What Is Prophecy?

 

The Bible's answer

    A prophecy is  message inspired by God, a divine revelation.  The Bible says that prophets "spoke from God as they were moved by the holy spirit." (2 Peter 1:20, 21) So a prophets who receives God's message and transmit it to others. - ACTS 3:18. 

How did prophets recieve messages from God?

God used several methods to transmit his thoughts to his prophets:

* Writing.  God used this method in at least one case by directly supplying to Moses the Ten Commandments in written form. - EXODUS 31:18.

* Oral communication through angels.  For example, God used an angel to instruct Moses about the message he was to deliver to Pharaoh of Egypt.  (Exodus 3:2-4, 10) When precise wording was crucial, God directed angels to dictate his message, as he did when he told Moses: "Write down these words, because in accordance with these words, I am making a covenant with you and with Israel." - EXODUS 34:27. 

Visions.  These were sometimes given while the prophet was awake and fully conscious.  (Isaiah 1:1; Habakkuk 1:1)  Some were so vivid that the recipient participated in them.  (Lukw9:28-35; Revelation 1:10-17)  At other times, visions were conveyed while the recipent was in a trance. (Acts 10"10, 11; 22:17-21) God also transmitted his message by dreams while the prophet slept. - DANIEL 7:1; ACTS 16:9, 10. 

* Mental guidance. God guided the thoughts of his prophets to convey his message. This is te sense of the Bible's statement:  All Scripture is inspired of God."  The phrase inspired of God" can also be rendered  "God breathed." (2 Timothy3:16; The Emphasized Bible) God used his holy spirit, or active force, to "breathe" his ideas into the minds of his servants.  The message was God's, but the prophets selected the wording. - 2 SAMUEL 23:1, 2.

Next time: Does Prophecy Always Involve foretelling the Future?

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