Calling All Prophets

Our world is fascinated with knowing things. Some people spend years in school learning various disciplines, some learn a trade, and others learn procrastination. Everyone also dedicates untold hours obsessing about an interest - be it philosophy, fantasy football, gardening, or photography.

The Church is not immune from this desire to know. Fed by mass interest in what the future holds, countless ministers and pseudo-ministers claim to possess a prophetic gift to speak truth about the future into lives. The mob is delighted by displays of so-called prophetic gifts. Some even claim (either explicitly or implicitly) to bear the mantle of the Hebrew prophets and the apostles. These pseudo-prophets focus on remote details about the future. They feed the popular hunger for knowledge.

Of all the books in the Bible, I find only tiny snippets that actually address knowing about future events in detail. Most are barely concerned with the readers' knowledge of the details. Instead, the prophets of old seemed to address the future only to the degree necessary to elicit a response from their audience. Though so much popular interest is centered around the details (where will I go to school, will I be successful, when is the rapture, etc.), the Bible seems to be almost exclusively concerned with action. We are obsessed with knowing about things, but the prophets were interested in doing things. We are interested in information, but the prophets were interested in activity.

We do nothing for people if all we do is ask them to believe as we do. Holiness requires more than simple intellectual assent or understanding of certain propositions. The changed life is the goal of true prophetic work. Truth embraced always results in changed behavior - baptism is a great example of outward demonstration of inward change.

So we have little need for more pseudo-prophets. No one needs to hear half-truths about what the future holds for them. What we desperately need is prophets who speak aggravating truth that sparks action. Too many of us feel guilty about saying things that compel people to take a certain action. We feel judgmental or arrogant. Our culture has conditioned us to believe that everyone's opinion is equally valid and respectable. The truth is that some things actually are better than others. May we never compel others to do things our way - but let us insist on things being done God's way. We need prophets who speak unpopular things that leave others without excuse for inaction. Speak the truth in love, but proclaim it unapologetically. Let us know the truth and live the better for it.