you know, I think I have a word for you type of thing. People do that all the time today, or something you felt, like someone says, now, you know, I feel like God told me that there's something in your life going on. I kind of feel like he might have said, or I feel like I should tell you this, I feel like I should prophesy. There's none of that ambiguous approach to prophecy in the New Testament. You and I, I'm sure you have, I know I have, I've heard many people, too many people who are self-proclaimed prophets and prophetesses stand on stages and speak to people at the altar, kind of like this. You know, I feel like God told me X, Y, Z, and I'm here to tell you that your breakthrough is coming, or Thus saith the Lord. And all of these things are very attractive to people who want to hear from the Lord, but it's not real prophecy. New Testament prophecy would be very specific, it would provide details and instructions that came directly from God. That's what prophets did. That's what prophecy is. And it's very important to define prophecy according to the Bible. Prophecy was, in a sense, miraculous. It was not a human attempt to just share something encouraging or say, hey, I feel like God wants me to tell you. God would directly speak revelation to someone, and they would declare that information to an audience. That's miraculous. That the God of the universe would speak to a human and direct them with perfect accuracy and perfect clarity. When a prophet heard from God, there was no doubt about it. They were not speaking human wisdom, they were speaking divine wisdom from God. So if anybody who claims to hear from the Lord speaks inaccurately, they're done. They're not a real prophet. What they've spoken is not from the Lord. There's people today, though, who will argue, well, there's there's fallible prophecy. We're just fallible people. We can't know fully. And so fallible prophecy has become very popular in today's world. A lot of people with their online ministries or their schools of prophets, you know, they're they're out there just saying stuff and stuff happens and stuff doesn't. And they say, well, I don't get everything right because you know we're we're we're in a fallen world. That never happened in the Bible. Never. If you falsely prophesied, you didn't say, oops, sorry, let me try that again, or I got that one wrong, sorry guys, and then you go on to be a 90% accurate prophet. That was never the model in the Bible. So when we say we have the gift of something or we operate in the office of something, but we don't look what the like the what the Bible defines it as, we are not that thing. This is a no-brainer with gender today. You say you're a man or you say you're a woman, but if you don't match what God's design is for that particular gender, you can get all the surgeries you want. People are doing that left and right, but it doesn't change the truth. So it is with things like prophecy. If people say they're prophets, but they don't prophesy accurately, perfectly, they're not a prophet. The true prophet was never wrong, never missed. He never saw their prophecy not come to pass. To falsely prophesy was a damning thing. It was so dangerous because you would be labeled a false prophet. Now, to those who would say, Well, I believe that there can be fallible prophecy today, I want to give you five areas of concern with that thinking. These are from Nathan Buznitz. Dr. Buzenitz is a dear friend and a brother. He serves in leadership at the Master's Seminary and is an expert on this topic. I want to have him on the podcast soon to talk about it. But he lays out five areas of concern and is very respectful of those who would differ. I will name one person in particular who many of us greatly respect. He's a renowned theologian, Dr. Wayne Grudum, who's from Phoenix Seminary. Very sweet. I've got the chance to spend some time with him. He is a godly gracious man. And of course, people like Dr. Buznitz and many others have a great deal of respect for Dr. Grudom. His systematic theology is on all our shelves. He has done the body of Christ a great service in many ways. And it is perfectly normal for theologians to differ or for us to differ with certain theologians on certain things. And Dr. Grudom would be one who represents the continuationist position, not the cessationist, cessationist position. And he has argued before that there are two prophetic gifts in the New Testament. There is apostolic prophecy, which is infallible, authoritative, and foundational. So that's great. We would all say yes and amen. That is most certainly the way the apostles prophesied. And that would was equivalent to Old Testament prophecy. And, you know, it ceased after the time of the apostles. But in Grutum's view, there's a second type of New Testament prophecy, and he would call it congregational prophecy. Now, we're not given those categories in scripture, although he would argue for those. This form of prophecy, he says, is more fallible, it's not authoritative. No one is saying they're they're giving new scripture or getting revelation that should be written down, nothing like that, but that it's not equivalent to Old Testament prophecy. And so their standards have changed, and it's more like spirit-led advice. Well, it's not a great idea to go that route, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others, because there are deep concerns that can come up. And this isn't throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Now God does nothing and he's not a supernatural God. This is to say that the office and function and gifts of apostle and the prophet and prophecy ceased with those men because they were foundational. They did their job, and now we're built atop that. There is no fallible