The Gift of Prophecy? Part One

Before the 2020 election, alleged prophets, Loren Sandford, Jeremiah Johnson, and Kris Vallotton, prophesied that Donald Trump would be reelected as president! How did that turn out?

Before we study biblical prophets in God’s Word, lets examine contemporary unbiblical prophets who are widespread and influential. In 2020, contributors to the World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in The Modern World confirmed that the Apostolic networks are among the fastest growing movements in the modern Christian world. [1] A huge part of the Apostolic networks is the continuing gift of prophecy.

Unbiblical Modern Prophets

Modern prophets are unbiblical for two reasons. First, modern unbiblical prophets do not meet the qualification of Deuteronomy 18:20-23 of fulfilling 100% of all prophecy. Second, modern unbiblical prophets misinterpret Ephesians 4:11.

Modern unbiblical prophets do not meet the qualification of Deuteronomy 18:20-23

One of the main prophets and/or leaders in the Kansas City Prophets movement was Bob Jones (no relation to Bob Jones of Bob Jones University in South Carolina), the movement's visionary.  He was said to have been specially anointed with supernatural visions from the Lord and a prophetic gift.  However, he was quoted as saying that the general level of prophetic revelation in the movement's "prophets" had an accuracy level of about 65 percent.  He said some prophets were as low as 10 percent accurate, with some of the "most mature" prophets having a rating "approaching 85 percent to 95 percent." [2]

Here is a more recent example. Craig Keener, who is a Charismatic and believes in the continuing gift of prophecy noted the failed prophecies concerning Trump’s reelection in 2020. Keener wrote: Yet certain prophets have drawn the attention of Charismatics and non-Charismatics alike by publicly confessing that their prophecies were indeed mistaken and extending their apologies. Loren Sandford, Jeremiah Johnson, and Kris Vallotton have recently expressed contrition and even repentance for incorrectly prophesying that Trump would win again in 2020.[3]

Deuteronomy 18:20-23 is the test of a prophet in the Old Testament. A biblical prophet has an accuracy rate of 100 percent.

Modern unbiblical prophets misinterpret Ephesians 4:11

Another movement that is more current that advocates the modern prophetic gift is the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). One of NAR’s founders, Peter Wagner, wrote, “The church is to be guided and governed by prophets and apostles (Eph. 4:12–15). Prophets are people with the anointing of God to hear his voice and guide the church. God has empowered those with the gift of prophecy (that is, those who hold the office of prophet) to hear his revealed will ‘more accurately’ once the intercessors have opened heavenly portals by binding demonic powers”[4]

The New Apostolic Reformation wields massive influence today. Here is an article exposes the harmful influence: The Framing of a Movement: The New Apostolic Reformation.[5]

Bill Hamon and Peter Wagner “worked together in propagating the Apostolic Movement like Martin Luther and John Calvin worked together in propagating the Protestant Movement.” Like Luther, Hamon was the visionary behind the restoration of apostles that began what he called the “Prophetic-Apostolic Movement.” [Notice the NAR was originally named “Prophetic-Apostolic”]. Like Calvin, Wagner popularized the movement’s theology into the broader church by writing the theological designations for the different types of apostles and their various functions in what he termed the “New Apostolic Reformation.”[6]

The continuing gift of prophecy is part of the he fivefold ministry of Christ

The fivefold ministry of Christ is based on Ephesians 4:11-12 which includes pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets, and apostles.

Bill Hamon describes how the lost gift of prophecy was restored:

• During the 1950s, the office of evangelist was restored, evidenced by renewed emphasis on crusades and evangelistic ministries.

• During the 1960s, the office of pastor was emphasized, followed by the office of teacher during the 1970s. Throughout the 1950s to the ’70s, Christianity saw an abundance of ministries being created to teach the restored doctrines through radio, television, and revival ministries. Among these offices, two were destined to rise above the rest and claim dominion over the others: the age of the apostles and prophets had come.

• In 1988, the prophets were restored to the church, and

• in 1998 apostles were restored; the Second Apostolic Age had begun. According to Hamon, all the “previous movements” of reformation throughout church history “prepared the way for the full restoration” to the fivefold ministry led by prophets and apostles. Now that the Second Apostolic Age has come, Christ calls his restored end-times church to prepare for his coming.[7]

New Testament prophets laid the church's foundation (Eph 2:20). Once the foundation was laid, their ministries ceased. See Michael Horton’s White Horse Inn article Reformed and Charismatic? Horton refutes the New Apostolic Reformation and other similar groups that believe in the continuing gift of prophecy.

