FAKE OR THE REAL DEAL

How can someone postulate that there are no more prophets after Christ? Consequently, some people believe, several teachings state that there are no more prophets after Christ, but simply this is not biblical. The questions that these teaching should put at the forefront are: who is a true prophet? How to determine the fake from the real deal?
Who is a true prophet? The Hebrew word for true prophet is SEER. The word Prophet means to call or to announce messages received from God. God design some prophets as mouthpiece prophets, who reveal His purpose to a group, nation or individuals (Isaiah 37:6-7). In the old and New Testament you can find numerous prophets, but what we need to analyze and investigate is if there are modern prophets and if they are, how can we really determine if they were sent from God or just ‘mother born fake’
These teachings postulate that there are no more prophets after Jesus need to revisit the scriptures and then they will realize what they are teaching God’s people are not biblical. God has always worked through apostles and prophets and has not changed in that regard, the Lord God does His work through His servants, the prophets, to whom He reveals truth and teaching. Additionally, if they are no prophets today, how will God establish His principle of continuing with His people? How can people believe that there are no more prophets after Christ, when God clearly postulates in the scripture that there would be a prophet after him, whom He would send, to deliver his message to his people. According to the Apostle Peter’s Pentecostal citation of Joel 2: 28-32, “16 But this that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 and on My servant and on My handmaidens and they shall prophesy: 19 and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath…”So I can clearly state without a doubt that if they are no more prophets today something is definitely missing from God’s plan.
A prophet in the olden days have two essential functions that are to tell forth this to express God’s intention to His people in the here and now, this prophecy is referred to as contemporary prophecy and to foretell, this is sometime referred to as predicted prophecy this prophecy direct our attention to future events. Furthermore, in the olden days, we also have present-day false prophets, the Hebrew word for false prophets is Nabi. So in this new age we also have Nabi, so for us as Christians to determine the real deal from the fake the bible present five tests to help you to differentiate the false from the real:
• By their fruits you will know them (Matthew 7:16-18). The ways these prophets conduct themselves, the way their lives are presented then we can determine if he/ she is a Seer or a Nabi
• There message should not contradict the scriptures, whatever their message portraits should agree with the scriptures( Isaiah 8:20)
• A prophet prophecies should be fulfilled, in other words, whatever message a prophet communicate should be 100 percent accurate, not partially true but completely true (Deut 18:22)
• The prophet prophecy should glorify God
• The prophet message should bear witness with our spirit
Finally, what we as Christian need to do is to determine if these people who claimed that they are true prophets are the real deal or the fake, we need to use the test outlined above to test these modern prophets and don’t think you are doing something wrong by testing these modern prophets, remember the bible states that we should not despise prophecy we should prove all things (1thesolonians 5: 20-21)
By Carlene Shaw
Northern Caribbean University