Old Testament and New Testament Prophets
The Old Covenant test for a true prophet of God was easy. All you needed was 100% accuracy. Timing was still an issue, however. Jonah was a prophet sent by God to the city of Nineveh. He said destruction was coming in 40 days. Jonah was not told that the warning he delivered was conditional. The people turned from their evil and the destruction did not come at the indicated time. However, the destruction of the city did come 150 years later. Jonah was a true prophet of the Lord. Jesus even validated him many years later.
The New Covenant prophet is a different thing. Obviously, error is not anyone's goal. The New Testament calls Agabus a prophet. Here we have God's validation of him. We even have an accurate prediction of his recorded in Acts 11:28. However, in Acts 21 we have another prediction from Agabus.
10 And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.
11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. (Acts 21)
As this event actually played out, it was the Gentiles that bound him (Acts 21:33) not the Jews as the prophet had said. Also Paul was brought before the Council of the Jews (Acts 22:30), not the Gentiles as the prophet had said. Pretty close, just backwards.
This did not mean that Agabus was a false prophet. According to the Old Testament criteria, possibly so. Today, YouTubers would make videos calling him a false prophet and run up tens of thousands of views.
The operation of the Holy Spirit was different in the ancient days compared to today. He used to be upon chosen individuals directing them for service. Jesus said that He would be within the Church Age believer (John 14:17). (This corresponds to the early rain and the latter rain.) This is why Paul could promise the believers that they could all prophesy (1 Cor 14:31) though not all (1 Cor 12:29) could occupy the office of prophet.
Note: There is such a thing as the Holy Spirit within and upon. We have a promise of the early rain and the latter rain together (Joel 2:23, Acts 2:16). However, this article tries to emphasize the distinction.
In the Old Testament when the Spirit was upon God's servants, the prophet would speak God's words almost involuntarily. Though God would use the mouth of the prophet to speak, the Word would not go through his natural mind or thought process. It would go forth pure and inspired. It would not have any human contamination in it. An example is King Saul. At a certain point he became demonized yet he would speak the true words of God by the Spirit upon him (1 Sam 19:24).
For some reason, in God's wisdom, He chose to do things completely differently in the New Covenant. Instead of speaking from “outside” of us, He wants to speak from within us. His Holy Spirit is joined with our reborn human spirit as to make them one. However, the spirit of man is intimately joined to an unregenerate aspect, our soul. Almost everything that we speak by the Spirit of God comes through this “filter” that more or less contaminates or dilutes the Word of God. Why does God make things this way? I have no idea. The New Covenant, which is better than the Old Covenant in every way, has this potential weakness built into it. All that is said or done in this present Church Age is done by flawed men and women. I would not arrange things this way. My guess is that weak, fallible Christians cannot do any real damage to other persons that are lost and condemned. To where do we send a lost sinner? To hell #2 or hell #3? Again, no real servant of God wants to export error. Somehow, this is all contained in the wisdom of God.
What is our job on earth until Jesus comes again? We need to have faith in Jesus and His words. We need repentance toward God. We need to obey Him. We need to renew our mind. We are to cultivate a love and desire for God now. We are to do the works that God has planned for us to walk in. The other thing that we are to have involvement in is being a worker or laborer in God's field. Jesus is the real One who does the will of the Father and Who sows the word. We are to imitate Him and continue His work in His temporary absence.
The seed, the Word of God, that we sow is pure. But are there also contaminants in our bag of seed? We should examine our inner person to see what things are in there that the Lord would not want us to hang on to. We need to sow the Word of the Lord as purely as is made possible with the Lord's help.
Jan 2, 2025