Here is Horton’s refutation of NAR which he refers to as Reformed Charismatics because of the infiltration of NAR into Reformed circles:

I’ll focus on the question of whether the gifts of prophet and apostle have ceased.  In Ephesians 4:7-16, the apostle says that offices prophets and apostles as well as pastors, teachers, and evangelists are gifts of his heavenly ascension …. Against both Rome and the radical Anabaptists, the Reformers argued that prophet and apostle are extraordinary offices, for a foundation-laying era.  They are sent at key moments in redemptive history, and their writings are added to the canon of Scripture.

Against both Rome and the radical Anabaptists, the Reformers argued that prophet and apostle are extraordinary offices, for a foundation-laying era.  They are sent at key moments in redemptive history, and their writings are added to the canon of Scripture.

Cessationists hold that the New Testament itself makes a distinction between the foundation-laying era of the apostles and the era of building the church on their completed foundation (1 Cor 3:10-11).  Although the New Testament establishes the offices of pastors/teachers, elders, and deacons, it does not establish perpetual prophetic or apostolic offices with their attendant sign-gifts.[8] 

In contrast to unbiblical prophets who were hit and miss in their prognastations, biblical prophets were not only accurate in fortelling the future but also powerful in instructing their contemporaries.

Biblical Prophets

The prophets in the Old Testament were the most profound spokesman in history. [9]

1. Prophets foretold the future.

When they predicted events, it was to move their listeners to repent or be encouraged. Jonah preached his prophecy, “In forty days, Ninevah will be destroyed,” resulting in their repenting.

Old Testament prophets foretold over 300 Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ’s 1st coming and over 400 that will be fulfilled in His 2nd coming. Isaiah has more prophecies about Christ than any other prophetic book. There are at least 22 prophecies about Christ in Isaiah.

The prophets were preachers but more than preachers. They prophesied that God would reveal future events to them. Here is God’s claim of being able to predict the future (Isa 42:8-9). These verses declare that because God has fulfilled previous prophecies, He will bring to pass future prophecies. An example of God fulfilling a previous prophecy is the prediction that God would defeat Assyria in Israel in Isaiah 10:24-27 which was fulfilled in Isaiah 37:36-38. If God does not predict and fulfil prophecies, then Isaiah’s argument that God is different from idols is destroyed.  

The Sunday evening, I got saved, the preacher a prophetic message on Hell. Hell is in the future of every person who rejects Christ as Savior.

2. Prophets forth told the Word to their contemporaries.

There are 17 prophetic books: Five Major (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and Twelve Minor that cover four centuries in the Old Testament from 840 B.C. (Obadiah) to 420 B.C. (Malachi). The 17 prophetic books are called the “dark continent of Scripture.” These Old Testament dark ages needed prophets foretelling the future and forthtelling God’s Word to provoke repentance.

“The prophets spoke to Israel in times of crisis .... Had there been no crisis, there would have been little need for the prophets.” [10]

1. The prophets Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah prophesied before the crisis of the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC to Assyria (Assyria invaded Israel five times).

    1) Tiglath-pileser invaded in 743-738 B.C. (2 Kings15:19-20).

    2) He invaded again later

    3) Shalmanesser V invaded and defeated Israel in 722 B.C. Isaiah predicted this defeat.

    4) Sargon II attacked later

    5) Sennacherib attacked Israel but was defeated by a single angel in Isaiah 36-37 in 701 B.C.

2.  The prophets Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Nahum, Ezekiel and Obadiah warned the Southern Kingdom of Judah not to follow the example of Israel or they would experience a similar crisis. Judah fell to Babylon in 586 BC.

3. After the 70-year exile, when Persia was the new world power, Haggai, Zechariah, Joel, and Malachi prophesied to God’s people. These prophets ministered unto the end of the Old Testament.

Augustine referred to “Seasons of the soul” or crises when sinners are more open to the gospel. For example, when my mother’s brother, Paul, an alcoholic, died, my mom looked into his casket and asked herself, where is my brother? Then, she asked herself, where would I be if I died? She knew she would be in hell. The death or crisis of her lost brother became a season of the soul and she trusted Christ as her Savior.

