Chapter 2—The Prophetic Gift

Prophets and prophecies were known in the ancient Near East outside of the Bible. The Mari texts from Mesopotamia (eighteenth century B.c.) refer to “prophets” (nabu ) who provided guidance for the kings through their omens. In ancient Egypt, a special class of priests called “servants of god” interpreted dreams and oracles (cf. Genesis 41). The Egyptian story of Wen-Amun records that while Wen-Amun was in Phoenicia (ca. 1090 B.C.), a young attendant at the Phoenician court fell into a trance and delivered an oracle authenticating Wen-Amun’s mission. ^{1H. B. Huffmon, “Prophecy,” Anchor Bible Dictionary, David Noel Freedman, ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 5:447.}GP 21.1

Throughout history, individuals have made predictions, some of which came to pass. In the sixteenth century, Nostradamus supposedly “foresaw and predicted almost every major historical event in France and crises in many other countries.” ^{2Justine Glass, They Foresaw the Future (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969), 120.} Tycho Brahe, the official astrologer to Rudoph II of Austria, is said to have predicted, two years before it happened, the Great Plague that swept Europe in 1665. In April 1929, based on the dream of a broker who had consulted him, the psychic Edgar Cayce predicted a stock market crash. Six months later the great Wall Street crash occurred. And in the summer of 1961, Jean Dixon reportedly foretold that Dag Hammer- skjold, the UN secretary general, would be killed in a plane crash in mid- September. Hammerskjold lost his life in a plane crash on September 18, 1961. ^{3Ibid., 155, 224, 228.} Were all these people inspired by God? Did they have the biblical gift of prophecy?GP 21.2

In Scripture, the individuals whom God endowed with the gift of prophecy were people who walked with God. They weren’t sinless, but they did strive to live in harmony with God’s revealed will. They had a personal relationship with God. There is no evidence that this was the case with the psychics mentioned above. How then could they make such accurate predictions?GP 22.1

Speaking of the idols at Ekron (see 2 Kings 1:2), Ellen White wrote, “The predictions there uttered, and the information given, proceeded directly from the prince of darkness. It is Satan who created, and who maintains the worship of idols, to divert the minds of men from God. It is by his agency that the kingdom of darkness and falsehood is supported” (RH, June 27, 1882). Satan is well able to predict events and then make them happen.GP 22.2