prophecy today. Here are the five areas of concern that Dr. Buznitz lays out. By creating a category of modern prophecy that can include erroneous messages, the view makes it, this view makes it unnecessarily difficult for the church today to identify and refute false prophets, which is what we're supposed to do. Matthew 7.15 lays that out. And it further neuters, he says, or ignores, the strict requirements on true prophecy found in Deuteronomy 13 or 18. So if you have fallible prophets, you can't call them false prophets. They're just fallible. So if you know Chris Vallaton says Donald Trump's going to be the next president, or thus saith the Lord this, or thus saith the Lord that, or maybe somebody like my uncle Benny, who back in the 90s said God was going to kill all homosexuals with fire. And then another time he he said Fidel Castro was going to die. All these random prophecies he would throw out there, when they didn't come true, normally we would label that person a false prophet. Say don't listen to them anymore, and we'd mark them. According to Grudim's view and others who would hold the fallible prophecy, you can't say that about that individual. They could just be fallible. That's a deep concern. Number two, by defining prophecy in terms of impressions or subjective guidance, meaning it's not really this direct revelation from the Lord. This view provides no objective or authoritative means by which a person can know for sure if a feeling is from God or from another source. It also provides no objective or authoritative means by which church leaders can evaluate for certain whether a prophet's message is legitimate. If prophecy becomes this subjective thing where we're we kind of have a feeling and it could be wrong, well then how in the world does anybody discern what is wrong or right? Well, you say, well, just test the spirits, Costi. See if they're of the Lord. So if it comes to pass, then you know it was true, and if it doesn't, and then now we run into the same problem. What do you call that? False prophecy, fallible prophecy? Was it God? Was it not God? Is the next time God? What if it seems like God? What if feelings are the dictator of it all and you have really strong feelings? What if it comes from the influential pastor or leader or so-called apostle or prophet of the church? And you and I both know, even without these sort of things, people are scared to death to challenge leaders sometimes. Now put the label of prophet and now put this big belief that it could be subjective, we're in trouble. Number three, by teaching that God still gives prophetic revelation today, this view encourages believers to look for messages from God outside of the Bible. And again, while continuationists will argue rightly so that the canon is closed. Nobody else is writing scripture. This view of prophecy in practice does call to question the sufficiency of scripture at the most practical level. So you have the Bible, but then you get this sort of um, if you've heard of Sarah Young, the lady who wrote Jesus Calling, she says in the preface of that book, I know God gave us the Bible, but I yearned for more. And so that mentality, if you didn't know that, sorry. If you're a big Jesus calling fan, I'm sorry, just ruined your day. Go look at it, go read it, use some discernment. I don't want to read anybody's books who say, I know God gave me the Bible, but I yearned for more. And so I grabbed my pen and started writing, and she's writing on behalf of God. Brothers and sisters, if if I'm supposed to get a subjective message, if I feel like I'm hearing from the Lord and I gotta prophesy, or I'm I'm getting some sort of thing happen, and it's all subjective, and that's the way that I'm to look for messages from God. I'm naturally going to be tempted to look outside the Bible. In fact, this view insists that you can hear from God outside of the Bible. Now, I am all for uh a belief that the Holy Spirit can stir our hearts with conviction. What's wrong with that? I've got a conviction to share the gospel all the time. Where's that from? Costy? No, it's from the Spirit of God inside of me. You have the same thing. Reformed folks and conservative people in theological circles that wouldn't hold to all of this prophetic stuff have no issue saying that. We know the Spirit of God is active within us, powerful within us, supernaturally working within us. But the Bible is where I go to enact his word. If I'm going to quote unquote prophesy, I'm just gonna read the Bible, and God is speaking. That's prophetic if you want to say that, but I'm not saying thus saith the Lord. You know, I think he said, I thought, I felt, you know, don't go to this place or that. You just read the word. You go to the word to hear from him. Dr. Buznitz goes on to give another uh word of caution here. Number four, by using terms like prophecy or revelation and a word from the Lord, this view has the potential to manipulate people by binding their consciences to a fallible message or compelling them to make unwise decisions. Though proponents insist that congregational prophecy is not authoritative, their understanding of prophecy is highly vulnerable to being abused within the local congregation. This happens all the time. How many of you listening have been told before, you know, I feel like God is telling me to tell you, don't do that? There are even conservative churches who will suddenly become quote unquote prophetic and say, I feel like God is leading me to tell you that if you leave this church, you are stepping out from the anointed covering over your life, and you are not going to be protected, and things can come upon you because you're walking away from this house. That happens in even conservative circles. Well, what