Prophets as individuals

A prophet was called “man of God,” “seer,” “visionary,” and “prophet.” “Prophet” during the literary period was the most common name for a prophet.

Nonwriting Prophets

Though these prophets did not record their prophecies, “The records of non-literary prophecy are not entirely lost to us for they are interwoven into the histories of Israel as they are told in the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.” [11]

“The prophets (non-literary) did not become a significant factor in religious history until the rise of the monarchy.” [12] They were the conscience of the king.

1. Samuel and Nathan.

The prophetic organization returns to Samuel, the first full-time professional prophet. (I Sam.3:21ff. lays out the office of the prophet). Prophetic organization — the prophets traveled with disciples (schools of the prophets) (Hullinger’s notes on Isaiah).

    A. Samuel, the kingmaker. The monarchy or institution of kings came into existence because of the ministry of Samuel the prophet. Samuel anointed the first two kings of Israel.

B. There was a band of prophets in 1 Samuel 10:5-13.

         1) Nathan received a vision of the temple in 2 Samuel 7:17.

         2) Nathan rebuked King David in 2 Samuel 12 concerning his sin with Bathsheba. Nathan’s message, “You are the man.”

2. Elijah and Elisha had understudies called the “sons of the prophets” (2 Kgs 6:1-7). Elijah rebuked King Ahaz in 1 Kings 17:1 with a prophecy, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years.” The nonliterary, prophets were watchdogs of the king, admonishing him to faithfulness to Yahweh.

3. Isaiah preached to Hezekiah in Isaiah 36-39. Read Isaiah 38:1-2.

4. John the Baptist was called the greatest of the prophets in Mt 11:11 who rebuked king Herod in Mt 14:4.

Since “All Scripture is God breathed and is profitable” how can we apply what the biblical prophets did in the Old and New Testament without embarrassingly prophesying future events like the predictors of Trumps second term in 2020? Michael Horton notes that “Paul [in the New Testament Epistles] treats prophecy (prophēteia) as preaching, which although illumined by the Spirit is (unlike the scriptures) un-inspired and therefore must be tested (1 Cor 12:29; 1 Thes 5:19-21).”[13] Preachers today can obviously forth tell God’s Word. In Romans 12:3-8, Paul lists service gifts that many Bible students believe are operative and beneficial for the local church today (The temporary sign gifts are absent): Prophecy (in the forth telling and not the foretelling aspect since no other sign gifts are in this list), ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, and mercy. We must preach the Word with boldness as did the prophets and even at times rebuke high up officials as did the watchdogs of kings in the Old Testament and John the Baptist in the Gospels.

In Part Two, we will focus on Isaiah the prophet.

[1] Barrett, David B; Kurian, George Thomas; Johnson, M. Todd (2020). World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in The Modern World. Vol. 2 Volume Set (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

[2] Steven F Cannon, "Old Wine in Old Wineskins: A Look at Kansas City Fellowship," The Quarterly Journal 10, no. 4 (October-December 1990): 8.

[3] Craig Keener, Failed Trump Prophecies Offer a Lesson in Humility, Christianity Today. January 20, 2021.

[4] C. Peter Wagner, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: Answer God’s Call to Transform the World, Ventura, CA: Regal, 2013, 29) (click to open).

[5] Evan P. Pietsch, R. Vivian Pietsch, Modern Reformation: The Framing of a Movement: The New Apostolic Reformation, Tuesday, May 21st 2024.

[6] C. Peter Wagner, The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit: Encountering the Power of Signs and Wonders Today (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1988), 107.

[7] Bullock C. Hassell, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 9.

[8] Bill Hamon, The Eternal Church: A Prophetic Look at the Church—Her History, Restoration, and Destiny (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2003), 265.

[9] Michael Horton, Reformed and Charismatic?

[10] Bullock C. Hassell, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 11.

[11] Bullock C. Hassell, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 15.

[12] Ibid., 15.

[13] Michael Horton, Reformed and Charismatic?

