PROPHECY AND PROPHETIC AUTHENTICITY

By James Wilson

             I sometimes receive e-mails objecting to addressing public issues in spiritual and even prophetic terms.  Critiques range from spiritualizing complex issues to being judgmental to playing the God card.  Such people have no idea what prophetic authenticity is about.  Neither do Christians who think God always in such a good mood He would speak only sunshine, or folks who think prophecy is some sort of Christian clairvoyance – all about predicting the future.

            There are prophecies that predict – whether a man telling Saul of Tarsus he will be visited by another man through whom his sight will be restored or the amazing predictions found in the Book of Daniel.  Daniel alone has proven so accurate scholars used to think it written after the fact; that fantasy has been thoroughly debunked by recent scholarship.  I predicted the end of California’s last drought in early 2010 – people thought me crazy because the meteorologists disagreed; I simply spoke what I heard the Lord saying.  (I predict no time table for the current drought until the Lord speaks to me.)  But the majority of prophecy – whether in the Bible or in our contemporary lives – is interpretive of past and present events through the lens of God’s own perspective.  Prophecy is simply repeating or accurately paraphrasing things God says.  A pre-supposition, if we are to comprehend any of it, is that God actually knows more about us – and about our well being – than we do.

            When the Prophet Nathan confronts King David it is not because of future events but because David puts the Kingdom in jeopardy by undermining the military when he orders death for Uriah the Hittite to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba.  When Elijah accuses King Ahab it is because his idolatries jeopardize the future of Israel; Jeremiah continues that tradition under multiple kings.  Truthfully, the whole prophetic tradition throughout the Old Testament is one prophet after another confronting one government after another with the gap between what God expects of rulers and their actual behavior.  

If secular commentators had written the Bible Kings Ahab and Herod would have come down as the greatest kings Israel ever had.  They brought prosperity and security during times of internal unrest and external threat and that was enough to earn them approval from a secular standpoint.  But their uncaring attitude toward God and men earned them harsh criticism from authentic prophetic voices.  John the Baptist continued the tradition into New Testament territory and Jesus Himself urged His followers to confront abusive authority in Matt.10, Mark 13, and Luke 21.  He told the Roman governor he had no authority over Him that was not given by God.

Does the Word of God tell us to bless, pray for, and respect secular authorities?  It does indeed, and authentic prophets – then and now – do just that.  But it also tells all God’s people to remind those same authorities they are servants rather than masters.  And the Word is not shy about warning rulers they can be replaced if they mess up.  In Ezekiel alone God calls on all Israel in Chapter 3 – beginning with her leaders – to repent before the inevitable consequences of disobedience overwhelm them.  In Chapter 37 – the famous one promising resurrection to the valley of dry bones – He reminds the prophet to tell the whole story of what God does, has done, and will do – in that order.  And – lest we forget how much God loves us even when we bitterly disappoint Him – in Chapter 39 He declares He will pour out His own Spirit on the whole land and people in the end.  Prophecy may not be all blue skies but it always contains a blessing because it comes from One who cannot help blessing those He loves.

Likewise, when a prophetic voice like Jim Garlow speaks out about judicial interference in God-given marriage (Proposition 8) or Michael Farris speaks of government restrictions on parents’ rights to raise and educate their children – absent abuse of children – without fear that a Boston hospital will kidnap a child or an immigrant couple seeking asylum will be deported – they need to be sure they are accurately reflecting what God says in Scripture.  That done, they speak with the same authority as God Himself when they repeat or accurately paraphrase what He says.

I understand that some reading these words are grinding their teeth at what they think my arrogance.  They are perfectly free to reject this message. But for the rest of us, it is high time we took our rights and our responsibilities under God a whole lot more seriously than we have in the past.