is that? Did God tell you that? Is that a prophecy? Is that a revelation? Is that a word from the Lord? People can abuse their authority so much more by saying they're hearing something from God. And naturally, as people, we immediately bend our ear because we're being told that God, who is our authority and the one we want to hear from, is supposedly speaking through this person that we respect, who is our leader. It's an area of concern. And finally, number five, Dr. Busnitz says, By allowing for error in prophecy, this view permits people to say, Thus saith the Lord, when in fact their messages are fallible and erroneous. In effect, it allows people to attribute the God of truth to that which is errant. That is a very dangerous thing to do. Dr. Buzeness is absolutely right. Let's say you believe in subjective impressions and things that, you know, maybe you felt God tell you something. You want to say, I'm I'm gonna say that, Costi, I don't agree with you. Okay. Let's say you believe that God will can speak to your thoughts. You know, you get a thought and you're like, okay, that's you. You I don't I don't want to listen to what you're saying, Costi, about that. I'm I'm not gonna land there with you. Okay. Tell me this is it ever okay, no matter what camp you're in, or what theological position you hold to ever say, thus says the Lord, and then it doesn't come true. You have just said that God is a liar. You have made him out to be a liar, you've presented him as a liar. Is he a liar? No. Did he speak? No. Does that change who he is? No, but you have presented him as one who lies. That is reproach on his name, that is theft of his glory. You have robbed him of glory, you have presented a false version of him to people who need to be enthralled with his glory and met with his awesomeness and his truth and his clarity and his perfect will, and you have just given them something that is horrific, dirty, stained, and human. You've attributed that which should be holy and perfect with that which is filthy and fallible. When we redefine fallible messages as prophecy, it demeans and cheapens the true gift, Buznitz goes on to say. There are many other implications that you can add to this, but let me just offer a word of caution to you friends. If you believe the gift and office of prophet and prophecy are still operating today, be so careful. Be slow, be discerning. If anything, I would encourage you to accept the biblical reality that apostles and prophets served in a foundational way for the church, and now we have a prophetic word made more sure through the scriptures which were given to the apostles and the prophets to give to us, and stick with that. And if you want to be one of those people who says, Well, I can't go into the cessationist stuff, and I can't say God won't or God doesn't, you want to, if that's a difficult thing for you, I understand, then why not just say, apostles and prophets were foundational? God's word is the source of God's voice for my life. If God is going to speak, I am going to hear it audibly. He is gonna boom from heaven, and it will be just like the Bible. And if a prophet says something prophetic, it's gonna look and sound just like the prophets in the Old Testament and the New. It will be perfect and accurate, they will never get one wrong. If that's your standard, here's where we're gonna end up. You and I, at the end of our lives, are gonna look back. And if you said, Well, I don't believe that prophets stopped being around and I believe prophecy could happen, it's still a gift. And I said, Well, I believe that the prophets were our prophets, and those are done, and that nobody now has the gift of prophecy. We've already given uh we've already been given prophecy, but at the end of our lives, we're gonna have seen the same things. God's word held high, God's people given his voice with clarity through his word, pastors, teachers, and leaders who spoke the word of the Lord to his people, and you're gonna find that there was no one who ever claimed to be a prophet who got it right all the time. Because there are no more prophets today. It's a difficult truth for people to wrestle with, perhaps. Maybe not, though. Maybe more of this has started to make sense to you. Or if at the very least, my hope is that if you are one who believes that there are still prophets today, you would slow down and use discernment and expect the perfect standard from those who would say that they are a prophet. To say, thus says the Lord is a very serious claim. Let's expect the perfect biblical standard from such people. I hope this episode has given you a lot to think about, and I pray that if you're uh maybe someone who disagrees with me or Dr. Buzenitz's conclusions, that you would still be discerning and careful, that you would aim to be biblical. And I also hope that you have heard a faithful, proper, uh, irenic spirit from us here at FTG and from Dr. Buzenitz uh regarding those like Dr. Grudom, who would differ on these things, knowing that there are many, many wonderful people who disagree. They're going to be in heaven together, and we can disagree in an agreeable way. For free resources, go to furthegospel.org. If you have been blessed by this podcast, I would love for you to drop us a review on Apple or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. The more that you provide feedback, that helps with visibility, and we'd love for more people to be blessed by this program. If you want to check out more information about our team or become a gospel patron and help us produce more free resources like we have been, you can go to furthegospel.org, check out our give page and look at that. And if you're not already, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.