Review of Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth by Terry Mortenson

Chapter 2 A Brief Overview of the Exegesis of Genesis 1-11: Luther to Lyell

David Hall summarizes his chapter: “What follows is a summary of the most noteworthy theologians from 1500 to roughly 1830 (about the time of Charles Lyell, the figurehead leader of the geological theory of deep time).[1]

Hall notes importantly: “When one considers the totality of primary sources, rather than the unsubstantiated claims of modern proponents of old-earth creationism, we will see that Martin Luther, John Calvin, the Westminster Divines, John Wesley, and the like are no friends of deep time or gradual creation.”[2]

The Protestant Reformers

I am only going to quote John Calvin as representative of the Protestant Reformers: “We are drawn away from all fictions to the only God who distributed his work into six days that we might not find it irksome to occupy our whole life in contemplating it.”[3] On the age of the earth, Calvin contended that the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 were strict chronologies (with no gaps).[4] Thomas Constable agrees with Calvin on the genealogy in Genesis: The careful recording of the age of each man when he fathered the next man in the list strongly suggests that this list is complete. Furthermore, the genealogies in 1 Chronicles 1:1-4 and Luke 3:36-38 are identical to the one in Genesis 5. There are probably no missing generations. As well as Keil and Delitzsch, 1:120-27.[5]

From Calvin to Ussher

Next, Hall quotes an impressive succession of Genevan scholars, including Theodore Beza (1519-1605), Wolfgang Musculus (1497-1563), Peter Martyr (1499-1562), and Francois Homan. I am going to cite Peter Martyr as typical of this period: “The evening and the morning were made the first days of the gathering together forth of light before the bringing forth of the sunne ....When we speak of the creation of things, we bring not forth one thing out of another after Aristotle’s manner, but we affirm all natures, as well bodies with bodies [angels, demons], to be created of another by the word of God.”[6]

Continental Reformed Theologians, 1590-1690

Zacharius Ursinus (1534-1583) speaks for many Reformers of this era. Ursinus was a student of Philip Melanchthon and wrote a commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism. Ursinus became a professor at Heidelberg in 1561. The catechism was published anonymously in 1563, but many contend he was the main contributor to writing the famous catechism.[7] In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, he wrote, “According to the common reckoning, it is now counting from this 1616 of Christ, 5534 years since the creation of the world.”[8]

British Puritan Exegetes

“Cambridge Fellow, William Perkins (1558-1602), was a puritan, polemicist, and preacher par excellence. His works at the height of British Puritanism became as popular as Calvin’s.”[9] On the time and days of creation, Perkins wrote: “The sixth shall be touching the tme of the beginning of the world, which is between five thousand and sixe thousand years a goe.... God could have made the world, and all things in it in one moment: but hee began and finished the whole worke in sixe distinct dates.... for the light was made the first day: but the Sune, the Moone, and the Stars were not created before the fourth day.”[10]

Reformed Theologians a Century after Westminster, 1640-1740

Hall cited one of the darlings of Reformed theologians: “Writing in 1679, Francis Turretin noted, but then rejected, the Augustinian view and sided with Ussher: ‘Nor does the sacred history written by Moses cover any more than six thousand years .... Greek history scarcely contains the history of two thousand years.’ Tuerritn went so far as to commend Ussher and others for specifying that creation happened in autumn, not spring.”[11]

Wesley and Early 19th Century Commentaries

[John] Wesley never wrote extensively on creation or the Flood, but in this work, he stated his belief that the various rock strata were “doubtless formed by the general Deluge” of Noah’s day.[12] On the age of the earth, Wesley declared: “The Scripture being the only Book in the world that gives us any account of the whole series of God’s Dispensations toward man from the Creation for four thousand years.”[13]

Joining the Church Fathers, the Reformers also advocated six-twenty-four days of creation, approximately six thousand years ago. Thus, the Great Tradition is a young earth.

[1] Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis (p. 54).

[2] Ibid., 55.

[3] Ibid., 56.

[4] Calvin, Genesis, p.76

[5] Thomas Constable, Netbible.org

[6] Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis, 62.

[7] Zacharius Ursinus: The Happy Professor

[8] Zacharius Ursinus, Commentary to the Heidelberg Confession, (Columbus: Scott and Bascom Printers, 1852).

[9] Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis (p. 68).

[10] William Perkins, An Exposition of the Creede, 1:143.

[11] Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis 71.

[12]  Ibid.,74.

[13] Wesley, Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation, II:227.