UNDERSTANDING THE TRUE MEANING OF PROPHECY
Most people think they can identify evil when they see it. But, the problem is that they do not see evil as God sees it. Nor do they see idols and idolatry like God sees them.

For man, evil is associated with all kinds of immoral, malevolent behavior perpetrated by evil spirits (i.e. satan, demons) who work their will in and through godless people. And idols are typically thought of as physical creations of wood and stone. But for God, evil is a general term used to describe the sin of religion, and idols are human religious teachers who function as false prophets in their own little kingdoms. He has simply borrowed the term to communicate how he feels about religion so that we can begin to understand how objectionable religion is to him.

God has done the same thing regarding prophecy. Prophecy has a culturally accepted meaning in human terms but a different, spiritual meaning for God. Again, he has borrowed the human word to represent a spiritual concept. He uses the human term/word to symbolically represent the spiritual term. It is an example of how God applies the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle.

This principle poses a constant challenge for people who read the Bible. The Bible is typically called the “holy” Bible. This label communicates the idea that every word in the Bible is holy because it was spoken by God. This is wrong thinking. The Bible is man’s creation and is therefore not fully trustworthy. In fact, parts of the Bible are holy and parts are profane.

It is a challenge to know what is holy and what is profane. That is why God has given us warnings about discerning between good and evil which the Bible also calls clean and unclean food.

STUDY TIP: See Bread, Food and Wine for an extensive discussion of clean and unclean food. Also see Discerning Between Holy and Profane. Also see this link for the definition of holiness.

COMMENTARY ON HOLINESS AND THE BIBLE: When we study holiness, we see that the only thing that is truly holy is God’s spoken word and his name. That means the written Bible is profane — not holy.

Unless we listen to hear God’s voice while reading, we will interpret the written Bible literally. The literal interpretation is profane (i.e. it is the common, natural, intellectual interpretation that is available to everyone.) Literal interpretations are the basis of religious laws written on paper. Literal interpretations of the Bible are the substance of Old/First Covenant defiled religion.

If we do listen to hear God’s voice while reading, however, God provides the symbolic meaning to those who hear his voice. What we hear then is holy (i.e. set apart, different, from the literal understandings of people who use their intellect to understand the written words.) God makes this miracle of spiritual understanding happen through the power of his spoken word/voice. What people who hear God’s voice hear is holy. What they hear is the substance of God’s spiritual laws written on the heart. Spiritual laws are the substance of New Covenant pure religion.

What we have then is the situation where the written words of the Bible are profane and the heard, spoken words are holy.

This challenge to discern between holy and profane is especially sensitive with respect to the challenge to know the difference between true prophets and false prophets. One is holy and the other is evil. False prophets interpret the Bible literally, and true prophets interpret the Bible symbolically because they listen to God’s voice while reading the Bible.

Training and discernment is necessary to know which is which. Failure to make such distinctions results in serious consequences for both the false prophets and people who idolize them for their teaching.

STUDY TIP: See HOW TO IDENTIFY FALSE PROPHETS and CHECKLIST FOR IDENTIFYING TRUE PROPHETS.  These principles must be used to make decisions about which prophet can be listened to and which must be avoided. If we do not know the different characteristics of prophets, we will be led into religious deception. The characteristics of false prophets are discussed in Religion is the Kingdom of False Prophets.

In this series of pages we will discuss the characteristics of true prophets, true Priests, true shepherds and true servants.

Since prophets are mentioned so many times (454) in the Bible, we will begin with these characters which are well represented in both the old and new testaments. We begin by looking at the definitions of prophets and what they do.

It is important to observe that a basic function of a prophet in the Bible is to be a spokesman and speaker for God. True prophets do not take on this responsibility as an act of their own will. God handpicks them and sends them out into the world of religion to speak his words to religious people. They reinterpret the literal Bible to teach the spiritual meaning of the Bible. They are trees of life whose words are good, spiritual food for religious people who have been eating evil, soulish food served by false prophets.

Applying these understandings of the prophetic function, it must be said that all religious leaders in Judaism and Christianity are prophets in the true Biblical sense. If they set themselves apart from others as authorities on Biblical interpretation, they are prophets. It does not matter if they preach, write, or sing songs about God. They are all prophets in the Biblical sense. But the real question is this: Are they true prophets or false prophets.

Most religious leaders will not self-identify as prophets, but that does not change the fact that they function as prophets in God’s view. The significance of this, of course, is that all religious leaders (e.g. pastors, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers, writers, rabbis, musicians, etc.) who presume to interpret the Bible and report their findings to followers/listeners/readers satisfy the Biblical definition of prophet — even if they never presume to make a prophetic, “thus saith the Lord”  pronouncement/prediction regarding the near or far future. And because they are prophets in God’s eyes, all of God’s many warnings to prophets apply to them. This fact should be a caution to anyone who presumes to speak/preach/teach/sing about who God is and how he conducts his business in the world.