II. Prophetism—Its Nature, Scope, and Method

In Old Testament usage the term prophet had several shades of meaning, and included various functions. These functions involve not only foretelling but forthtelling as well—guiding and counseling, admonishing and warning, as well as predicting. A prophet is one inspired, ^{1Inspiration is that influence of the Spirit of God upon the mind of the prophet by which is conveyed knowledge of religious truth or future events, and which is also guarded against error in delivery.} or instructed by God, to speak in His name, often to announce future events. His office is to deliver a message. The word prophet is derived from Hebrew words meaning “a seer” or “speaker.” The old term for prophet, seer, is usually translated from the Hebrew roeh, meaning “to see.” (1 Samuel 9:9.) Another word, chozeh (to see), is used less frequently.PFF1 26.3

This involved visions from God, conveyed through prophetic symbols and other appropriate and adequate means. ^{2Arthur P. Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, vol. 1, p. 380.} A prophet, then, is primarily one who “sees,” who “pierces through the veil that hides the world of Divine things, or one for whom this veil is lifted occasionally so that he obtains an inner knowledge of the realities beyond.” ^{3Andrew C. Zenos, “Prophecy, Prophet,” Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Bible Dictionary, p. 739.}PFF1 27.1

And what the prophet sees, of these divine realities, is to be declared to others. This further part of the prophet’s responsibility is expressed in the most common Hebrew word for prophet, nabi, literally to speak forth. So, a prophet was a man of inspired speech, one who “giveth forth” words from God. The difference between these two Hebrew words is thus clear and consistent. One expresses the manner of receiving his message; the other, the transmission of the message he has received. Prophecy is therefore a divine idea imparted by God to men through His chosen instrumentality.PFF1 27.2

The two thoughts involved in the two Hebrew words unite in our one English word prophet, which is itself taken from the Greek, meaning not only “foreteller,” but “for—speaker,” or “forthspeaker”—i.e., one who speaks for God. Hence the word prophet has the twofold meaning of “seer” and “proclaimer” (Ezekiel 3:17, 18), or the proclaimer of a revelation. These two distinct phases of the prophetic gift are clearly set forth in the experience of the prophet Daniel:PFF1 27.3

“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.” Daniel 7:1, 2.PFF1 27.4

Daniel was a prophet. The Lord appeared to him in a vision and spoke to him in a heaven-born dream, and what he saw and heard lie wrote in a book. In this way he made known what was revealed to him, and functioned as a prophet. ^{4This same twofold concept is borne out in Ezekiel 40:4.} This central idea, therefore, of the word prophet, is clearly one to whom God reveals Himself and through whom He speaks. This revelation may or may not relate to the future. ^{5Revelation is a disclosure of something that was before unknown. And divine revelation is the direct communication of truths, before unknown, from God to men. (M’Clintock and Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. 8, p. 1061, art. “Revelation.”)} The prophet is a forthteller, not necessarily a foreteller. The essence of prophetism is “immediate intercourse with God.” ^{6Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 1, pp. 325, 326.}PFF1 27.5

The prophet is consequently one who is lifted up by the Spirit of God into communion with Him, so that he is enabled to interpret the divine will and to act as a medium between God and man. He is a channel of communication, and not the source thereof. He is a speaker, or spokesman, for God. His message is not his own, but comes from a higher source. He is a seer, seeing things outside the domain of natural sight; a hearer, who hears things beyond the range of the natural human ear. ^{7C. von Orelli, “Prophecy, Prophets,” The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 4, p 2459.} He is a chosen messenger, who communicates the revelation he has received from God. God’s declaration is specific: “I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.” Numbers 12:6. So Daniel, Jesus, Paul, and John, whose prophecies we are soon to trace, were pre—eminently among the prophets.PFF1 28.1

The prophets of Israel were the moral and religious teachers of their nation. They were the authoritative preachers of righteousness. They guided the religious life, which lay at the foundation of the nation’s welfare. They were the counselors of kings, the revivalists and reformers of the nation, who awakened the religious sense of the people and forewarned of the certainty of divine judgment on sin. They proclaimed the divine plan of the ages, the goal toward which the nation was to move. ^{8Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary, p. 532, art. “Prophet.”} The prophet was the mouthpiece of God, His ambassador to man, informing him of the divine will not ascertained by human wisdom or experience.PFF1 28.2

The term prophetism may be said to include four particular functions:PFF1 29.1

1. REFORMATION AND GUIDANCE

The major burden of most of the Hebrew prophets, especially the earlier ones, was that of reform and spiritual guidance—the aspect that receives the major emphasis among theologians today. Samuel, Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Jeremiah functioned largely in this capacity, denouncing individual, social, and political sins, uttering admonitions to righteousness, and sustaining the true worship of God against idolatry. (See 1 Samuel 15; 1 Kings 14, 18, 20, 21; 2 Kings 6, 7, etc.)PFF1 29.2

2. PREDICTION OF IMMEDIATE EVENTS

These were generally specific, immediate, and short range, and were often employed in addition to, or in connection with, the reforming message, such as the outcome of a war or the fate of a wicked king. Samuel, Nathan, and even Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Jonah exemplify this function. (See 1 Samuel 15; 2 Samuel 7, 12.)PFF1 29.3

3. FLASH PICTURES OF THINGS TO COME

Scattered long range predictions—like those uttered by Joel and Zephaniah on the “day of the Lord” (Joel 3; Zephaniah 1, 2), the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah 7 and 9 and Micah 4 and 5, the utter desolation pictured in Jeremiah 4, and the triumph of righteousness in Habakkuk 3—form this third category.PFF1 29.4

4. COMPREHENSIVE OUTLINE PROPHECIES

Then there are the long—range, comprehensive, apocalyptic prophecies. Such prophecies, largely symbolic, extend to the end of the age, and involve the various aspects of eschatology—or the “doctrine of the last or final things”—as death, the resurrection, the judgment, the future reward of the righteous and final destruction of the wicked, the end of the age, the second advent of Christ, and the like. These are most fully exemplified by Daniel in the Old Testament and by John in the New Testament. The main points are laid down by Jesus in the so—called “synoptic apocalypse,” and are touched upon by Peter and Paul.PFF1 29.5