The best-case scenario was that a church had access to most of the Old Testament, which still held great value for the Christian life when properly interpreted, and maybe 1 or 2 letters from an apostle like Paul or Peter. So how was God going to protect His people from believing false teachers and straying from the faith?
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ Ephesians He gave the church prophets when they needed them the most. He allowed some people to speak a direct message from God to teach and encourage their local church as they tried to honor and serve God in every belief and action. Yet as the letters and teachings of the apostles spread, we see the activity of prophets continue to shrink.
Today, we are blessed to not need prophets because we have no gaps in understanding left to fill. We know that because He eventually closed off the need for prophecy by allowing us to have everything we need within the pages of the Bible. If you agree with that, then you can stop reading here. Christ-honoring people on both sides disagree with whether supernatural gifts like prophecy have ceased. And we may never find complete agreement on this side of Heaven.
Yet one thing we know is that if prophecy exists today, we must expect it to line up with the biblical pattern that God has established. But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak , or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. Chirri : These purposes have been satisfactorily served, since a great portion of humanity had agreed on most of the moral issues and believed in the Creator and the Hereafter. With the acceptance of these heavenly principles by such a great portion of humanity, mankind could restrict the loose appetites and moralize the world to some extent.
Furthermore, the heavenly information is necessary even if it does not serve any of these purposes. This holds true because the Creator should bring about the opportunity which may enable us to know Him and help promote our morality, which draws the actual line between human beings and animals. When God creates the other world or plans to create it, He should make it well-known to mankind by His heavenly information, which is the only way we can become aware of it.
If the Creator does not send his messenger to transmit to mankind this information, we may be excused when we ignore it, and we will have no opportunity to have a relative perfection.
Moreover, if He creates the other world and makes it unknown to us, its creation would be utterly futile. The historical facts had accorded themselves with this hypothesis, the necessity of the heavenly teachings. Providence did not neglect the human beings since they were in their primitive stage. Thus, many gifted individuals were chosen by the Creator to perform the great and noble task of reforming and teaching.
The human ways of communication are physical, either through hearing some audible voice or reading some written words. A prophet is a human being like us. He can hear the voice by his ears and see the written word by his eyes. But God is not physical. He does not speak by voice, nor does He write by hand. How can a prophet communicate with God?
God may show him spiritually some specific truth by creating, in his mind, a clear knowledge of that truth. The first revelation that was received by Moses came to him by this method. He heard the words of God coming from a tree. From the Holy Qur'an:. Surely, He is High, Wise. None of these ways through which a prophet communicates with God is usual to the rest of the people, and none of them is beyond the area of possibility.
The Creator is able to communicate with His servant in any way He pleases. The recipient of revelation, however, is supposed to have certain qualifications which place him spiritually above the rest of mankind.
Wilson : History has witnessed many individuals who claimed prophethood. These individuals appeared in various periods, and some of them are still alive. We know that some of them were true prophets, and some of them were untrue. How can we distinguish between true and untrue prophets? Chirri : A prophet is a messenger of God. He is an ambassador of God to mankind. An ambassador is supposed to have some credential papers, some signs which demonstrate his truthfulness.
No one should be received as an ambassador on his own claim. Therefore, we find that those individuals who are believed to be prophets were equipped with some unusual powers which could not be found with other people. Moses was empowered by God to convert his staff into a serpent, to transform water into blood, and to split the sea with a strike of his staff. Jesus was empowered to cure the sick without medicine, to make the blind see, to bring the dead back to life, and, according to the Holy Qur'an, to speak to the people while he was in the cradle.
Muhammad was equipped with the superb speech, the Holy Qur'an, which challenged mankind to produce its like in the Arabic language. Wilson : Should the prophet be human or may God send to mankind a non-human messenger? Even before Kenyans kill each other more than in post election violence, He has given instruction through His prophets on what His people must do to be spared and those with hearken they will be saved.
Even before Jesus Christ descends to the clouds for the rapture of the church, I am sure He will inform His prophets because He does nothing without revealing to the prophets. To reveal God precise timing to the church. God reveals His timing clearly to His prophets. Before He does anything He reveals to the prophets with precise timing or signs marking the timing. If you are close to a God chosen prophet, you are able to know when God is about to do something even in your personal life.
And as I have said early, I am sure if you are close to a prophet you will know immediately before Jesus descends to the clouds to rapture the church. See my vision of the rapture. God prophets know precise God timing and it is them to tell the church the time for the church to do the right thing at the right time. Stop walking when it is time to run.
Stop running when it is time to walk. Stop walking when it is time to stop. Stop sleeping when it is time to be awake. Do not be a foolish virgin who did not carry their oil at the right time. Know the timings to do the right thing at the right time. As we see severally Moses leading the children of Israel back to God when they had fallen, so prophets do and for this reason the church needs God chosen prophets.
Reason God sends prophets with a message of repentance. We need prophets to lead us and guide us back to heavenly God. Without prophets, we cannot be guided in the right direction. We need New Testament prophets because they can give us directions on things that are necessary for us to grow spiritually. Prophets are powerfully powered for spiritual and physical wars with the Satan kingdom and they pull down and destroy Satan kingdom.
Jer See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. And we see Elijah in Mt. Carmel contest bring the power of God against Baal and destroying all Baal prophets. Eph Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.
To have strong foundations in Jesus Christ, you need apostles and prophets. With only apostles lacking prophets or vise-versa the foundation is weak. Because we and the church have disregarded, rubbished and closed doors for prophets, we are people tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine because of the weak foundation only built by apostles without prophets.
Eph That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Friday, November 12, Contact About. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. See the dispensations Who is correct? From the first day God created Adam, He spoke directly audibly to humanity. In Genesis we see God speaking directly audibly to Adam and Eve. Ex And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend But it is during Moses life time when God stopped speaking directly audibly to humanity.
See God speaks audibly to His chosen servants the prophets From that day, God started speaking to humanity only through His chosen servants the prophets. See God chooses His own servants God continued speaking to humanity through His chosen servants the prophets until Jesus Christ started preaching.
John the Baptist was the last prophet of the Old Testament. So what happened? What did God Jesus Christ do? When Jesus ascended He gave men gifts. Some become apostles, others prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers Eph And he gave some, apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers This is the five-fold ministry. See church leadership structure Jesus was everything when walking on earth speaking to humanity.
When He ascended He gave all these gifts to humans according to His grace. Rom Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us See one of the gifts Jesus Christ gives is prophecy ; i. Hearken to the voice of Jesus Christ through His chosen prophets. Jer To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them Stop abusing and speaking against God prophets because you are speaking against the same God you claim to worship and His wrath is aroused against you.
See do not speak against God servants Why does the church need prophets today?
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