Chapter Fifteen—Bible Tests of the Gift of Prophecy

THERE is danger for the people of God today from false prophets. Their purpose, or Satan’s purpose who uses them, is to perform such signs and wonders as will deceive, if possible, the very elect.GoPH 103.1

We turn, therefore, with quickened interest to a consideration of the ways and means by which the true gift of prophecy may he determined from the false.GoPH 103.2

Nor need we fear that we are encroaching on the forbidden when we apply these tests to the gift of prophecy, whether true or false. On the contrary God has not only commanded us to make such tests, but also laid down the very principles upon which the tests shall be made.GoPH 103.3

It is because false prophets are engaged in their work of deception that we are bidden to test them.GoPH 103.4

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1.GoPH 103.5

God would not command us to try the spirits of the prophets without providing for us the rules and standards by which they should be tested. These we will find in His word. Let us study some of them. Here is one rule: GoPH 104.1

“ Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist.” 1 John 4:2, 3.GoPH 104.2

Here is the essential test, fidelity to the central facts and truths of the atonement of Christ. Christ must be acknowledged, honored, worshiped, and upheld. There must be loyalty to all that He taught, all that He did, all that He is, all that He is to do. The whole tendency of the life, the work, the teaching, of the gift of prophecy must be to exalt Him, glorify Him, and lead men to Him. This is fundamental. If there is any failure here, no matter what other credentials the prophet may have or show, no matter what miracles he may work, no matter what signs he may show, he is a false prophet, and belongs to Satan, if he is not true to the historic Christ and historic Christianity. Loyalty to the person of Christ, to His pre-existence, His divine incarnation, His deity, His divine Sonship, His virgin birth His miracle-working power, the divine authority of His teaching, His substitutionary and expiatory death, His literal resurrection, His ascension, His mediatory and intercessory priesthood, and the promise of His bodily, visible, personal, and imminent return — this is the fundamental test as to whether a prophet is false or true.GoPH 104.3

Agreeing with this is the test urged upon us in Isaiah.GoPH 105.1

“When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:19, 20.GoPH 105.2

In each of these suggested trials the ultimate test of prophecy is to be the fundamental principles of the faith. Any statement made by one who pretends to possess the gift of prophecy that is contrary to the word of God is to be sufficient to stamp that prophet as false. The gift of prophecy is not to test the Bible; the Bible is to test the gift of prophecy. “If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”GoPH 105.3

The Bible gives us an illustration as to how this test is to be applied. In the 28th chapter of Jeremiah there is recorded a conflict between Jeremiah, the prophet of God, and Hananiah, a false prophet. Just before this the king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah the king of Judah, with the treasures of the temple and the strongest of the people. Jeremiah had declared that they should not be returned. He had gone further than this, and foretold additional calamity, predicting that Nebuchadnezzar would come again and would take away the remaining vessels of the temple and the remaining people.GoPH 106.1

Hananiah, in opposition to this, declared, as coming from Jehovah, that “within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, that Nebuchad-nezzar king of Babylon took away from this place. . . . I will bring again to this place Jeconiah . . . with all the captives of Judah.” Jeremiah 28:3, 4.GoPH 106.2

Jeremiah’s conduct under these circumstances is striking and significant. He did not at once denounce his rival as a false prophet. He may have thought Hananiah might possibly have a true word from Jehovah, since, as is clear in the book of Jonah, the most positive prophecies were conditional, and perhaps repentance on the part of the people might bring upon the nation a blessing instead of the evil he had foreseen. Consequently Jeremiah expresses a fervent wish that Hananiah’s prophecy might come true. But in doing so he applies the ultimate test of prophecy. These are his words:GoPH 106.3

“Jeremiah said, Amen: the Lord do so: the Lord perform thy words which thou has prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the Lord’s house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon unto this place. Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people; the prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries; and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him.” Jeremiah 28:6-9.GoPH 107.1

After this, while the people, and perhaps even Jeremiah, were in perplexity, definite revelation was made to Jeremiah that Hananiah was a false prophet. Jeremiah did not hesitate then to denounce him.GoPH 107.2

“Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.” Jeremiah 28:15-17.GoPH 108.1

The whole narrative is not only interesting and illuminating, but is of extreme importance. It shows us how the prophets themselves regarded their own supernatural powers, and how they tested the false gift of prophecy. This they did by asking at outset how the new word of Jehovah compared with the older words, which there was no doubt He had spoken, how the present word stood in regard to the words of “the prophets that have been before me and before thee of old.”GoPH 108.2

If any possible way appeared by which the new could be reconciled to the old, the new might be given the benefit of the doubt, and left to the decision of the event. If Jeremiah had seen at once that Hananiah’s prediction was wholly contrary to some former prophecy, he undoubtedly would have denounced him at once under the law of Deuteronomy 13:1-5. As it was, however, he waited, and no doubt would have continued to wait in an attitude of watchful neutrality, had not Jehovah himself settled the question by an additional revelation.GoPH 108.3

There is another test that Jeremiah carried out in this case that also is given to us by definite instruction in the Bible. He proposed that the event foretold, whether it came to pass or failed of fulfillment, should determine the origin of the prophecy. This is in accord with the Scripture.GoPH 109.1

“The prophet which shall presume to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Deuteronomy 18:20-22.GoPH 109.2

False predictions expose themselves by the non-occurrence of the event foretold. When a prophet’s words enter the realm of the future, his predictions must not fail of fulfillment if he is to be considered as a true prophet of God.GoPH 109.3

These are the tests of great importance in connection with the gift of prophecy. There are others of a physical character which will be mentioned later, but these are fundamental and decisive.GoPH 110.1

“ To the law and to the testimony:
if they speak not according to this
word, it is because there is no
light in them.” Isaiah 8:20.

” When the word of the prophet
shall come to pass, then shall the
prophet be known, that the Lord
hath truly sent him.” Jeremiah 28:9.